Category Archives: Health

Health

Nature India special issue on COVID-19 is out

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For most of us, 2020 will be marked as the year of great imponderables. We seem to know as much about the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its effects on the human body and societies at large, as we don’t. Ever since the virus broke out, ‘uncertainty’ is one of the most commonly used words in conversation, news reportage and emails.

Across the globe, very few lives have been untouched by the direct or indirect effects of the novel coronavirus. China, the most populous nation on Earth, bore its brunt as the virus jumped into human populations in the country’s Hubei province in late 2019. Though China reacted quickly to contain it, the contagion had spread via international travellers.

India, the world’s second most populous nation, reported the first case of the novel coronavirus on 30 January 2020. The number of people becoming infected by the virus began to rise quickly, prompting the government to impose a two-month complete shutdown of the country – the longest ever in its history.

An enormous population, a weak healthcare system, and traditionally meagre investments in scientific research and development meant there was enough reason to worry. However, the severe economic and social fallouts, like elsewhere in the world, forced the government to allow a regulated easing out of lockdown.

Nature India started reporting on COVID-19 in India from the outset. As the pandemic began unsettling every facet of life from healthcare to education and community life to businesses, our coverage embraced a new normal, going beyond pure science to a parallel reflection of its links with society, culture and life.

Nature India’s special issue on COVID-19, therefore, seeks to consider answers from the future. In a rapidly evolving pandemic, some of the articles in this special issue bear a time stamp. However, they will hopefully remain relevant for a long time to come as chronicles of the biggest human crisis any of us has faced in our lifetimes.

As we scrutinize India’s response to the mammoth healthcare challenge, we also look at vaccines and drugs being tested across the world in a hope to arrest the respiratory infection. We dive into the science of how the immune system responds to the virus and question if submitting genome sequences to global repositories at record speeds makes any sense without accompanying patient data. We explore how the packaging of the future would look like, and explain how to care for the elderly and critically ill in times when hospitals are struggling to accommodate COVID-19 patients.

Everyone has a COVID-19 story to tell. We feature some extraordinary everyday stories — a doctor on the frontline handling COVID-19 patients in a Delhi hospital, a scientist in the southern state of Kerala who hasn’t been able to start her dream laboratory due to the lockdown, and an Arctic explorer who endured months of darkness and isolation in the north pole before coming back to a world struck by a new virus.

This special issue also features the story of Ayurveda, and why it is time for India to apply scientific rigour to the study of the ancient system of medicine. We talk of the importance of socially influential groups, scientists, and religious leaders, in spreading the right messages and scotching misinformation in a public health emergency.
In many countries including India, the pandemic is testing the limits of science and of human perseverance. It is taking a toll on our mental health – how we live, work and communicate are set to change for a long time to come.

Science will hopefully find a solution to this unprecedented human suffering soon.

[Download the Nature India special issue “COVID-19 Crisis” free here.]

(For Nature India’s continuing coverage on the the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 crisis, please visit our special page.)

A peek into a COVID-19 testing facility

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It’s a race against time to produce accurate and efficient diagnostic results, says Shanti Kalipatnapu, as she walks through IISER Pune’s testing centre, one of the 1047 across India checking samples for the novel coronavirus.

Outside the COVID-19 testing centre at IISER Pune.

Mridula Nambiar, a biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, begins her day early to be at the COVID-19 testing centre, on a rather deserted campus of her institute – most students went home just before India’s two-month national lockdown that began 25 March 2020.

Nambiar is one of the 30-odd volunteers at the testing centre at IISER Pune approved by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) among the 21 in the city of Pune. It is unlike any other diagnostic centre since the institute, primarily engaged in undergraduate science education and research in the natural sciences, does not handle clinical or infectious samples on a normal day. However, some researchers at IISER Pune use the RT-PCR assay to decipher the inner workings of fundamental biological processes. This assay is also the key diagnostic tool for COVID-19.

Setting up a COVID-19 testing centre

Owing to this core RT-PCR expertise, when IISER Pune began to explore the possibility of setting up a testing centre, a group of faculty members from the institute’s biology department formed a COVID-19 action team. They used national guidelines to draft the standard operating procedures for the Centre. Team members used help from engineering colleagues to remodel some rooms at the institute to minimise the corridor and building space that the hospital samples would have to pass through.

