For anyone deeply embedded in the world of life sciences and biotechnology, the academic path is often seen as both a calling and a challenge. Yet, truly open and candid conversations about the realities of faculty life, such as the triumphs, trials, and wisdom gained, are surprisingly rare.

NaviClar, an initiative that supports the life science community in career navigation and progression, embarked on a unique series of interviews, aiming to amplify the voices of life science faculty and scientists from India and across the world to foster appreciation, enhance visibility, and spark meaningful dialogue that could inform policy.

NaviClar also recognised the immense value these insights hold for the next generation. Aditya Parekh, founder of NaviClar, said, “The experiences of seasoned academics offer a rich learning ground for early-career faculty and serve as a vital preparatory resource for postdoctoral researchers aspiring to enter the challenging yet rewarding realm of academia.”

In a series of 32 interviews, Sakshi Poddar (PhD,National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar) and Aditya Parekh (Founder, NaviClar) interacted virtually with faculty members, asking multiple questions to delve into the heart of their professional lives. Here is a glimpse into the responses to three vital questions:

1. What is the thing that satisfies you the most in your job?

Across the board, a resounding theme emerged: the joy of discovery and the impact on the next generation. Most of the faculty members’ faces lit up when they spoke about how seeing their students grow into the next stages of their careers made them fulfilled and proud. Many faculty members spoke passionately about the thrill of witnessing a student's ‘aha!’ moment, seeing their research flourish, or contributing to a deeper understanding of biological processes.

2. What is your biggest struggle as a faculty?

The challenges faced by faculty are diverse, but certain struggles resonated universally. Securing consistent funding and managing work-life balance were frequently cited as major hurdles. The relentless pursuit of grants, administrative burdens, and the pressure to publish often take a toll.

Most of the faculty members underlined that balancing teaching and/or research, along with administrative duties and other responsibilities, becomes a challenge. The pleasure of doing science often gets affected. These struggles underscore the intense demands placed on academics and the need for robust support systems.

3. What is one mistake you would advise young faculty to avoid early in their careers?

The wisdom and advice shared by faculty members offer invaluable lessons for navigating early academic careers. Prioritising careful recruitment and patient mentorship over immediate results was frequently cited as essential. The tendency towards isolation and the administrative burden often take a toll. Most members underlined that trusting intuition while managing productivity dips becomes a critical transition. These insights underscore the need for mental well-being and mutual respect.

Pathways to mentor satisfaction

There is more than one way in which STEM mentors derive satisfaction from their work and perceive their research to have an impact.

As mentors reflected and shared about the most satisfying moments of their professional lives, the joy of solving fundamental problems or asking “why” questions in their respective fields emerged as something profoundly fulfilling. These could require taking leaps to resolve big questions being debated within the scientific community or creating novel methods and developing cutting-edge techniques, both advancing knowledge and initiating new lines of inquiry. Engaging with the ‘unknowns’ gave a sense of purpose to their work and proved deeply motivating.

For me, one of the best parts of this job is figuring out puzzles. Some of the most exciting moments are when students or postdocs bring in data that are completely mysterious and new. Then you start putting the pieces together and discover a story that nobody has heard before. That’s one of the most exciting aspects of my work.”

- Piali Sengupta

Mentors also find gratification in impact measured by community uptake and continuity. The extent to which their discoveries, methods, or datasets are adopted by mentees, collaborators, and the wider research community feeds back into what mentors perceive as the impact of their work. The joy of discovery extends beyond individual breakthroughs into sustained use and evolution of their contributions, influencing future generations of scientists.

I get to talk with and engage with and watch the development of students and postdocs and even, you know, technicians and other folks who are working in the lab and watch them develop as scientists and interact with them as they kind of approach challenging problems. And that's by far the best thing about the job.”

- Erin Goley

The mentorship journey is often recognised for its intellectual significance. However, these pathways reveal that the impact most valued by mentors encompasses intellectual advancement, practical relevance, and an enduring legacy through community growth. This multifaceted sense of research impact is a central driver of mentor satisfaction, reinforcing their commitment to nurturing the STEM ecosystem.

Time management and prioritisation

The tension between pursuing ambitious research goals and the pragmatics of meeting the expectations of the academic calendar and institutional demands is faced by every mentor and can be alleviated through a well-thought-out balancing act.

Reflecting on the challenges faced at the intersection of multiple demanding roles, mentors felt that managing time more effectively was critical while juggling teaching, fulfilling administrative responsibilities, and conducting research. A faculty member or scientist is expected to frequently switch between tasks seamlessly, yet fragmented workflows disrupt focused work and hinder effective sequencing of activities.

I would advise everyone to be very mindful of their time management, not to agree to doing everything, and not get distracted by the noise around you.”

- Rejji Kuruvilla

The time one would want to spend on strategic thinking and intellectual exploration is often crowded out with responsibilities like grant writing, lab management, and other service commitments. While faced with such competing priorities, one needs to prioritise between high-risk, high-reward projects and incremental progress, all while navigating looming deadlines.

Mentors who also have caregiving responsibilities or personal life rhythms are forced to make sharper choices about how to allocate their time, a decision especially complex when they coincide with peak research periods.

One had to struggle to figure out how much time to give to research. That was always a challenge because, at times, I would devote much more than I wanted to, and then I would have to step back and restore some work–life balance before moving forward again. This continues to be a struggle for many women in science in India. But things have changed a lot, and today there’s far more support and opportunity to pursue research ambitiously.”

- Shobhona Sharma

Oftentimes, carving out protected blocks of time for focused work, prioritising ruthlessly, delegation to senior lab members, and batching administrative tasks helped with sustainable productivity at work and personal well-being.

Funding: Bureaucracy and administration challenges

Mentors also face significant challenges stemming from the intensity and inherent uncertainty of the research grant cycle.

Preparing grant applications demands extensive time and effort, often yielding low success rates. As a result, many applicants are required to submit multiple proposals in parallel and continuously revise them based on feedback. This cycle creates substantial rework and pressure.

Compounding the issue is the administrative load, which interviewees characterised as a growing burden of compliance, reporting, procurement, human resources, and other institutional processes that increasingly consume research time.

One of the biggest struggles is navigating administrative tasks that you are probably not used to doing as a postdoc and just making sure that everything is functioning smoothly and efficiently in the lab.”

- Gira Bhabha

These responsibilities fragment focus and slow momentum while performing core research and mentoring responsibilities. Mentors also encounter limits on allowable expenses, slow purchasing processes, and timing mismatches between available funds and project needs, all of which hinder research execution.

Some interviewees also shared that review panels often favour safer, short-term projects, requiring researchers to invest additional effort and time in framing risky or interdisciplinary proposals in ways that appear fundable.

I think my biggest struggle is one that many faculty in the Indian ecosystem share—the ease of doing science in India. It’s about having an idea and being able to execute it at the pace you’d like, without running into roadblocks that slow you down. For example, delays in the timely disbursement of funds or in ordering and receiving materials because of red tape. All of this cumulatively falls into the broader challenge of the ease of doing science. And it’s something I still struggle with, even after having done this for quite a while.”

- Vidita Vaidya

The purchase process was unbelievably difficult at the start and was a big learning experience; Over the years, things changed a little, and we probably just got used to it. It still remains challenging, though.”

- Dileep Vasudevan

Being more thorough with funding agency norms, creating templates for commonly used sections, building administrative scaffolds, and collaborating more extensively with co-principal investigators to share workloads were shared as effective coping strategies to meet grant submission challenges.

They also shared that institutions that centralise grant support and streamline procurement and recruitment processes free up significant burden, allowing PIs to concentrate on research and mentoring. They felt that funders can increase their impact by clarifying review criteria, reducing redundancies in proposal requirements, and providing iterative pre-proposal feedback.

The human-centric blueprint for academic success

The transition to a faculty role is often marked by the mistake of working in isolation. Experienced mentors emphasise that building a successful lab requires rejecting the "lone wolf" mentality and actively seeking guidance from those who understand the institutional landscape. By establishing a strong support network early, new PIs can avoid struggling in a vacuum, stay transparent about their learning curves, and leverage collective experience to navigate scientific and professional hurdles.

I think one of the things the young faculty should always be ready for is to go and talk to everyone and at different places wherever possible, without thinking what return that would fetch in immediate future.”

- Jomon Joseph

Effective lab management requires a strategic balance between administrative duties and core research goals. Faculty members warn against the pressure to over-commit to non-essential tasks or rush the establishment of a physical space. Success lies in selective participation, careful time management, and a willingness to collaborate locally to streamline logistics. By protecting their research focus and bracing for initial productivity dips, early-career researchers can build sustainable, efficient operations without succumbing to administrative burnout.

And one mistake I would advise young faculties to avoid, I guess, is failing to approach and find mentors actively and overcommitting to non-scientific administrative jobs.”

- Samraat Pawar

Building a successful laboratory requires prioritizing long-term team fit over immediate recruitment. Faculty members emphasize that being intentional about hiring passionate, respectful individuals is as vital as the science itself. Success stems from patient mentorship, fostering student independence through their own mistakes, and maintaining a secure, supportive environment that never compromises on mental health.

I think one of the things when young faculty start is they feel really eager to hire students and postdocs to create a team which makes sense but I've seen several instances where people hire too quickly and don't make sure they find the right person, right match and that leads to frustration for both, them and for the person they hired."

- Van Savage

Take your time to judge somebody else and try to find their strengths and weaknesses before they are judged."

- Roop Mallik

Overall, this interview series aims to be more than just that; it's a platform for shared learning. By bringing these diverse perspectives to the forefront, NaviClar not only celebrates the dedication of the life science faculty but also equips the next generation with the insights they need to navigate the exciting, yet challenging world of academia.

NaviClar is a global mentorship and networking platform for higher education students and early career researchers. Check out their website and their social media channels on Linkedin , X (formerly, Twitter) and Instagram

Watch the accompanying discussion/video related to this article here.

**Note - Quotes in this article have been lightly edited for clarity and flow while ensuring the original meaning and intent of the faculty mentors remain unchanged.

