Interviews of January/February 2017

14.1.2017:

Prof. Apurva Sarin: Senior Professor, NCBS-Bengaluru. Masters in zoology from Delhi Univ and PhD from ..? Recipient of young scientist award in 1990. Currently Dean, InStem. Specializes in stem cells, regenerative medicine, and the mechanism of cell actions and how their fate are determined. Mentions induced puripotent stem cells - stem cells grown in lab and made to become a specialized cell of choice - while this has already been demonstrated, building a full organ from stem cells remains a challenge.

Human body has trillions of cells of several types. An active area of research is understanding how stem cells know what specialized cell it has to become during regeneration of cells (why stem cells in skin become skin cell, not cell of some other organ), and how do they continue to remain as stem cells before regeneration.

Dr. TVV asks: Is stem cell taking human medicine towards something like lizard tail regenration? Prof. Apurva says that lizard tail can regenerate only once - a rule that researchers are trying to understand. InStem started in 2009 - institute of stem biology and regenerative medicine.

Curiosity drives a biologist - a curiosity about things which may not get understood completely in one's own lifetime but may be understood completely by future scientists. Different research groups within InStem - one group working on stem cell-based solution for cardiomyopathy, another group working with NIMHANS to understand cell mechanisms behind emotional, cognitive health. Another group working on sugars/receptors on cells. Dr. Apurva's own group, the most recently formed within inStem, is working on understanding T-cells, how their numbers are regulated; says her research is not specific to stem cells - asks questions about how cells deal with low energy situations etc. - says the answers to these can help stem cell research too.

On colaboration with NIMHANS - schizophrenia, bipolar disorder etc. which are believed to be complex multi-gene disorders, as compared to single-gene disorders like sickle-cell anemia that is more well understood.

NCBS works on biology from he level of biomolecules to ecosystems (savanna system, for instance). Joined NCBS in 1998, now with InStem.

No single incident that led her to become a research biologist - says it was a.

Must trust your instincts and pursue what you want to do. Unfortunately, students often find it difficult to convince their parents that research is a viable career. Says there is  no simple answer to this problem - perhaps if students get their teachers to persuade those who are difficult to persuade!!!

There is fear about stem cell research. Agrees that regulation is needed but it must be an informed regulation. Needless fear should be avoided - there are dangers associated with pretty much anything developed in labs, not limited to stem cells.

21.1.2017:

Dr. Sudhir Mishra: (Very expressive, energetic) Eminent missile scientist. CEO & MD, BrahMos Aerospace. Bachelors degree from Jabalpur University. M.Tech in mechanical engg. from IIT-Madras. Has worked on almost all major missile development programs of DRDO. Worked as a scientist in DRDL, Hyderabad. Developed guiding systems, propulsion systems and several other systems involving mechanical engineering. Says he has been working on missile programmes since a time when India was very poor in missile technology - had to develop things from scratch due to lack of help in this domain from other countries, and often had to use what would be considered tinkering/"jugaad". 1994 - developing Prithvi - .

Remembers that his passion for missiles goes back to 1973/1974 when in 7th or 8th standard. Studied in Hindi medium school in MP. Had to give a talk in class - chose to talk about some astra for which he gathered information from some Hindi magazines  - background mythological story of that astra says whatever one wishes will become true and intense wishes will definitely become true. That saying came true in his case as after his studies, he got to work with Dr. Abdul Kalam's team in 1984. Says Dr. ABdul Kalam is his role model. Says unlike other people of his (Mishra's) generation who wanted to go to the US and become rich, he decided that his only ambition was to develop missiles for his country, not to become rich. He feels full of energy and wants to deliver new and best things.

Soldier capabilities enhanced by BrahMos missiles, a joint venture of India and Russia. DRDO involved not just in development of missiles and weapons, but also high-energy food, pre-cooked food (starting from cholay, bisibele bath, idli powder), protection suit, special shoes. Some food technology/product from DRDO has been sold to Patanjali food brand. Says DRDO has had several spin-offs, food item being just one example.

BrahMos is the best missile system - like Rolls-Royce, beyond BMW and the like. All 3 defense services use BrahMos and it gives a threat/protection enevelope of atleast 5 kms. Feels very proud of BrahMos and his team that has designed and developed it - huge team involving almost every engineering domain.

How did BrahMos manage to go into production in a short time. Calls it a result of "mind to market". Tells youngesters - "knowledge without speed" is of no use. Perfection, speed and competence should go together. Research that takes long time is of no use (to the armed forces?) - BrahMos program kept this in mind and hence was able to deliver the missile for testing in 2001, just 3 years after the agreement was signed in 1998.

28.1.2017:

Dr.Mrutyunjay Mohapatra: Heads cyclone warning division, IMD, Delhi. Cyclone man of India; has studied more than 40 cyclones. Recipient of several awards including Young Scientist Award. What is cyclone? Word cyclone coined by a British officer in Kolkata, British India who observed storm systems in Indian ocean. Word derived from "cyclos" meaning coil. Explains how cyclones form through a cascading phenomemon - a result of instability resulting from heat, involving convection, cloud group formation, low pressure area formation etc. Dr. TVV: why astronomical phenomenon like full moon, eclipse are easily predictable whereas atmospheric phenomenon like cyclones are not? Answer: Atmospheric phenomenon are non-linear, unlike phenomenon like eclipse, solar winds which are linear. Better estimation of early weather conditions will lead to better prediction on cyclones. Non-linear phenomenon don't have empirical equation solutions; instead numerical methods have to be used. Satellites, radars, scatterometers used to observe weather conditions. Cyclones can be predicted upto 5 days in advance - area of occurrence, duration of occurrence, gale speed, tidal wave height associated with cyclone, trajectory. A primary of school teacher of his wrote a short poem on him (Dr.Mrutyunjay) after he joined IMD, telling what he would achieve in future. Tells how his father,in 1970s, had saved many lives by warning villagers about cyclones, at a time when no cyclone warning system existed. Motivates his junior colleagues in his division by displaying photographs of devastation caused by cyclones - feels it is important for meteorologists in his division to realize the impact of cyclone so that they realize the great onus on them to predict cyclones correctly and help save people. Joined IMD in 1992. Posted in Orissa in 1998, and witnessed the devastation caused by 1999 cyclone. Only 24-hour cyclone prediction was possible in India in 1999; consistent and timely forecast was not possible then, so only 40000 people were evacuated in time and 10000 people lost lives. Felt handicapped due to limitation w.r.t. observational infrastructure and prediction system. There has been a paradigm shift since then - multiple weather satellites (unlike just one then), updates from satellites every 15 minutes, digital radars available now, 13050 automated rain gauges, better modeling. IMD is looking for aircraft for supplementary observation for cyclone warning. Considering the cost of ex-gratia paid for kith and kin of lost lives in 1999 cyclone, huge cost invested to improve cyclone prediction post-1999 has helped recover the money by saving lives - 2013 Phylin cyclone led to loss of only 20 lives. Forecast has become lot more accurate and objective; and verification of prediction accuracy is in place now; unlike 1999 when prediction was more subjective, less accurate. More accurate prediction of cyclone path means less are needs to be evacuated. Takeaway message: Investment in science saves lives and money.

4.2.2017:

Dr. Jeet Singh Sandhu: Deputy Director-General, crop sciences division, ICAR. Involved in development of 23 new varieties of pulses. Is known for doing path-breaking work on chickpea. Pulses need less water to grow. Pulses are very friendly - can be intercropped, cultivated together with several other types of crops. Joined Punjab Agricultural UNiv in 1985 as a research fellow. Everyday he looks forward to developing or finding a new variety of crop or observing at how the new varieties are different from older varieties. UN declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. Pulses - good source of protein and help enrich soil through nitrogen fixation.