Health and biosafety protocols firmly in place, the institute drew from the experiences of other already established testing centres in Pune – National Institute of Virology (NIV), Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS) – and elsewhere, to fine tune procedures and safety guidelines, and to ensure an efficient testing pipeline.

Putting together essential supplies for the centre.

Supplies needed to create a mini-research lab of sorts – protective equipment, gloves, masks, tubes, tips, small and medium-sized lab equipment – were procured, backed by an organized inventory. A call for volunteers saw over 570 PhD scholars, undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty and staff members of the institute signing up. A nodal officer was appointed to coordinate the process from receipt of samples to timely submission of results and effective communication with hospitals.

Within a month and after a few dry runs, volunteer training sessions and a formal approval from the ICMR, the centre was all set to begin testing samples on 21 May 2020. Nodal Officer Anjan Banerjee says by the end of June, the centre had tested over 4400 samples.

India has tested about 8.3 million samples (by June 2020) since the beginning of the pandemic. It is widely acknowledged that more testing is essential to combat the spread of COVID-19.

How tests are done 

Five teams of volunteers work in shifts of four hours. Each team of three members carry out a specific set of tasks. Hospitals send in throat and nasal swab samples in sealed tubes with a small bit of buffer solution to extract the sample into. These samples are collected from a designated location just outside the centre and handled by volunteers in room 1, equipped with level 2 biosafety (BSL-2) norms. Their task is to retrieve the buffer solution which would have extracted the essence of the swab, transfer the solution into fresh tubes, and release the viral RNA, should any virus be present in the sample. This is done by dissolving the outer lipid coat of the virus using detergents.

Inside the testing rooms.

This RNA is then handled by volunteers in rooms 2 to 4, first to convert it into complementary DNA (cDNA) and then to amplify the cDNA to make enough material for detection. Primers that specifically bind to the COVID-19 virus are used, so that amplification (and thereby detection) occurs only if the sample originally contained the virus.

Since room 1 deals with samples that could potentially contain live virus, volunteers mandatorily wear a full set of personal protective equipment (PPE) — cover-alls, safety goggles, head and feet covers, and two layers of hand gloves. It takes them about 15 minutes to don this protective gear. In spite of the temperature and humidity controllers in the room, it gets rather hot inside the suit. Nambiar says they try and coordinate the transitions between the shifts in a way that volunteers need not be in PPE for any longer than they need to.

Since the virus is inactivated, processing of the samples beyond Room 1 is less risky and requires lesser protection. Nevertheless, it still needs utmost care as RNA is a notorious molecule to handle, with high chances of degradation and contamination.

Following RT-PCR runs, large datasets are carefully analyzed and validated by faculty members before the results are shared. A few faculty members from Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) have joined the testing efforts with two more RT-PCR machines. The team tests about 250 samples every day, and plans to enhance capability by automating some steps in the testing pipeline.

Data management

The data management room of the testing centre is a great collaboration between technical expertise and administrative prowess. Managing data does not require the technical know-how of performing the tests; it however requires a keen eye to handle a screen full of lists.

From the time the samples come in to delivery of results to the hospitals, it works like a relay race. The baton needs to be passed on to the next player, with no room for error.

Handling data.

Volunteers in room 1 receive the hospital data sheets along with the samples. They assign a code to each sample, scan the information sheets and send them to the data room where volunteers digitize them and keep the files ready for recording the final results later in the night. When final results become available, they share it with the hospitals and feed the information onto government portals that maintain detailed records of each test conducted.

The day ends rather late for Nambiar, as it does for many of her fellow volunteers at the Centre working into the night to relay the test results to hospitals. Insitute faculty Sudha Rajamani, who has been supervising this massive exercise, says the same team of 4 to 5 members has been working seven days of the week, late into the night, with steadfast alertness keeping in mind the huge implication of accurate data for patients.

Each day, the testing centre presents a grim reminder of the lurking virus. But, it is also an exemplar of the power of collaboration, the human bond that shines through in times of crises, of what people in a community can stand up for beyond the confines of their everyday jobs.

Pictures courtesy: COVID-19 Action team, IISER Pune

(Shanti Kalipatnapu is the Head of Research Communications at IISER Pune. She can be reached at shantik@iiserpune.ac.in and tweets from @skalipatnapu).