Acknowledgement

We sincerely thank all the faculty mentors who participated in this structured interview series with NaviClar. This article offers a glimpse into our discussions. A more comprehensive feature, exploring a wider range of themes in greater depth and featuring an expanded group of faculty, will be published soon

1. Radhika Nair (Centre for Human Genetics - CHG, Bengaluru, India)

2. Van Savage (University of California, Los Angeles - UCLA, USA)

3. Jomon Joseph (National Center for Cell Science - NCCS, Pune, India)

4. Chijioke Emenike (Dalhousie University, Canada)

5. R. Sowdhamini (National Centre for Biological Sciences - NCBS, Bengaluru, India)

6. Samraat Pawar (Imperial College London, UK)

7. Roop Mallik (Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Bombay, India)

8. Sandeep Robert Datta (Harvard Medical School, USA)

9. Umesh Varshney (Indian Institute of Science - IISc, Bengaluru, India)

10. Katherine Gundling (University of California, San Francisco - UCSF, USA)

11. Dileep Vasudevan (Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology - RGCB, Thiruvananthapuram, India)

12. Soma Chattopadhyay (Institute of Life Sciences - ILS, Bhubaneswar, India)

13. Sudarshan Gadadhar (Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine - BRIC inStem, Bengaluru, India)

14. Gira Bhabha (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA)

15. Shobhona Sharma (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research - TIFR, Mumbai, India)

16. Jose Manuel Andreu (Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research - CIB-CSIC, Madrid, Spain)

17. Satyajit Rath (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research - IISER, Pune, India)

18. Kristin Michel (Kansas State University, USA)

19. Vidita Vaidya (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research - TIFR, Mumbai, India)

20. Palok Aich (National Institute of Science Education and Research - NISER, Bhubaneswar, India)

21. Anurag Agrawal (Ashoka University, Haryana, India)

22. Piali Sengupta (Brandeis University, USA)

23. Amrendra K Ajay (Harvard Medical School, USA)

24. Deepak Modi (NIRRCH, Mumbai, India)

25. Erin Goley (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA)

26. Raghunand Tirumalai (CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology - CCMB, Hyderabad, India)

27. Poonam Thakur (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research - IISER, Thiruvananthapuram, India)

28. Nischay Mishra (Columbia University, USA)

29. Mohit Kumar Jolly (Indian Institute of Science - IISc, Bengaluru, India)

30. Rejji Kuruvilla (Johns Hopkins University, USA)

31. Aniruddha Datta Roy (National Institute of Science Education and Research - NISER, Bhubaneswar, India)

32. Ronald Vale (Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT, USA)

In the era of AI and digital platforms, intellectual curiosity is growing among the people of India. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to skip any reels or posts talking about the health benefits of either eating all kinds of seeds or quitting refined sugar. Creators across India are gaining traction by focusing on niche areas, whether it is educating scientific concepts to school students in a simplified way by Talk To A Scientist or the captivating Chai and Why show to make science more visible across all generations, complements a very interesting clause of Article 51(A) of the Indian Constitution that states: to develop scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry & reform.

We, The Scicomm Synapse, registered under the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, runs solely by students and scholars from diverse age groups and different parts of India, believe that science communication is not only limited to information but also involves bringing out the stories behind the backbones of knowledge creators. The Scicomm Synapse is a creative impulse to bridge the gap between scientists and the public. Recently, we completed hosting more than 50 live sessions. Through our initiative, The Next Experiment (a live science podcast series), we encourage scientists to step beyond their lab coats and engage in meaningful, informal conversations with our audience.

The joy of the community members in organising such events is immeasurable, demonstrating a highly collaborative spirit by engaging in various activities, from reaching out to speakers to hosting a live show to marketing on social media platforms. Hence, we find our niche in spending quality time every second Sundays of the month with our favorite scientist or science communicator and listening to their STEM journey.

We have hosted a diverse panel of speakers. Our list of notable speakers include eminent scientists as L.S. Shashidhara, Vinay K. Nandicoori. Shashidhara extended learnings on the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to science and how skills acquired in one field can be profitably applied to another. He also shared that mentoring, for him, is about giving his students a free hand for experimental design while playing an advisory role. Nandicoori emphasised that good science starts with curiosity, not just techniques. He also shared that his own journey wasn’t perfectly planned and suggested to students that they shouldn’t feel pressured to have everything figured out early.

We also hosted Karishma S Kaushik, a staunch advocate for women in STEM. A key takeaway message from her was that careers in science are never linear. However, we are not only limited to eminent leaders in STEM but have also extended our platform to young startup founders like Sanyam Sharma, whose desire to do something of his own burned brighter than accepting a PhD position abroad.

The primary aim behind organising such sessions is to showcase academia as a diverse career option. Gone are the days when parents and students viewed careers as limited to “doctor” or “engineer”. More than achievements, what truly stayed with us was how different a journey one can opt for and pursue in science.

Under our flagship initiative, KalaTatva, a sci-art project, we got the opportunity to cover stories of a scientist-turned-science communicator, Ipsa Jain, who tells scientific stories through her art and illustration, and how Rafeeque Mavoor, a scientific illustrator, opened his own Sci-art services, collaborating with various institutions and researchers.

What began as a small idea to create a platform for STEM peers has now grown into a vibrant, student-led community comprising individuals from diverse career backgrounds and regions—all working voluntarily. However, sustaining such a community comes with challenges, including annual website maintenance costs, limited access to high-quality content creation tools, and the need to better recognise team contributions.

Looking ahead, we aim to apply for science communication grants to address these challenges, improve content quality, and expand outreach across India. We also aspire to bridge the urban–rural divide in science communication by engaging with rural communities and conducting workshops in regional languages. We welcome collaborators who share our vision of bringing scientists’ stories to wider audiences and strengthening science communication across the country.

A pinprick of light in a complex disease

When 46-year-old Meera from Pune visited her doctor with persistent fatigue, cancer was the last thing she expected to hear. By the time her tumour was detected, it had already advanced. In India, every year, thousands of cancer cases are detected far later than they should be, as early warning signs in many patients remain invisible, buried deep within the cells before symptoms appear.

But what if we had tools that could reveal these signs much earlier? Tools so small that they could slip inside a single cell and light up disease before it took root?

Scientists across the country have been trying to solve this challenge using a surprising tool: a tiny, glowing nanoparticle known as a quantum dot (QD). These few-nanometer specks of matter can illuminate specific molecules inside a cell with a remarkable luminosity.

In recent years, QDs have emerged as pioneers in cancer imaging and diagnostics worldwide. But what role do these tiny nanoparticles play in India’s growing cancer research ecosystem? And how are Indian institutions, from IITs and IISc to CSIR laboratories, exploring and advancing their potential?

This article takes a closer look at how QDs are being engineered, tested, and applied in India, and why these “glowing particles” hold strong promise for the future of cancer detection and personalised treatment in the country.

What exactly are QDs, and why do they matter?

QDs are nanometre-sized crystals, tiny lanterns that glow brightly when illuminated by light. Each QD is so small that thousands could sit on the head of a pin, yet they emit light with a clarity far beyond ordinary fluorescent organic dyes.

What makes QDs distinctive is their tunability: changes in size can precisely adjust the colour they emit, much like tuning the pitch of a musical note. This property enables multiplexing, creating a nanoscale palette of light, from smaller dots glowing blue to larger ones glowing red.

Inside a cell, these dots act as glowing breadcrumbs, binding to specific molecules and illuminating biological pathways that are otherwise invisible. These dots help the researchers to track even the faintest signals of disease through their brightness, stability, and precision. Today, these “nano-lanterns” are helping scientists follow tumour cells, detect cancer biomarkers, and monitor drug movement in real-time, making them one of the most powerful visual tools in modern biomedicine.

Breaking down their key strengths, we get:

• Clearer imaging with brighter, longer-lasting signals than traditional dyes

• High precision with the potential to guide drugs directly to tumour cells

• Sensitive diagnostics capable of detecting trace biomarkers in blood or tissue

With this foundation in mind, how are Indian laboratories putting QDsinto action?

India’s QD research landscape: Tiny tools, big impact

Below is a curated set of studies representing some of India’s most exciting strides in QD-based cancer research, each offering a glimpse into how diverse institutions are shaping this fast-growing field.

IIT Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Mango leaf QDs that kill cancer and nurture neurons

Using mango leaves, researchers synthesised red-emitting QDs and enhanced them with dopamine. These dots penetrated tissues, killed breast cancer cells, and even promoted neuronal growth in zebrafish.

Outcome: A plant-derived, multi-functional nanomaterial with imaging, therapeutic, and neuro-regenerative potential.

CSIR–AMPRI, Bhopal & AcSIR, Ghaziabad

Battery waste transformed into a breast cancer biosensor

Discarded lithium-ion batteries were converted into graphene QDs. Functionalised QDs became a sensitive biosensor for the breast cancer biomarker CD44, detectable from tiny serum volumes.

Outcome: Low-cost, sustainable cancer diagnostics from waste-derived QDs.

CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow & AcSIR, Ghaziabad

Watermelon-based QDs for lead detection and cancer imaging

Watermelon juice yielded bright carbon quantum dots (CQDs), later modified to selectively detect lead at picomolar levels and to image HeLa cancer cells.

Outcome: Eco-friendly QDs bridging environmental monitoring and cancer diagnostics.

BITS Pilani, Goa Campus & BARC, Mumbai

A supramolecular “Lego Sensor” for cancer biomarkers

A hybrid of hydroxy graphene quantum dots (GQDs-OH), dyes, and cucurbiturils acted like a molecular assembly line, detecting spermine/spermidine biomarkers in real serum using colour and fluorescence changes.

Outcome: A sensitive, modular sensor suitable for clinical samples.

CSIR–CDRI, Lucknow & JNU Delhi

Exosome-coated QDs for targeted breast cancer therapy

Drug-loaded CQDs were wrapped in cancer-cell-derived exosomes, enabling precise tumour targeting in mice and enhanced therapeutic performance with fewer side effects.

Outcome: A promising bio-inspired platform for targeted nanomedicine.

Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Andhra Pradesh

QDs reveal hidden cancer cell subpopulations

Researchers designed a co-culture cancer model and tagged cells with QD-based antibodies. This approach exposed rare EpCAM-negative cancer cell populations, cells that often drive metastasis and treatment resistance.

Outcome: A simple in-vitro system that helps detect cancer cells usually missed in routine diagnostics.

Supporting examples strengthening India’s QD landscape

IIT Hyderabad

Lipid-coated red fluorescent carbon dots from Clitoria ternatea showed strong imaging and Near-Infrared Radiation (NIR)-based photothermal therapy potential with prolonged circulation.

Bharathiar University, Tamil Nadu

Nitrogen-doped CQD immunosensors detected HER2 from patient samples, enabling rapid breast cancer diagnostics.

RGCB, Thiruvananthapuram & RCB, Faridabad

High drug-loading CQDs with pH-controlled release improved doxorubicin delivery profiles.

IIT Guwahati

Pristine and doped GQDs interacting with methotrexate demonstrated enhanced drug efficacy with minimal toxicity.

IIT Jodhpur

Lemon-derived CQDs successfully delivered curcumin into cancer cells, increasing its solubility and bioactivity.

Looking ahead: India’s nano-bio future

QDs offer India a unique platform - scientifically powerful, economically scalable, and creatively adaptable. From fruit waste to exosome coatings, Indian researchers are proving that innovation doesn’t always require exotic materials or expensive infrastructure; sometimes, it begins with a simple idea and the right scientific question.