Dr. TVV: "Why is it called chickpea in English - is it to be used as food for birds only"? Dr. Jeet: Chickpea because shape looks like beak of a chick. Pigeonpea named because of similarity to eye of pigeons? Pulses are a major component of Indian diet.

Bred wild varieties of chickpea with cultivated ones. Many varieties were very adapatable and hence those that grew well in Punjab grew well in central India as well. Dr.Jeet was the 1st person to create a hybrid variety of chickpea - extremely difficult to develop hybrids of chickpea and some institute in Hyd which tried it had failed.

Where do pulses come in w.r.t. food security of India. India contributes 25% of global pulses production. But since India consumes a largely diet, pulse production not enough; shortage not due to technological limitation in pulse cultivation. 80% of pulses grown in rain-fed regions - these are usually farmers who are resource-poor; even quality and seed replacement rate is poor - these are the limiting factors (not technical limitation); considering the challenging cultivation conditions (moisture may be too low to support even germination), pulse productivity in India is on par with global. 20 million tonnes of production expected this year. Last year, India imported 5.8 million tonnes of pulses.

Since pulses are largely grown in rain-fed areas, there is bound to be instability in pulse production depending on rainfall. But he has found that productivity has improved in rain-fed areas, so production has not decreased over 30 years despite drop in rainfall. 3 major challenges facing pulse production: technology should reach farmers immediately; minimum support price for pulses is a must (only recently has govt introduced msp for pulse crops); minimum support price a major factor for India's success in rice&wheat cultivation; pulse procurement from farmers also important.

11.2.2017:

Prof. Naveen Garg: Theoretical computer scientist at IIT-Delhi, specializing in algorithms (esp. approximation algorithms) and computational complexity theory. B.Tech and PhD from IIT. Post-doctoral research at Max-Planck institute. On "theoretical" computer science - does not focus on programming but on understanding what can be solved, how efficiently etc. Approx. algorithms - problems that are too time-consuming to solve, so try to get an approximate solution faster. Algorithm is a self-contained sequence of actions/steps. Uses the example of travelling salesman problem to explain algorithm complexity (NP-hard) and where appoximate algorithms are useful. Has worked on algorithms for scheduling problems. Scheduling problems originated in operations research domain. Scheduling problems in computers: mobile apps contending for resources on the CPU, millions of requests going to a data center - how to minnimize the time to serve a request with given limited resources. Another problem prof. is working on is facility location. Simple example: how to place ATMs optimally, such that customers' total travel time is minimized (for example). Facility location with constraints - say a ration shop can serve only 100 customers. This leads to "local search" algorithms. Locations not yet decided - though experiment - will moving the shop from A to B improve the metric. If the metric does improve by changing the location, stop searching - "near best" solution reached. Has developed an approximation algorithm which can be run quickly for this which will give a solution that will be no worse than 5 times the theoretically best possible solution (which would take thousands or millions of years to compute!!). Came up with a detailed analysis of a greedy algorithm for scheduling that had been used for quite a long time but had not been analysed.

Dr. TVV mentions a recent news about an algorithm used by a US recruiting agency which gave lower weightage to candidates who were located far away from the office location, since it was presumed that they would be less intended to travel long distance to come to work. This had the unintended negative effect of putting coloured and relatively poor people at a disadvantage as most of them were found to live far away from the centre compared to other people. So the algorithm had unfairness built into it and it came under criticism. Prof's reply: This is something about which our research group had a lengthy discussion a few weeks back. We should be extremely careful about letting algorithm run our lives. ALgorithms not biased but the decisions that went into. "FAT ML" (FAirness, Accountability and Transparency in Machine Learning algorithms) conference for past 3 years. The news article in question was triggered by a recent book named "Weapons of Math Destruction" (person with bipolar disotder gets blacklisted by job screening algorithm because of the person's health issue). ACM has issued a statement on how should an algorithm behave w.r.t. fairness and transparency. Many of these types of algorithms are "learning" algorithms that go by past data. Dr. TVV says people should realize that algorithms needn't be unbiased from end-result perspective as they are driven by data and what human decisions went into developing the algorithm.

Dr. TVV: Should students prepare for IITs through intensive IIT coaching institutes like those in Rajasthan? Reply: Schooling at Jabalpur; no coaching centre of current type. Purchased study materials from Brilliant Tutorials - feels that is a better way to prepare; students should be let to choose how they want to prepare (give just guidance and inputs to students), rather than spoon-feeding them.

Dr. TVV: Should Indian school system be relooked? In-built mechanism in Indian schools that every student should be trained to become eligible for an engineering/medical/PhD degree. Reply: Mentions German system - parents and teachers meet at various points of student's schooling period, analyze his/her skills and progress and decide whether s/he should be trained for  a research/engineering/doctor-like career or instead for a more hands-on job like carpenter, plumber. Germany has excellent institutes for vocational training. (Unfortunately) Indian system attaches social stigma to non-white-collared jobs; any job that requires using ones hands viewed unfavourably!

18.2.2017:

Dr. Sudhir Kumar Singh: Director-general, National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurugram. Dr. TVV starts with "a very interesting, in fact, a very powerful conversation with"! Associated with development of several technologies related to solar energy. The building that Dr. Singh now works from, Soorya Bhavan, is now powered entirely by solar power. Says that the cost of solar power has crashed from Rs.10 per watt in 2010 to Rs. 4 per watt. Various means of power generation from solar energy - photovoltaic vs. solar thermal. Photovoltaic has become cheaper in recent times for power generation. For puposes like drying/heating and desalination, solar thermal is more effective. Photovoltaic is good for day-time power, but for all-day power, solar thermal currently more cost effective as storage method for photovoltaic is costlier at the moment. PCM (phase change material) can store high temperature energy.

Dr. TVV: Did you know about using the heat of sun to cool things?! Solar thermal energy used to power compressors for cooling/air-conditioning. Phase change (solid to liquid) technology allows 24x7 usage of solar energy. Solar-biomass hybrid technology - solar power used at times when solar power collection is optimal/sufficient, and biomass serves as supplement or backup when solar power collection is not efficient (less or no sunlight, for example). Biomass allows for high energy energy consumption (especially for high temperature requirements?).

Satellite data used to map solar resources for the whole country. Climate conditions varies between regions - solar radiation reaching the ground changes based on place, time, dust conditions. Rajasthan would seem the best place for solar power generation. While it is true that Rajasthan has one of the highest usable solar radiation, photovoltaic plants installed there degrade faster than in other places due to high heat.

NISE offers several human resource programs related to solar power usage. "Surya Mitra" programme is one such. MNRE sponsors solar power skill development programmes. NISA has a testing lab/facility for accreditation of photovoltaic cells and other systems related to solar power. Only power generating agencies accredited by NISE eligible for government's solar power subsidy.

NISE devloping a power storage system (thermal based) for use with photovoltaic technology. Renewable energy production could go upto 100GW by 2022. At this moment, it is only 9GW, but a lot has been learnt so far which is going to help expand generation of solar power. 50GW of the 100GW target will be rooftop solar panels which do not need land acquisition - hnece easily achievable. Government working with private sector to develop solar parks.

Major challenges: More manpower needed - Surya Mitrahas trained over 10000 people, but a lot more is needed. Cost of solar generation is the major concern but it is expected to come down. Recycling of solar panels is a problem - typical photovoltaic cells do not contain toxic materials (unlike general cells/batteries), but if other materials are introduced in these cells/systems in future, recycling will be a major challenge.