Nature India’s latest coverage on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic here. More updates on the global crisis here.

COVID-19 fuels India’s biotech entrepreneurship

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As the pandemic restricts imports of reagents and kits, India’s biotechnologists are making their own, writes Somdatta Karak* in this guest post.

The Addlagatta lab at CSIR-IICT in Hyderabad has been scaling up production of the key enzyme reverse transcriptase. {credit}S. Karak{/credit}

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently called for self-reliance in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 crisis. Being a biologist by training, the question that came to my mind immediately was: are India’s biologists and biotechnologists self-reliant in their laboratories across the country?

I walked down to one such example-setting lab earlier this month – the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad – where chemist Anthony Addlagatta and his lab members have been working to scale up the production of reverse transcriptase (RT), an enzyme at the heart of the diagnostic test that detects the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

RT was discovered in 1970 and it changed our understanding of how information flows in our living cells. Information does not flow in just one direction from DNA to RNA to proteins. RT makes the reverse possible – a conversion of RNA to DNA. Combined with the power of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), invented in the 1980s, the duo ‘RT-PCR’ became an indispensable tool in biology labs across the globe. PCR helps amplify minute stretches of DNA in micro test-tubes.

Fast forward half a century as the world struggles with COVID-19 and urgently needs enough diagnostic kits that use the RT enzyme and Taq DNA polymerase, a bacterial enzyme used in PCR for its ability to amplify short DNA segments.

Though India has been using these enzymes for a few decades now, there is not a single ‘Made in India’ kit in the market. With India’s ability to import reagents and kits for its fairly limited use, the motivation to make a completely home-grown kit has been missing. Now, in times of a pandemic when imports are restricted, we are forced to think of developing these reagents ourselves.

Anthony Addlagatta with the fermentor that is brewing bacterial culture to produce reverse transcriptase.{credit}S. Karak{/credit}

In Addlagatta’s lab, a 10-litre fermentor has been brewing a bacterial culture cloned to produce the RT enzyme. The lab procured this fermentor for one of their industrial projects. Armed with the know-how of producing RT and Taq DNA polymerase, they wanted to develop their own resources and found the right industry partners in Genomix Biotech, who provided oligonucleotides for an RT-PCR kit. Oligonucleotides are short stretches of DNA or RNA molecules that initiate a reverse transcriptase or PCR reaction. Together they are validating these tests and hope to be in the market with test kits soon. A few kilometres down the road at the Atal Incubation Centre of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Nasar Khaja is also developing RT-PCT kits at his company BioArtis, which manufactures oligonucleotides.

Many other companies across India are developing these diagnostic kits using RT-PCR as well as other methods. Are such home-grown RT-PCR kits going to be in demand only as long as COVID-19 lasts? Can they sustain even after the pandemic?

The quality of these kits will drive their demand when import bans lift. Limited funding and bureaucratic hassles to procure reagents is a huge deterrent for scientists in India to try newer products of unestablished brands. Biotechnologists like Khaja feel that it is the scientific community’s responsibility to groom the home-grown brands. The newer kits might need a bit more enzyme or a few extra steps as opposed to established brands but will give the exact same results at cheaper prices, he says. In the bargain, the scientific community will have supported new start-ups, fostering a culture of product development.

The current Indian market size for many of these home-grown products is too small for start-ups to sustain. Biotech companies in India will have to compete with their global counterparts in quality and price.  Another way of dealing with this challenge could be to attract multinational companies to set up manufacturing units in India. The downside here is that global businesses may not share India-centric goals.

Adversities have often shaped cultures and national objectives. In the 90s, India proactively boosted the vaccine industry to fight Hepatitis-B in the country. This industry is now at the global forefront and also actively participating in the race for a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Would the COVID-19 crisis be able to spawn entrepreneurship in other areas of biotechnology in India?

[*Somdatta Karak is the Science Communication and Public Outreach Officer at CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India.]

From the frontline: A doctor’s tryst with COVID-19

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When Viny Kantroo, a respiratory diseases specialist, started seeing COVID-19 patients in a Delhi hospital, a whole new world unfolded in front of her  – both personally and professionally. “It has never been so tough before, taking care of your own breathlessness and that of your patients’, simultaneously”, she says in this guest post.

