Editorial 1: Rescue service
Context
India’s “Operation Kaveri”, launched to evacuate Indians stuck inside war-torn Sudan is underway and highlights challenges India faces in conflict. The operation, which involves the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy, is being coordinated by the Ministry of External Affairs.
History of rescue operations of India
The Indian armed forces are well-known for their involvement in numerous operations both inside and outside the country. Our forces have actively participated in humanitarian, rescue and relief, and anti-terrorist operations, in addition to national security. Some of them are:
- Operation Sukoon (2006): As Israel and Lebanon broke into military conflict in July 2006, India rescued its stranded citizens by launching this operation, which is now famously known as the ‘Beirut Sealift’
- Operation Safe Homecoming (2011): To bring back Indian citizens stranded in conflict-torn Libya. Under the operation, India evacuated its Indian nationals..
- Operation Maitri (2015): It is the joint relief and rescue operation by the Indian government and the Indian Armed forces in the aftershock of the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
- Operation Raahat (2015): In 2015, a conflict raged between the Yemeni govt and Houthi rebels. Thousands of Indians were stranded and later evacuated by the armed forces.
- Operation Sankat Mochan (2016): During the South Sudanese Civil War, the Indian Air Force conducted Operation Sankat Mochan to evacuate Indian citizens and other foreign nationals from South Sudan.
- Operation Samudra Setu (2020): It was a naval operation as part of the national effort to bring home Indian citizens from overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Operation Devi Shakti (2021): An evacuation operation by the IAF was kicked off in 2021 to safely bring back Indian nationals from Afghanistan after the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
- Operation Ganga (2022): It is an evacuation mission to bring back all the Indian nationals who are currently stranded in Ukraine.
Challenges
The Sudan evacuation brings once more into focus the particular challenges that India faces in any conflict.
- India has performed well in terms of assistance, but the timing of these relief efforts remains a grey area.
- Often relief efforts reach affected people long after disasters strike leading to the destruction of life and property.
- Sometimes India failed to project itself as an aid giver in the global media.
- It has been observed that the Indian armed forces face challenges related to preparedness for disaster response and recovery.
Way forward
With about 14 million non-resident Indians and more than seven million tourists and travellers each year, there is practically no conflict today that does not affect an Indian citizen.
- Given that many work in the most dangerous environments — examples being students in Ukraine, nurses in Iraq or Yemen, or labourers in Libya, Syria and Lebanon — the responsibility of the government to help those without the means to return to safety is greater.
- A standard operating procedure, and even possibly a special force to deal with such crises — as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee for External Affairs, in 2022 — must be considered by the government.
- It is also essential that such crises be devoid of political grand-standing or finger-pointing, and that unseemly public spats over the evacuation, or unnecessary controversies over garnering domestic political mileage be avoided.
Conclusion
India is admired for its reputation and ability to harness all its resources in rescuing every single citizen in any corner of the world, every time they are in need. That reputation must remain intact.
Editorial 2: Genome sequencing and the Genome India Project
Context
The Department of Biotechnology recently said that the exercise to sequence 10,000 Indian human genomes and create a database under the Centre-backed Genome India Project is about two-thirds complete. About 7,000 Indian genomes have already been sequenced of which 3,000 are available for public access to researchers.
Defining genome sequencing
- A genome is a complete set of genetic instructions which are present in an organism in its DNA. Sequencing is the sequence of occurrences of the four nucleotide bases i.e., adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
- The human genome is made up of over 3 billion of these genetic letters. The whole genome can't be sequenced all at once because available methods of DNA sequencing can only handle short stretches of DNA at a time.
- While human genomes are made of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), a virus genome can be made of either DNA or RNA (Ribonucleic acid). Coronavirus is made of RNA. Every organism has a unique genome sequence.
- Genome sequencing is a technique that reads and interprets genetic information found within DNA or RNA.
History
In 1990, a group of scientists began to work on determining the whole sequence of the human genome under the Human Genome Project. The Project released its latest version of the complete human genome in 2023, with a 0.3% error margin. This shows that genomic sequencing has now evolved to a stage where large sequencers can process thousands of samples simultaneously.
Approaches
There are two approaches to the task of cutting up the genome and putting it back together again.
- The "clone-by-clone" approach involves first breaking the genome up into relatively large chunks, called clones, about 150,000 base pairs (bp) long.
- The "whole-genome shotgun" method involves breaking the genome up into small pieces, sequencing the pieces, and reassembling the pieces into the full genome sequence.
The process of whole-genome sequencing, made possible by the Human Genome Project, now facilitates the reading of a person’s individual genome to identify differences from the average human genome.
Applications of sequencing
- Evaluation of rare genetic disorders and diseases:Genome sequencing has been used to evaluate rare disorders, preconditions for disorders and even cancer from the viewpoint of genetics, rather than as diseases of certain organs.
- Understands the Virus: The purpose of genome sequencing is to understand the role of certain mutations in increasing the virus’s infectivity. Some mutations explain immune escape or the virus’s ability to evade antibodies which have consequences for vaccines.
- Studying Efficacy: It helps in studying whether the vaccines developed so far are effective against such mutant strains of the virus and if can prevent reinfection and transmission.
- Tracing Mutations: Sequencing of the genomes of viral strains is important from a "know-thy-enemy" point of view as it becomes easier to trace the mutations.
- Developing Vaccines: Knowledge generated through vital research assists in developing diagnostics and potential therapeutics and vaccines now and for the potential diseases in the future.
- Vital Information: important information and findings can be derived from the Genome sequencing of those who tested positive for COVID.
Role during pandemic
In January 2020, at the start of the pandemic, China first sequenced the genome of coronavirus in Wuhan. It was after this that virologists began evaluating the sequence to try and understand how to combat the virus, track the mutating variants and their intensity and spread, and to come up with a vaccine.
To enable an effective response against COVID-19, researchers kept track of emerging variants, conducting further studies about their transmissibility, immune escape and potential to cause severe disease. Genomic sequencing became one of the first steps in this important process. Here, the purpose of genome sequencing was to understand the role of certain mutations in increasing the virus’s infectivity.
India’s achievements
- India has put in place a sequencing framework — the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortia (INSACOG). This consortium of labs across the country, was tasked with scanning coronavirus samples from patients and flagging the presence of variants known to have spiked transmission internationally.
- Genome India Project: The Government of India has cleared a gene-mapping project called “Genome India” to build a grid of the Indian “reference genome”, to understand fully the type and nature of diseases and traits that comprise the diverse Indian population.
Way forward
The Number of laboratories should be increased to get the research going at the speed required. The Union Health Minister has announced the opening of 17 more laboratories for the same.
The data collected from genome sequencing of the virus will further aid in studying linkages between the variants and epidemiological waves (super-spreader events, outbreaks) of the virus.