The interdisciplinary teams across the country continue to merge chemistry to shine light on cancer biology. India stands poised to illuminate new paths for diagnosis and therapy—one quantum dot at a time.

Once upon a time…

In the Autumn of 1944, the world was expecting the end of bloodshed that had been occurring for the past five years. The Allied Forces had invaded France and were advancing towards Hitler’s Germany. With these developments, the general public was anticipating normalcy any time from then. The grocer who had become an artilleryman could go back to his store and the physicist who worked on bombs could go back to his studies on water droplets.

In the midst of this, a young physiologist named Alan Hodgkin was working with the allied forces on the effect of altitude on the human body to design better aircraft. Before the war began, his Roman Empire was the nerve in the thigh of frogs. Utilising the frog sciatic nerve as a model, he used to study the electrical impulses transmitted in the nerves. With the end of the War in sight, he was released from military service and summoned back to Cambridge under the influence of an aristocratic electrophysiologist and Nobel Laureate, The Lord Adrian to continue his work on biophysics. Subsequently, in 1952, Hodgkin, along with his collaborator Andrew Huxley, published a series of 5 papers which elaborated, mathematically, the workings of electricity inside living tissues, building on years of experimental data. They eventually won the Nobel Prize in 1963. What did they show? Their model showed how neurons behave while firing. This firing is fundamental for everything that our brain does from emotions to intellect.

Today

Fast forward 80 years, the same excitement on nerve excitability is now being collaboratively explored by a group of Indian nanotechnologists working across Mohali, Hyderabad, and Lucknow, who have developed a brand new way to tap the potential of neuronal excitability to treat debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, using a semiconductor. The same class of materials that make up our phones are now changing brain chemistry (in a good way, unlike phones!). Researchers used graphitic carbon nitride to understand how they might affect neuronal modulation. The results were so multifaceted that they defy a singular, linear narrative of explanation.

Brainology

All cells maintain an electrical gradient around them. This potential is created by a bunch of ions like sodium, chloride, potassium, and calcium. A rule of thumb is that the outside of a cell, or the water in which the cell floats, is like sea water - abundant in sodium, chloride, and calcium. On the other hand, the inside of a cell has an abundance of potassium ions.

The influx of calcium ions into the cell from the outside is fundamental for changes in neuronal membrane potential to occur. This influx happens through tiny tubes. These tubes have gates guarding them so that too much or too little ions don't enter. Whenever there is a change in potential around the cells, the floodgates of these tubes open, allowing vast amounts of calcium to enter the cell.

Once so much calcium enters inside, the simpleton ion transforms itself into a polymath. Aiding hormone synthesis? Check. Genetic regulation? Check. Muscle contraction? Check. Growth? Check. When calcium is known to play such a central role inside the cell, it should be of no surprise that this attracts researchers around the globe, and public attention, for at least the past 40 years.

Going nano

Indranil De, Abhinoy Kishore, Subhabrata Das, Sownyak Mondal, Sakshi Yadav, Prashant Sharma, Mansi Pahuja, Srishti Singh, Aamir Nazir, Soumya Ghosh, Kaushik Ghosh, and Manish Singh, from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali; Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Hyderabad; and CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, worked in collaboration to test the potential of carbon nitride nanosheets both in cell cultures and in living worms.

In cell cultures, over a period of 21 days, nerve cells showed increased differentiation and formed more outgrowths. What was happening in parallel (or driving it) was an increase in calcium influx into the cells. How do we know that calcium is doing the work here? For the above-mentioned processes, dopamine is required inside the cells. To synthesise dopamine cells use a whole arsenal of molecular machines which in turn require calcium to function. The scientists found out that there is an increased concentration of molecular machines inside the cell, which confirmed that the graphite carbon nitride was playing its role.

To test the nanomaterial's impact on living cells, they used a worm called Caenorhabditis elegans. It is considered as the workhorse of genetics. It has a bunch of unique properties such as easy to grow, short life span, limited number of cells which makes it ideal for genetic research. It was observed that carbon nitride nanosheets prevented some protein blobs from forming inside the cells. This kind of aggregation of protein blobs is implicated in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, which wreak havoc in patients’ and their loved ones’ lives. This feature of the nanomaterial holds immense promise in devising treatment methods for these diseases in the future.

Bio-hacking

The impact of this development is not limited to medical advantage. An idea in vogue among Biotech bros and nerds is the concept of Biocomputing, with brain tissue performing computations, replacing, or aiding machines. This research has the potential to improve the function of brain tissue as a biological processor. This is an area where the boundaries between the biological mind and technological machine get blurred, and important ethical questions such as machine consciousness emerge, but that's a topic for another day.

The idea of compounds altering brain function isn't new. Drugs do exactly that. We have been cracking open the brain up and changing its structure safely for at least 120 years. So what's new here? The material used here is a biocompatible semiconductor. This is where the “brain stuff” and “phone stuff”, for the lack of better term, get blended, and create a novel junction point around which medical and machinist revolutions can pivot around. That India is at the centre of this research signals the pace at which Indian scientific ideas and capabilities are advancing.

To explore this further, IndiaBioscience and Taylor & Francis Group convened two meetings in Bengaluru and Delhi in 2025 to get researchers, science policy experts, institutional leaders, science-funding representatives, and publishing professionals at the same table. These discussions examined how open research has evolved in India, where current mandates and practices align or diverge, and the lived realities of implementation across open access, research integrity, data stewardship, and assessment.

This article draws on those discussions to highlight how different science institutions in India, academic, funding agencies, policymaking bodies, publishers, and intermediaries, are collectively reflecting on what an Indian model of open research could look like. The insights shared point toward a future in which openness is embedded not only as a policy requirement but as a cultural and operational norm that strengthens India’s life science research for the long term.

Rethinking policy: Going beyond Open Access to ‘true openness’

India’s current open access (OA) frameworks remain fragmented and unevenly implemented. While authors are encouraged to publish openly, there is limited institutional or funder support to help them do so, particularly in covering publishing-related costs or navigating OA options.

The national One Nation, One Subscription (ONOS) scheme was widely regarded as a step forward in improving reader access across the country. However, it was described as a subscription mechanism rather than a policy that improves access for Indian researchers while leaving most Indian-authored work inaccessible to the global community. Moreover, the scheme offers limited support for authors to publish their work in open access, constraining the global visibility and dissemination of Indian research outputs.

Participants emphasised the need to move beyond treating openness as a voluntary or aspirational practice and toward positioning it as an expected outcome of publicly funded research. Few participants compared with models in the UK and Europe, where depositing accepted manuscripts and providing open access are integrated into evaluation frameworks. However, participants cautioned against replicating these models without contextualising local publishing practices, stressing the importance of recognising India’s linguistic diversity, supporting regional and community-generated datasets, strengthening local repository infrastructure, and treating openness as a dimension of research quality and trustworthiness.

Aligning incentives and assessment with openness

A recurring theme was the misalignment between policy aspirations and academic incentives. Many institutions remain functionally “closed”, because hiring, promotion, and grant evaluations continue to rely heavily on journal prestige and impact-factor-driven metrics. This discourages practices such as depositing accepted manuscripts, sharing data and code, adopting FAIR/CARE principles, or experimenting with open publishing formats, particularly when these activities do not clearly contribute to career progression.

Participants highlighted the need to rebalance research assessment systems to recognise a wider range of contributions, including high-quality datasets, preprints, software and protocols, evidence of societal uptake, outputs in Indian languages, and community-oriented research products that rarely appear in top-tier journals. India’s ongoing higher-education reforms and the establishment of newer funding agencies present a timely opportunity to embed principles of openness, transparency, and responsible assessment from the outset.

Taylor & Francis's open research framework was highlighted as an example of how publishers can support this shift. The framework includes funder-compliant publishing options, transformative agreements, and open science practices such as open data policies and new article types, all aimed at making research more transparent, reusable, and impactful.

Preprints, Green OA and underused infrastructure

Discussions in Bengaluru examined the distinction between green OA and preprints, and why both remain underused in India despite their wider global uptake.

Participants observed that Indian preprint adoption remains comparatively low, citing limited awareness, fragmented institutional practices, inconsistent or unclear journal policies, and the absence of incentives from funders or employers. Researchers also expressed concerns about plagiarism-detection flags triggered during submission or about how different publishers and platforms handle preprints during review.

Existing repositories such as CSIR-Central and Science Central were viewed as promising but currently under-resourced, under-promoted, and insufficiently integrated into day-to-day research workflows. Some felt that strengthening these national infrastructures, along with clearer policies, streamlined deposition processes, and linking deposits to evaluation and funding criteria, could meaningfully accelerate India’s pathway to openness without relying solely on pay-to-publish routes.

Funding, APCs and the economics of openness

Both roundtables surfaced significant concerns about the affordability and equity of prevailing OA business models, particularly Article Processing Charges (APCs). Experimental scientists described the difficult trade-off between paying high APCs, often higher in hybrid journals and supporting core research activities, especially in settings with modest grants or limited institutional support. Questions were also raised about perceived duplication of costs, as institutions pay for large subscription packages while individual researchers still pay APCs for OA visibility.

Taylor & Francis representatives responded by outlining what APCs generally cover: peer review management, editorial processes, technical infrastructure, long-term preservation, and handling large volumes of rejected manuscripts in selective journals. They highlighted “read-and-publish” and other consortial agreements as approaches that redirect subscription spending to support OA publishing without charging authors directly, noting that such models have facilitated wider transitions to openness in parts of Africa, Europe and Asia.

Even so, participants agreed that these models are unevenly implemented and not yet optimised for India’s diverse institutional landscape. While a few funding agencies in India now permit grant budgets for publication costs, most lack coherent policies to support OA. As a result, researchers are often expected to publish openly without clear financial pathways to do so, underscoring the need for more coordinated national strategies. An example suggested at the Bangalore event was earmarking funds for publishing OA, which supports better planning.

Ownership, licensing and control of data

Discussions in Bengaluru highlighted the importance of ownership and licensing in Open Research. Traditional copyright transfer agreements can often limit how authors and institutions can reuse or build on their own publicly funded work. Participants emphasised the need for transparent frameworks governing the access and use of texts and datasets, including licenses such as CC-BY that allow for reuse, adaptation, and sharing.

Rights-retention policies were suggested as a way to empower authors to retain key reuse rights when publishing in established journals. Such approaches could support a more equitable balance among global publishers, Indian institutions, and the communities whose knowledge and data underpin scientific research.

Capacity building, community engagement and culture change

Policy shifts and technical infrastructure alone cannot deliver openness without sustained capacity building and cultural change. IndiaBioscience and Taylor & Francis shared ongoing initiatives, including large-scale webinars, local-language materials, train-the-trainer programmes and in-person events such as the Young Investigators’ Meetings. These efforts aim to strengthen the understanding of why openness matters for visibility, reuse, and public trust in science by anchoring focused discussions with the community.

