Why there is a need for more women in STEM

Cotton production in India was traditionally challenged by bollworm infestation. Support from the DBT in the late 1990s allowed the young team led by PN Rangarajan at the Indian Institute of Science to transfer the technology to Bharat Biotech, Biological E Limited and Indian Immunologicals Limited, spurring indigenous manufacture of these vaccines and a reduction in their prices, enabling the Centre to announce their inclusion in the universal immunisation programme. In 2005, a young team led by Akhilesh Tyagi, University of Delhi, South Campus, sequenced 14 Mb of rice chromosome 11 — part of India’s commitment when it joined the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project in 2000. Under her administration, with increased funding, the DBT established centres of excellence across India: IISc, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, the National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bengaluru, Madurai Kamaraj University, MS University, Baroda, Anna University, Chennai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Delhi, South Campus, Pune University, University of Hyderabad, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, and the Institute of Microbial Technology, as well as major groups in Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Kolkata. For instance, the present sequencing infra, capacity, expertise, and the consequent success of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium — it recently announced the completion of 10,000 human genome sequences under the Genome India project — owes a lot to the rice chromosome sequencing project.