Assam planted the World's first-ever genetically modified rubber plant

World’s first GM Rubber plant in Assam

• A Rubber Board research farm on the outskirts of Guwahati now sports the world’s first genetically modified (GM) rubber plant tailored for the climatic conditions in the Northeast.
• The GM rubber has additional copies of the gene MnSOD, or manganese-containing superoxide dismutase, inserted in the plant, which is expected to tide over the severe cold conditions during winter — a major factor affecting the growth of young rubber plants in the region.
• The plant was developed at the Kerala-based Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII).
• RRII had earlier developed two high-yielding hybrid clones of rubber adapted to the climatic conditions of the Northeast.
• This is the first time any GM crop has been developed exclusively for this region after years of painstaking research in RRII’s biotechnology laboratory.
• Natural rubber is a native of warm humid Amazon forests and is not naturally suited for the colder conditions in the Northeast, which is one of the largest producers of rubber in India.

What is Genetic Engineering?

• Through genetic engineering, scientists are able to move desirable genes from one plant or animal to another or from a plant to an animal or vice versa.
• In essence, genetic engineering is a technology wherein a specific gene can be selected and implanted into the recipient organism.
• The process of genetic engineering involves splicing an area of a chromosome, a gene, that controls a certain characteristic of the body. For example:
• A gene may be reprogrammed to produce an antiviral protein.
• A gene can be removed and can be placed into a bacterial cell where it can be sealed into the DNA chain using ligase.

Genetically Modified Seeds:

• Conventional plant breeding involves crossing species of the same genus to provide the offspring with the desired traits of both parents.
• Genus is a class of items such as a group of animals or plants with similar traits, qualities or features.
• Genetic modification aims to transcend the genus barrier by introducing an alien gene in the seeds to get the desired effects. The alien gene could be from a plant, an animal or even a soil bacterium.
• Bt cotton is the only Genetically Modified (GM) crop that is allowed in India. It has alien genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that allows the crop to develop a protein toxic to the common pest pink bollworm.
• Herbicide Tolerant Bt (Ht Bt) cotton, on the other hand is derived with the insertion of an additional gene, from another soil bacterium, which allows the plant to resist the common herbicide glyphosate.
• In Bt brinjal, a gene allows the plant to resist attacks of fruit and shoot borers.
• In DMH-11 mustard, genetic modification allows cross-pollination in a crop that self-pollinates in nature.

Legal Position of GM crops in India

• In India, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is the apex body that allows for commercial release of GM crops.
• In 2002, the GEAC had allowed the commercial release of Bt cotton. More than 95% of the country’s cotton area has since then come under Bt cotton.
• Use of the unapproved GM variant can attract a jail term of 5 years and fine of Rs. 1 lakh under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

Advantages of Genetic Engineering

• Genetically Modified (GM) Crops: Genetic engineering made it possible to create crop varieties regarded as “more beneficial” terms of coming up with crops with the desired traits.
• Examples- Bt Cotton
• Treatment of Genetic Disorders and Other Diseases: Through genetic engineering, genetic disorders may also be fixed by replacing the faulty gene with a functional gene.
• Disease-carrying insects, such as mosquitoes, may be engineered into becoming sterile insects.
• This will help in curbing the spread of certain diseases, e.g. malaria and dengue fever.
• Therapeutic Cloning: It is a process whereby embryonic cells are cloned to obtain biological organs for transplantation.

Challenges of Genetic Engineering:

• Irreversible Changes: Some scientists believe that introducing genetically-modified genes may have an irreversible effect with consequences yet unknown.
• GMO that can cause harmful genetic effects, and genes moving from one species to another that is not genetically engineered.
• It has been shown that GMO crop plants can pass the beneficial gene along to a wild population which may affect the biodiversity in the region. An example is the sunflowers genetically-engineered to fend off certain insects.
• Health Issues Related with GMO Crops: There are concerns over the inadvertent effects, such as the creation of food that can cause an allergic reaction.
• Bioethics: Genetic engineering borderlines on many moral and ethical issues. One of the major questions raised is if humans have the right to manipulate the laws and course of nature.

