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Is Atmanirbhar Bharat Holding Up India s Genome Sequencing Program?
India s newly launched programme to widely and rapidly sequence genomes of the novel coronavirus has already run into major hurdles.
Illustration: ColiN00B/pixabay
Bengaluru: Rakesh Mishra, the director of Hyderabad’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), is frustrated. CCMB has been sequencing SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes since the COVID-19 pandemic began â initially as part of its own research program and since December 2020 as part of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), a group of ten labs the government put together to ramp up sequencing across to India.
To do its work, Mishra’s team needs specialised plastic containers and reagents that go into sequencing machines. But buying them has become needlessly complicated in the last year, taking time away from his lab’s core jobs, according to Mishra.
Qu welcomes new Franco-German initiative in session with Macron, Merkel
12 January 2021, Paris/Rome - Emphasizing the interconnectedness of environmental, animal and human health, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu reiterated FAO s commitment to continue supporting the mainstreaming of biodiversity across agriculture and food sectors also by the Hand in Hand Initiative. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the close links between human, animal and environmental health, in a context of increased human-livestock-wildlife contacts and ecosystem degradation, the Director-General said Monday, noting the importance of environmental sustainability as a key determinant of a long term One Health for All .
He alluded to the strong support of FAO to the establishment of the One Health High Expert Council, stressing the need to address inequalities in health, as there can be no health security if vulnerable in the rural area are left behind .
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Climate Change and Coffee: Combatting Coffee Rust through Nuclear Techniques
The coffee industry generates approximately US$ 100 billion per year. But with climate change and the changing weather patterns that come with it, the conditions that were once suitable for coffee plants are deteriorating in many traditional growing areas; in addition, incidence of coffee leaf rust ꟷ a disease that kills coffee trees ꟷ is on the rise.
The IAEA, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has been working with national experts to alleviate the stress of coffee leaf rust on coffee trees using nuclear techniques. A first for the IAEA, experts are being trained to use plant breeding techniques to develop coffee varieties that are resistant to the fungus that causes coffee leaf rust. This training is part of a five-year Coordinated Research Project where scientists from six countries are conducting research on disease resistant coffee pl