Viny Kantroo

My heart skips a beat thinking of Thursday. That’s the day my scheduled week-long duty starts in COVID-19 wards and intensive care units (ICU) every fortnight.

The rotation means constantly staying awake, or rather alert, even when you close your eyes in the ward to catch a few winks. The phone generally rings the moment you are transitioning from stage 1 to stage 2 of what we call, in medical parlance, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. The mind works constantly with the adrenaline rush that comes with attending to patients with COVID-19. I have not mastered the art of calming down despite years of being in crunch situations.

On one such day in the second week of April 2020, I had to get to my hospital late in the evening to insert a chest tube in a COVID-19 patient with collapsed lungs (pneumothorax). I have never had such cold feet, even when I learnt this for the very first time. I was worried about hurting the patient and creating complications because of limited vision resulting from elaborate eye gears of my personal protective equipment (PPE), but more overwhelming was the fact that I was in the middle of a contagion, dealing with a disease with no proven treatment. Suddenly, I felt like a student again.

At the back of my mind, I was also constantly battling the burden of carrying infection home. When on COVID-19 duty, I cover myself up, or rather my fear, with an extra layer of surgical mask above my N-95 mask. This actually hampers my breathing. I start panting for breath while speaking, but at least my mind stays calm and focused on patients. It is not easy to experience strained breath. It triggers a vicious cycle inside the brain. This experience has actually given me the empathy to feel what my non-COVID asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients feel when they come short of breath every winter.

Coming back to that late evening scene in the COVID-19 ward –  I stood there mustering all my courage, my hands trembling as I punched in the code to open the ICU door. The smell in there is peculiar, different from outside these areas. This smell always has a strong relationship with emotions – it sets a chain reaction inside my imaginary world – that the air is full of virus but I have to make way to the donning room and preferably not touch the door handles or the door itself.

This comes naturally to me though. My parents taught me the science of fomites and their importance well before I studied medicine. I would wash hands after touching public lift buttons, electrical switches, door handles and staircase railings even in normal times. This has made me a villain at home many times and I have been labelled as having an obsessive compulsive disorder of sorts, but I have made this practice very clear to both family and friends. So while my colleagues are still coming to terms with the changed reality, I am way more confident of navigating through doors and handles. Also, getting ready within 15 to 20 minutes without exposing any part of your skin is a mental rather than a physical task. It requires sealing the gaps between eye sockets and visors.

I could feel a pronounced silence as I entered the patient area that evening. I had to be in very close contact with the patient. This was more than the normal daily ICU rounds. All I could see were the dark corners and a foggy tunneled central vision. This was partly the physical reality, partly the constant fogging of my visors and mostly psychological. I instantly thought of music. I had brought in a bluetooth speaker the previous day with me to leave in the ICU for everyone.

I inserted the chest tube in about 25 minutes, way beyond what it normally takes. The extra layers above my coveralls made me sweat profusely. I desperately wanted some air. I saw the other patients and tidied out their medication, checked ventilators and asked my staff if there was anything else I could do for them (not that I was more capable than them but sometimes asking makes all the difference). I left the area for the designated doffing region and slowly removed the body suit and layers in 15 minutes to avoid creating aerosols.

Viny Kantroo in protective gear that makes breathing difficult for all healthcare workers.

Each time I came out of the ICU after attending to patients, I felt a strange sense of relief. Whether this is because I helped somebody or whether I could breathe better, I don’t know. But I surely have started to value the small little things in life much more than I ever did in the past. One thing which remains universal among healthcare workers across the globe is everyone wants to ‘breathe’. Everyone is just tired of the FFP 1, 2, 3s and N-95s. It has never been so tough before, taking care of your own breathlessness and that of your patients’, simultaneously.

For my mental health, I feel COVID-19 has done more good than bad though. I no longer run constantly, struggling with road traffic or my own mind’s traffic. I have a clear sense of priorities now. My time management has improved and I am now ready to start my third week of COVID-19 rotation today. I strategically plan my weeks ahead so that I am able to spend some time with my family – be it ‘happy wedding anniversary’ moments or saying a virtual hello to my family members around the world during my weeks off COVID-19 patient areas.