Participants highlighted the value of supporting locally led open-science and outreach projects through small grants, which can grow into longer-term, independently sustained initiatives. However, they noted that such activities require institutional recognition within workload and evaluation systems to be fully integrated into research culture.

Quality, integrity and responsible openness

While OA increases the visibility of literature and data, it does not guarantee rigorous peer review, sound methodology, or responsible reuse. Participants emphasised the need to advance openness and quality together. Examples of emerging integrity infrastructures included institutional research integrity units, centralised project-tracking systems, and mandatory coursework for graduate students on OA models and critical appraisal.

Taylor & Francis described measures such as strengthened data policies, expanded roles for desk editors, and targeted training for editors and reviewers on responsible open-data practices. These efforts aim to ensure that openness is accompanied by trustworthiness and rigour.

Across groups, integrity was framed as a shared responsibility: a culture that must extend throughout the research lifecycle rather than being treated as a final-stage checkpoint.

Towards an Indian model of Open Research

The Delhi and Bengaluru roundtables paint a picture of a research system that is ideologically open but structurally constrained. India has a broad community interest in openness, improved access through ONOS, increasing global visibility for its science, and important policy windows through evolving assessment reforms and new funding mechanisms. At the same time, misaligned incentives, uneven financial support for APCs and repositories, underused infrastructures, and continued reliance on impact-factor–driven evaluation remain barriers.

The conversations represent early steps toward articulating a unique vision for open research in India. By building cross-sector collaborations and embedding openness as a cultural and operational norm, India can create a more equitable, trusted, and impactful research ecosystem.

A 25-year-old diabetic woman in China made headlines last year after receiving a transplant of stem cell-derived islet cells that restored her ability to produce insulin. For India, home to the world’s largest population of diabetics, this breakthrough calls for a reflection on the state of our own innovations.

Meanwhile, just last week, researchers at the San Diego–based company Qureator unveiled a tumour-in-a-dish model, complete with a network of blood vessels. This laboratory model mirroring human cancers paved the way for testing of new drug combinations in the clinic. It stands out as both ethically responsible (animal-free testing) and human-relevant, an approach that India fully endorsed in 2023.

Such stem cell research has been transforming the landscape of modern medicine ever since Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka showed nearly two decades ago that ordinary adult cells can be reprogrammed into highly adaptable stem cells.

And yet, India remains oddly silent on the clinical as well as laboratory fronts in this field. It is time to ask:

Why is India’s human stem cell research broken, and what will it take to fix it?

Where ideas found allies

Frustrated by the lack of momentum in India’s human stem cell research, Manasi Srivastava—a scientist and alumna of CSIR-CCMB—approached me to explore the possibility of a collaboration to better understand the issue. At the Centre for Predictive Human Model Systems, where our goal is to translate fundamental research into better human health outcomes, I needed no convincing. Together, we designed a survey to capture the voices of human stem cell team leadsacross India, identifying challenges and potential solutions for the way forward (open from 6 October to 28 November 2025).

Soon after, the Indian Society for Developmental Biologists (InSDB), a large community of stem cell scientists, endorsed our vision. Ramkumar Sambasivan (IISER Tirupati) and Raj Ladher (NCBS-TIFR) offered us a platform to brainstorm and refine the survey findings at the upcoming InSDB meeting, in the presence of key stakeholders.

Uncovering what lies beneath

So, what do the early responses to the survey reveal?

A striking 88% of respondents said they face challenges in conducting human stem cell research in India, and 79% reported grappling with more than one obstacle.

At the top of the list is the lack of access to reliable, locally-made, and customisable laboratory supplies. Most robust vendors operate outside India, selling to Indian scientists only through distributors and on-demand orders. The result: higher costs and long delays that slow research to a crawl. Close behind are the absence of dedicated funding calls and limited access to human stem cells themselves.

Through it all, one sentiment emerged loud and clear: “India needs a national stem cell mission, and the time is now”.

Do you resonate? Add your voice, take the survey today.

Elaborating more upon PKC’s vision, Priya Nagaraj, CEO, PKC says,

By enabling partnerships between various stakeholders – civic bodies, citizens, academic/research institutes, NGOs and corporate sponsors, we are working towards understanding and providing solutions to regional problems such as the decrease in vegetation cover, lack of water security and traffic congestion and vehicular pollution.”

PKC’s sustainability programmes are broadly divided into three main themes:

1. Urban Forestry Initiatives

2. Water Security for Pune Metropolitan Region

3. Enabling Sustainable Transportation

Urban Forestry Initiatives

PKC’s Urban Forestry initiatives focus on promoting the plantation of native and ecologically suitable species, monitoring the regional tree cover to estimate carbon sequestration potential, and understanding carbon accounting by fostering interaction between civic bodies, citizens, NGOs, academic institutions, and sponsors to create sustainable greenery in the city. Some of its flagship initiatives include:

1. ConnecTree: A citizen-driven, AI-enabled platform to track the growth of young saplings

2. TreeVerse: A platform estimating Pune’s tree cover and development of a computational model for carbon sink estimation

3. Carbon Neutral Campus: An initiative which aims to trigger climate change discussion and climate action in educational and institutional campuses through carbon accounting studies

PKC partners with several local organisations to co-conceptualise and implement the initiatives and routinely involves students as well as interested citizens in the data collection and/or analysis process.

Priyadarshini Karve, Founder, Samuchit Envirotech, PKC’s partner in the conceptualisation and implementation of the Carbon Neutral Campus, elaborates more upon the need for such initiatives,

In order to prevent us from entering into a regime of runaway climate change, we must start moving individual sectors towards zero carbon operations. Educational institutions are the right place to start this process because students can act as agents of change and trigger the transformation when they move out into society.”

Akanksha Kashikar, faculty at the Statistics department at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), who has collaborated with PKC to collect the data for the TreeVerse initiative, stresses that through such initiatives, students not only get the experience to handle real-world data but are also more likely to be actively involved as the problem directly affects them and the city they live in. Vinita Date, Chairperson of Environment Conservation Association, further adds that initiatives such as ConnecTree are crucial in ensuring that plantation drives are successful in contributing towards restoring the green cover in the city.

Water security for Pune metropolitan region

Water conservation is a common strategy for managing the water crisis, but it is becoming harder to sustain due to global warming, erratic rainfall, and rising demand from population growth, urbanisation, and agriculture. Water is seen as a public commodity, and this perspective largely influences policies as well as on-ground provisions for water supply. Providing good quality water is an expensive process, requiring efficient sourcing, treatment, storage, and distribution—and despite constant efforts by governments and administrations, water supply and treatment projects often operate at a loss due to poor revenue generation, leading to substandard service delivery.

Recognising the need to understand the intrinsic economic value of water both to the suppliers (civic administration) and users, PKC has co-conceptualised “Project Jal Mulya” in collaboration with the Pune International Center (PIC), Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), and Centre for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA) at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), as and industry experts to develop a pricing model for water. The project aims to understand actual water usage at the household level through in-depth surveys and technological interventions and, through this, estimating the ‘cost’ of water. This can then pave the way for a sustainable supply of good quality water.

Dinanath Kholkar, who heads the research track—Science, Technology and National Innovation Ecosystem at PIC, emphasises that harnessing the power of smart technologies in data acquisition as well as informed decision-making is crucial for the success of the project. Thus, supporting technological interventions such as the installation of household metering systems and artificial intelligence-based technologies to track water usage at the micro level, the use of telescopic metering, the installation of sensors to understand leakages in water distribution systems, and the identification of different landscapes and water bodies using space technology, are some of the key elements of the project.

Gurudas Nulkar, Professor and Director, CSD, who leads this project, adds,

The main aspects of the project include gathering existing data in the right format from different sources, and understanding the different variables involved in water pricing, along with their interconnectivity. Further, we also plan to conduct a lot of secondary research and analysis of existing data in order to identify gaps.”

Over 68 interns have been onboarded to conduct this study, and more than 730 households have been surveyed so far. The analysis of these surveys is currently underway.

The project follows the STEP – Social Technology Economics and Policy methodology and each of these aspects will be examined separately, as well as in relation to each other in the context of the project. Considering the scale of the project and the involvement of the larger population in the Pune Metropolitan Region, it is essential to keep the citizens in the loop in order for a successful execution of the project. Thus, the press has been actively involved to amplify the project and to generate awareness amongst citizens. Apart from this, several social campaigns are being planned to promote circular usage of water.

By developing a process for evaluating the true cost of water, the project takes a step forward in ensuring water security for the region and also provides a replica template that can be extended from the Pune Metropolitan Region to other cities across the country.

Initiatives for sustainable transportation

The Pune Metropolitan Region has seen several policy and infrastructure changes over the last decade. Rapid economic growth, coupled with the infrastructure changes, has led to a rise in personal automobiles, leading to an increase in air pollution as well as traffic congestion and a decrease in road safety. In order to reduce vehicular pollution and traffic congestion, two alternatives can be implemented: The ‘Business as Usual’ (BAU) alternative aims to build better infrastructure for personal motor vehicles, while the ‘Sustainable’ alternative prioritises walking, as well as using public transportation and cycling as preferred modes of transportation.

PKC’s sustainable transportation initiatives align with the objectives of local government bodies to achieve a 50% mode share for public transportation by 2038. Helping them develop an action plan for achieving these objectives, PKC partnered with the Pune Metropolitan Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML), which operates a large fleet of buses across the Pune Metropolitan Region, Save Pune Traffic Movement (SPTM) and Center for Environment Education (CEE), to conceptualise a programme called Behaviour Nudges for Sustainable Transportation.

As described in the 2008 book “Nudge”, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, ‘Nudges’ are non-intrusive interventions that predictably alter people’s behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. Accordingly, this project was designed to introduce interventions in a systematic and controlled manner, with the goal of encouraging the citizens of Pune to view public transport as an optimal and economically viable option compared to their personal vehicles.

In order to understand these interventions, the PKC team analysed PMPML operations data to identify low-ridership routes. In collaboration with Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University and College of Engineering Pune Technological University, they conducted a three-pronged survey: a passenger survey on usage and service improvements, a boarding-alighting survey to assess route activity, and a bus-stop survey to evaluate infrastructure and accessibility.

The survey underscored the impact of service quality, bus stop infrastructure, information access, and frequency of ridership. Findings were shared with PMPML leadership, leading to the designing of a pilot intervention/nudge—an Information and Outreach Nudge —implemented to boost awareness, focusing on one of Pune’s prime mixed locality hosting educational, corporate, as well as residential hubs. As part of this effort, around 12 awareness campaigns were conducted, reaching over 9000 individuals. In addition, 20 institutions were onboarded for outreach, and over 800 citizens were surveyed about their travel preferences.

Speaking about the survey findings, Sanskriti Menon, Senior Programme Director, CEE, says,

The reluctance of the commuters stemmed more from a lack of information rather than the availability of personal automobiles. When adequate and relevant information was provided, over 50% of the interviewed participants displayed an interest in increasing their usage of the bus.”