Dangers Associated With Genetic Engineering:

• Rapid Growth of Technology: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) gene editing, developed only a few years ago, deploys the same natural mechanism that bacteria use to trim pieces of genetic information from one genome and insert it into another.
• This mechanism, which bacteria developed over millennia to defend themselves from viruses, has been turned into a cheap, simple, quick way to edit the DNA of any organism in the lab.
• CRISPR isn’t the only genetic technology we need to worry about. A broader field, “synthetic biology”, is making the tools for genetic engineering widely available.
• Democratisation of Biotechnology: As CRISPR is cheap and easy to use, thousands of scientists all over the world are experimenting with CRISPR-based gene editing projects with very little of this research being limited by regulations.
• The technologies have democratised to such a degree that any country can engineer viruses.
• Further, the danger comes not only from governments: Non-state actors, rogue scientists and bio-hackers have access to the same tools.
• Also, researchers have demonstrated that they can recreate deadly viruses such as that of smallpox, which took humanity decades to eradicate

Solutions:

• Leveraging Artificial Intelligence & Big Data. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and genomic data, scientists will decipher the complex relationships between DNA and biological processes and find treatments for diseases.
• 3-D printing can help develop at home medicines, tissues, and bacteria custom-designed to suit our DNA and keep us healthy.
• Gathering of Genomic Data: There is a need to develop genomic blueprints of human and other species, this information can help immensely to defend and develop vaccines against pandemics like Covid-19.

Malnutrition and COVID-19

What is the news?

• A parliamentary panel asked the Ministry of Women and Child Development to conduct a survey on the impact of the pandemic on anganwadi services and malnutrition levels among children.
• The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports chaired by Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe is learnt to have grilled the officials of the Ministry on the need for data to understand “how anganwadi services were delivered on the ground during the pandemic, and to assess the impact of COVID-19 on stunting and wasting levels.
• While the government has launched an app called Poshan Tracker to monitor delivery of services at 14 lakh anganwadis, the officials told the panel that the data is beginning to be uploaded only from June 1.
• Though the government has announced a corpus of ?10 lakh from PM CARES for such children, “there has been no spending from PM CARES yet, and the responses from the Ministry were very ambiguous” the member said.

COVID-19 and Malnutrition

• The pandemic has worsened the problem of Malnutrition.
• While malnutrition already remains as the predominant risk factor for child deaths and total disability- adjusted life years (DALY), the COVID-19 has pushed back our efforts on ending malnutrition, which plagues India's children.
• There is a real risk that, as nations strive to control the virus, the gains made in reducing hunger and malnutrition will be lost. The need for more equitable, resilient and sustainable food and health systems has never been more urgent.

What is Malnutrition ?

Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition addresses 3 broad groups of conditions:

1. Undernutrition, which includes wasting (low weight-for-height), stunting (low height-for-age) and underweight (low weight-for-age).
2. Micronutrient-related malnutrition, which includes micronutrient deficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals) or micronutrient excess;
3. Overweight, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers).

Globally, at least 1 in 3 children under 5 is undernourished or overweight and at least 1 in 2 children suffer from hidden hunger.

Hidden Hunger

• Hidden hunger is a lack of vitamins and minerals.
• It occurs when the quality of food people eat does not meet the nutrient requirements.
• The food is deficient in micronutrients such as the vitamins and minerals that are needed for their growth and development.

Causes of Malnutrition

• Food & nutrition insecurity: Increased food and nutrition insecurity has severely weakened the immune system of people contributing to poor growth & intellectual impairment and has lowered human capital and development prospects
• Inequity: Inequity is a cause of malnutrition — both under-nutrition and overweight, obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases.
• Inadequate Dietary Intake: Inadequate dietary intake and disease are directly responsible for undernutrition, but multiple indirect determinants exacerbate these causes.
• Major causes:
  • Food insecurity
  • Inadequate childcare practices
  • Low maternal education
  • Poor access to health services
  • Lack of access to clean water and sanitation
  • Poor hygiene practices

Covid-19 and Malnutrition

• The nationwide lockdown has disrupted access to essential services, including Mid-Day Meals, which are not only a nutritional measure to supplement some portion of a child’s calorie needs but is also a tool to access education.
• Through a concurrent rapid needs assessment, Save the Children found that around 40% of eligible children have not received mid-day meal during the lockdown.

