India has a year in science

Praveen Vemula: A biomedical spin-off company that makes a cheap protective gel for farmers’ skin to combat pesticide exposure in India

More than 6000 farm workers die from pesticide exposure every year in India. In 2018, Praveen Vemula published details2 of a possible solution: a protective gel the farmers can apply to their skin to break down the most toxic substances.

Vemula, a biomaterials scientist at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine in Bengaluru, had big plans for the discovery. He thought he could make a cheap range of protective clothing by incorporating the gel into fabric. He wanted to set-up a spin-off company that could produce the clothes at a large scale, and market and distribute them across the country.

It was a solution to a problem in India, and would mimic how research is used in countries such as the United States and Europe.

There was a problem. There was not enough support from the institute to make it happen. It had no policy to deal with the transfer of intellectual property, or to decide how much time he could spend working to commercialize his idea while still a salaried researcher. “All these policies were not there, especially when you’re thinking about academic spin-offs,” Vemula says. “And unless there are clear guidelines, it is very difficult to translate research.”

The Indian government had issued some broad guidelines in 2009 on the commercialization of research, including the establishment of incubation centres. He says those are not uniformly implemented at the institutional level. That presents a major barrier to researchers hoping to apply their findings.

Lacking a strong record in converting basic science into applications, India has struggled to develop a society and an economy based on innovation, says Shahid Jameel, an Indian virologist currently at the University of Oxford, UK.

According to the World Bank, 10% of the population in 2019 lived below the poverty line (down from 22% in 2011), causing social problems, especially in rural areas. More than a twelfth of the students in India drop out of school, with girls less likely to do so than boys.

Source: India struggles to turn science into societal benefits

How a scientist can help the Indian economy: Starting a spin-off company as a drug discovery initiative to improve its economic and social development

The return on investment from science is why many countries invest a large amount of money in the field, even though the amount of return is hard to quantify.

India faces many challenges, no matter the name. As a result of global warming as well as major infrastructure failures and rising religious conflict, this year witnessed flash floods and drought, worsened by it. It is a diverse country preparing to take the next steps in its economic and social development. Nature explores how technology supports that development.

Vemula got the policies approved by senior officials at the institute by drafting them himself. He established his company, Sepio Health, in 2019 and expects to launch his first protective clothing next year. Colleagues at the institute are now following his lead and setting up their own spin-off companies, using the policies and paperwork that Vemula established.

He says the entire process can be done in two weeks. “From the day you approach the institute, within two weeks we can review the entire process and give the permission” to set up a company.

It is an inspiring story, but not every scientist manages to navigate the system, says Krishnan. Many people do not have the time, skills or willingness to find a way through. Krishnan set up her own company, Esya Labs, in order to sell her research on drug discovery. “It was so hopeless [in India] that I didn’t even try. I knew I had to move if I was to make it happen,” she says.

She has found a stark contrast in how universities in India and the United States approach the application of results. “An organization really needs to have very clear policies and frameworks to engage companies or another institution,” she says.

Despite that failure, India has achieved some impressive figures. The country’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council has reported3 that India’s bioeconomy grew by 14% in 2021 to more than US$80 billion.

Policymakers do not always understand that different research areas produce progress at different rates, he adds. The astonishing speed of development in information technology, for example, is impossible to replicate in the life sciences, which require longer-term, stable financial support.

India spent less than 0.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development in 2020, the most recent year for which data are available. China spent more than 2% of GDP, while Brazil spent proportionally more in the same year.

In India, promised government research funds often dry up or arrive late, which makes it hard to attract and keep junior researchers. “If I were a graduate student on a government grant today, and if I didn’t get my salary for six months to a year, how will I be motivated to do anything innovative?” Jameel is interested in this.

The lack of innovation in many sectors slows the bottom up development of the economy by tying it to targeted short term and top down investment. One reason why India has posted strong economic growth rates over the past decade, observers say, is that it has prioritized investment in some sectors, such as IT, and boosted the use of goods and services by a relatively small proportion of the population.

These policies have created a boom in the Indian middle class, which has grown by more than 6% a year since the mid 1990s and now accounts for 31% of the population.

He says that the inequalities have increased greatly over the past decade. Despite the benefits from science and technology, large numbers of people are still working in India without fixed working hours and wages because of the lack of trickle-down benefits.

“There was no consensus” on whether such clusters should be arranged around scientific themes or geography, he says. Any such person in India will be used to working in a certain way. Changes do not happen that easily.”

India has the world’s largest population, but how well does it look after all those people? The Human Development Index is a United Nations metric that quantifies a country’s human development in terms of health, lifespan, education and standard of living.

People who get an undergraduate degree are more likely to complete a PhD than people who don’t get an undergrad degree. Indeed, India has the highest proportion of university graduates who go on to complete a doctoral degree in the world, at around 5% of graduates.

How Gandhi shakes the world with kindness: India’s year in science & how India is dealing with epidemics in the 21st century

Mahatma Gandhi once said that he could shake the world in a gentle way. In August this year, the Chandrayaan-3 lander delicately extended its legs, bounced once, twice and settled near the lunar south pole. Perhaps the Moon shook a little, too.

By then, 2023 was already a momentous year for India. In April it overtook China to become the most populous nation with over one billion people. It is home to more than one in six of the world’s people.

The G20. group of the world’s biggest economies held its meeting in New Delhi in September and speculation about the country being renamed Bhrat began in earnest.

Gautam I. Menon tells us how the story of water is the story of India’s development. The solar physicist was investigating a different kind of storm to be caused by global warming.

Along with many other nations, India faces a crisis caused by the over-prescription of antibiotics. We report on how Indian researchers are tackling this and other public-health problems.

Source: India’s year in science

The Mental Health of Indian Scientists: A Conversation with Analyse Birefringent Biologist Annapoorna P. K.

The nation’s greatest strength is its people. We look at some of the new schemes the government has put in place to entice brilliant minds who have already left to come back. One solution could be to foster a stronger entrepreneurial culture.

India is one of many countries to be concerned about workplace mental health. We speak to biologist Annapoorna P. K. about her work investigating the mental health of Indian scientists.