Building on the success of the pilot intervention study with PMPML, the project is now progressing toward phase II, which will involve a partnership with the Pune Metro to employ a similar approach and increase ridership of key routes through planned nudge experiments.

To learn more or contribute to PKC’s sustainability initiatives, get in touch: contact@pkc.org.in.

Established by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (O/o PSA) to the Government of India, PKC is one of the eight knowledge clusters in the country, which aims to bring together a diverse range of stakeholders, including scientists, government officials, and citizen representatives, to solve regional challenges and problems using an ecosystem approach. At the heart of PKC's vision is the belief that the ecosystem developed for public health management must be rooted in adaptability and agility. PKC’s initiatives are therefore centered towards transforming the way in which stakeholders collaborate and partner to solve critical challenges in public health through three fundamental pillars: enhancing disease surveillance, empowering healthcare workers, and developing robust databases to facilitate effective disease monitoring and response.

Enhancing disease surveillance systems

Disease surveillance systems play a significant role in the fight against both endemic and emerging diseases. The absence of an efficient surveillance framework can quickly lead to the escalation of health crises and mismanagement, causing a significant burden on the healthcare system. To address this, PKC has co-conceptualised the Pune Wastewater Surveillance Project, by bringing together a group of collaborators – including local civic bodies, research organisations such as CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) and Symbiosis School of Biological Sciences, private organisations such as GenePath Diagnostics, and hospitals such as BJ Medical College and KEM.

Mahesh Dharne, Scientist, CSIR-NCL elaborates upon the importance of using wastewater surveillance as a complementary method to the traditional clinical surveillance in order to enhance the surveillance systems,

While clinical surveillance mainly relies on symptoms displayed by the patient, in diseases such as COVID-19, many patients were asymptomatic and such patients could as super-spreaders, with no way to track them. By using wastewater surveillance, one is able to detect the virus regardless of any symptoms displayed by the patient.”

Today, the consortium built and managed by PKC has been involved in sampling and analysing untreated wastewater at sewage treatment plants (STPs) and open drains across Pune, targeting not just SARS-CoV-2, but also other infectious diseases such as H3N2, H1N1 and Influenza-A. In addition, the surveillance is also extended to understand the nature of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) within the community.

PKC has been working to enhance disease surveillance, not only in human populations but also in the environment through projects that are aimed towards understanding the spread of zoonotic diseases. Furthermore, PKC is also part of the Alliance for Pathogen Surveillance Innovations (APSI), through which it focuses on supporting the development of kits for detecting infectious diseases through wastewater. This effort reflects the cluster's commitment to building localised, effective, and scalable disease surveillance tools.

Building capacity amongst health workers

While disease surveillance systems are essential for early detection and planning, an equally important component of effective healthcare management is the empowerment of healthcare workers, particularly the on-ground multi-purpose workers (MPWs) who are involved in disease surveillance, prevention and control. Officials from the Maharashtra State Health Department have been proactive in combating vector-borne diseases and have identified a critical gap in the capacity building of MPWs, who require periodic refresher training to safeguard their health and improve their efficiency in the field.

To address this, PKC, together with the National Center for Vector Borne Disease Control (NCVBDC), and District Malaria Offices within Pune and other districts, have launched SAKSHAM, a series of workshops for healthcare workers from different talukas across Maharashtra. PKC has collaborated with organisations such as ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Prayas Health Group and India Meteorological Department to provide detailed information to the healthcare workers about the different types of vector-borne diseases, methods for identification, the impact of climate change on vector life cycle and best practices for prevention and treatment of the diseases.

So far, over 1,300 multipurpose healthcare workers have been trained under this programme, across 40 talukas in the Pune, Kolhapur, and Raigad districts.

The success of the programme lies in its community-centric approach, which helps bridge the knowledge gaps in areas with limited health awareness, ensuring that the information reaches those who need it the most.

The power of data in healthcare management

In today’s world, data is the cornerstone of everything. One of PKC’s most innovative contributions towards building pathways for public health management is its approach to data collection, analysis, and application.

The organisation has developed one-of-a-kind dashboards for disease surveillance and AMR surveillance, which focus on displaying the viral load of infectious diseases or the AMR trends through wastewater sampling.

PKC's dashboards enable near real-time tracking of disease and AMR trends from wastewater samples. The dashboards are updated regularly, allowing municipal corporations and public health authorities to take timely actions. The user-friendly interface of the dashboard ensures that anyone, from government officials to citizens, can access and interpret the data. PKC’s COVID-19 dashboard has also been recognised as one of the key resources for disease monitoring using wastewater surveillance by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is the only WHO recognised dashboard of its kind from India.

In addition to the dashboards for wastewater surveillance, PKC has also enabled the development of an open-source database of in-patient data of 2000 COVID-19 patients, which will lead to better disease understanding and enable disease management and treatment, by collaborating with hospitals such as BJ Medical College, Noble Hospitals and Symbiosis University Hospital and Research Centre; research organisations – CSIR-NCL, and the companies – AIQoD (Formerly- GI Bots) and EPIC-Health Information Management. Rajesh Karyakarte, Professor and Head at the Department of Microbiology, B.J. Medical College emphasises that this database represents India’s vital contribution to medical research on infectious diseases.

These data platforms built by PKC can generate a plethora of insights, helping policy decisions and local responses to diseases and AMR.

A vision for the future

These initiatives highlight the importance of an ecosystem approach to building sustainable initiatives, where science and technology are used to solve problems of the community. With its commitment to continuous learning, data-driven decision-making, and community engagement, PKC is focused on building models for collaborative public health management.

While the convergence of AI with biotechnology holds immense potential for innovative developments in science and medicine it also carries the scope for misuse. Governance of AI in popular discourse includes the risk of AI-biotechnology (AI-bio) tools being utilised for malicious purposes or the production of bioweapons. Detailed understandings need to be acquired to determine the feasibility of the development of bioweapons with AI-bio tools and to formulate safeguards against such threats.

The case for governance

As AI progresses into multiple domains its governance to ensure its responsible and ethical use has come under scrutiny. The UN’s Governing AI for Humanity report underscores the need to govern AI as ‘no one currently understands all of AI’s inner workings enough to fully control its outputs or predict its evolution.’ The US and UK have made steps in this regard, but in the Indian scenario there exists a need to develop a framework to address these concerns.

Popular news articles have drawn considerable attention to how large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT could increase the technical know-how available to malicious actors and provide them with information on how to create viruses with pandemic potential. Undue publicity over the potential of a new technology can overestimate the ease with which it can be developed. In the case of al-Qaeda’s bioweapons plan, they insisted that their attempts to produce a bioweapon stemmed from US reports that it was easy and cheap to carry out. Thus, overestimating the ease with which bioweapons can be manufactured may encourage the enemy to pursue production.

Here, OpenAI’s stress test in 2023 found that LLMs can provide information on how to order oligonucleotides, on experimental protocols, and can assist in troubleshooting experiments. Another study found that it can provide users with information on DNA technology companies that were unlikely to flag suspicious oligos, suggest mutations to enhance the pathogenicity of viruses, and suggest contract research organisations that could carry out these experiments. The information provided is publicly available but it is presented in a manner that is understandable to a non-expert. Upon closer inspection it is clear that LLMs democratise knowledge but only slightly lower the barriers to bioweapons development. Experts have long opined that bioweapons production requires not just information but also tacit knowledge – knowledge that is acquired through experimental training - in successfully carrying out a biological experiment. This is acquired primarily through advanced formal training.

Implications of the AI-Bio threat

AI is essentially a system that is based on the data it receives and its functioning depends on the users’ intent. There exists a tremendous gap in bridging the space between the digital design of a bioweapon to the physical manufacturing of one.

This relies heavily on the intent of the user and their level of scientific training. Existing AI-bio tools can ‘hallucinate’ or provide misleading information, which would not be distinguishable by a non-expert user. Further, biological experiments require expensive and specialised equipment and materials, which are a significant barrier to bioweapons production.

Possibilities exist, however, that in the future, other AI-bio tools like Biological Design Tools (BDTs), which currently aid in the design of biological molecules, can be advanced further in the future and aid in malevolent actors to develop bioweapons capable of evading immune responses or resist existing therapies. In addition, concerns exist that AI-bio tools may skew scientific knowledge triggering disinformation and misinformation particularly during public health emergencies, rendering bio-attribution (the assigning of responsibility to a biological threat) tricky.

Policy Recommendations

India is a signatory to the Bletchley Declaration, which advocates for the safe development and deployment of AI. The intersection of AI with biotechnology deserves considerable attention as well but is situated in a policy vacuum in India. A policy of dissuasion would discourage malicious actors from developing bioweapons using AI-bio tools.

India needs to formulate threat assessments using red-teaming exercises to develop an understanding of bioweapons capabilities of existing AI-bio tools in the Indian context. This entails determining the capabilities of current AI-bio tools and an understanding of India’s security architecture. These exercises can also ascertain the risks posed by future AI-bio tools. This can include intersections with other disruptive technologies including unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and 3D printing, which are implicated in enhancing the delivery of bioweapons.

India can introduce guidelines where DNA companies mandate a know-your-customer based approach in the acquisition of biological materials. For instance, the International Gene Synthesis Consortium (IGSC), International Biosafety and Biosecurity Initiative for Science (IBBIS), and SecureDNA are examples of organisations that screen oligonucleotides. Educating and incentivising research and academia over potential areas of misuse is another long-term technical barrier. Another guardrail would be to engage with AI-bio tool developers to regulate the nature of biological data that is available.

Finally, AI Safety Institutes would foster an environment to ensure AI and its intersecting technologies are ethically driven. India’s IndiaAI Mission policy – which aims to promote ethical AI technologies – can take part in this endeavour.

Discourse on the development of bioweapons with aid from AI-bio tools is popularised by media reports. There exists a need to develop an assessment of its potentiality in the Indian context as it falls into a policy vacuum. Effective guardrails would act as a deterrent for bioweapons development.

A full report can be read here.

Over the past few weeks, headlines have painted a grim picture of India’s public health future. Delhi, in particular, has recorded unprecedented levels of air pollution, with the city experiencing its worst air quality in a decade. Similar concerns are echoed across other major cities, including Bengaluru. Meanwhile, Bengaluru faces another pressing crisis—road accidents. On average, the city loses two lives daily to fatal road accidents.

The surge in traffic is not only a significant contributor to air and noise pollution but also adversely affects public health and quality of life. The growing number of private vehicles is overwhelming the city’s infrastructure, exacerbating environmental and social challenges. In response to these issues, urban planning has increasingly emphasised sustainable mobility as a potential solution.

Sustainable mobility offers a solution to enhance public health, reduce environmental pollution, and promote social equity.