India’s position

• Global Nutrition Report-2020: As per the Global Nutrition Report 2020, India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025.
• Malnourished children in India: Malnutrition in India accounts for 68% of total under-five deaths and 17% of the total disability- adjusted life years.
• India is home to about 30% of the world’s stunted children and nearly 50 per cent of severely wasted children under the age of five.

Other data

• FAO estimates: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 194.4 million people in India (about 14.5% of the total population) are undernourished.
• Global Hunger Index-2019: India ranks 102 out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2019.
• Wasting rate: India’s wasting rate is extremely high at 20.8% — the highest wasting rate of any country.
• Nutrition interventions: They are not sufficient to tackle the problem of undernutrition: Even at 90% coverage, the core set of proven nutrition-specific interventions would only decrease stunting by 20 per cent.
• Covid-19: Covid-19 has posed serious threats to children and their health and nutritional rights.
• According to recent estimates, even in the best possible scenario and accounting for changes in the provision of essential health and nutrition services due to COVID-19, India could have around additional 60,000 child deaths (around 3,00,000 in the worst-case scenario) in the next six months.

Measures Taken

• World Food Day: it is observed annually on October 16 to address the problem of global hunger.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan: The government of India had launched the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) or POSHAN Abhiyaan to ensure a “Malnutrition Free India” by 2022.
• Anaemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyan: Launched in 2018, the mission aims at accelerating the annual rate of decline of anaemia from one to three percentage points.
• Mid-day Meal (MDM) scheme: aims to improve nutritional levels among school children which also has a direct and positive impact on enrolment, retention and attendance in schools.
• The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013: aims to ensure food and nutrition security for the most vulnerables through its associated schemes and programmes, making access to food a legal right.
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY): Rs.6,000 is transferred directly to the bank accounts of pregnant women for availing better facilities for their delivery.
• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme: launched in 1975, the scheme aims at providing food, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.

Way forward

• There is a need to explore possible solutions and put forward key policy and programme proposals for the integrated management of acute malnutrition and mitigating the impact of Covid-19.
• For easy and sustained access to nutritious food, the spotlight back should be brought back on locally-available, low-cost nutritious food.
• More encouragement should be given to maternal, infant and young child nutrition actions.
• Strategies like ‘take-home ration’ and ‘mid-day meal service’ to ensure the continuation of services and coverage of the most vulnerable communities, especially in urban areas. Child-sensitive social protection schemes, like Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojna (PMMVY), need to be implemented in a way so that they reach the last child.
• Strict measures are needed to ensure that the Public Distribution System (PDS) is accessible to all, especially the vulnerable population.
• The use of newer technologies in service delivery, data management, evidence generation and real-time monitoring should be encouraged for maximum use in these processes.

Why do new waves of COVID-19 happen?

Dr. V.K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog was explaining the reasons behind the emergence of new pandemic waves and how it can be controlled or even avoided by following COVID appropriate behaviours and taking measures such as vaccination. Dr. Paul said that there are four elements leading to the formation of a new wave.

• The behaviour of the virus: The virus has the capacity and ability to spread
• Susceptible host: The virus keeps looking for susceptible hosts for it to survive. So, if we are not protected either via vaccination or by the previous infection, then we are a susceptible host.
• Transmissibility: The virus can become smart enough that it mutates and becomes more transmissible. The same virus which used to infect three hosts becomes capable of infecting 13! This factor is unpredictable. No one can pre-plan to fight such mutations. The change of the very nature of the virus and its transmissibility is an X factor and no one can predict when and where it may happen.
• Opportunity: ‘Opportunities’, which we give to the virus to infect. If we sit and eat together, crowd, and sit in closed areas without masks, then the virus gets more opportunities to spread.

What we can do?

• The NITI Aayog Member reminds us what is in our hands. “Out of the above four, two elements– Susceptibility and Opportunities for infection are totally under our control whereas the other two - Behaviour of the virus and Transmissibility, cannot be predicted or controlled.
• So, if we are protected and ensure we are not susceptible, then the virus will not be able to survive.
• We can control the susceptibility by wearing a mask or getting vaccinated.
• Hence if we decrease opportunities by following COVID Appropriate behaviour and decrease susceptibility to infection, then a third wave will not occur.
• Dr. Paul also called for collective efforts of the citizens as well as the system in order to stop another wave. “Some of these require individual efforts, while some others such as isolation of clusters, contact tracing, ensuring testing capacity and building awareness require the system to act.”