25.2.2017:

Dr. Siddhartha Roy: Director, Bose Institute, Kolkata. Bose Institute celebrating centennial year in 2017. Dr. Roy is a structural biologist and biochemist. Ph.D. in biochemistry from Univ of Delawere. Recipient of Shanthi Swaroop Bhatnaagar Award in 1999. Started as a chemist, thought biology was too complex (too many details), but by the end of his bachelors degree, he had become fascinated with biology and chose biology for research. Worked on DNA structure and fuctions. Says understanding biology needs observing the biological molecules in action. A pioneer in "chemical biology". Biological chemistry, a well-known field for over 70 years is a reductive approach - start with biological structures and breaks them down into chemical constituents. "Chemical biology" takes an integrative approach, studies the whole system together, possibly a collection of millions of modelcules. The term itself was coined in India in 1982 by another Indian scientist (Dr. Bimal Bechawat, Indian Institute of Experimental Medicine). Dr. Siddharth Roy started on chemical biology at a time when it had not yet gained popularity but the tools needed for such integrative study had become available. Omics is one such tool - a biomarker discovery technology; allows studying millions of cells. Another technology involved tagging cells/proteins with a fluorescent chemical (which occurs natural in some jellyfish; the discovery of this chemical or its use won its discoverer a Nobel prize).

Chemical biology expected to revolutionize drug discovery. Says most single molecule drugs were discovered by serendipity, i.e. were  discovered, not designed (example: penicillin). Says one of the earliest such drugs against infectious diseases was originated in India - Dr. U.N.Brahmachari's drug to treat kala-azar. Says this drug had saved as many lives as penicillin but unfortunately Dr. Brahmachari was forgotten - an unsung hero who deserved a Nobel prize (5 other drugs for other infectious diseases had won their discoveres Nobel prizes).

Chemical biology gives handle to drug discovery - says drug discovery, which in itself conplex, is just a part of chemical biology. The field is important because biological systems are too complex and behaviour of chemicals changes when put together into biological system.

Interest in chemistry - inspired by his father who worked as a research assistant to Dr. Praful Chandra Bose, but had to give up full time research to participate in freedom struggle. Despite this, his father remained a chemistry enthusiast and this helped kindle Dr. Siddharth's schoolday fascination in chemistry.

Bose Institute was initially known as "Temple of science". Many legendary people outside the field of science were associated with the institute - Rabindranath Tagore, Sister Niveditha. Dr. Bose may have been inspired by a desire to see India gain intellectual freedom, freedom of thought. Says Dr. Bose is the father figure of inter-disciplinary science.

Says his faculty had identified 2 major inter-disciplinary areas for the institute to focus on - complex systems (described earlier) and synthetic and systems biology.

Interviews of October 2016

1.10.2016:

Dr. Partha P. Majumder:

Director, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kolkata. Did M.Sc and Ph.D. in statistics from Indian Statistical Institute. Is renowned for applying statistics to population genomic studies, susceptibility of certain populations to certain diseases and other areas of biology. His most recent paper published in Nature Genetics has made waves according to Dr. TVV - the paper proposes, based on study of Andaman tribes, that there was a 3rd species of prehumans besides Neanderthals and Denozoans. Another important study proposes 4 lineages cover most populations of India, with 5th lineage is exclusively in Andaman-Nicobar tribes. 4 lineages associated with 4 major language groups in India - north Indian population speaking Indo-Europen languages, south Indians speaking Dravidian languages, NE Indian people who speak Tibeto-Burmese family of languages and 4th that is limited to mainland tribes (Austro-Asiatic tribes??).

Another major research work is on canc. At a cellular level, canc. is solely a genetic disease, though that doesn't mean it is necessarily passed across generations. Working with a global consrtium to identify what DNA alterations are responsible for malignancies. Several types of DNA variations do not cause diseases, but a few do. So mass amount of data from population is needed to identify the dangerous alterations. This will help develop better diagnosis, identifying people at risk and better treatment techniques.

His institute has over 15 faculty members (working on application to biology) and says he doesn't have time to explain research work done by all. But says there are 2 major research groups, one working on infectious diseases and the other on chronic disease. One of the chronic diseases that is being researched upon is NAFLD - a study on some Indian populations found NAFLD in the absence of obesity or fatty deposits in other parts of the body - could there be genetic factors.

Another grouo looking at tuberclosis - explains how pathogens hiding in coconut shell-like structure to evade immune system attack. Immune system then goes to sleep and these pathogens use that opportunity to become active. Smewhat humorous animation illustrating this accomapnies.

Says ISI curriculum, in addition to large dose of mathematics, also has life sciences, social sciences etc. Says this was because the founder of ISI felt that statistics cannot thrive in isolation and had to be applied to other fields. Dr. Partha's father was a biologist who worked for fisheries dept. and biology was a passion for Dr. Partha too; perhaps that is what led him to focusing on statistics for biology.

1. Density of researchers is low in India.
2. Funding for resource-intensive biology research is either low or comes in sporadic bursts, not conitnuous.
3. Young Indian researchers abroad willing to return put off by lack of adequate research facilities in India.

Says he, as a long-time researcher, will take up these problems with the Indian govt.

Interviews of September 2016

3.9.2016:

Prof. Gouriprasanna Roy:

Asst. Professor at Shiv Nadar Univ, Delhi. Working on detoxification of heavy metals - like mercury, lead, arsenic, copper. Heavy metals act like soft acids. Mercury damages enzymes and proteins. Organic or methyl mercury is highly toxic. Methyl mercury cysteine is neuro-toxic. Body has several sulphur-containing proteins/thiols and heavy metals bind to these causing disruption. Mercury is a naturally abundant element. Mercury sulphide, mercury selenide more stable and slightly less toxic. Burning fossil fuels releases heavy metals like mercury and lead. Blood, nail and hair of people living near mining areas found to have high levels of heavy metals.

Current research work - ways to convert/recycle volatile mercury to insoluble mercury sulphide or mercury selenide and reduce synthesis of the more toxic and soluble methyl mercury.

Says that during his school days he was more interested in sports (football) than in studies. Obtained Honours degree in Chemistry from Calcutta. At IISc Bangalore, worked on anti-thyroid drugs for hyperthyroidism, drugs with less side-effects than existing drugs for this disorder. Completed PhD in 2007. Post-doctoral research on T-cells and their role in (treatment of??) diseases like multiple sclerosis, diabetes. Regulatory T-cells and effective T-cells. Effector T-cells may sometimes cause auto-immune diseases - researching on ways to make regulatory T cells help prevent effector T cells from causing auto-immune diseases.

Chemistry is an important part of life. Autism is a result of genetic and environment of factors. Autism caused by complex factors - not just environmental, but substantial correlation between heavy metal exposure and autism.

Currently there is no drug to treat heavy metal toxicity. Wants to discover/develop drugs to treat heavy metal toxicity.

