Srinagar: Mathematics has always been a critical subject in our education system and it is an essential component of student learning.Mathematics is an integral part of our daily lives and it is pertinent to problem-solving, quantitative reasoning, and decision-making. However,teaching mathematics remains a big challenge in schools today and there are various reasons behind it.
One of the primary reasons that make teaching mathematics a big challenge in schools is the lack of competent and effective teachers. Although there are many teachers trained to be math instructors,not all of them possess the skills and expertise to deliver effective math lessons.Some teachers themselves find mathematics very challenging and feel uncomfortable teaching math concepts and problems to their students.
Another significant challenge is inadequate instructional materials and resources.There are often not enough textbooks,worked examples and practice materials for mathematics in most schools to help students understand the concepts. The lack of practical materials for students to work with means that they cannot develop their problem-solving and analytical skills fully.
Moreover,the difficulty level of mathematics is another obstacle in teaching mathematics. Mathematics is a subject that requires critical thinking,logical reasoning and continuous practice to understand better. Unfortunately,some students struggle with grasping the basic concepts and applying them to solve problems. This issue is compounded by the fact that in the traditional approach,the subject was taught as a series of rules and procedures, with little emphasis placed on visual representations and real-world applications.
Furthermore,the teaching of mathematics is also influenced by student’s attitudes and cultural background.Some students may have a preconceived idea that mathematics is a difficult subject and that they are not capable of learning it. This kind of negative attitude can result in a lack of interest in the subject,leading to disengagement from class and poor performance.
In conclusion,the teaching of mathematics remains a big challenge in schools,even in today’s era of advanced technology and pedagogy.The factors that contribute to this problem include the lack of qualified teachers, inadequate teaching resources,the difficulty level of mathematical concepts and the students attitude towards the subject.To overcome these challenges,a collaborative effort must be implemented among teachers,students and policymakers to develop effective teaching methodologies and provide the necessary resources to make mathematics education accessible and enjoyable for everyone.By doing so, we can inspire a love for mathematics and equip young minds for a better future.
Ali Hussein Jaloud, a 21-year-old Iraqi who lives next to one of BP’s biggest oilfields, was meant to ask a question at the company’s annual shareholder meeting today. He was going to challenge the CEO on why his company continues to poison his neighbourhood with cancer-causing pollution. But, just a few days ago, Ali died of a form of leukaemia that has been linked to chemicals released by the burning of fossil fuels. His grieving father will ask why BP did not use its vast profits to help save his life.
Over the past two years, my fellow investigator Owen Pinnell and I got to know Ali while making a documentary for BBC News Arabic, Under Poisoned Skies, which revealed the deadly impact of gas flaring in southern Iraq, including at BP’s Rumaila oilfield where Ali lives, surrounded by oil company-patrolled checkpoints. We also found out that Rumaila has more gas flaring than any other oilfield in the world.
Routine gas flaring is a wasteful and avoidable practice used by oil companies to burn off the natural gas expelled during drilling. The process releases both greenhouse gases and dangerous air pollution. The gas could be captured instead and used to power people’s homes, saving them from dangerous emissions. But for more than a decade, BP and its partners have failed to build the necessary infrastructure. Since the Iraq war, BP has extracted oil worth £15.4bn from the country. BP said it was “extremely concerned” by the issues raised by our film (and in February said it was working to reduce flaring and emissions at Rumaila) but announced record profits from the oilfield in the year we launched the film.
A keen footballer, Ali was diagnosed with leukaemia at 15. He had to drop out of school and his football team, and embark on two painful years of treatment. His family had to sell their furniture and take donations from their community to pay for it. “Sometimes I wished I would die so that I could stop torturing my parents,” he told us. But, miraculously, Ali survived. He was too old to return to school, so he set up a small mobile phone shop.
Ali had been told by doctors that pollution had probably caused his cancer, and he quietly started advocating for a greener Iraq, one where children could breathe clean air. In his last Instagram post, just days before his death, Ali called for the oil companies to stop routine gas flaring and “save the youth of the country from kidney failure and cancer”.
