IASNOVA
DNA TECHNOLOGY (USE & APPLICATION) REGULATION BILL
Key Provisions :
1- DNA testing is allowed in following matters
- Offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
- for civil matters such as paternity suits.
- for matters related to establishment of individual identity.
2- Collection of DNA: the investigating authorities may collect bodily substances of persons.
Requirement of consent for collection in certain situations- written consent for offences with upto 7 years imprisonment,not required in case of more than 7 years.
3- DNA Data Bank– A National DNA Databank and regional DNA Databanks will store DNA Profiles in a specified format.
4- Removal of DNA profiles: The Bill provides for removal of the DNA profiles of the following persons:
✓ of a suspect if a police report is filed or court order given,
✓ of an undertrial if a court order is given, and
✓ on written request, for persons who are not a suspect, offender or undertrial, from the crime scene or missing persons’ index.
5 – Establishment of DNA Regulatory Board: which will supervise the DNA Data Banks and DNA laboratories.
6 – Penalties for various offences, including disclosure of DNA information or using DNA sample without authorization have been provided.
Gene Therapy
It refers to the process of introduction, removal or change in content of an individual’s genetic material with the goal of treating the disease and a possibility of achieving long term cure.
2 Types:
1- Germ-line gene therapy: The concept of germ-line gene therapy is to introduce gene modified cells into the germline, that can be transmitted vertically across generations.
Prohibited In India.
2- Somatic cell gene therapy: It affects the targeted cells/tissue/organs in the patient, and is not passed on to subsequent generations. It is legal in India. This also
includes genome modification as done in CRISPR-related and other technologies. It has two categories:
✓ ex vivo- cells obtained from an individual are genetically modified/corrected outside the body followed by transplantation into the same or a different individual.
✓ in vivo– the gene of interest is delivered directly to target cells/ tissues/organs (like liver, pancreas, muscle, heart etc.) in the patients.
Gene delivery can be carried out by viral or non- viral vector systems.
Gene Therapy Product (GTP)
• It is defined as any biological entity, having the required gene, that could introduce modifications in the genome for therapeutic benefit.
• GTPs work by repairing, replacing or deactivating dysfunctional disease-causing genes aiming to restore normal function.
• GTPs include:
o Recombinant viral vectors: adenovirus, retrovirus
o Non-viral vectors: naked DNA transfection.
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)
It is the DNA-targeting part of the system which consists of an RNA molecule, or ‘guide’, designed to bind to specific DNA bases through complementary base-pairing.
o CRISPR-associated nucleases (Cas9) is the nuclease part that cuts the DNA.
Asked in 2019 Prelims Exam
o Lulu and Nana are the world’s first gene edited human babies using CRISPR gene editing.
Retrovirus: It is family of viruses with RNA as genetic material that can integrate their genome into the DNA of host cells, they invade.
Transgene: It is a genetic material that is artificially introduced into the genome of another organism.
MANAV: HUMAN ATLAS INITIATIVE
- Launched by Dept of Biotechnology
- MANAV Project aims to create an open and interactive atlas of human biology, compiling, curating and synthesizing data at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organismic level from scientific literature and public databases.
- For the first time, Indian scientists will be mapping every single tissue of the human body to have deeper understanding of the roles of tissues and cells linked to various diseases.
UMMID
- UMMID (Unique Methods of Management and treatment of Inherited Disorders)
- It aims to create awareness about genetic disorders amongst clinicians and establish molecular diagnostics in hospitals so that the benefits of developments in medical genetics could reach patients.
- It is supported by Department of Biotechnology.
Genome India Project
- Union government has given clearance to an ambitious gene mapping project known as the Genome India Project.
- The project has been cleared by Department of Biotechnology (under the Ministry of Science and Technology).
- The Centre for Brain Research, an autonomous institute of IISc, Bengaluru will serve as the nodal point of the project.
- The first stage of the project will look at samples of 10,000 persons from all over the country to form a grid that will enable the development of a Reference Genome.
- As a precursor to this project, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) last year concluded a six-month exercise of conducting a “whole-genome sequence” of a 1,008 Indians under “IndiGen” programme.
GM Crops
Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) asked Maharashtra Government to initiate action to stop cultivation of illegal Herbicide-Tolerant variety of Bt Cotton (Htbt cotton).
Only GM crop permitted for cultivation in India is Bt Cotton.
Only GM cotton permitted to be grown in India are hybrids/varieties that contain ‘cry1Ac’ and ‘cry2Ab’ genes, isolated from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and coding for proteins toxic to bollworm insect pests.
GEAC
- GEAC established under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the apex body for approval of activities involving large scale use of hazardous microorganisms and recombinants in research and industrial production from the environmental angle.
- The GEAC is also responsible for approval of proposals relating to release of genetically engineered organisms and products into the environment including experimental field trials.
Golden Rice
- International Rice Research Institute – headquartered in Los Baños, Philippines – along with its partners has successfully cultivated Golden Rice in a controlled environment on IRRI campus.
- Golden rice is the collective name of rice varieties that are genetically modified to counter vitamin A deficiency in developing countries.