10.9.2016:

Prof. Vd. (Vaid) Kartar Singh Dhiman:

Director General, CCSRAS (Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences), a council under ministry of AYUSH. Hails from a remove village in Himachal Pradesh. Authored several research papers, especially on (Ayurvedic treatment for?) eye diseases. Says that his father's last wish was that one of his sons should be a doctor. Says his father's illness impelled him to become a doctor. His father's doctor visited the village once a week, coming from a place in Punjab 70km away. Didn't have any idea of MBBS, BMS etc. for a long time, but worked hard to become a doctor. Post-graduation in ophthalmology from Gujarat (Medical?) University. Started as a medical practitioner but inspired by Ayurvedic texts which he believes were based on extensive research and experience, decided to shift towards research and evidence-based medicine. Started with a small experiment on dry eye and proved that dry eye could be treated using an Ayurvedic treatment written in 5th or 6th century, based on controlling tear evaporation. Another research project on treatment of glaucoma - mentions there is one type of glaucoma called normo-tensive glaucoma where pressure is normal but nerve damage still occurs. Will start a new division for eye research in Lucknow. 3rd disease which he says is considered untreatable by both Ayurveda and modern medical science is retinitis pigmentosa. However, Ayurveda says the progression of the disease can be arrested if treatment is started early - so if patient is diagnosed with this condition, please start on Ayurveda instead of coming to Ayurveda only after modern therapy has failed! CCRAS standardizes ingredients of Ayurvedic drugs. Oversees pre-clinical research. CCRAS also has a project to digitize ancient Indian medical manuscripts. Aims to modernize Ayurveda - ensuring that standard operational procedures are used in drug preparation and that the safety of these preparations are well analyzed before clinical phase; this also removes scepticism that Ayurvedic drugs may be unsafe due to presence of heavy metals. Purify ingredients

Medical fraternity has doubts over traditional medicine. Recent Nobel prize in medicine to a Chinese researcher was due to integration between traditional and modern systems. In India, for over 50 years even after independence, talk of integration was not even possible as modern researchers would not even listen to ideas of traditional systems. This has been changing in recent times and accelerated due to AYUSH.

Dr. TVV says China doesn't call its new discoveries as "Chines traditional" but just 'Chinese' - no glorification of tradition; focus is on medicine, not on system. Dr.Dhiman says the Chine Nobel prize winner read the Chinese manuscripts in detail, noticed that there was a mention of temperature under which decoction has to be prepared and established that preparing it at 50 deg. Celsius would prevent loss of essential ingredients which was happening earlier - hence was able to get the drug to be effective against malaria.

Ethical responsibility to disseminate knowledge free-of-cost. Seers have give 4 pramaaNaas.

17.9.2016:

Prof. Samit Chattopadhyay:
Director, CSIR-IICB (Indian Institute of Chemical Biology), Kolkata. Research specializations include chemical biology, canc. biology, immunological biology, developmental biology. PhD from Jadavpur Univ and post-doctorate from Univ of Connecticut and MIT. Says his final school exam results were very poor as he was going through troubled times in those days - had lost his father and a brother in the same year. But his eldest brother and some of his teachers motivated him to not give up and encouraged him to take up college education. Specialized in cytogenetics for his masters. Gene regulation in viruses intrigued him during his post-doctorate research. Was fascinated by the work of researchers like Hargobind Khurana and their dow-to-earth approach. Discovered a tumor-suppressant protein (regulator, gene??) while working in Pune. Says human cells have approximately 25000 genes. Of these, oncogenes are supposed to be in an inactive, "sleeping" state; but if these genes are awakened, tunour results. Says developing a treatment based on his regulator protein will be a better alternative to chemotherapy as the later causes DNA damage that destroys normal cells too thereby causing severe side-effects. Dr. TVV: Why is your protein not in market yet if it has far less side-effects? Reply: Protein is under pre-clinical trial and should go to clinical trial phase soon.

His institute is one of the oldest in India for biology research - established over 60 years ao, with roots going back to 1935. This institute was the first in the world to give the concept of oral vaccine - the institute was then doing research on cholera, leishmania. Dr. Samit has started "Translational Research of Universal? Excellence" - aims to recruit some of the best scientists and take research findings to the point of benefiting the society, a mandate of CSIR. Working on providing a low-cost kit for detecting leishmania (kala-azar). Says his institute has a rich legacy and continues to do excellent work on molecular biology ad small molecule development - it has developed 2 medicines - one for another, and another names Prostatin?.

Message to youngsters: Do not ever give up. Do not think anything (any finding) is small - some Nobel prizes have come as a result of seemingly small findings that turned out to have immense implications on further study.

24.9.2016:

Dr.Goutam Roy:
Director, NIRJAF (National Institute for Research on Jute and Allied Fibre). Institute does research on natural fibers except cotton - jute, flax etc. Inspired by Manna Dey, he aspired to become a singer. However, his academic excellence in textile technology and instrumentation. Has authored 27 text books on computer science (??). Completed masters in instrumentation. Developed 1st electronic fiber bundle strength tester. Prior to this, only mechanical instrument was used in his institute and those required manual intervention and calculation. He felt he could use his knowledge to improve the technique and with his senior's permission developed the electronic one.

Retting is the primary mandate of his institute, mainly the technology part. Inst. has developed several retting technology and these use less water and less or no manual labour. Developed a machine to which plants can be fed directly to extract fibres - applicable to plants like banana, pineapple etc. - this process does not require retting.

Plastic-like synthetic fibers do have some advantages but they are not bio-degradable.

Interviews of August 2016

7.8.2016:

Prof. J. Srinivasan:

Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic sciences, IISc. From an engineering background - M.Tech in mech. engg. from IIT-Madras, masters and Ph.D. from the US. He studied in 10 different schools in a span of about 10 years; school education in 4 different languages (Kannada, Hindi, Tamil?, English). His father was an IAS officer with Karnataka posting, a transferable job. Complated schooling from Bangalore.

Chose mech. engg. by chance. Each of his relatives felt the engg. domain they were working in had no future as there was not much growth in engg. in 1960s.

Had fun with friends in finding mistakes in what was taught by teachers. As an example, in 1950s, a teacher expanded LASER (very new then) as "Light Emission by stimulated ..", and one of his co-students asked the teacher if it was "stimulated" or "simulated".

Masters and Ph.D. specialization on radiative thermal transmission / heat transfer in atmosphere, though the department he studied in was an engg. dept. Says he was surprised to see a waning interest in engg. in the US in the late 1960s; US students didn't seem to realize the immensity of their country's contribution to engg. Also gained expertise in computational modelling (?) which helped him in atmospheric sciences work, like monsoon modelling.

Proxy method used to measure what the temperature was in the past. Ice preserves history - ice drilling in Antarctica to extract ice deposited decades or centuries ago; ice traps air and water; ratio of oxygen isotopes in these is related to global temperature.

Firmly believes that global warming is largely a result of human activities. Says that currently this can be proved only through scientific/mathematical models, but there are people who refuse to believe in mathematical models.

Earth's temperature has risen by 1 deg. celsius in the past 100 years, but if human activities continue in the same way as now, the temperature will rise by 4 to 5 deg. celsius in the next 100 years!! Society has got addicted to a lifestyle dependent on fossil fuel. Society should start changing right now. No scope for postponement, since earth is at a tippping point. If actions are postponed, whatever is done or not done then will not help in preventing the undesirable effects.

Cut down use of fossil fuels to 1/10th. It is okay to use fossil fuels for a few niche uses like medicine, but society is taking a shortcut by using fossil fuels for transportation and manufacturing when eco-friendly alternatives.

He has been changing is area of research and teaching every 10 years. Academic career gives him this freedom, something not available in industrial/non-academic career. Says he never applied for a single industrial job as a result.

Says India should have started focusing on solar and wind energy 50 years ago. Instead, India has been continuing to rely on oil and importing oil from abroad. Cost of solar energy production coming down and India must use this opportunity. India must produce energy from soalr, wind and hydro sources.

13.8.2016:

Dr. P. Udaykumar:

Senior deputy Director, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyd. Has received Norman Borlaugh research fellowship and numerous other awards. Is an eminent toxico-pathologist. 25th years in NIN where he also did his PhD.