I had elaborate plans for 2020, as I was away from my family for the last two years pursuing academic interests in London. I am content, however, that I manage to be around my small world – with my husband, who is also a doctor, and a four-year old son.

On the upside, I recorded a song in my voice after many years. This has been a very big boost as I had lost the capacity to sing when I lost my first child some years back. My voice had choked and I had accepted that this was permanent. I now understand nothing is permanent in this world, not even grief. I see things with more optimism now waiting for a time when I can take a long breath in the mountains with my feet in the river water underneath.

[Viny Kantroo is a Respiratory, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine  specialist at  Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, India.]

Memories of paati

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As paati lost her memory and identity, we would sit by her side and recollect fond memories from the past, in the hope that our narration would magically revive her brain. With artificial intelligence and targeted therapies, perhaps there’s hope for millions like paati.

Winner of the Nature India Essay Competition 2020.

Gowri Natarajan

An old photo of Gowri Natarajan as a child with her grandmother (paati) Kamakshi at their home in Chennai.

My paati (Tamil for grandmother) once showed me her diary, in which she had written down names of some people in our family. I sensed a certain degree of disquiet, as she explained that she had trouble recollecting names now and then. At the time, paati was entering her 70s. Apart from forgetting names, she was in perfect health. Her subtle memory lapses indicated mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition that can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). However, not all those who have MCI develop AD, and in people with MCI, the cognitive impairment does not interfere with day-to-day functioning and does not alter their behavior.

However, with time, paati’s memory lapses became more frequent. In addition, behavioral changes such as mood swings, irritability, and poor spatial navigation became apparent. A visit to the neurologist and a brain scan confirmed her diagnosis as moderate stage AD. As the years passed, paati’s condition worsened. Hallucinations, disturbed sleep patterns, anger, tantrums, fear, and confusion became frequent. At this stage, she could not identify others around her, and one could say that she lost her own identity as well. She was unable to perform basic tasks, and we had to appoint a nurse to care for her. During her last days, paati lost her ability to communicate, was bedridden, and her brain and body effectively shut down.

Around 50 million people have dementia worldwide, and AD is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. The number of people with dementia is expected to reach ~75–80 million by 2030. The global annual cost of dementia, including social and economic costs, is about a trillion USD. The costs are predicted to increase and will likely present a grave social problem, given the greater proportion of older people in the world today due to improvements in health care.

AD is devastating not just for the sufferer, but also caregivers, health-care systems, and society. Paati‘s memory loss, confusion, and inability to perform basic tasks lead to isolation, depression, and withdrawal from society. From a caregiver’s perspective, I recall moments when my family and I would empathise with paati’s anger and confused state of mind, but there were also times when her mood swings and irritability took a toll on us. I remember a time when paati left the house thinking she lived elsewhere, and we found it quite challenging to convince her to return home.

Gowri Natarajan

During my doctoral pursuit in neuroscience, I was able to reflect on paati’s predicament through a scientific lens. When we see a familiar face, watch a scene from a movie, or visit a childhood haunt, these stimuli evoke certain memories, emotions, or responses that are unique to each of us. The human brain is an intricate network of neurons, the functional units in our brain. Different neuronal networks in our brain process various sensory stimuli from the world around us and consequently evoke responses that shape our personality and define who we are. In AD, neurons in the brain die and are unable to communicate with one another. The loss of neurons commences in the limbic network in the brain, which is critical for learning, memory, and emotions. As the disease progresses, the neuronal loss spreads to other regions in the brain that send commands to the body to perform basic tasks. At this stage, entire neuronal networks are disrupted and cease to function. In the final stages, widespread neuronal death occurs, with significant shrinkage of brain tissue.

Currently, there is no cure for AD. Although medications alleviate some behavioral symptoms, they do not halt the progression of AD. The treatment landscape has been riddled with failures in clinical trials due to several challenges. Firstly, a ‘single-target’ approach, in which a drug works to correct one aspect of the AD-afflicted brain, has not been effective, given the multiple ways in which the disease affects the brain. To address this challenge, scientists have been working to develop a better understanding of the biology of AD in animal models. This preclinical research has led to the discovery of several targeted therapies that, when administered together, could correct multiple aspects of this complicated disease simultaneously.