Understanding the importance of sustainable mobility

To aid the inclusion of sustainable mobility options in consideration with improving public health, Bengaluru Science and Technology Cluster (BeST), under the initiative of the Office to Principal Scientific Advisor (OPSA) to the Government of India (GOI), created a consortium and organised an expert panel led by Prabhdeep Kaur, Professor, Isaac Centre for Public Health, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and Ashish Verma, Professor, IISc Bengaluru, to formulate data-driven approaches to design more sustainable and health conscious transport options in the city.

In cities like Delhi and Bengaluru, the declining quality of life is becoming increasingly evident, notes Ashish Verma, Professor, IISc, Bengaluru. The unchecked horizontal expansion of these cities has led to a surge in private motorised vehicles. Vehicular emissions are a major contributor to air pollution, posing serious risks to public health. Another often-overlooked aspect of this crisis is the significant economic cost of traffic congestion.

Traffic congestion not only hampers mobility but also contributes to mental stress among commuters. Public transport systems, which should ideally serve as an affordable and efficient alternative, are often overcrowded and unreliable, leaving many without dependable transportation options. Bengaluru, grappling with rapid population growth, has seen its public transport infrastructure lag far behind its needs. Verma highlights that the current situation in Bengaluru is unsustainable and demands urgent attention.

Triumphs from the church street

There is growing recognition of the need for sustainable mobility solutions in Bengaluru. A notable example is a 2021 pilot study on Church Street, one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares. For four months, the street was transformed into a pedestrian-only zone on weekends. This initiative led to a remarkable 97% increase in pedestrian footfall and significant improvements in air quality. Verma, a co-author of the study, emphasised the critical role of prioritising green spaces and sustainable transport options to address Bengaluru’s escalating traffic challenges.

While the Church Street initiative set a precedent, the city has yet to see sustainable mobility solutions implemented on a larger scale. As Verma observes, the current government approach remains heavily focused on road infrastructure and highway development. Although road expansion might provide temporary relief from congestion, it ultimately fosters greater dependence on private vehicles. What Bengaluru truly needs is a paradigm shift in its approach to mobility.

The goal should be to create a more balanced transportation system that ultimately prioritises public transport, active usage of cycles and other non-motorised vehicles.

Improvement in quality and quantity of public transport systems

Bengaluru’s public transport system remains insufficient to meet the demands of its growing population. The city faces a shortage of buses, and while the metro network is expanding, it still fails to serve many crucial areas. To address these challenges, the government must prioritize the expansion and improvement of public transportation. This includes increasing bus frequency, extending metro routes, and introducing local train services where feasible. Implementing dedicated bus lanes could also streamline mobility and ease congestion.

Furthermore, Bengaluru has already recognised the potential of electric vehicles (EVs) in reducing emissions and improving air quality. Encouraging the widespread adoption of EVs, alongside strengthening public transport, could significantly enhance the city’s sustainable mobility efforts.

Bengaluru’s current infrastructure does not support long-distance cycling. However, with proper planning, a resurgence in cycling as a viable mode of transport is possible.

Dedicated cycling lanes and pedestrian-friendly streets can encourage more people to choose cycling and walking. Integrating green spaces into city planning not only enhances the city’s aesthetic appeal but also improves its livability. As part of the Smart City initiative, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has successfully begun transforming two major streets in Bengaluru— Planetarium Road and Race Course Road—by adding lanes focused on pedestrians and cyclists.

Data-driven analysis and public awareness

The age of technology is booming in the country, and the government must integrate data and technology into its decision-making processes. Verma and Kaur suggest implementing tools such as the Transportation and Health Tool (THT) and Integrated Sustainable Transport and Health Assessment Tool (iSThAT), which are already used in some developed countries, into our system.

A shift toward sustainable mobility will require behavioural changes from the public. Urban local bodies must actively engage citizens through public awareness campaigns that emphasise the health benefits of walking, cycling, and using public transport. Building a culture of sustainability in transportation requires collaboration between the government, civil society, and the private sector.

Verma emphasises that sustainable mobility is no longer a luxury or a peripheral concern; it is essential for improving public health and ensuring the livability of cities. With over 60% of the Indian population living in cities, it is crucial to prioritise urban improvements. Ultimately, integrating sustainable mobility into urban planning offers a win-win solution, enhancing both the quality of life and public health for urban residents, and paving the way for a more livable and sustainable future for all.

The Lodha Genius Programme (LGP) at Ashoka University, Haryana, provides students in their high school years with a taste of real-world science and mathematics through their unique blend of activities. Once inducted into the LGP, the students stay at the Ashoka University campus for four weeks, participating in an intensive programme to learn new skills and gain insights for their careers. This experience is followed by a year-round Continued Learning journey, providing ongoing mentorship, courses, and opportunities to further enhance their growth. They can pursue one of the available specialisations, including one on ecological sciences.

Ajith Kumar, a faculty member at the LGP, brought together the four instructors of the ecology module: Rohit Chakravarty, Ishika Ramakrishna, Priyanjana Pramanik, and Samuel Joshua John. Chakravarty, Ramakrishna, and Pramanik taught the classes and field sessions in 2023. In 2024, John joined Ramakrishna and Pramanik, and the trio instructed the students in this specialisation. Chakravarty’s research interests focus on bat conservation. Ramakrishna is a PhD student at the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru. She works on human-nonhuman primate interactions. She also runs a podcast called The Thing About Wildlife.

Pramanik is a PhD student at the University of Tasmania, Australia. Her work focuses on mangrove conservation. John is a nature educator who conducts urban ecology walks for adults and brings nature-based learning to schools. He is interested in studying spiders. With their varied backgrounds and expertise, the instructors brought in multiple areas where students could pursue their projects, although they were free to choose something outside these areas, too.

Hands-on learning in the LGP’s ecology specialisation

The module in ecological sciences stands out due to its focus on experiential learning. While the programme starts with classroom lessons, these are intended to prepare students for advanced project work. The instructors encourage students to think of questions they would like to be answered if limits on resources and time were not a concern. Nudging these young minds to inquire about the “big questions” in nature is the main aim of the module. As novices to the field of research, school students usually have broad questions. “So, that's where we came in,” says Ramakrishna. She adds,

Once they gave us their dream questions, we helped them chisel down the questions and figure out which ones were feasible or doable. We helped them understand why some were feasible while others weren't.

After the students are set on their favourite questions, the instructors help with the study design and data collection strategies. “We provide all kinds of support and guidance to ensure that they see those projects through to the end,” adds Ramakrishna.

In the quest to let the students explore the world around them in its completeness, John says they were trying to convey that ecology can be as comprehensive as one wants. He explains, “It can encompass any of the sciences if you want to use that “language” to describe what you're seeing around you. And it got interesting because we introduced the fundamental concepts and then learned them together in the classroom. As we put those concepts down, we also spent a fair amount of time outdoors — visiting a local water body and walking around the campus looking for all sorts of things.”

In addition to these field studies, the instructors also use games to teach students about ecological principles. For example, students role-play as animals with specific genetic traits to learn how these traits help them thrive in their environments and learn about natural and sexual selection. An ecology-themed scavenger hunt further deepened their understanding of the concepts.

School students’ first stride into the world of ecology

Projects undertaken by students in the LGP have explored a variety of ecological phenomena. They have studied numerous species, including oak and pine trees, flies, butterflies, birds, spiders, rhesus macaques, and even humans.

A common theme among the projects has been the nesting behaviour of animals, with students studying bird nests, ant colonies, and how human activity affects spider nesting patterns on the Ashoka University campus.

John highlights an exciting finding: “They noticed that spider nests started to appear above a certain height on campus, which corresponded with where pesticides were sprayed.” Students also investigated gender biases through spiders, showing colourful and dull-looking spiders to people and asking them to identify the male and female, thereby exploring the societal perceptions linked to appearance.

In another vital project, the students focused on rhesus macaques. Kumar says, “The students looked at the interaction between people and monkeys. People generally say they don’t like monkeys, but that's not really true! The students found that it depends on what the monkeys do. People have no issue if they are playing or resting, but problems arose when the monkeys ventured into kitchens.” The students gained insights into this complex human-monkey relationship by interviewing people around the campus.

Besides studies conducted in and around the Ashoka University campus, the students conducted field studies in a natural setting. Some of the students from the first cohort of the LGP returned the following year to go on this one-week field trip to Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary at Uttarakhand, along with Pramanik and Ramakrishna. Among multiple studies conducted at Binsar, Ramakrishna describes a fascinating project: “We had set camera traps at an area where people would dump a lot of garbage.

As a result, a lot of wildlife from the area was visiting that place in search of food. Through this project, one of the students wanted to understand the temporal niche segregation at that particular site across many different species. And we got some very fascinating results looking at interactions between wild boars and the red foxes.”

An opportunity for career exploration

The LGP provides significant value to students from diverse backgrounds. Many students, especially those from non-urban schools with fewer resources, are unaware of the career possibilities in science and mathematics. John says, “I think it's important to have these experiences at that age because you see what it's like to be doing these things. If their projects were expanded, they would be full-fledged ecological studies. So, that's firsthand experience.”

The growing interest in the ecology specialisation across two cohorts of the LGP is an indicator of the module’s success. Kumar notes that the ecology course had many students who returned to continue the following year. Pramanik says, “Our students had indirectly given us good feedback by making other people interested in joining the module.”

She adds, “Before the second batch started, we heard from the organisers that there was a lot of interest in people wanting to join the course. So that's been really encouraging.” This growing demand is a promising sign for the future of the LGP and its ecological sciences module.

The summer of 2024 brought severe water shortages to Bengaluru, one of the worst in recent memory. Headlines across the country highlighted the city’s struggles with insufficient water supply, dried-up borewells, and skyrocketing water tanker prices. Given the urgency of this crisis, it’s high time to explore research-backed solutions. Bengaluru, situated on a hill, lacks its own independent water source. The older parts of the city rely heavily on water pumped from the Cauvery River basin, while the newer areas depend on independent bore wells.

Over the last two decades, as Bengaluru's reputation as the Silicon Valley of India grew, its population doubled, the urban sprawl expanded, and its green cover diminished significantly. As a result, the demand for fresh water has far outpaced supply.

Water scarcity is not only a pressing health concern but also a critical factor influencing the economic development of the city.

Lakes are drying up, and in some areas, groundwater levels have plummeted to unprecedented depths. “The deficit in the water supply system, coupled with rising water demand, has created a significant gap leading to water shortage,” says Ram Prasath Manohar, IAS, Chairman of the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB). To address this crisis, proper planning, education, and resource management are imperative. Bengaluru Science and Technology Cluster (BeST), under the initiative of the Office to Principle Scientific Advisor (OPSA) to the Government of India (GOI), has recently undertaken an analysis of Bengaluru's water crisis.