‘In Iraq, the law states that gas flaring shouldn’t be closer than 10km (6 miles) from people’s homes.’ Excess gas is burned off near workers at the Rumaila oil field, south of Basra. Photograph: Atef Hassan/REUTERS
Rumaila, the town where Ali was living, is heavily guarded and journalists are denied access, so we asked Ali to record video diaries documenting his daily life. In the first scene of our film, he opens his front gate to reveal a towering black cloud of smoke, just a few hundred metres away, beneath which children play hopscotch. In Iraq, the law states that gas flaring shouldn’t be closer than 10km (6 miles) from people’s homes.
“These children are happily playing, they’re not aware of the poison that is coursing through their veins,” he says over the video. In the next shot, he loads his cute five-year-old nephew, Abyas, on to the front of his motorbike and they scoot off, passing the primary school, which is also engulfed in thick black smoke, before arriving at a spot by the canal where gas flares punctuate the skyline in every direction.
When we showed that footage to David Boyd, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, he called it “a textbook example of a modern sacrifice zone, where profit is put above human life and the environment”.
Ali helped us uncover high levels of the cancer-causing chemical, benzene, produced by gas flaring, in the air and bodies of children living in his community. Benzene is known to cause acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) – the cancer from which Ali and many other children we met were suffering. After our documentary appeared, the Iraqi government acknowledged, for the first time, the link between the oil industry’s pollution and the local population’s health problems.
In December 2022, we found out Ali’s leukaemia had returned. His doctor in Iraq said that his only option was palliative care. But his father, who described Ali as his best friend, refused to accept this. He found a doctor at Columbia University who said that Ali could be eligible for experimental T-cell therapy. A supporter of the film, Callum Grieve, began a fundraising campaign to try to raise the £70,000 needed to send him to India. The donations were steady, but relied on the generosity of ordinary people with only small sums to give.
I began to notice in our calls with Ali that his face looked bloated, and his cheekbones hidden because of the effects of steroids. But I had no idea we would lose him so soon. On Friday 21 April, the first night of Eid, we received the terrible news that Ali had died. We had already lost to cancer three of the children we got to know while making this film.
A Guardian investigation found that nine million people a year die as a result of air pollution. Getting to know Ali helped to make that feel like much more than a statistic.
Despite the barren and apocalyptic landscape Ali grew up in, he was a keen gardener. He used to send us videos of him watering the tiny, sparse patch in his front yard where he grew a handful of small palms and some unusual species like the “bambara” or white mulberry tree. When we showed him pictures of the countryside in England, he marvelled at the greenery and the clear skies. It contrasted so starkly with the constantly orange and acrid sky he was used to.
Companies like BP are still breaking Iraq’s law by gas flaring illegally close to people’s homes. If you are looking down on us now, Ali, please know that your death will not be in vain. Britain’s biggest pension fund, Nest, and other investors are launching a shareholder rebellion against BP for rolling back on its climate targets. They told us their actions were partly inspired by our film. And this story could help secure justice for the thousands of lives put at risk by pollution from fossil fuel companies.
Jess Kelly is a documentary film-maker and journalist. Owen Pinnell also contributed to this piece.
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Ankara: After the massive February 6 earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria killing 59,259 people and damaging millions of buildings, the government in Ankara is building tens of thousands of housing and infrastructure projects in the region round the clock to meet the pledge of completing them within one year.
However, the government faces a big challenge to reach the goal set by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan due to a severe labour shortage in recent years, and the problem is likely to worsen as the number of constructions sharply increased after the catastrophe, reports Xinhua news agency.
More than 13 million people living in 11 provinces were affected by the destructive earthquakes, and a large number of survivors were still homeless, according to the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
“We will completely revive our earthquake cities by building 650,000 new houses. We are carrying out comprehensive urban transformation projects to prepare our whole country for earthquakes,” Erdogan said.
The government aims to finish 319,000 of the houses by the end of May, Turkish Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum said last week.
But construction industry veterans pointed out that the workforce is not sufficient to meet the demand for so many projects.
As a structural problem in the sector, the labour shortage needs to be addressed as soon as possible by training new workers and improving working conditions.
In 2018, the number of construction workers in the country was nearly 2.3 million, but this number plummeted to nearly 1.5 million after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hasan Kirlangic, chairman of the Construction Workers’ Union, told Xinhua.
He noted that construction workers have fled the sector for higher-paying or less physically demanding jobs in other industries or countries.
“Construction is a heavy industry and the labour force is dwindling due to relatively low wages. Besides, there is a shortage of new workers due to a lack of training,” Kirlangic explained.
