India Narrative

A team of Indian scientists has developed a new technology platform for fluorometric detection of SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) that is more reliable than the existing techniques, according to information provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology.  The technology platform detects viruses by measuring the fluorescent light that is emitted and can also be used to detect other DNA/RNA pathogens such as HIV, influenza, HCV, Zika, Ebola, bacteria, and other mutating pathogens. Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, an autonomous institute of the government, along with scientists from IISc (India Institute of Science), have demonstrated a noncanonical nucleic acid-based G-quadruplex (GQ) topology targeted reliable conformational polymorphism (GQ-RCP) platform to diagnose Covid-19 clinical samples. This work has been published recently in the journal ‘ACS Sensors’ and the team has also filed a patent for the novel technology. Read More  

  “It’s raining unicorns,” – this will grab headlines in 2022, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s task is well cut out. Sitharaman in the forthcoming Union Budget, could come up with more incentives and policy measures keeping an eye on creating the right ecosystem for unicorns to come up, reliable sources told India Narrative. In her last budget, the finance minister announced extension of tax holidays for startups along with exemption of capital gains for investment till March 31, 2022. Access to credit and tax incentives are areas that would be looked into. “We will further focus on startups and unicorns. Expect more policy measures in the budget,” an insider told India Narrative . The Unicorns, which are startups valued over $1 billion, are expected to go in for large scale employment generation in the coming months as well. Notwithstanding the Covid pandemic, last year, more than 30 startups in India made it to the prestigious Unicorn list. Inaugurating the 25th National Yo