by Bhaswati Guha Majumder - May 10, 2021 05:28 AM
Yoga guru Ramdev and Patanjali CEO Balkrishna
Snapshot
Researchers from Patanjali Research Institute, along with experts from Vivekanand Education Societyâs Institute of Technology and Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, published their findings in 2020.
With the country battling the second wave of coronavirus, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on 8 May approved a drug for emergency use.
The drug is 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) which has been approved as an adjunct therapy in moderate-to-severe Covid-19 cases. Being a generic molecule and analogue of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty, said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
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People wait in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai, India, on 29 April. AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade
‘There are so many hurdles.’ Indian scientists plead with government to unlock COVID-19 data
May. 4, 2021 , 12:10 PM
Reporting for this story was supported by a journalism grant from the Thakur Family Foundation, which has not influenced the contents of this report.
Indian researchers say they urgently need better access to data collected by government agencies to help them understand and fight the country’s devastating second pandemic wave. An open letter published on 29 April that has 740 signatories so far asks the government for access to databases on COVID-19 testing and genomic sequencing and urges it to remove other obstacles to research.
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.
Covid-19: India reports new UK variant of coronavirus. How dangerous is it?
Covid-19: India reports new UK variant of coronavirus. How dangerous is it?
Six of the passengers returning from the UK have tested positive for the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19. This comes at a time when India has started reporting fresh cases at a level it reported back in June. How to take entry of new variant of coronavirus in India?
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UPDATED: December 29, 2020 14:45 IST
A devotee wearing face mask amid concern over spread of new variant of coronavirus attends mid-night Christmas mass in Chennai. (Photo: PTI)