- Golden rice differs from standard rice in that it contains extra genes one from maize and one from bacterial origin together responsible for the production of provitamin A (betacarotene) in the rice grain.
- Provitamin A colors the grains yellow orange, hence the name ‘Golden Rice’.
- Cost of cultivation same as normal rice.
- Reduces water use by 30 percent.
- Should not be stored for more than 3 months.
Muktoshri (IET 21845)
• It is a commercialised rice variety that is resistant to arsenic.
• It was developed jointly by West Bengal’s Agriculture Department and National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow.
Geotail
- Chandrayaan-2 had detected charged particles in Moon’s soil during the orbiter’s passage through the “geotail”.
- CLASS (Chandrayaan 2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer), is an instrument on Chandrayaan-2, designed to detect signatures of elements in the Moon’s soil- this instrument observed the phenomena.
What is geotail and how is it formed?
• The Sun emits the solar wind, which is a continuous stream of charged particles (like electrons, protons, alpha particles etc). These particles are present in the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the Corona.
• Since the Earth has a magnetic field, it obstructs this solar wind plasma.
• This interaction results in the formation of a magnetic envelope around Earth called magnetosphere.
• On the Earth side facing the Sun, this magnetosphere is compressed into a region that is approximately three to four times the Earth radius.
• On the opposite side, the envelope is stretched into a long tail, which extends beyond the orbit of the Moon. It is this that is called the geotail.
NAVIC
- Global standards body 3GPP, which develops protocols for mobile telephony, has approved India’s regional navigation system NaVIC.
- It will boost commercial use of NAVIC by device makers.
- It will also bring NaVIC technology to the commercial market for its use in 4G, 5G and Internet of Things (IOT).
- Integrated circuits and products based on NAVIC can be developed now.
- 3GPP currently has global navigation satellite system support from BDS (Chinese), Galileo (European), GLONASS (Russia) and GPS (USA) for cellular positioning systems.
- US congress has agreed to designate India’s NavIC as its allied navigational satellite system along with Galileo of European Union and QZSS of Japan.
- US designated Russia’s GLONASS and Chinese Beidou as a “non-allied system”.
IRNSS (NAVIC)
IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system being developed by India. It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area. An Extended Service Area lies between primary service area and area enclosed by the rectangle from Latitude 30 deg South to 50 deg North, Longitude 30 deg East to 130 deg East.
IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. The IRNSS System is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.
Some applications of IRNSS are:
- Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation
- Disaster Management
- Vehicle tracking and fleet management
- Integration with mobile phones
- Precise Timing
- Mapping and Geodetic data capture
- Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers
- Visual and voice navigation for drivers
Many questions from IRNSS topic asked in Prelims Exam earlier.
The space segment consists of the IRNSS constellation of eight satellites, NavIC.
3 satellites are located in suitable orbital slots in the geostationary orbit and the remaining 4 are located in geosynchronous orbits with the required inclination and equatorial crossings in two different planes. All the satellites of the constellation are configured identically. The satellites are configured with I-1K Bus to be compatible for launch on-board PSLV.
GEMINI
Government of India has launched the Gagan Enabled Mariner’s Instrument for Navigation and Information (GEMINI) device, a satellite-based advisory service for deep-sea fishermen.
- It has been developed to disseminate seamless and effective emergency information and communication on disaster warnings, Potential Fishing Zones (PFZ) and Ocean States Forecasts (OSF) to fishermen.
- It has been developed by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and Airports Authority of India (AAI).
- This device receives and transfers the data received from GAGAN satellites to a mobile through bluetooth communication.
INDIAN DATA RELAY SATELLITE SYSTEM (IDRSS)
- India plans for its own space-to-space tracking and communication of its space assets by putting up a new satellite series called Indian Data Relay Satellite System (IDRSS).
- A set of 2 IDRSS satellites will be placed in geostationary orbit, enabling satellite to satellite communication and transfer of data.
- It will track, send and receive real-time information from other Indian satellites, in particular those in low-earth orbits (LEO) which have limited coverage of earth.
- It will also be useful in monitoring launches and benefitting crew members of the Gaganyaan mission ensuring mission control throughout their travel.
- It is also significant for space docking, space station, as well as distant expeditions to moon, Mars and Venus.
- It will also reduce the dependence on the ground stations in tracking satellites.
- US, China, Japan and Europe – already have such DRS systems.
NEWSPACE INDIA
- Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), inaugurated its commercial arm NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), in Bengaluru.
- It was incorporated for commercially utilising research and development activities carried out by ISRO.
Objectives
- To scale up industry participation in Indian space programmes as it will act as an aggregator for all space related activities in industry and develop private entrepreneurship in space related
technologies. - Manufacturing and production of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) and Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) through technology transfer mechanisms.
- Cater to emerging global commercial SSLV market demand by providing satellite building and satellite-based services, including supply of sub-systems for various domestic and international application needs.
Antrix
Antrix is the commercial arm of ISRO headquartered in Bangalore. It promotes and commercially markets the products and services emanating from the Indian Space Programme.
