- CRISPR’s ability to alter genome sequences holds immense promise for medicine and other fields
- The industrial revolution was all about using atoms for human advancement, and the internet revolution was about the magic of bytes, but the next one will be about what we do with genes
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Siddhartha Mukherjee, the Putlizer Prize-winning author, has a penchant for taking complex things and putting them beautifully into context. “Three profoundly destabilizing ideas ricochet through the twentieth century,” he writes in The Gene: An Intimate History, “trisecting it into three unequal parts: the atom, the byte, the gene.”
The Industrial revolution was a revolution of the atom, of physical things—steam power, spinning looms, the internal combustion engine. The information technology and internet revolution which followed was of the byte, with 0s and 1s being manipulated to do magic. Arguably, the next revolution is that of the gene, constructed of our DNA, which fashions life itself.
As the coronavirus pandemic engulfs us, we are fighting back largely with the tools that the genetic revolution has given us. It was Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen who coined the word ‘gene’, building on the seminal work done on natural evolution and genetic selection by the reclusive Austrian monk Gregor Mendel.
Darwin and Wallace went on to explain how it is the fittest genes and their carriers that survive. Watson, Crick and Rosalind Franklin provided the next big leap by deciphering the double-helix structure of DNA and solving the mystery of how it replicates. Much like bytes are sequences of 0s and 1s, genes are sequences of four proteins represented by the alphabets A, C, T, G. An epochal moment in the genetic revolution was when Fredrick Sanger, winner of two Nobel prizes, sequenced the ACTGs of proteins and then of DNA itself in the late 20th century.
The 21st century gave us another tectonic advance, when Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier unveiled the rather jauntily named CRISPR/Cas9, what Dr Eric Lander of MIT said, “could very well be the scientific discovery of the century”.
CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats; Cas9 is for CRISPR– associated Endonuclease. Simply put, CRISPR can recognize specific DNA sequences in our genomes, and using the cutting enzyme Cas9, precisely snip off the targeted sequence. Even more wondrous: this cut-off region can be filled with a new DNA sequence to induce the expression of any desired trait, by altering our gene sequence.
For instance, we could use CRISPR to edit and turn off one of the genes responsible for causing sickle-cell anaemia and curing it, or the same for diabetes, leading to an increase in insulin production. The best part is that this technology is very simple to use, and cheap; so much so that there are DIY CRISPR kits available off the internet. The ability to cure several types of cancers, malaria, and HIV, bioengineering new crops and plants is suddenly within grasp.
The biological origin of CRISPR is fascinating, and our old friends, viruses, play their part here too. We know that viruses cannot live on their own, but work by taking over a cell, manipulating its machinery to replicate until it bursts.
Bacteria are among the earliest denizens of our planets, and over millennia have fought an arms race with viruses. Certain bacteria evolved a way to fight back, by deploying DNA-cutting proteins to slice up any viral genes floating around. The bacteria incorporate tiny fragments of virus DNA into their own genomes, so they could spot a similar one quicker in the future.
They employ a neat trick to keep this genetic memory alive, by spacing out each viral DNA fragment with repetitive palindromic sequences in between. These helped memorize genetic code from virus aggressors of the past, and the next time the virus revisited, the bacteria would arm the Cas9 protein with a copy of this sequence, and like a ‘molecular assassin’, the protein would go out and scissor away anything that matched it.
But if we’re altering the basic building blocks of life, there must be a dark side. If we can edit undesirable characteristics, could we not use it to create humans from scratch—‘designer babies’ with perfect health, teeth and desired complexions. Unsurprisingly, a Chinese geneticist has already attempted it, to a round of criticism from the scientific community. The technology is not perfect. Sometimes the wrong sites get cut, there are risks of setting off unintended mutations. But then, every new technology potentially has a dark side.
Mukherjee called the atom-bit-gene trisection unequal. Arguably, the bit revolution was far bigger than the atom one, and it seems the gene revolution will be even bigger, one where we will attempt to change the basis of our own biology. And now we have the perfect tool for it—CRISPR Cas9.
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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)