Addressing Bengaluru’s water woes

To address the pressing water crisis, BeST convened a panel of experts, drawing from government agencies, scientists and researchers studying town planning and water treatment technologies, start-ups, non-profit organisations, and citizen representatives from Bengaluru. The diverse group addressed challenges and proposed an actionable plan to mitigate the situation. The panel identified four major problems contributing to the water crisis:

• Rapid population growth leading to increased freshwater demand
• Urban Planning and land use leading to suboptimal usage of water resources
• Climate change and erratic rainfall patterns
• Overexploitation of water resources and insufficient recycling efforts

In response, the panel proposed a strategy aimed at reducing Bengaluru's dependence on water from the Cauvery River by enhancing local water recharging and reuse systems to achieve "net-zero water" for the city. Rather than relying solely on the Cauvery as the primary water source, the experts recommended an integrated urban water management plan. This approach emphasises recharging groundwater, expanding rainwater harvesting capacities, rejuvenating lakes, and significantly increasing water recycling. Vishawanath S, Director of Biome Environmental Solutions, says,

Implementing these measures could greatly alleviate Bengaluru’s water woes.

Recharging groundwater

The fast developing metropolis is undergoing innumerable constructions every day. Fields and open lands are being cleared to make way for housing layouts, which in turn are depleting the city’s natural water catchment areas. Prashanth Palanisamy, from GoodEarth, a sustainable building solutions start-up, suggests that conducting basic hydrogeological studies to assess groundwater levels before construction could help identify water catchment areas (aquifers). Planning constructions around these areas would allow for faster groundwater recharge.

Another method to recharge groundwater is by constructing community borewells near aquifers, rather than having individual borewells for separate houses. Bengaluru receives abundant rainfall, with an average of 800-1000mm per year. With a better understanding of its water catchment areas, the city can better equip to handle harsh summers. Rejuvenating surface water bodies like lakes and ponds also plays a crucial role in groundwater recharge.

A success story is the rejuvenation of Sarakki Lake near J P Nagar, which led to a significant increase in groundwater levels within a year.

Over the last three years, the water table around the lake has significantly improved. T V Ramachandra, Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), claims that maintaining groundwater levels is key to solving Bengaluru’s water crisis.

Wastewater treatment and recycling

According to a recent news article, Bengaluru is home to one of the highest number of sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the country, with nearly 2,644 in operation. However, despite this large number, the city struggles to recycle most of its water due to poor management and financial constraints. Sanjiv Sambandan, Professor at IISc and co-founder of Openwater, a start-up specialising in innovative waste treatment solutions, highlights that the economics of recycled water remain unclear. Sambandan observes, “The common man does not see the financial benefits of wastewater recycling”.

Vishwanath also points out that a lack of funding often leaves STPs non-functional. Bengaluru’s decentralised STP system has the potential to set a strong example for other cities, but only if it can effectively operate and utilise recycled water. Vishwanath suggests that ​“a modest increase in water rates” could help cover the financial needs to keep STPs running. Engaging communities, developing frameworks and policies for wastewater treatment, and partnering with existing technologies like Openwater could also address this problem. Additionally, ensuring that apartment complexes have functional STPs is another critical recommendation raised by the committee. BeST has partnered with the Bangalore Apartment Federation to help their member apartments assess the situation, equip them with efficient technologies and train their STP operators.

Functional rainwater harvest treatment plants

Climate change has significantly impacted Bengaluru’s weather patterns. Vishwanath explains that the city now experiences a sinusoidal rainfall pattern, with alternating cycles of abundance and scarcity in rain. This inconsistency makes addressing the water crisis problem even more challenging. Moreover, water scarcity typically only becomes severe during the two summer months, causing many citizens to downplay the seriousness of the issue. As a result, only a small portion of the population truly understands the importance of rainwater harvesting.

While rainwater harvesting is mandatory for all buildings, its actual implementation is often left unchecked. Many houses lack proper filtration systems to utilise harvested water, and more than half of the population lets rainwater flow straight into the drains. In some cases, space limitations are a concern, while in others, issues of reliability, functionality, and cost deter people from implementing rainwater harvesting systems. As a result, much of the abundant rainfall goes to waste. Although there is no scientific solution to ensure effective rainwater harvesting, experts agree that raising awareness is the key to making progress.

Water management is a straightforward equation: we can either buy water or invest in recharging it.

The cost of purchasing water during peak demand is significantly higher than the investment required for recharge systems. In the long run, prioritising efforts towards water recharge and achieving “net-zero” water will provide a more sustainable and economical solution to the problem. Apart from this, raising citizen awareness and promoting the responsible use of water are crucial steps toward conserving our precious water resources.

The Biotechnology for Economy, Environment, and Employment (BioE3) policy follows exciting initiatives including the Anushandhan National Research Fund (ANRF), the Green Hydrogen Mission, the Quantum Mission, and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mission, all of which signal a political prioritisation of scientific Research and Development (R&D) in India. Its three focus points—boosting the economy, protecting the environment, and creating employment—align with India’s broader ambitions of maintaining double-digit economic growth and uplifting citizens from poverty, while upholding India’s climate change commitments for sustainable development.

The BioE3 envisions high-performance biomanufacturing as the central lever to enabling this transformation. It has identified six thematic areas of national interest: high value bio-based chemicals, biopolymers & enzymes; smart proteins & functional foods; precision biotherapeutics; climate resilient agriculture; carbon capture & its utilisation; marine and space research.

Proposed roadmap of BioE3

While finer details are still awaited, the basic roadmap of BioE3 appears to be to innovate in the six thematic areas. The मूलांकुर Bio-Enabler Hubs are meant to facilitate this research. Where applicable, there will be a use of analytical technologies such as AI on large data sets to identify problem areas and possible solutions. This includes areas in agriculture, health, and climate change, providing insights on farming practices, new therapies, new energy solutions, etc. Interdisciplinary skilling will be an important input to this ambitious and transformative first step, which is likely to yield novel products not already captured by foreign intellectual property.

Products and services innovated in India would be a key contributor to boosting India’s economy—both directly through their own sales and indirectly, by increasing productivity once applied. For example, a biopesticide will not only increase revenue through its sale, but also boost agricultural productivity and sale of agricultural produce.

Once a solution is designed and approved, its production has to be scaled-up—this step has been often cited as a key bottleneck by Indian biotechnology companies. The BioE3 focusses on this step, providing governmental support in setting up the infrastructure that can help reduce costs of scaling up for India’s biotechnology industry. Increasing biomanufacturing will generate employment, particularly in Tier2/3 cities where such facilities are likely to be based. Appropriate skilling of the labour force - including bioprocessing, technical, and administrative jobs- may be required to create the necessary ecosystem for setting up such hubs.

In 2017, a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report had highlighted that for every one bio-based job, 2.79 jobs are created in other sectors. However, setting up such ecosystems will not be easy - biomanufacturing hubs require not only personnel, infrastructure and product licenses, but raw materials, manufacturing grade water, continuous electricity and effective routes for waste management so as to not pollute the surrounding environment. The BioE3 recognises the need to co-locate biomanufacturing hubs with existing research and infrastructure hubs, but the identification of these locations will be a key determinant of the success of this initiative.

BioE3 will require sustained funding

Another key determinant of the success of BioE3 will be the funding allocated to it. In the follow-up to BioE3, the cabinet also gave its nod to a Biotechnology Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (Bio-RIDE) scheme. This new scheme merges two existing central sector schemes—the Bio-Biotechnology R&D and Industrial & Entrepreneurship Development (I&ED)—and introduces a new component titled “Biomanufacturing and Biofoundry”.

The proposed financial outlay for this initiative is INR 9197 crore during the 15th finance Commission period from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The two pre-existing schemes had an estimated budget of INR 7119.28 crore for the years 2021-22 to 2024-25, which does not leave a significant funding space for biomanufacturing. However, these estimated budgets were revised down to INR 4004 crore over the years 2021-22 to 2023-24, which creates additional space in the proposed budget of INR 3000 crore for new initiatives. The actual allocation of these funds will determine the success of the biomanufacturing and biofoundry initiative.

A recent study had reported that the annual operational costs of a biomanufacturing hub in Bengaluru is about INR 120 crores, which suggests that the costs of setting up new infrastructure, skilling the labour force and running the hub will run in thousands of crores. The proposed budget may be a good starting point, but has to be supported by further consistent funding and its appropriate utilisation.

Incentivising market support would facilitate the success of BioE3

Biomanufacturing follows R&D and feeds into the market. The BioE3 policy refers to international collaboration and public private partnerships as enablers for both research and biomanufacturing, but does not elaborate on the market for these products. Creating sustainable markets is going to be important for long-term development of the ecosystem and to enable the growth of biomanufacturing, independent of government support. Current geopolitical conditions have created interesting opportunities for Indian manufacturers to explore international markets. For example, in the US, a new policy that will ban US genomic companies from buying products and services from certain Chinese companies is in advanced stages of development. This Act once passed, will create a window for Indian genomic service providers and product manufacturers to foray into this market space.

The implementation of BioE3 could focus initial energy on such areas of biotechnology, where an international market is available and could help the domestic Indian biomanufacturing ecosystem while reducing the cost for the Indian government. Preferential purchase agreements or advance purchase agreements between US and Indian companies, facilitated by bilateral governmental interventions, can help build investor confidence and bring in new funding into the Indian biotechnology ecosystem. Other such opportunities either through bilateral cooperation or multilateral fora such as the Quad (US, India, Japan, Australia) or the newly formed ​​Bio-5 (US, EU, India, Japan, South Korea) can help prioritise products for biomanufacturing.

Regulatory coherence will be required to execute BioE3

The BioE3 policy raises the important issue of regulatory reform as a core tenet in need of change. It also notes that this change will require inter-ministerial coordination and cooperation. This is a positive development and much required for promoting biotechnology. For example, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has notified a policy that allows research on genetically edited insects for development of agriculture, silk, etc. These areas also fall under the proposed six thematic areas for BioE3 policy. Yet, the actual commercial deployment of such insects would need approval from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

There is currently no proposed regulation on whether genetically edited insects will be allowed in India or conditions under which such insects may be used. Without this clarity, there is very little incentive for both researchers and investors to put in efforts into this area. Hence, the proposed approach of the BioE3 to get these ministries to coordinate and work on a policy for the development and use of genetically edited insects in India is a welcome move.

Overall, the BioE3 policy is an excellent signal of governmental intent and a step in the right direction for India’s life science industry. Hopefully this intent will be bolstered by appropriate funding and regulation to facilitate the industry’s growth. This is an exciting time for life science in India and when deployed in its entirety the policy will surely lead India into a top biotechnology destination and fulfil its ambitions of Viksit Bharat 2047.

1.How did the Lodha Genius Programme start?