Nutrition till 5 years of age has long-standing impact on life. According to Barker's hypothesis, nutrition when one is still in womb can sometimes decide the person's health lifelong, even decades after.

Sustainable development goals for 2030 includes goals related to health. Indian paradox: 1/3rd of population s under-nourished while 10% to 15% are obese or overweight.

Difference between food and nutrition - food is quantity; nutrition is about quality. Road-side eateries sell stomach-filling food but is not nutritious; has little dal and over 80% rice - not a right balance.

Sedentary way of life has increased due to nature of profession. Tells that his grandfathr used to eat a handful of ghee but would walk over 10 kms a day, neutralizing the negative effects of fat-dense and energy-dense ghee.

Vegetable oils generally more beneficial but blending needed since most  vegetable oils, lack one or the other of essential fatty acids.

Favourite quote: "Every food is a poison; only the dose matters". Cannot say tha fat is bad - the amount matters. Doing research on link between food and canc. in mice. Saturated fats, N6 fats and trans-fats seem to have similar levels of tumor-promoting effects as they are dificult to metabolize. N3 fats, which are considered good, are found to have inverse correlation with tumour-formation.

Nutrition in medical curriculum not given enough importance. Even during his M.D. days, the study of nutritional aspects of health was minimal. His study book on pathology has only 20 pages on nutrition, but it interested him a lot and he decided to take up research on nutritional-pathology despite it not being a sought-after specialization.

NIN has developed a kit to detect presence of iodine in salt. Has developed a double-fortified salt that includes iron and iodine. Iodine policy was drafted by govt.; iodine deficiency more prominent in sub-Himalayan regions and parts of NE-India.

Nutritive value of Indian food done 30 years ago. 5 years ago, NIN revisted this study and has come up with updated nutritive value information.

Recommended dietary intake guidelines for Indians also drafted by NIN. Is available free of cost as a Google app. and downloadable from mygov.in.

21 different types of brinjal alone in India - NINs has studied and documented the nutritive value of each; significant variation between these varieties w.r.t. nutritive value.

NIN offers an MSc programme in nutrition.

20.8.2016:

Prof.Ram Ramaswamy:

President, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. Professor at JNU. Outstanding inter-disciplinary researcher. Computational biology, nonlinear sciences. Born in Chennai, but studied in atleast 6 different schools due to his father being in a transferable job in the army. Completed schooling from a boarding school in Mussoorie. Most students from that school would enter business or army, and Ram was unusual in that he wanted to study pure sciences. B.Sc in chemistry from Loyola Colege - says it was not a concsious choice - he soon realized he wanted to work in theoretical chemistry and interface of physics with chemistry. Masters from IIT-Kanpur. PhD from Princeton University in scattering theory. Says IIT-Kanpur had an academic environment comparable to that in top universities in the US; his professors used to give assignment problems taken from latest journals.

Got interested in chaos theory (part of non-linear sciences) when doing post-doctorate in the US. Weather phnomenon, gaps in the rings of Saturn, motion of meteors etc. are all chaotic. Back in India, in the early 1990s, he was in a discussion with a friend, Dr.Alok Bhattacharya, who was a biologist, and this led to Ram taking an interest in computational biology. Question that Alok had was whether genes could be identified easily from long, random genome sequences. This led to his starting research in computational biology, a highly inter-disciplinary field - maths, computation theory, game theory, physics, dynamics, chemistry.

Founded by Dr.C.V.Raman in 1934, IASciences plays an important role in academic life in India. Fellowships awarded based on good work. Says recognition by peers is important for researchers whose work is often independent; IASciences provides recognition through fellowships. The academy publishes several journals in math and science fields.

Says it was in the 1990s that some members of academy started expressing concern over brain-drain in the field of sciences. Hence the academy started to award summer scholarships for 2000 students every year.

Advice to youngsters: Some houmour here. Dr.TVV says he doesn't like to use the word "advice" but he has gray hair and he isn't able to thing of a better word; Prof Ram says with a smile that he (himself) has almost no hair! A career in science is a privilege to have. Lots of interesting problems to solve.

27.8.2016:

Prof. D. Balasubramanian:

Renowned ocular biochemist/biologist. Director of research at LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyd. Kalinga Prize winner. Eminent science popularizer. Say 1.8% of population of A.P. and Telangana are blind as per WHO's (??) definition of blindness - blindness needn't be complete absence of vision. Extremely poor . 3-3.5 million Indians are blind because of very severe refractive index errors - can be treated in 10 minutes by prescribing approriate glasses; these constitute 10% of blind people in India; poverty and lack of access to doctors is why these people remain effectively blind. 45% of blind due to cataract - this too can be corrected by simple surgery. Another 10% are blind due to infections. Thus about 65% of blind people in India have some cure or remedy. Says eye camps are not the best choice for reaching out to larger and disadvantaged population with eye problems - post-operative care is important, which cannot be provided by camps. Pyramidal model of (eye-care??) hospitals and good rural-urban medical cooperation is the best solution to address the eye problems of the huge Indian popul'n.

On research being done. Glaucoma is the slow death of optic nerves. Can it be treated by correcting the eye fluid circulation valves just like heart valves are treated? Are there genetic factors behind glaucoma? Age-related macular degeneration - can stem-cell therapy be used to replace poor retinal cells with healthy ones. Eye of a child not developed fully during birth - develops fully only after birth. Prematures put in high-oxygen chambers are susceptible to retinopathy. LVP eye institute does translational research too by reaching out to .

On his background. He was trained as a chemist. Did M.Sc and PhD in chemistry. Says he got interested in chemistry due to an outstanding teacher. During his PhD years, he worked on understanding crystallines which are proteins the constitute eye lens. Ordinary glass is made of silicon dioxide. Biological lens is made of lipids and proteins, which have tiny ball-like structure - can be compared to cooked saboodaana. Pondered over what causes cataract and moved from CCMB to LVP eye institute - a move from pure theoretical/lab research to translational research -- feels it is one of the best decisions in his life.

On the controversy over genetically modified crops - says it is an unnecessary controversy. Genetic modification helps make plants more robust to pests, meaning less need for pesticides - this translated to safer and healthier food. GM cotton has been used in some countries for decades (Brazil etc.) and no adverse effects have been found. Says GM mustard is likely to be cleared soon by India.

Science as a subject is exciting, just like a good story can be exciting.

Interviews of July 2016

2.7.2016:

Dr.M.Ravikumar:

Seismologist. Director General of Institute of Seismological Research, Ahmedabad. Spent most of his time in Hyderabad (b. 1964?). PhD from Osmania Univ. Works on dynamics of geophysics. Earth's atmosphere and oceans are coupled systems. Kimberlites transport diamonds from deep inside the earth to the crust. Geophysics helps understand distribution of minerals, movement of water, natural oil etc.

Mentions formation of Himalayas -formed around 50-55 million years ago. Earth's tectonic plates goes through a cycle every 220 million years. What is above goes below and plates below come up. TVV compares it to churn of material during cooking of upma. 140 million years ago, Laurasia was the northern continent. Southern part (of that continent??) was Gondwana land. India encountered the maximum number of plumes. In the history of plate tectonics, Indian plate moves the fastest, at 18 cm per year, after breaking away from Laurasia. TVV says "racing India" will continue to race due to scientists like Dr.Ravikumar.