Meanwhile, the earthquakes further complicate the labour shortage of the sector, and the number of construction workers will not be enough for the target of building more than 600,000 houses, Kirlangic warned.
Kirlangic urged the government to take urgent measures if it wants to meet its commitment to building new homes for quake victims in one year.
“If wages, safety, healthcare, and housing conditions are improved, the previous boom in the labour force can be restored,” he said.
Erdal Eren, president of the Turkish Contractors Association, told the Turkish parliamentary inquiry commission earlier this month that the country does not have the workforce to build permanent residences in the earthquake zone by the deadline set by the government.
Ahmedabad: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) will challenge before the Gujarat High Court the recent acquittal of all 67 accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case by a special court, sources said.
Ahmedabad-based court of S K Baxi, special judge for Special Investigation Team cases, on April 20 acquitted all 67 accused, including former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani and ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, more than two decades after 11 Muslims were killed during post-Godhra riots in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Gam area.
“The SIT will definitely file an appeal in the Gujarat High Court against the lower court’s order in the Naroda Gam case. Since the copy of the SIT court’s judgement is awaited, a final call will be taken after studying the verdict,” a source in SIT said.
The massacre at Naroda Gam was one of the nine major 2002 communal riots cases investigated by the SC-appointed SIT and heard by special courts.
The SIT took over the probe from the Gujarat Police in 2008 and arrested more than 30 persons.
Apart from Kodnani (67) and Bajrangi, former VHP leader Jaydeep Patel was also acquitted in the case by the special court.
There were a total of 86 accused in the case, of which 18 died during the pendency of the trial, while one was discharged by the court earlier under section 169 of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) due to insufficient evidence against him.
Notably, lawyers of the victims’ families had already said the special court’s verdict will be challenged in the High Court.
Riots broke out in the Naroda Gam area of Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, during a bandh called to protest the torching of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express by a mob near Godhra station a day earlier. As many as 58 train passengers, mostly karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, were charred to death.
The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), and 153 (provocation for riots), among others
The then-BJP president Amit Shah, now Union Home Minister, had in September 2017 appeared in the trial court as a defence witness for Kodnani. She had requested the court to summon Shah to prove her alibi that she was present in the Gujarat Assembly and later at Ahmedabad’s Sola Civil Hospital, and not at Naroda Gam, where the massacre took place.
Six different judges have presided over the case since the trial started in 2010.
Washington: India and the United States are facing the same security challenges from China, a top American commander said here Wednesday, noting that the Biden Administration is not only providing assistance to New Delhi with cold weather gear, as it defends its border on the northern side, but also helping India in its effort to develop its own industrial base.
“We value our partnership with India, and we’ve been increasing it and doing a lot more, over time. They have the same security challenge, primary security challenger that we do, and it’s real on their northern border. Two skirmishes now in over the past nine or 10 months on that border, as they continue to get pressurised by the PRC for border gains,” Admiral John Christopher Aquilino, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Indo-Pacific National Security Challenges.
Admiral Aquilino was responding to a question from Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna. “I would like you to reflect on the importance of the relationship — postcolonialism India and China had a relationship to emerge as the Asian voice. But that relationship now has really soured with a concern that there should not be a hegemon in Asia and that China is treating other countries as junior partners,” Khanna said.
“It seems to me that this gives us an opportunity to ensure that China doesn’t emerge as a hegemon to strengthen the relationship with India,” said the Indian American Congressman.
Aquillino said both India and the US have the same security challenges. “We also have the desire to operate together, based on the world’s largest democracy. We have common values, and we also have people, the people ties for a number of years. I met with General Chauhan, my counterpart, at the Raisina Dialogue not long ago. I’ve been to India five times now in the past two years.
“So, the importance of that relationship can’t be overstated. We operate together, frequently, with the Quad Nations. Again, the Quad is not a security agreement, it’s diplomatic and economic, but the Quad Nations come together, often, to operate together in multiple exercises. So, we continue to work to be interoperable and to expand the relationship,” he observed.
In response to another question from Congressman Patrick Ryan, the admiral said India is a critical partner and besides conducting joint war exercises in the Malabar, the US is providing assistance to India “as it applies to cold weather gear and other capabilities that they might need, as they defend their border on the northern side.”
“But additionally, we’re expanding our cooperation in the form of production as India tries to work to develop its own industrial base. So, C-130 critical components made in India, helicopter critical frameworks made in India. That is expanding the partnership and moving them towards self-sufficiency and increased partnership with the United States,” Aquilino added.