Two vital threads became intertwined. For some years, the government has been discussing a programme that finds excellence and nurtures it. Because of that discussion, we understood what activity could be done. Then, I became Chair of the Ashoka University Science Advisory Council, and there, too, we discussed how one can have Ashoka University not just stimulate science within its campus but also in the broader ecosystem.

It was a meeting of minds when we heard from Abhishek Lodha, MD and CEO at the Lodha Foundation, about their Foundation’s desire to start a programme where excellence will be nurtured. Everything fell into place when these two threads of ideas came together and gave birth to the Lodha Genius Programme (LGP).

2. What was the vision behind the Lodha Genius Programme?

The principal idea was that among our millions of students across the country in 9th-12th standards, many are incredibly talented but need a route for their talents to blossom without compromising quality. Anupama Ambika Anilkumar and Gaurav Bhatnagar came up with lots of ideas about this, where we could identify and start with about 100 students (now it's 300) from all over the country to be brought to Ashoka and exposed to India and the world’s best teachers and projects to look at various kinds of questions and discoveries. Then they would go back, and if we could continue to mentor them after they went back and continue this every year, steadily increasing the number, then we would have a way by which talented people see avenues for their growth.

3. The Lodha Genius Programme nurtures “future leaders”. How do you define a future leader?

One crucial component emerged in discussions with Abhishek Lodha and Mahika Shishodia, Head of Social Impact at the Lodha Foundation. They felt very strongly that it's not just about making students good at Physics, Chemistry, Biology, or Mathematics but also making them socially conscious and conveying that it's not just enough to succeed in what you do; instead, grow in seeing beyond yourself and what is valuable to you — to the broader ecosystem, society, and the country.

So, that's what the term “leader” means — it's not just about yourself but thinking about how to work as a team and take everyone forward.

4. Are there any programmes out there similar to this one? If there are, how is this programme unique?

There are several other programmes, but they concentrate either only on one discipline or on being a generic summer camp. Most programmes require the student to pay to join the programme with the promise of training to be more competitive in exams or university admissions.

The LGP is unique in multiple ways. It integrates all of science with society. It has global leaders from the country and beyond who are giving talks. And all of it is completely paid for — travel to the university, stay, all the materials, and the interactions when you return.

In essence, the LGP is a fully funded model that ensures a uniquely diverse range of students in the cohort. Rather than just being a one-month summer programme, it is designed to offer long-term and sustained training and mentorship to students until their early careers.

5. Have there been any surprises as the programme took shape?

There have been enormous surprises! I'll give you some examples:

school grades don't mean anything. Bright people get all sorts of grades.

There are people from all kinds of backgrounds who may appear shy or reticent. However, within a week of working together, they're just transformed, full of confidence — the previous superficialities don't matter. What matters is getting together to do things. That's the first surprise! It's also amazing what levels of complexities 9th-12th standard students are willing to tackle.

For teachers, there is a concern that you want to be useful to every student. Hence, teachers worry that they might dumb down content extensively. It so turned out that most people teaching actually pitched everything at a rather complex level. However, because of the fantastic TAs (teaching assistants), who are undergraduates from Ashoka and other places, the students had no problem picking up.

And finally, quite surprisingly, some students came in nervous about mathematics but left very happy and wanting to do mathematics.

I commend the maths teaching group put together by Bhatnagar and others there.

6. Are students made aware of underrepresented careers in this programme?

While we touch every discipline, from geology to astronomy, chemistry to physics, and computer science to space science, everything is done with real examples — this is what I see in the universe around me. How do I solve it? What are the tools I need to solve it? So, it's science through inquiry. Therefore, to answer your question about careers, I'll return to the first point about social leadership — how we can use our understanding of the universe to do better for ourselves, our communities, and our country.

For the career options, we don’t straitjacket saying that you will get into this place if you do this. We also have a good internship programme that'll start soon. Such activities open their eyes. All career options are compelling and can be exciting depending on the opportunities and contexts, and we interact with students throughout the year to help them with their decisions.

7. How has this programme changed over the years?

The first year was a very stressful experience for those involved because they didn't know how it would work out. The second year, more or less, just expanded it. However, from the second to the third year (2025), there has been an enormous increase in other kinds of interactions. Ambika and her team have put in place national interactions and multiple types of programmes in numerous schools in a huge way, which expands the footprint of this programme much more than just the campus interaction. So, that's a rather dramatic change.

And the final change, which has taken place in addition to this, is the rather substantial increase in numbers from 100 in the first year to about 300 now. There are other ideas for expansion in multiple ways. They're bringing in many career opportunities for people passionate about science. It’s not just been a support but a partnership and involvement with the Lodha Foundation. So, teamwork has ultimately scaled the programme quantitatively and qualitatively.

8. How has been the students' feedback about this programme?

Before and after the first year, Ambika and her team went to schools nationwide, not just for advertising but to get feedback about the requirements. For students who have never travelled before, female students, or those from economically disadvantaged families, coming to Sonipat and staying one month could be challenging. However, after the experience, the feedback has been uniformly positive.

9. What do you hope to see in this programme in the future?

How do we scale up the programme without compromising? That’s one challenge. We’re trying to discuss and see how various partners will be able to join the programme. Another point is how one expands this across the country, in partnership with Ashoka and led by the Lodha Foundation. Here, I would use the analogy with chess. The growth of chess circles all over the country is inspiring. India has excelled in chess as a consequence of that. It is both autonomously done bottom up and with high quality because of the system's demands.

Can we semi-autonomously do that so that mathematics and science have learning circles to stimulate growth nationwide?

Ambika and the team are exploring these ideas, and I'm sure these will grow over the following years.

The applications for 2025 cohort of the Lodha Genius Programme opens on 1 December 2024. For more details, please visit LGP's website.

You might have heard people say, "I will just grab this; it worked last time,” or "I read online that these antibiotics match my symptoms,” when buying over-the-counter medicine without a prescription.

In a world where antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is becoming a critical global health issue, it's imperative to educate communities about the responsible use of antibiotics and the consequences of AMR. AMR occurs when microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites evolve to resist the effects of drugs that once effectively treated them.

In rural Rajasthan, a pioneering outreach initiative addressed the issue of AMR through 14 interactive workshops facilitated by the third IndiaBioscience Outreach Grants (IOG 3). Led by a dedicated team of women co-founded by Neha Jain, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, these workshops taught students microbiology, antibiotics, and AMR, through engaging activities like foldscope (paper microscope) assembly and antibiotic mechanism demonstrations. The project fostered awareness about responsible antibiotic use and the consequences of AMR, transcending social barriers and empowering participants to become torchbearers for change. This initiative highlights the transformative power of education in combating AMR, offering hope for healthier communities and a sustainable future.

Against the backdrop of rural Rajasthan, our dedicated team embarked on a mission to tackle this pressing challenge of AMR. Through a series of dynamic and interactive workshops, we aimed to empower local communities, particularly the younger generation, with knowledge about the responsible use of antibiotics and the far-reaching implications of AMR. Conducting 14 workshops across Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, and Barmer, we focused on hands-on activities and engaging demonstrations to make complex scientific concepts accessible to the participants. This initiative represents a pivotal step towards fostering science awareness and promoting healthier practices in the regions.

Reaching some of the remote villages presented challenges due to their interior locations. But collaboration with a local NGO, I Love Jaisalmer (ILJ, A Unit of The I Love Foundation), played an instrumental role in conducting all the workshops. Shaheen from ILJ facilitated communication and ensured access to all schools, while ILJ went above and beyond to provide logistic support and generously contributed prizes for the students.

Sneak-peak of action-filled workshop days

At the beginning of the workshop, the students were initially shy, so we broke the ice with an open discussion about what they understood by terms like “microbiology”, the role of microbes in daily life, antibiotic usage, and AMR. Neha uses simplified examples and models to explain complex concepts like biofilms and antibiotic resistance. Emphasising the principle, “The more you do yourself, the more you learn,” we encouraged students to assemble foldscopes and observe the fascinating world of microbes. Hygiene awareness, a crucial issue in rural Rajasthan, was addressed through a hands-on experiment. Students pressed their dirty and clean hands-on agar plates, observing first time how microbes grow much more on the plate with dirty hands. This real-time experiment sparked excitement and curiosity among the students.

Through these workshops, our team aims to sensitise participants about the proper use of antibiotics and the detrimental effects of AMR.

By distributing educational materials in Hindi and English, such as posters on AMR, we ensure that the knowledge shared during the workshops will have a lasting impact. These workshops foster a sense of unity and collaboration, forging bonds of solidarity among participants. Inspired by a shared purpose, students are encouraged to become protectors of their communities and strong advocates against the growing problem of AMR.

We chose the workshops locations based on interactions with support staff at IIT Jodhpur, such as guards, cleaners, and house helpers. For many schools, these workshops were a novel experience, sparking a sense of wonder and enrichment among students and teachers. The students displayed remarkable enthusiasm and eagerness to learn.

Our initial session at Kendriya Vidyalaya, attended by children from diverse backgrounds— including faculty, staff, gardeners, and security guards from neighbouring villages— epitomised the universality of learning. Despite their varying family backgrounds, the students shared a collective spirit of curiosity and determination, united in their pursuit of knowledge. We also conducted a workshop at a residential school in Mandore, where most students had no guardians. Despite their hardships, their unwavering commitment to learning was palpable.

In a few all-female schools, we addressed menstrual hygiene. With our all-female team, the girls felt comfortable discussing this topic openly, something they often shy away from their family members. More than 250 females benefited from these workshops. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from students reaffirmed the significant impact of our efforts.

Behind the scenes: Our incredible team

Our dedicated team members—Neha Jain, Shaheen Hasan, and Harshita Agarwal, and volunteers Himadri Ojha, Ayesha Bano, Bhumika Pippal, and Bharat Gurnani—all hail from Rajasthan, which facilitated seamless communication and connection with local communities. The schools warmly received our team, especially as an educated female group, with admiration and respect. Our initiative aimed to provide quality education, promote good health and well-being, and achieve gender equality, aligning with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4, SDG 3, and SDG 5, respectively).

Building on the insights from our previous IOG grants, we developed a comprehensive workshop module that can be readily adopted and implemented by school teachers, ensuring the sustainability and scalability of our efforts. Looking ahead, we are filled with optimism and purpose, knowing that we have made a tangible difference in the lives of countless young learners across rural Rajasthan. This outreach also mobilised ILJ to address issues such as clean drinking water and women's employment programs in the rural communities where we conducted the workshops. ‘I Love Jaisalmer’ is a coalition of locals who pool their resources and crowdsource funding to tackle systemic issues in their towns.

The success of this outreach initiative demonstrates the power of education in addressing public health challenges such as AMR, even in resource-limited settings.

The team has laid the foundation for sustainable solutions to combat AMR in rural Rajasthan by empowering young minds with knowledge and practical skills. We are grateful to IndiaBioscience for enabling this outreach initiative.