Eric S. Lander, one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project that mapped the entire human genetic code in 2003, said on Wednesday that the “real genome project” is about studying huge samples of genomic data to identify disease genes.
While phenomenal technological advances had helped reduce the cost of genome sequencing by a million-fold over the last decade, allowing
researchers to map thousands of human genomes, the future of genomic medicine depended on “sharing information” between organisations and countries — including India — Professor Lander said.
In order for therapy to emerge from genetic research, “health systems around the world need to turn into learning systems” that share information, said Prof Lander, delivering a lecture on “The Human Genome and Beyond: A 35 year Journey of Genomic Medicine” as part of the three-city Cell Press-TNQ Distinguished Lectureship Series.
Prof. Lander envisaged a “DNA library” where genes can be cross-referenced to detect “spelling differences” and disease genes. The goal before the scientific community now was to find targets for therapeutic intervention, he said, to a packed auditorium comprising a large number of medical students. There was much to be learnt in the course of clinical care, said Prof. Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University.
While the “breathless hype” created around the Human Genome Project suggested that it would cure all disease in a couple of years, he said much progress had indeed been made over the last decade with the discovery of several genes responsible for diabetes, schizophrenia and heart attacks.
Prof. Lander will be speaking next on Friday at the JN Tata Auditorium in Bengaluru as part of the lectureship series.
‘47 % of agriculture employees earn only Rs.100 per day’
Nearly 47% out of Maharashtra’s total employed population, which is dependent on agriculture, fisheries and forestry as an economic activity, earns only Rs 100 per day on an average.
The data is in sheer contradiction with the earnings of 1.36% of the employed population from Information and Communication sector in the state, which on an average earns Rs. 833 per day, higher than any other occupation.
This data computed from National Sample Survey 68th Round Unit Records, is published in a theme paper presented on Wednesday by Professor Bino Paul G D of School of Management and Labour Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) here at a seminar on Informal Employment in Maharashtra.
The paper revealed that out of the estimated employment of around 4.14 crores, nearly 88% are employed informal, which means they do not any of social security entitlements such as provident fund (PF), pension, gratuity and maternal benefits etc.
It also throws light on the existing gender disparity with respect to domestic duties. Out of the total labour force (employed and unemployed) in the State, around 1,57,510 females ‘attended domestic duties only’ per 1000 males.
Interestingly, the Scheduled Tribe (ST) population in the State is figured lowest in the ‘Regular Salaried’ category with only 14.4% of the total jobs and is largest in ‘Casual Wage Labour’ with around 50.9% workforce involved in it.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the possible amendments in the labour laws by his government were aimed at bringing the informal sector in to the labour market. “We need to look at the labour laws with new perspective, which does not mean we will work in favour of industries,” he said.
Pune gets its first 24X7 women radio cab service
To curb crimes against women and to give opportunities to women drivers, Wings Travels Management, Pune’s leading radio cab service provider, has launched a tailor-made service for women called ‘Wings Sakhi.’
“A woman-chauffeured radio cab is our initiative to provide safe transport solutions for women commuters and our humble contribution towards women empowerment,” said Arun Kharat, founder and executive director of Wings Travels.
Since the last decade, crimes against women have gone up in Pune.
Centre plans security audit of computers
Antecedents of security personnel to be verified again
Perturbed by the revelations in the corporate espionage case, the Central government has for the first time decided to do a security audit of computers at all its offices through the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY).
“The exercise is being undertaken as part of the government’s initiative to check the leak of sensitive information. DeitY will audit both the software and hardware components and plug loopholes, if any,” said a Home Ministry official.
Having unearthed the espionage syndicate, the government has already started taking measures to strengthen access control, in coordination with the Central Industrial Security Force that guards all its offices.
However, it is learnt, the government is more concerned about possible attempts by interested parties to employ sophisticated electronic espionage tools to access sensitive information. “In this electronic age, chances are more of remote sabotage, rather than from the inside for which a system has to be accessed physically,” said another official. An exhaustive study by the Indian Infosec Consortium had last year revealed that about 3,000 sensitive government computers had been compromised and their contents accessed through servers based in countries like China, United States, Ukraine, France and the Netherlands.
Among the affected agencies were the Defence Ministry, the Air Force Communication Centre and the Directorate of Income Tax (Investigation) in Central Delhi. Accordingly, corrective measures were taken.
The government must carry out such audits regularly, Jatin Jain of the Consortium said. “It is a good step. The Defence Ministry is already conducting such audits. Highly talented people will have to be roped in.”
The decision to conduct security audit of government computers was taken on Tuesday at a review meeting by the Cabinet Secretary. As part of the preventive measures, it was also decided that a Joint Secretary-level official would be appointed the Departmental Security Officer for supervision. Antecedents of all security personnel guarding government premises would be verified again.
Cabinet approves agreement on BRICS development bank
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday gave approval for establishing the New Development Bank (NDB) and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA).
Heads of the five nation BRICS group — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — decided at their sixth summit in Fortaleza in July last year to create a development bank as well as a reserve fund to finance infrastructure projects and other sustainable development projects.
“It would also reflect the close relations among BRICS countries, while providing a powerful instrument for increasing their economic cooperation,” an official release said on Wednesday.