Referring to the recently launched India-US initiative for critical and emerging technology announced by the national security advisors of the two countries, Jedidiah P Royal, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security, said: “We’re already delivering offers under the context of the ISAT arrangement. This is a real moment of convergence for the United States and India and we’re looking to take full advantage of it, going forward.”
Testifying before the committee, Royal said: “India faces the same challenger that we face in the region. So what we’re seeing right now is a moment of strategic convergence in our relationship with the government of India. There’s a lot of momentum in that regard. With respect to your question on from whom do they buy their weapons, we believe that they are through a generational process of looking to diversify off of traditional suppliers.
“We want to make sure that the US defence industrial base is in the best position possible to be India’s partner of choice moving forward,” he said.
In response to another question, Aquilino said the US is working with our Indian partners both to advance their warfighting capabilities together to ensure that the US is sharing information that’s needed.
“We do have the same strategic competitor or whatever definition we want to put on it and in my time over in the theatre now for five years straight, it has increased exponentially. It’s trending in the right direction. They’re really good partners,” he said.
Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday threw a selfie challenge at Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The former Chief Minister took to Twitter to post selfies taken in front of the houses for the poor built by his TDP government and dared Jagan Mohan Reddy to post selfies of the houses built during the four-year rule of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
Naidu posted selfies with the houses built by the Township Infrastructure Development Corporation (TIDCO) in Nellore.
“See Y S Jagan. These are thousands of TIDCO houses built for the poor in Nellore alone by our government. This is a living example of lakhs of TIDCO houses built in the state,” tweeted Naidu.
“How many houses have you built in these four years? Where are the houses you mentioned? Can you answer?” the TDP President asked the Chief Minister with a hashtag selfie challenge to Jagan.
Naidu’s selfie challenge came close on the heels of his son and TDP General Secretary Nara Lokesh posting selfies with the projects built during the TDP’s rule.
During his ongoing padyatra in Anantapur district, Lokesh posted several selfies with the projects and the development achieved during the TDP rule.
On March 30, Lokesh posted a selfie in front of the Kia car plant which was set up when the TDP was in power. “You can’t even dream of bringing a company like this to Andhra Pradesh,” Lokesh told Jagan.
Washington: India and the US share a robust working relationship on addressing the major challenge posed by fentanyl drugs, a top health official in the Biden administration has said.
Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid primarily used as an analgesic. Since 2018, fentanyl and its analogues have been responsible for most drug overdose deaths in the US, causing over 71,238 deaths in 2021.
The Biden administration launched a massive campaign on Thursday to educate young people about the dangers of fentanyl and the life-saving effects of Naloxone, a medicine that reverses opioid-related overdoses.
“India has been very enthusiastic working with the United States to address this (fentanyl problem) because it understands the significance at a global level of leadership,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position which is popularly known as Drug Czar, told PTI.
He said India is acting like a global leader when it comes to addressing the threat of synthetic drugs.
“There is a robust working relationship between the United States and India on this because it understands the significance at a global level of leadership,” said Dr Gupta, who is one of the highest-ranking Indian Americans in the Biden administration.
Referring to remarks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India is the pharmacy of the world, Gupta said the country has a large pharmaceutical and chemical industry.
“There’s a lot of work going on, including bilateral working relationships around synthetic drugs, and mental health as well as the pharmaceutical arena,” he said.
“We are very excited about that relationship. We’re looking forward to furthering our bilateral relationship and strengthening it because we know that India can and will and is playing the role of a global leader in this area,” Gupta said.
The United States and Indian governments are working to make sure that they are both looking at their scheduling regimes, he said.
“How do we schedule controlled substances? We’re working together to counteract the drug supply routes and networking, as well as prevention of the diversion of these chemicals,” he said.
Gupta said the chemicals are often shipped to other countries and used in the production of these deadly drugs.
He said the two countries are also working together on issues like addiction, treatment expansion, the overlap that happens between mental health and addiction.
“There’s a lot of work, but we’re excited about the enthusiasm and the ability of both countries to partner on this very important topic,” he said.
He said the data shows that less than half of the young people in the US know or understand that fentanyl, a dangerous drug that can kill them, is in their drug supply.
