COVID-19 SPECIAL ISSUE `120 BI-MONTHLY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE MARCH - JUNE 2020 • After COVID-19, What? • Race for a Magic Bullet to Beat COVID-19 • ICMR Leads Fight Against COVID-19 • CSIR’s Five-Pronged Strategy to Fight COVID-19 • Evolution of Coronaviruses; History of Pandemics • Interviews: Dr. Shekhar C. Mande, DG, CSIR; Prof. R.K. Dhamija, Lady Hardinge Medical College; and Dr. H. Purushotham, CMD, NRDC March-June 2020 | INVENTION INTELLIGENCE 1 2 INVENTION INTELLIGENCE | March-June 2020 CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR Dr. H. Purushotham CHIEF INVENTION N.G. Lakshminarayan SR. EDITOR INTELLIGENCE Radha Kant Anthwal MARCH - JUNE 2020 VOLUME 55 NUMBER 2-3 ISSN 0970-0056 Sales ARTICLES SR. EXECUTIVE OFFICER 7 After COVID-19, What? Dr. Arvind Dubey Smita Parashar 23 The Global Race for a Magic Bullet to Beat COVID-19 M. Somasekhar m 34 ICMR Leads Fight Against COVID-19 SECTION OFFICER Dr. Rajini Kant and Dr. Enna Dogra Gupta Khem Chand 41 CSIR’s Five-Pronged Strategy to Fight COVID-19 Umashankar Mishra n bimonthly magazine published by NRDC. ‘Invention Intelligence’ is an S&T Ankit Manderna n NRDC is not responsible for the 47 COVID-19 and Artificial Intelligence: The Path Forward statements and opinions of the authors published in the magazine. 51 Unlocking the Code of COVID-19: Health & Risk Communication expressed in their articles/writeups etc. n Hold the Key Dr. Manoj Kumar Patairiya 70 Viruses and Their Invisible World: Some Glimpses Dr. Subodh Mahanti The acceptance of articles/writeups 87 Evolution of Coronaviruses Biman Basu the Sr. Editor, ‘Invention Intelligence’. 81 History of Pandemics Dr. Archita Bhatta would depend entirely on the decision of n If an article received for publication is found plagiarized or translated verbatim 91 Epidemiology, Basic Reproduction Number, and Herd Immunity of SARS-CoV-2 Dr. Arun Pratap Sikarwar from any source it will be straightaway accordingly. It may even lead to 97 The world after COVID-19 Crisis Dr. Meher Wan blacklistingrejected and of the the author author. will be intimated 4 EDITORIAL n To utilise the contents published in 104 A New Scenario in Sports Rakesh Thapliyal ‘Invention Intelligence’ in any form, prior IN CONVERSATION permission of the Sr. Editor is necessary. n It is not necessary that the opinions — Dr. Shekhar C. Mande, DG, CSIR 60 “CSIR fighting unitedly against SARS-CoV-2” expressed in advertisements published in ‘Invention Intelligence’ are in 62 “Combating COVID-19 requires tough regimes of care and treatment” NRDC is not responsible for the claims — Prof. R.K. Dhamija, Lady Hardinge Medical College madeagreement in the withadvertisements. the Editorial opinion. n 66 “COVID-19 has improved the efficiency of National Innovation System” ‘Invention Intelligence’ are to be sent to CROSS-SECTION— Dr. H. Purushotham, CMD, NRDC the The Sr. articles/writeups Editor. for publication in n ` 60; 111 Gains of the Lockdown Madan Mohan ` ` 600; Three Susheela Srinivas Subscription` 900. rates: Single Copy: 114 Common Hygiene Products and the Stories Behind Them One year: 300; Two years: years: 120 CopingRESEARCH with Abnormal & DEVELOPMENT Times Dr. Sukanya Datta 126 Quest for the Unknown: Indian Research Labs Team up to Unlock the National Research Development SecretIPR CORNER of SARS-CoV-2 Dr. T.V. Venkateswaran 132 Global Patent Landscape of COVID-19 Technologies Corporation [An enterprise of DSIR, Ministry of 137 20-22, Zamroodpur Community Centre NRDC NEWS Mayuree Sengupta and Dr. H. Purushotham Science & Technology, Govt. of India] Cover Design: Parul Sinha Telephone: 091-011-29240401-07 KailashFax: Colony 091-011-29240409, Extension, New 29240410 Delhi-110048 E-mail: Website: March-June 2020 | INVENTION INTELLIGENCE 3 CIN: U74899 [email protected] 1987 GOI 002354 http://www.nrdcindia.com EDITORIAL KNOWING ABOUT COVID-19 T he year 2020 started with the COVID-19 global pandemic. We are in the middle of the current year, but even now it cannot be said with certainty when the deadly march of the SARS-CoV-2 will be halted and how long we will have to face the fury of this pandemic. So far, the pandemic has infiltrated into 215 Wecountries are living of the in worldunprecedented leading to troubled over 10 timesmillion and infections our almost and every0.50 million activity deaths. is affected. The COVID-19- this March-June 2020 combined issue of Invention Intelligence induced lockdown also halted the printing and mailing process of magazines, necessitating publication of . This issue is focused on COVID-19 in which we have tried to cover various aspects of this topic. At present, we do not have any specific drug or vaccine in hand to fight COVID-19. So, no one should take it casually. There should be no relaxation in hand washing, wearing a mask, social distancing and other preventive measures. Looking at the developments till now, we can get assured that the day will come when we will celebrate the victory over this pandemic. But by then many things in our society will have possiblechanged postulatesforever or areat