The $100 billion BRICS CRA would help countries deal with short-term liquidity pressures, provide mutual support and further strengthen financial stability.
The agreement will enter into force and the Bank begin operations only after all member-countries deposit their instruments of ratification with Brazil.
The release added that signing of the agreement for the establishment of the New Development Bank was expected to allow India to raise and obtain more resources for the much-needed infrastructure development, the lack of which was coming in the way of inclusiveness and growth.
Besides, the governance structure and decision-making in the Bank would be equitable unlike the existing multilateral development banks, it added.
India will hold the Presidency of the New Development Bank for the first six years. The Bank will be based in Shanghai, China’s financial hub.
Section 66A a necessary deterrent, says government
The government on Wednesday argued before the Supreme Court that Section 66A of the Information Technology Act should be interpreted on a case by case basis.
In arguments which continued through the day before a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar, the government was addressing the court’s view that the penal provision was too vague. Section 66A prescribes a three-year jail term to a person found guilty of causing “annoyance or inconvenience” through social media.
The court had asked the government to explain what constituted “grossly offensive.” The government maintained that the provision was a necessary deterrent and could not be cast away on the apprehension that it would be misused to affect the freedom of speech and expression.
“If the medicine is bitter, then we can have sugar after it instead of throwing the medicine [away]. People have to take the medicine as it is for their benefit,” Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued during an earlier hearing.
Arguments will continue.
The court is hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of certain provisions in the 2000 Act. One of the petitions filed is by Shreya Singhal, a law student, which deals with the arrest of two girls, Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan, in Thane, Maharashtra, in connection with a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s death.
India home to 18% of world’s raptors
India is home to 106 species of raptors, popularly known as ‘birds of prey,’ says a recent publication by the Zoological Survey of India.
The publication reveals that more than 18 per cent of the 572 species of raptors spread all over the world can be found in India alone.
“The presence of raptors in the wild serves as a barometer for ecological health. They play an important ecological role by keeping the balance, especially by controlling the population of rodents and other small mammals,” ZSI director K. Venkataraman told The Hindu
There are primarily two kinds of raptors — diurnal (day flying) and nocturnal (night flying). Out of the 333 species of diurnal birds of prey found in the world, 101 species can be found in the Indo-Malayan region. India’s bio-geographical regions support 69 species of kites, vultures, eagles, harriers, hawks, buzzards and falcons in different habitats.
“Of these 59 per cent are resident; 16 per cent are migratory; five per cent vagrant; and 19 per cent both resident and migratory. In addition, India has 32 species of owls and, being nocturnal, are less studied,” the book Raptors of India said.
Among these raptors, the Indian White-backed Vulture, the Long Billed Vulture, the Slender Billed Vulture, the Red headed Vulture and the Forest Owlet are in the ‘critically endangered’ category, and the Egyptian Vulture and the Saker are in the ‘endangered’ list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) ‘Red List.’
Some of the interesting and lesser-known species of raptors include Andaman Serpent Eagle and Great Nicobar Serpent Eagle which can only be found in the Andaman and the Great Nicobar islands respectively.
Other birds of prey like Amur Falcon, Buffy Fish Owl, Great Spotted Eagle and Chinese Sparrowhawk are also included in the book.
Scientists are eagerly awaiting the March 9 launch of IRNSS-1D, the fourth Indian regional navigation satellite.
The Rs. 1,400-crore-plus IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) has been called ‘India’s own GPS.’ It can do all that we do with GPS, a U.S. military system, but apparently much better and at a local level.
This satellite will complete more than half of the ambitious ‘Indian GPS’ ring over the subcontinent and allow ISRO’s sat-nav team to prove its usefulness in location-based applications.
Four satellites out of the constellation of seven are said to be the minimum the scientists need to check out signals and accuracy.
S.K. Shivakumar, Director of ISRO Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, told The Hindu that IRNSS-1D would finetune the details being provided by its earlier three siblings. The next three navigation satellites, he said, would take this to the targeted precision levels and make it easy to pinpoint required positions for many users.
IRNSS-1D is slated to be put on the PSLV launcher on February 28 at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The first one, IRNSS-1A, was launched in July 2013.
A.S. Ganeshan, ISRO’s SatNav Programme Director at ISAC, said, “This is a significant milestone. For the first time we will be able to demonstrate or give proof of concept of the regional navigation system.”
Overdraft underJan-Dhan comes under priority sector lending: RBIGiving a big boost to Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the Reserve Bank of India, on Wednesday, said bank overdrafts of up to Rs.5,000 in accounts opened under this financial inclusion mission would be treated as priority sector lending.
“...overdrafts extended by banks up to Rs.5,000 in PMJDY accounts will be eligible for classification under priority sector advances (‘others’ category) as also weaker sections, provided the borrower’s household annual income does not exceed Rs.60,000 for rural areas and Rs.1.20 lakh for non-rural areas,” the RBI said in a notification. Under the PMJDY, the overdraft facility is permitted to Aadhaar-enabled accounts after ‘satisfactory operation’ of accounts for six
months. Last August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the scheme to provide all households across the country access to banking facilities. — PTI
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