“But if you look at it from a pandemic standpoint, so much has changed: which drugs are out in the market has changed how people acquire drugs and what those drugs have changed,” he said.
As part of the campaign, he said the aim is to meet young people to tell them that they can also have the tools to save lives.
Carrying Naloxone or Narcan, which is an antidote for opioids like fentanyl, it is important for them to carry it because they could be saving the life of themselves, their friends, neighbours, or somebody at school or work, Gupta said.
“It’s really important for us to be telling young people that you are empowered and have the ability to save other people’s lives and carry naloxone with you. Because we don’t know next time who is going to be going through the poisoning,” he said.
“We are also adding to the social media work, and messengers, digital ads that will be displayed in certain states in places like subway stations, college malls, grocery stores to make sure that we meet young people where they are and share this important message, which can often be potentially lifesaving,” he said.
“This is a challenge, … prevails throughout communities, and I’ve seen this in the Indian American community, that it has taken the toll and has taken the lives of young children as well as young adults. So, it’s really important that we spread this message,” he said.
Jaipur:The Rajasthan government has decided to challenge in the Supreme Court the acquittal of four accused in the Jaipur serial blasts case by the High Court, an official said.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the government will file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in this matter in the top court.
An official spokesperson said the decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Gehlot at his residence Friday night.
Gehlot said the state government is determined that the culprits are given the harshest punishment.
A Special Leave Petition (SLP) will be filed in the Supreme Court against the decision of the Rajasthan High Court, he said in the meeting.
The chief minister also decided to terminate the services of Additional Advocate General Rajendra Yadav, who was appointed to appear in this case, the spokesperson said.
“After examining in a high-level meeting, a decision has been taken to appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision in the Jaipur bomb blast case. The state government will ensure justice to the victims by engaging the best lawyers,” Gehlot tweeted.
Chief Secretary Usha Sharma, Principal Secretary (Home) Anand Kumar, Director General of Police Umesh Mishra and other officers were present in the meeting.
The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday had acquitted the four accused in the case, who were sentenced to death by a special court in 2019. The high court also pulled up the probe agency for its “poor” investigation.
The special court on December 18, 2019 had convicted accused Mohd Sarwar Azmi, Mohd Saif, Mohd Salman and Saifur Rahman in the case while giving benefit of doubt to Shahbaz Hussain and acquitted him. The state government challenged the acquittal of Shahbaz Hussain in the high court. At the same time, all four convicted had filed an appeal against the sentence.
A division bench of high court Justice Pankaj Bhandari and Justice Sameer Jain on Wednesday acquitted the four accused. The court, in its order, also confirmed the acquittal of a fifth person — Shahbaz Hussain — by the trial court.
Jaipur was rocked by a series of blasts on May 13, 2008 when bombs went off one after another at Manak Chawk Khanda, Chandpole Gate, Badi Chaupad, Chhoti Chaupad, Tripolia Gate, Johri Bazar and Sanganeri Gate.
The explosions had left 71 people dead and 185 injured.
One live bomb was recovered near Ramchandra Temple which was defused by a bomb disposal squad.
A young geneticist, Dr Rais A Gania was surprised to see his takeaways from his PhD were part of the text well before he entered the classroom as a teacher. Credited for identifying a particular enzyme that helps in crucial DNA copying, he is serving the IUST’s molecular medicine centre. In a freewheeling interview, he opens up about his research and future plans
TheNewsCaravan (KL): You studied in Kashmir and worked in different universities all over the world. How was your learning curve and what were the challenges you faced?
DR RAIS A GANAI (DRAG): I was born and brought up in the Posh-Kirri village of Anantnag. I did my primary schooling at Government Primary School in the same village. Later, I went to the Government Middle in the nearby Hugam village. Later, my father suggested me to complete further studies in Srinagar, as he was working at the University of Kashmir. Then, I went to the Starland High School Zakura and completed my matriculation there.
In Srinagar, I found it very difficult to compete with students because of the language barrier, as the medium of instruction was different. It was a challenging task to learn English and Urdu languages. It took me a lot of time to cope with the level of the students.
Then I completed my 10+2 from Soura Higher Secondary School. Afterwards, I went to the Islamia College of Science and Commerce, where from I completed my graduation. Even though there was not an ample structure at that time but the laboratories were well established. Attendance of labs was mandatory, due to which my scientific temper got developed.