Predicting earth quakes still not possible. The institute works on mitigation techniques - reduce impact of earthquakes. Gives seismic safety factor rating that are site-specific. ISR can predict earthquake in near real time. Building structures must be built in accordance with recommendations dependent on seismic rating of the site. A lot depends on the top-soil - 2 different places that are equidistant from epicentre need not have the same impact. TVV says that building that stand after earthquakes do so due to the hand of scientists like Dr.Ravikumar. Those buildings that were constructed as per the recommended norms will survive earthquakes. ISR has a network of 60+ observation centres that allow epicentre to be identified within 10-15 minutes after an earthquake has started - earlier this process used to take a few hours. Allows better mitigation system.

TVV says 1950s was hailed as the start of space age and there was a lot of euphoria. Need to embark on an "Earth mission" that tries to look at the earth and understand the earth better, just like space age spurred moon mission, mars mission etc.

9.7.2016:

Prof. Dipankar Banerjee:

Astrophysicist/astronomer, Indian Institute of Astrophysics. Interview at Srinagar. PhD thesis was about sun. Currently associated with Aditya-L1 sun mission project of ISRO. Developing an instrument called coronagraph that will be a part of Aditya-L1's payload - this instrument is meant to observe and study sun's corona. Aditya-L1 will be placed in a Lagrangian position/orbit - a stable position where the gravitational pull of sun and earth on the satellite will be equal. This position will let the satellite to be in a position that allows continuous observation of the sun. Also building a 2 metre glass telescope that will be positioned in an observatory in Kashmir/Ladakh near India's border. Says Indian Institute of Astrophysics originated at the sun observatory in Kodaikanal.

Never anticipated becoming an astronomer/astrophysicist during his school days, though he was very interested in physics. Says good grounding in physics and mathematics are sufficient to pursue higher studies in astrophysics - needn't have specialized in astronomy/astrophysics early on.

Students interested in astronomy, astrophysics can become a member and participate in conferences of Astronomical Society of India. When TVV says that people often ask him about astrology when he talks to public about astronomy/astrophysics, Prof. Dipankar Banerjee says astrology isn't science as its basis is not understood and is not verifiable.

India offering good opportunities for research. Golden time for research in fundamental sciences in India. Says opportunities becoming limited in the West (plus increasing competition there?). Talks about importance of tie-ups of research institutes with universities; level of research will improve with such tie ups.

16.7.2016:

Dr. Kiran Kalia:

Biochemist. Director of NIPER, Ahmedabad (National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research). Her father fled to India during partition. Despite difficulties, her parents valued education; her father would tell her that the one thing he would definitely give is education. Studied biochemistry (masters degree) at Lucknow University after completing B.Sc. Opted for PhD after masters - says wanted to have "Dr." prefixed to her name. PhD from Indian Toxicology Research Centre of CDRI (CSIR??). Walked right to the office of the director of that institute to check the status of her PhD application and check about fellowship options.

Dr.TVV says number of diabetics in India has doubled during the period 2000-2013. Dr.Kiran has done research related to complications related to diabetes, like diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy. Says mortality due to diabetes as such is not high; mortality results more from hypoglycemia resulting from body's response to medicines - hypogycemia particularly harmful to brain which is more susceptible to blood glucose variations. Worked on genomic marker of Indian population to identify susceptibility to diabetic complications. Identified some genomic markers in western Indian population. 45% of diabetes patients end up with nephropathy.

Has wonseveral awards. Considers the President Guide Award that she received while at school the best and most powerful; received the award from president V.V.Giri.

Indian pharma industry the 3rd largest in the world. Indian phrama industry now entering the biopharma domain. NIPER was established by Govt. of India with the idea of having a pharma research institute at par with IITs for engg. and sciences. Around 15 courses available at different NIPERs. Dr.Kiran is a member of Intnl. Organization of women scientists.

Dr.TVV says only around 4-5% of educational/research institutes in India have women directors, so India has a long way to go in terms of getting more women into research. Dr.Kiran says women need to display more confidence than men to enter and have a sustained career in research.

24.7.2016:

Dr.B.N Gangadhar:

Director, NIMHANS-Bengaluru. Grew up and studied in BLR. His parents told him stories of Sir C.V.Raman & Visveshvarayya and these inspired him. Since his 6th standard school days, he was intrigued by mental health - wanted to know what really psychiatrists treat. Studied M.D. at NIMHANS. His major research was on electroconvulsive therapy - over 30 years of research and 150 papers around this topic. Tremendous refinement in EC therapy (ECT) during the past 40 years, in terms of procedure and instruments. New equipment allows delivering just a fraction of discharge compared to past; anaesthic a norm now. Says ECT, in vogue for over 80 years, is here to stay despite availability of medicines. Success rate around two-thirds - i.e. 2/3rds of people with mental illness become completely normal in terms of mental health following therapy. Even among the remaining proportion, some improvement is seen. Mental illness should not be stigmatized.

Medicines for mental illness in vogue for ~60 years. Work on to make them more effective and reduce adverse effects.

Long way to go for diagnostic utility of tests. No confirmatory tests as yet for mental illness. Existing tests give some leads and work in progress to get causative information.

Nice quote by Dr. B.N.Gangadhara - Other physicians speak of giving more years to life. Psychiatrists focus on giving more life to those years.

Now measurement of amount grey matter and white matter possible without surgical/autopsy procedures, because of MRI. Connectivity between parts of brain can be measured.

Medicine has opened it doors to all scientific specialties - maths, engg., computer science. M.Phil in neurosciences available to students from other disciplines too.

TVV mentions aging population. Dr.BNG tells aging is a normal process but there are some people who start to age prematurely - in such people both brain and other organs age quickly; these people become withdrawn due to cognitive decline. Some mention of brain remaining young for ever.

Transcranial direct stimulation procedure to improve cognitive function! Research happening on yoga and its ability slow down or possibly even stop again. Brain neurotrophic factor. Increased levels of BDNF avoids depression. Initial statistical evidence indicates positive effects of yoga.

Many mental disorders can be treated by general primary care doctors, but they need to be trained more. This is essential because of growing population and practical impossibility of psychiatrists to reach out to this large population. Dr.BNG says (most?) people go to primary GP first, not directly to a specialist, for problems like eye infection, loose motion, back pain etc. Same can be done for mental illness too.

Messages: No health without mental health. Mental health can be cured and no stigma should be associated with it.

30.7.2016:

Dr. Ch. Srinivasa Rao (?): ICRI (?) - agricultural research institute.

Interviews telecast in June 2016

4.6.2016:

Dr. J Amalorpavanathan: Director of dept. of vascular surgery at Madras Medical College. Specializes in organ transplant. Says he was a dull student early in his school days. Getting into a medical school was a distant dream. But a passionate physics teacher kindled his interest in science amd that helped him score well in science and maths starting around 8th standard. Was intrigued on seeing a beating heart during a visit to MMC (medical "exhibition" - school visit to medical college's anatomy lab). During his pre-UG 1-year course at Loyola college, a chemistry professor further kindled Amalorpavanathan's interest in science. On the question of ethical issues surrounding organ transplant, says French scientists in 1970s did some study on coma and identified that there are atleast 2 categories - one where the comatose person's life could not be saved at all and another where the person could be maintained in comatose state with a chance of recovery. Later an American research paper by "Mohandas & Chu" (neither of whom the interviewee knows about) claimed that if brain stem had died or has been irreversibly damaged, then the comatose person could never be brought back to normal condition - this is considered true brain death.

Asked about Eureka moment:
1. TN govt passed the cadaver organ transplant law in 2008 and he being made the head or advisor of the council overseeing this programme and ensuring highest standard of ethics in organ transplants.
2. A leading and reputed British medical journal wrote an article about TN's organ transplant - a peer-reviewed journal praising the programme.
3. PM hailing TN's cadaver organ transplant programme as the best in India.