Another key challenge lies in the late diagnosis of AD. Often, a definitive diagnosis is made only when people begin to show overt symptoms beyond just memory impairment. At this stage, therapies often fail, since the disease has already progressed significantly and irreversibly. A glimmer of hope for addressing this challenge is emanating from the fascinating world of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In a study conducted in California, researchers successfully trained an AI learning algorithm to detect subtle changes in brain metabolism from brain scans of people referred to a memory clinic. The algorithm demonstrated 100% sensitivity for predicting AD in these people six years before the definitive diagnosis was made. Perhaps we might bear witness to a time in the near future when such learning algorithms could be used in neurologists’ clinics to predict AD in people who show memory impairments, thus providing excellent opportunities for early interventions.

In her active days, one could often find paati sitting on the kitchen floor with a large plate in front of her. The aroma of cocoa powder would waft through the air. I would rush into the kitchen, to find her busy mixing the special ingredients that went into making her homemade chocolates, using a recipe that she had committed to memory. As paati lost her memory and identity, we would sit by her side and recollect such fond nuggets from the past, in the hope that our narration would magically revive her brain. I imagine that countless others around the world must also be attempting such methods to rejuvenate the memories of their loved ones afflicted with AD.

With scientific advancements in the field of AI and targeted therapies, perhaps their hopes would become a reality some day.

[Gowri Natarajan is a neuroscientist based in Hyberabad.]

Announcing winners of NI Photo Contest 2019

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The winners of the Nature India photo contest 2019 have now been chosen after a week of unprecedented activity on the Indigenus blog and our social media channels (Facebook and Twitter ). A global jury, comprising members of the Nature Research editorial and design teams as well as an independent scientist, has given their verdict.

The photographs have been judged for their adherence to this year’s theme ‘Food’, for their creative thinking, quality and print worthiness.

The winner of the Nature India photo contest 2019 is:

Partha Pratim Saha, from Kolkata, West Bengal, India

for his strong image ‘Dry day catch’, which focuses on the relationship between climate and food and emphasises the importance of water bodies as sources of nutrition.

{credit}Partha Pratim Saha{/credit}

In Partha Pratim’s words: “Shilabati is a rain fed river in Eastern India. Many fishermen depend on this river for their catch in the rainy season. But in summers, the river dries up. Fishermen are then unable to use their boats in the shallow water. In these dry seasons, they go down to the level of the river bed and use hand nets for fishing the traditional way.”

The second winner is:

Avijit Ghosh from Kolkata, West Bengal, India

with his picture ‘Empowering meal’, which puts into warm-hearted focus the vital relationship between nutrition and healthy development.

{credit}Avijit Ghosh{/credit}

Avijit says, “In many parts of rural India, school students are given mid-day meals. These free lunches for children in primary and upper primary classes are an innovative scheme to help children get nutrition while also incentivising their school attendance. This scheme exemplifies how food can be used as a means of empowering communities – both through nutrition and education.”

The third prize winner is:

Owais Rashid Hakiem, New Delhi, India.

for his image ‘Fishy business’, which highlights the important issue of quality control in raw food products.

{credit}Owais Rashid Hakiem{/credit}

Owais Rashid says, “During the festive season, consumers pay little attention to the quality or freshness of food products as markets are flooded with a variety of options. Just like vegetable buyers, fish and meat eaters can judge the quality of their raw food with some tell-tale signs. This photograph was captured near the Chittaranjan Park fish market in Delhi during the Durga Puja festival.”

Many congratulations to the winners!

The winners of the Nature India photo contest 2019 will get a cash awards ($350, $250 and $200 respectively). They will receive a copy of the Nature India Annual Volume 2018 and a bag of goodies (including Collector’s first issues of Nature and Scientific American and some other keepsakes) from the Nature Research. One of the winning entries also stands a chance of being featured on the cover of a forthcoming print publication.

Nature India Photo Contest 2019: Finalist #8

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Rolling out the finalist number eight in the Nature India Photo Contest 2019:

Yudhajit Bhattacharjee, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
Photo caption: Carnival of food

{credit}Yudhajit Bhattacharjee{/credit}

“This is a Bengali festival thaali (platter) served during Durga Puja. Festivals are times when people reinvent their relationship with food. Festival food repertoires are designed to be rich and much. They reflect the human need for happiness and merry making and use food, among other things, to satisfy that need.” — Yudhajit Bhattacharjee

Congratulations for getting into the top 10 shortlist, Yudhajit!