After that, I was selected at the University of Kashmir for a couple of courses but I chose to study Biotechnology. After completing the Master’s degree in Biotechnology, I went to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where I worked under the mentorship of Prof Umesh Varshney and worked intensely on various Biotechnological challenges. He invested a lot of money, time and effort and taught me many new things due to which my interest in the research further deepened. During this time a few of my research papers were published.
Then I went to Sweden in 2009 for my PhD and completed it in 2015 and later got an international Postdoc fellowship offer in Sweden amounting to Rs 2.5 crore. I used that fellowship and immigrated to the USA. There I joined the NewYork based Howard Huges Medical Institute. I did research there for almost 2-3 years under the well-known researcher Danny Reinberg.
Then I came back to Kashmir as a Ramanujan Fellow. Initially, I joined the Central University of Kashmir and later moved to the IUST’s Watson-Crick Centre for Molecular Medicine in 2020.
KL: The work on genetics has been going on in all major universities throughout the world. However, we still have not understood the gene fully. What are the various challenges in understanding the gene, and what are the different goalposts we still have to reach?
DRAG: The gene is actually a small DNA sequence made of sugar bases like Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, and Cytosine (A, G, T, C). They are about 3 billion sugar bases called Nucleotides (made of Deoxyribose sugar, the Phosphate group, and the Nitrogen base) in a DNA molecule arranged in a chain structure. All the Nucleotides in a DNA molecule do not constitute genes, but only 1-2 per cent makes the genes and the rest 98-99 per cent of the base pairs do not attribute to the genes.
Scientists have identified most of the genes in our body and their functioning but the functioning of the rest 98 per cent of the non-genomic sequences (regulatory sequences) is still not known. We only know that these contain non-genomic sequences that regulate the genes, but the biggest challenge is to find out how 98 per cent of DNA regulates the 1 per cent of DNA.
The other major challenge was to understand the three-dimensional structure of DNA and its arrangement inside the cell. The chromosomes are arranged in compartmental structures. How and when these compartments are formed is yet to be discovered. How these genes are activated and repressed in the cells is still a challenge.
The actual structure of a DNA molecule has a three-dimensional chromatin architecture. These DNA molecules are present on the chromosomes. Our body contains 46 chromosomes in each cell that are intertwined inside the cell. The intertwined structure of chromosomes helps in the better expression of genes during cell division and cell formation. All the required genes express together and activate simultaneously in order to form a complete cell.
KL: What was your PhD all about and what were the major takeaways from your research?
DRAG: As I mentioned that DNA is a small molecule contained in a cell. A cell contains two meters of intertwined DNA, which if stretched is equivalent to at least four times the distance between the sun and the earth. During cell division and cell multiplication, this DNA is replicated/ duplicated which has to be very accurate. Genetic defects during cell division cause mutations/errors, which lead to genetic diseases, metabolic disorders, or even cancer.
During my PhD, my research was about the role of an enzyme called DNA polymerase in DNA replication. This enzyme reads, copies, and then makes the exact copy of a parent DNA molecule. The three billion nucleotides of a DNA molecule in a cell are copied accurately without any error or defect with the help of this enzyme. Besides, it also rectifies the errors, which are caused during cell division and helps in errorless duplication. Thus, the DNA polymerase enzyme not only plays a role in DNA replication but also fixes the errors caused during DNA replication, if any.
I also studied the functioning of various other enzymes but the pivotal research was about DNA polymerase. The majority of DNA polymerase enzymes look like, if I can say, a right-hand structure, containing a thumb, a palm, and fingers. The DNA polymerase, we studied has an additional domain called the P-domain, unlike the other DNA-Polymerase enzymes which only have three domains. The majority of DNA-Polymerase enzymes require a scaffold or support (called PCNA) for DNA copy and replication, but the DNA-polymerase we studied does not require PCNA rather it has the inbuilt P-domain that helps in DNA synthesis and thus does not require an outside scaffold. This was the biggest takeaway from my PhD research.
To my surprise, I later found when I was at the Central University of Kashmir, that our work and findings were published in textbooks, and are being taught to students in different Universities all over the world. It was a very difficult project to work on because nobody prior to us had worked on this. Our work was then published in the Journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, which now is a part of the textbooks and is being taught.
Dr Rais A Gania (WCCMM)
KL: What was your Post-doctorate research about, and what were your accomplishments and learnings during that period?