On his teaching principles as a professor at MMC: Students should grasp the issues of the country. Stresses the importance of critical thinking, especially for surgeons - question everything and take in only what passes the test of science.

Message to young students: "You must suspect the obvious"  - a quote from Sherlock Holmes. Try to put ethics in work.

11.6.2016:

Dr. Ajit K Kembhavi:

Astrophysicist. VP, International Astronomical Union. Founding member of IUCAA, Pune.  Was an avid reader during his school days and used to read books at municipal libraries. This despite his not being able to understand full many of the concepts that he read, like calculus. Didi PhD under Prof. J.V.Narlikar at Tata Institute. Worked with distinguished people at Cambridge during post-doctoral studies. Subsequently worked with Prof. Narlikar to set up IUCAA in Pune, as Narlikar wanted to create an institute that would allow aspiring students who did not have early exposure to astronomy to pursue research in astronomy and astrophysics.

Public libraries an asset. Reading hard copy books gives pleasure, something that cannot be matched by reading on ipad or computers. Also says that his parents had no idea about research studies or astrophysics and would have wante dhim to become an engineer or a doctor, but gave him the freedom to pursue him interest.

Wanted to work on gravitational waves. Pursued x-ray astronomy at Cambridge university. Actively worked on research on quasars. Quasars accrete matter around and produce energy. He co-authored a well-known book on astronomy, published by Cambridge University press.

Started observing galaxies. Image processing techniques used to study galaxies. Currently working on "big data" astronomy. Says astronomers were the first use of "big data". Worked with Persistent Systems co. on big data for Virtual Observatory alliance which he headed for some time. 

India heading towards becoming a major contributor to major international collaborative projects on astronomy. India part of the 30-metre telescope project.

On research projects on pure science, one should not do a cost-benefit analysis right away. That doesn't mean that a country like India should spend indefinitely on research projects; there should be checks and balances on government funding to research to ensure funding produces good quality research work. Symbiosis needed between institutes and universities. Says Homi Jehangir Bhabha wanted unaffiliated institutes to be gradually absorbed into universities.

Message to the young generation: Young people should follow their passion, what excites them most. The current generation should be happy as there couldn't have been a better time to do research in astronomy.

18.6.2016:

Dr. A.S.Kiran Kumar:

ISRO chairman and distinguished space scientist. (NOTE: Already interviewed in 2015; 2nd time interview). Interview starts with talk of ISRO's recent experiment with RLV (reusable launch vehicle). Says RLV is necessary to reduce cost of access to space. TVV asks whether reusability really provides cost savings as 70% to 80% of weight of space launch vehicles is fuel and payload. Dr. Kiran Kumar says though fuel constitutes higher proportion of weight, cost of system is usually higher than fuel cost. Wing body, sensors and navigation systems developed indigenously used in RLV.

ISRO set to launch 20 satellites in one rocket. Restarting capability of the 4th stage engine helps in placing multiple satellites in different orbits. Putting many satellites in one launch requires high precision and lots of simulation on dynamics; centre of gravity changes after each satellite is launched; need to ensure the satellites are placed such that they don't collide with others.

GSLV-Mark 3 will help put satellites in geostationary orbits. This vehicle is planned to be launched in Dec 2016 on its 1st mission. GSLV-Mark3 has higher payload capacity. Experimenting with electric propulsion system as against a pure chemical propulsion system. Electric propulsion system can use solar energy to emit ions and propel the vehicle.

Aditya-L1, India's 1st space mission to study the sun. The satellite will be stationary relative to sun. Project timeframe 2018-2019. Success of Mars Orbiter Mission gave confidence for Aditya-L1 mission. The satellite will help study coronal mass ejection, magnetic phenomenon of sun etc.

Human rated vehicles needed to carry humans to space. Working on developing a capsule that can carry 3 astronauts. Wisely adds that the country must take a decision on whether launching humans to space is really priority as compared to other space technology projects. On INRES, says DGCA (civil aviation dept.) has given approval to use GAGAN (?) data.

Interesting question from TVV who says many people ask him this question: Indian govt. organizations are known to be lethargic. How does ISRO, which too is a govt. organization, manage to be an efficient and successful one? Dr. Kiran Kumar says the reason goes back to ISRO's roots. Vikram Sarabhai helped shape Indian space technology sector. India has contributed maximum to space technology.

25.Jun.2016:

Dr.Firdous A Nehvi:

Chief Scientist, Saffron Research Station, SKUAST-Kashmir. Agro-scientist who has represented India at several international conferences and has won several awards. Interview at the "saffron bowl of India", Pampore. Roughly 160000 saffron flowers need to be collected to get 1gm of saffron! Saffron is one of the costliest spices and is very labour-intensive. Dr.Firdous had a passion for plants rightsince childhood. PhD in plant breeding genetics. Was a meritorious university student due to which he got an opportunity to do research.

Saffron cultivation main source of income for many in Pampore. But the farming system practiced turned out to be not very remunerative and there was a slump in production. National Saffron mission/policy introduced in 2010 by Indian govt. to encourage farmers. Dr.Firdous did pioneering work in drafting this policy. Govt. created around 100 deep bore wells as a part of this mission.

Traditional production system impacts the quality of saffron despite the saffron flowers of Kashmir being of very high quality. Saffron needs a lot of time to dry and during the prolonged drying process, many of the flavonoids are lost. Developed a new technology that allows drying to complete within 10 hours and in this process, 100% of the flavonoids are retained. Vacuum drying and electrical/solar drying techniques developed for large and small farmers.

Iran, a major saffron producer, has a very different system of production due to industrial backing, something similar to private industry-backed tea cultivation in India. Industrial support will benefit saffron cultivation in India.

A very commonly asked question according to both TVV and Dr.Firdous. Why can't saffron be grown in other parts of India? Saffron needs sub-zero temperatures during its vegetative phase and Pampore's climate suits this. 80% of saffron in India is from Pampore.

TVV: Is Kashmiri saffron truly the best in the world, even though Iran, Morocco and some Europena countries produce saffron? Are we being proud just because we cultivate it? Dr.Firdous says this is not a myth and that Kashmiri saffron is unique in many ways. Chromosome length of Kashmiri saffron is 3 times longer than that of other saffrons. pampore has won heritage site recognition from FAO. Geographical Indicator for Kashmiri saffron likely.

Interviews telecasted in May 2016

7.5.2016:

Prof. Santosh Kapuri: Director, CSIR-SERC. Specializes in solid mechanics and has 25 years of experience in structural engineering. Born in a small town called Nabadwip in WB. Had a fun-filled childhood; learnt swimming in Ganges, near an ISKON temple and once even got lost after going for a swim; was found after a day. Got 11th rank in state higher secondary (12th std) exams. Talks about how he learnt good value system from his father and therefore became a role model for him; father ensured his family got healthy food, adequate clothing and good education. Thanks his teachers for having given them free tuition.

Went to Stanford Univ in 2010 on a Fulbright scholarship. His guide (Prof. Charles Steele) at Stanford asked him to perform research on how cochlea in the ear of animals helps differentiate between different frequencies to validate some theory. His experimental results (on Gerbil, a type of rodent) were very different from expected results. Was initially unable to explain this and told Prof. Steele about this. Prof. Steele simply took Santosh to a restaurant and told his to think over the problem for more time. After 2 more weeks, Santosh was able to come up with an explanation. Eureka moment was Prof. Charles Steele's appreciation of his presentation of his findings which led to a revision of a Nobel laureate's theory.