Watch this space as we announce the other finalists in the coming days.

The winning pictures will get cash prizes worth $350, $250 and $200 respectively. The top 10 finalists will be featured here, on Nature India’s blog Indigenus and in our subsequent annual issue.

These entries have been judged for novelty, creativity, quality and print worthiness. The winner and two runners-up will also receive a copy of the Nature India Annual Volume 2019 and a bag of Nature Research goodies (including Collector’s first issues of Nature and Scientific American and some other keepsakes). Winning entries stand a chance of being featured on the cover of one of our forthcoming print publications.

Nature India Photo Contest 2019: Finalist #7

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Here is the finalist number seven in the Nature India Photo Contest 2019:

Sandeep Nema, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Photo caption: Square meal

{credit}Aadi Kumar{/credit}

“An Indian village woman cooks a basic meal for her family on a makeshift wood-fired chulha . As the poor cannot afford expensive raw material or means of cooking, they cook and consume whatever is available for survival, without much care for nutrition or hygiene. These meals mostly consist of a source of carbohydrate, typically rice. On a lucky day, the platter may have some lentils or a smattering of vegetables. This picture was taken in suburban Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.” — Sandeep Nema

Welcome to the top 10 shortlist, Sandeep!

Watch this space as we announce the other finalists in the coming days.

The winning pictures will get cash prizes worth $350, $250 and $200 respectively. The top 10 finalists will be featured here, on Nature India’s blog Indigenus and in our subsequent annual issue.

These entries have been judged for novelty, creativity, quality and print worthiness. The winner and two runners-up will also receive a copy of the Nature India Annual Volume 2019 and a bag of Nature Research goodies (including Collector’s first issues of Nature and Scientific American and some other keepsakes). Winning entries stand a chance of being featured on the cover of one of our forthcoming print publications.

Nature India Photo Contest 2019: Finalist #5

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And here’s finalist number five in the Nature India Photo Contest 2019:

Avijit Ghosh, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Photo caption: Empowering meal

{credit}Avijit Ghosh{/credit}

“In many parts of rural India, school students are given mid-day meals. These free lunches for children in primary and upper primary classes are an innovative scheme to help children get nutrition while also incentivising their school attendance. This scheme exemplifies how food can be used as a means of empowering communities – both through nutrition and education.” — Avijit Ghosh

Welcome to the top 10 shortlist, Avijit!

Watch this space as we announce the other finalists in the coming days.

The winning pictures will get cash prizes worth $350, $250 and $200 respectively. The top 10 finalists will be featured here, on Nature India’s blog Indigenus and in our subsequent annual issue. 

These entries have been judged for novelty, creativity, quality and print worthiness. The winner and two runners-up will also receive a copy of the Nature India Annual Volume 2019 and a bag of Nature Research goodies (including Collector’s first issues of Nature and Scientific American and some other keepsakes). Winning entries stand a chance of being featured on the cover of one of our forthcoming print publications.

Nature India Photo Contest 2019: Finalist #4

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It’s time now to unveil the finalist number four in the Nature India Photo Contest 2019:

Owais Rashid Hakiem, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India.
Photo caption: Fishy business

{credit}Owais Rashid Hakiem{/credit}

“During the festive season, consumers pay little attention to the quality or freshness of food products as markets are flooded with a variety of options. Just like vegetable buyers, fish and meat eaters can judge the quality of their raw food with some tell-tale signs. This photograph was captured near the Chittaranjan Park fish market in Delhi during the Durga Puja festival.” — Owais Rashid Hakiem

Congratulations Owais for being selected in the top 10 shortlist!

Watch this space as we announce the other finalists in the coming days.

The winning pictures will get cash prizes worth $350, $250 and $200 respectively. The top 10 finalists will be featured here, on Nature India’s blog Indigenus and in our subsequent annual issue. 

These entries have been judged for novelty, creativity, quality and print worthiness. The winner and two runners-up will also receive a copy of the Nature India Annual Volume 2019 and a bag of Nature Research goodies (including Collector’s first issues of Nature and Scientific American and some other keepsakes). Winning entries stand a chance of being featured on the cover of one of our forthcoming print publications.