DRAG: I mostly studied two things during my Postdoc research, the role of epigenetic factors in the development, and the development of stem cells into the cardiomyocyte.
I actually wanted to expand and diversify my expertise, so I shifted to the field of epigenetics.
Under epigenetics, we study how the genes present in the DNA are regulated. Let us understand it this way – if we have two monozygotic twins and one of them is raised by the adopted parents and the other by the natural parents. Technically, after 30 years of age, both should be identical because of the principle of monozygotic nature, but because of the environmental effects, they would have developed variations over time. It is because the influence of environmental conditions affects the development of an individual and that regulates the body. Thus, the effect of an environment on the development over time, beyond the genetic basis and beyond DNA is called epigenetics.
There are thousands of genes on a DNA molecule and there are specific factors that actually regulate the functioning of these genes. I also worked on these factors.
DNA is wrapped around by the histone proteins. These proteins contain chemical modifications or tags that determine the function of the DNA sequence. I worked on early embryonic development, particularly on stem cells. I studied how differentiated development takes place from a single cell into different kinds of complex organs i.e., how a stem cell is transformed into a cardiomyocyte.
KL: How could you make lawmen understand this differentiation of a stem cell into different complex organs? What really controls this differentiation of cells? Is this also part of epigenetics?
DRAG: Nobody really knows how embryonic development occurs as it is not easy to study this field. People have now started research on it.
During embryonic development, the fusion of egg and sperm results in the formation of a Zygote, which later undergoes the 2-cell stage and the 4-cell stage, and so on. From day one of development certain genes are activated which stimulates the Zygote division and this division activates other genes, which then cause muscle cell formation. More and more genes get activated that guide the muscle cells to transform into different complex organs. It is mostly like this, but there is still ambiguity on how embryonic development takes place through different stages of development.
KL: What is your role at the IUST’s Watson-Crick Centre for Molecular Medicine and what are the different domains you are working on?
DRAG: I am establishing my lab here for research purposes. Besides, I am also the coordinator of the B Voc course on the Medical Lab and Molecular Diagnostic Technology. I teach students also. I guide students on how to do diagnostic tests and the process of opening diagnostic clinics.
The primary part of my job at the Watson-Crick Centre is to do research along with my students who work with me on the continuation of my PhD research work. We are studying the role of DNA polymerase enzyme other than the role of DNA synthesis.
Secondarily, we are also studying epigenetics. Epigenetic marks at different positions of a DNA molecule, other than the normal positions cause diseases like cancer, and developmental and neurodegenerative diseases, among others. Therefore, our aim is to research epigenetics in detail in order to develop drugs for the treatment of these diseases.
New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that the Bhutan-India relationship is facing a Chinese challenge, which also poses a threat to the Siliguri Corridor – the land bridge to the northeastern states.
“Bhutan and India’s so far unshakeable relationship is facing a challenge from an aggressive China. We urge the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) to not hide behind smokescreens and ensure that this very long-standing partnership with Bhutan remains strong and is further deepened,” he said in a statement.
He said the Modi government presented the 2017 Doklam standoff as a “major victory”, but since then the Chinese have engaged in an unprecedented military infrastructure buildup in the area, and also built villages and roads adjacent to the Doklam plateau many kilometres inside Bhutanese territory.
“It is well-known that the adjacent Chumbi Valley poses a potential threat to India’s strategic Siliguri Corridor, the so-called Chicken’s Neck that connects the seven northeastern states with the rest of the country. In this context the remark by Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering that ‘there is no intrusion’ into Bhutan by China and that Beijing has an ‘equal’ say in any discussion over its illegal intrusions raises several concerns.”
The Congress leader also questioned if there a dilution in the unwavering Indian and Bhutanese contention that the tri-junction of India, China, and Bhutan lies at Batang La, and not at Mount Gipmochi as the Chinese claim? This could cause a serious problem for the security of the Siliguri Corridor, he warned.
The recent Chinese construction reportedly includes an all-weather road in the Amu Chu river basin inside Bhutan moving south towards the Jhamperi Ridge that overlooks the Siliguri Corridor. “Is China eyeing the coveted Jhamperi Ridge from a new angle? What is India doing to defend Bhutan and to prevent the Chinese from reaching this important geographical feature?
“When will the Modi government respond to China’s renewed verbal, geographical and military aggression?” Ramesh asked.