Worked with GAIL to design an improved way to bury pipelines. Narrates how he rejected a particular pipeline layout proposal as its design assumed equal pressure on all sides of gas pipes, which isn't the case. Proved that a different burying design is what would work best for the type of gas pipes that had be procured already.

Tells that unfortunately many students who take up engineering studies do not do so due to real interest in that field. Says there is a need to attract true talent into engineering. Pay package a problem - need to give better incentives to get talented people into research. While he acknowledges that research doesn't always produce quick tangible results unlike industrial work, importance of research should not be overlooked and hence the need to attract talented people to research.

Message to students: Understand that the country needs you. Too many people going abroad for career; while it is understandable, such people should be made to know that opportunities are emerging in India.

Need to install health assessment and monitoring policy for construction and infrasturcture projects, in the context of the recent flyover collapse in Calcutta.

14.5.2016:

Dr. Sudhanshu Vrati: Dean, Indian Institute of Translational Health Sciences and Technology (THSTI). Current reasearch interests include study of viral replication and vaccine development. Hails from a small town in western U.P. which had just 1 science college. Studied in kerosene lamp light at nights due to lack of electricity in his town and had to deal with insect bites too :)

During his school days, his father would spend a long time him teaching science to Sudhanshu, paving the way for Sudhanshu to become a scientist. His father was a businessman (owned a printing press that published several books, usually related to homeopathy), not a teacher,and yet was passionate about science.

During his post-graduation days (late 1970s) he decided to become a medical researcher. Did his post-graduation in microbiology which was rare in India at that time; there were many colleges offering masters degree in biochemistry but microbiology was rare. Got very excited about study of viruses (which, unlike bacteria, couldn't be seen using microscopes) which are the smallest microorganisms and are special for being a disease-causing organism that was not a full-fledged living beings. Applied for scholarship an got admission in Australia.

Says "Eureka moments are rare for scientists despite working hard". Considers fortunate to have been involved in the development of a rotavirus vaccine and mentions some interesting speculation in the research team when they about to open an envelope that contained results of their vaccine trial - result turned out to be better than he had anticipated. Rotavirus kills ~1lakh kids a year in India. When asked about phases of clinical trials, says several rounds are carried out to establish safety of vaccines. They cannot be tested on infants right away - must first establish safety in adults, then among relatively younger people, and only at last on small kids.

"Translational biological science", which became a buzzword 8 years ago, means translating the research knowledge of academic microbiologists, into novel diagnostics or medicines. Says many researchers working on pure biology-related in  often

Interest in science dwindling in India, more so for biological science. Students increaisngly going towards engineering and commerce/management. Says he hears about schools closing down biology stream due to lack of takers for that stream. Students feel it takes too long to establish themselves in medical/biosciences field and return on investment is low.

Message: Science can be rewarding both at intellectual level and at financial level (pay) if one stays focused on research and on getting the research results translated to useful applications.

21.5.2016:

Dr. Satheesh Chandra Shenoi: Director, NIOT (National Institute of Ocean Technology). Grew up in a small village in Kerala (b. 1958). His village lacked basic amenities. His village being close to the ocean and his walking along the beach daily to go to school was a reason that may have made his take up ocean studies. Was fascinated by the physics behind ocean currents etc; not too interested in biology. Wanted to pursue masters in physics. But on noticing an advertisement about a course on masters in oceanography, which was largely to do with physics behind oceanic phenomenon, decided to choose that as both he felt that would satisfy his interest in both physics and oceanic phenomenon. Joined National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, early in 1980s. Undertook Arabian sea experiment that helped discover more details about the south-west monsoon. The experiment revealed that the part of ocean between Kerala and Lakshadweep becomes the warmest oceanic region in the world well ahead of the annual onset of monsoon. Kelvin waves and Rossby waves transfer energy and water between Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal. Rossby waves transfers relatively fresh water from Bay of Bengal to Arabian sea; without this, Arabian sea would become more saline ad Bay of Bengal could become less saline, more like a giant lake. The experiment revealed the dynamics of south-eastern part of Arabian sea that are crucial to monsoons.

Another study he has undertaken is to understand why south Arabian sea doesn't see many cyclones unlike Bay of Bengal, despite both lying in the same latitude region and receiving almost equal sunshine. Says one reason is Arabian sea being more saline due to less rivers feeding into it and it getting less rainfall compared to Bay of Bengal. Arabian sea has stronger winds and the entire water in Arabian sea can be mixed within a day by this energy, causing the warm water on the top to mix with colder water below, bringing down the average surface temperature of Arabian sea. On the contrary, Bay of Bengal doesn't have such strong winds to mix its water and hence its surface temperature remains comparatively higher.

Opines that being unable to predict the monsoons with high precision is a failure and to make better predictions, more studies on oceanic systems needed. More studies needed on climate change as well. Oceans store 93% of the excess heat from global warming is stored by oceans. Of this large portion, over 70% gets accumulated in the Indian Ocean. Currently bulk of this excess is stored in the deeper regions of the ocean but this cannot continue for long. This will have an impact on monsoons and other climatic phenomenon.

Message to students: Need to find ways to extract freshwater from ocean water. A desalination plant in in Minicoy/Lakshadweep now produces around 1 lakh litres of freshwater per day from sea water. Great possibility for further applications based on ocean studies (mentions something about methane store capable of meeting needs for hundred thousand years?)

28.5.2016:

Prof. Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi: Vice-chancellor, Kashmir University. Specialized in bio-informatics. Born and grew up in Srinagar. Family had a legacy of producing educated people - education was imperative for his family. On being asked about role models, says he didn't have a role model during his early days. Life was simple but a lot was happening. Says he virtually grew up on streets and was exposed to everyday science. Inspiration for science came from everyday routine. Though he had other inclinations, took biochemistry for higher studies based on advice of others. Got to realize that it was one of the best possible decisions as his interest in the subject increased during his masters degree. Gold medalist in his masters program. Got CSIR scholarship from PGI Chandigarh. PhD on signalling translational mechanism in cells. Post-doc research at Tufts University - research on human cell response to growth factors and protein signaling related to tumour cells. Post doctoral abroad exposed him to several Nobel laureates and the best thing he learnt was humility - these Nobel laureates never boasted about their achievements and yet carried out inspiring work. Wrong hormonal signals can lead to abnormal cell divisions.

On returning to Kashmir Univ, faced challenges as the univ was small and was struggling to come up. However, he was never put off by these and always tried his best. Started the bioinformatics (?) department at Kashmir Univ. When TVV mentions his Facebook acquaintances who have done research abroad asking him about their willingness to come back to India but being unable to do it due to not knowing how to deal with Indian conditions or lack of clarity on opportunities, Prof. Andrabi send out a strong message - when coming back to India, come back as an Indian, not as a foreigner. Says he came back to India without expectations. Be prepared to face challenges. Says his department is now on par with international standards and over 20 students/researchers who have worked in the US have come to work/research at Kashmir Univ.

Says vibrancy is a hallmark of any good univ when TVV mentions that he noticed several students in Kashmir Univ coming to labs/libraries over an extended weekend and that he was impressed by the neatness and the ambience of the labs. Says inspiration comes from the top, not the bottom - professors and lecturers have the onus of inspiring students. So highest standards in recruiting lecturers. Propagation of basic research is of utmost importance - for example, be it bioinformatincs, cell biology or any other specialized field, biology and research on it is fundamental.

Laments about policy-makers of higher education knowing little or nothing about higher education and taking too long to take decisions.

Message: Be Indians. Work on developing domestic technologies. Indians abroad do a great job on innovation and research. Why can't Indians demonstrate the same innovative spirit in India.