least presented for very here. long periods. How this pandemic will change the global scenario in terms of interpersonal relations, social relations, habits, trade, and economy is difficult to guess, but some drugsThe unfolding and vaccines ‘new tonormal’ beat COVID-19 and many are other covered related in thepoints article are ‘Theelaborated Global inRace the for articles a Magic ‘After Bullet COVID-19, to Beat What’, and ‘The World after COVID-19 Crisis’. The intensified efforts across the world on development of Govt. of India and Dr. V. K. Paul, Member NITI Aayog at the National Media Centre on 28 May 2020, on the developmentCOVID-19’ with of indigenousa report on COVID-19the press vaccines.meet of Professor K. VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to On 29 June 2020, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech had announced that their vaccine candidate for COVID-19, COVAXIN, which they have developed in association with the ICMR (Indian Council for Medical developmentResearch), has also been features given inapproval this issue. by CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation) for Phase I and II human clinical trials that are scheduled to start across the country in July. This new Indian An article, ‘ICMR Leads Fight Against COVID-19’, highlights the role of ICMR — the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research — and its response to implement scientific interventions to combat the pandemic. Five technology verticals set up by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for addressing the emerging situation are described in the article ‘CSIR’s Five-Pronged Strategy to Fight COVID-19’. The article, ‘Unlocking the Code of COVID-19: Health & Risk Communication Hold the Key’, gives details of the National Health & Risk Communication Programme — Year of Awareness on Science & Health (YASH), which has been initiated by the National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), Dept. of Science & Technology, Govt. of India to combat such risks and mitigate the crises with the help of public awareness and preparedness. The Indian Government has launched an AI portal (https://indiaai.in/),where all the recent AI-related developments will be shared among the citizens of the country. This development has given a boost to AI enthusiasts, which will eventually help in strengthening the research activity in this field. The importance 4 INVENTION INTELLIGENCE | March-June 2020 of AI in healthcare, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, is described in the article ‘COVID-19 and Artificial Intelligence:Viruses Theand Pathalmost Forward’. all the important aspects of SARS-CoV-2, including the natural origin of SARS-CoV-2, are discussed in the articles Glimpses’; ‘Evolution of Coronaviruses’; and ‘Epidemiology,‘Viruses and TheirBasic InvisibleReproduction World: Number, Some inand the Herd study Immunity of pandemics, of SARS-CoV-2’. the mechanism The article of their‘History occurrence, of Pandemics’ the application chronicles of the molecular progress genetics leading to better understanding of immunology, microbiology and genomics-accelerated vaccinology. Invention Intelligence, Dr. Shekhar C. Mande, DG, CSIR, speaks about the multifarious talksIn conversation about his initiativewith to bring out the Compendium of Indian Technologies for Combating COVID-19, a ways in which CSIR is contributing to the fight against the SARS-CoV-2; Dr. Purushotham, CMD, NRDC, Prof. Rajinder Kumar Dhamija, a prominent neurologist, currently heading the Department of Neurology compilation of COVID-19 related technologies, and other issues related with the current pandemic; and related to COVID-19. at Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, talks about the neurological and various other health aspects COVID-19 pandemic has led to either cancellation or postponement of domestic and international The year 2020 will also go down in the history of world sports as a year of the unprecedented. The championships as well as training sessions all over the world, including the biggest sporting extravaganza — the Tokyo Olympics 2020. In this issue, an article, titled ‘A New Scenario in Sports’, gives a glimpse of the world of sports in the new scenario. In the ‘Cross-Section’ column, we discuss gains of lockdowns and common hygiene products, which have become important tools to fight SARS-CoV-2, as also the stories behind these products, and how to cope with the abnormal times. In the ‘IPR Corner’, patent issues related with the COVID-19 technologies are discussed. Recently, a patent application has been filed for the NavRakshak PPE by the inventors through NRDC. The manufacturing know-how of NavRakshak PPE has been developed at the Innovation Cell of the Institute of Naval Medicine, INHS Asvini Hospital (Mumbai) of the Indian Navy, and is assigned to NRDC for commercialisation. It is cost-effective as it does not require any major capital investment and can be adopted even by gown kits.manufacturing These six manufacturersunits using basic put stitching together expertise.