Amid the new coronavirus scare across the globe,Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday underscored the need for global cooperation for early detection of new viruses and to contain any serious fallout from outbreak of epidemics.
Addressing scientists and researchers of CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here, the Vice President, while referring to the newly-discovered strain of coronavirus, said it was spreading across the nations and causing a major concern to health authorities
"Period outbreak of epidemics and new viruses highlighted our vulnerability to diseases," he said, according to an official release.
Referring to the vital role of the Indian Science and Technology Innovation System in achieving national goals as India aspires for sustainable and inclusive growth, Naidu appealed to the private sector to create a fund for financing innovative scientific projects that will address societal concerns.
Funding for basic research also has to be stepped up, the vice president said.
Stressing that the outcome of every scientific endeavour must improve the lives of people, he urged CCMB scientists and other scientific labs to find answers to the many challenges the world was facing today like poverty, effects of climate change, pollution and lack of clean drinking water.
Lauding CCMB for developing bacterial blight-resistant Sambah Mahsuri rice variety in collaboration with Indian Institute of Rice Research, Naidu asked scientists to find ways to develop more disease and pest-resistant crops and aid in increasing productivity to make agriculture viable and sustainable.
Touching upon the problem of growing anti-microbial resistance, the vice president said modern medicine was facing a serious threat on account of it and expressed the fear that many antibiotics might eventually become ineffective if the trend continued unchecked.
Calling for developing new antibiotics, apart from preventing drug resistance, he expressed happiness that the CCMB was working in that direction.
The vice president also urged CCMB to develop Rapid DNA Testing Kits for detection of some of the rare diseases and many other genetic disorders.
"It is important to predict and prevent genetic diseases as more than 70 million Indians are estimated to be suffering from genetic disorders, according to the Organization for Rare Diseases India (ORDI)," Naidu said.
He also advised institutions like CCMB to take up campaigns on a massive scale to create awareness among the people about the health risks associated with consanguineous marriages, particularly those relating to congenital disorders.
Naidu said young scientists should be allowed to take up challenging research assignments and come up with innovative ideas.
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