SRINAGAR: Secretary, Tourism and Culture, Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah on Friday said that in the run-up to the G-20 event, slated to be held in the last week of May, massive participation of the general public has been witnessed in Jammu & Kashmir and that the young minds are being given an of how things operate on a global platform through the participatory exercises.
Shah spoke to the reporters on the sidelines of the model G20 summit, which was organized by the Tourism department at SKICC, Srinagar.
Shah said that a very important event is going to be held in Kashmir in the last week of May and as part of a participatory exercise where students from various colleges and schools and especially universities are being involved, a model G20 summit was organized to give these young minds a taste of how things operate on a global platform.
“In the run-up to the G-20 event, there is massive participation that we have seen from the people of Jammu & Kashmir, the government of J&K is organizing different events in the run-up to the main event to give a sense of public participation for the massive event for us on the international scale and has a potential to promote J&K tourism on the next level,” he said.
We are also making sure that while we are preparing for the main event, we encourage a lot of public participation to give a sense of involvement to the general public, especially the young bright minds, he said.
“Majority of the GDP comes from tourism as it is the backbone of our economy, so therefore, we have to project, promote and manage tourism in J&K in the right perspective so that it is taken to the next level on a local stand,” he added.
He added that J&K was always the prime destination for film tourism where the movies were being shot. “Now, I am happy to inform you that in the last year, over 200 movies have been shot in J&K. At present, the big film stars are coming in and today also we have a very big film crew in the town and there are queries for the future as well. The department has come up with a very strong facilitator ecosystem concerning film tourism,” he said.
“We are trying to promote new tourism destinations. For this calendar year, we have planned 300 new destinations while some of them are already up and there are 75 offbeat destinations among them. The government as well as the tourism department is trying to project other destinations where fewer tourists are visiting,” he said, adding that 75 cultural heritage and adventurous destinations, and religious destinations have been shortlisted. “We are taking a holistic view in this regard,” he said. (KNO)
The party’s list of potential demands — which includes an across-the-board cut to discretionary spending and stricter work requirements on programs like food stamps — is likely to change as House Republicans hash out a formal bill over the coming weeks. One big flashpoint: They’re proposing to raise the debt limit for just one year, triggering another battle over the federal purse in the middle of the 2024 presidential primaries.
The Republican lawmaker close to the talks, who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity, called leadership’s forthcoming proposal “just an opening salvo” and said there’s no specific whip count of support underway yet.
But McCarthy and members of his leadership team are hard at work behind the scenes. That includes two months of rank-and-file “listening sessions” with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) — six to 10 members at a time — and broader talks led by McCarthy and Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) among various factions within the conference, designed to solicit ideas.
“Certainly leadership wouldn’t put this on paper … without having spoken to a number of people,” Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) said, estimating that he had been in no less than 10 of those meetings in the last few months.
“This is a culmination of all the conversations from leadership, from speaker from majority leader from the whip, talking to so many people over the last … 85 days about what they’d like to see in a debt limit deal. And that’s why you’re seeing this,” he added.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for McCarthy. The California Republican must avoid a misstep that would weaken his speakership — which any single frustrated member could force a vote to terminate. And unlike other GOP agenda items, which satisfy the party base despite their slim chances of becoming law, any debt-ceiling moves are bound to draw internal criticism while possibly exacting economic consequences.
McCarthy is slated to deliver a speech Monday at the New York Stock Exchange that’s expected to focus on the debt limit. The flurry of new activity comes as the nation’s borrowing power to pay its bills is set to run out as soon as this summer.
Privately, Democrats close to party leadership said the entire GOP list is a nonstarter. President Joe Biden’s party continues to insist it will accept nothing other than a clean debt limit lift.
In addition, McCarthy will have to contend with several cooks in his own financial kitchen. No less than four factions within his conference are already floating their own ideas as they try to shape McCarthy’s initial bid.
The more centrist Main Street Caucus, in a letter to McCarthy on Thursday, reiterated its support for the California Republican, while outlining its own debt priorities. Those include clawing back unspent coronavirus relief cash, reversing Biden’s student loan relief moves and forming a commission that would propose ways to shore up Medicare and Social Security without cutting benefits.
“This letter outlines those proposals that have garnered the most support from our caucus, and we have every confidence they can secure 218 votes in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Main Street Chair Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) and Vice Chair Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) wrote. Some of their ideas are also included in GOP leadership’s draft proposal.
The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus has also presented its own ideas to members in Zoom meetings over the recess.
Meanwhile, Hern has not only put out a debt “playbook” for the Republican Study Committee, but is now pushing for a specific timeline. He added that while leadership had to be wary of “deal killers,” Republicans are well-positioned to be able to hold a vote by the end of this month.
To bolster his push to hold a debt vote quickly, Hern is delaying the release of his group’s balanced budget proposal, which he had previously vowed would be out by April 15, until May.
The Republican Study Committee moves are in addition to those by the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, which sparked grumbles from across the conference when it publicly outlined its thinking on the debt ceiling — though its chair, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), stressed that the group wasn’t making “demands.”
Republicans involved in the talks said their members understand the need to coalesce behind a single debt measure. Their goal: Convince Democrats that they’re serious about slashing spending.
“We need to get to 218 votes, get it passed with the most conservative 218 votes in the conference and get it sent to the Senate — and then let the president and the Democrats in the Senate tell the American people why they didn’t want to change the direction of the spending that’s caused the inflation that we’re seeing today,” Hern said.
The GOP’s list, which is widely circulating on K Street, does not include not everything that will go into the debt limit bill, according to a half dozen people close to Republican leadership.
While the party hasn’t formally decided how much in across-the-board spending cuts to support, Republicans are clear that they plan to pare back large chunks of discretionary spending to fiscal year 2022 levels. The GOP’s proposal includes a 1 percent uptick each year after that, though some Republicans have called for more stringent spending cuts.
Others in the GOP conference are agitating for caps on defense spending, too, creating another likely conflict with colleagues who don’t want to trim the Pentagon.
What’s not included in the emerging GOP proposal: A conservative push to claw back $80 billion for tax enforcement that was included in Democrats’ tax, climate and health bill last year. Also left out are border policies pushed by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and others on the right.
Caitlin Emma, Meredith Lee Hill and Olivia Beavers contributed.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Their projection was for “a mild recession starting later this year, with a recovery over the subsequent two years,” according to the minutes, released Wednesday. That would spark a jump in unemployment. They estimated the economy would fully recover by 2025.
The economic outlook is always difficult to foretell with any confidence, and staff members underscored their uncertainty at the meeting. If banks don’t pull back on lending as much as they expect, then the economy might not suffer as much. But if the financial system were to face even more stress, then the prognosis could be much worse.
“Historical recessions related to financial market problems tend to be more severe and persistent than average recessions,” staff noted, according to the minutes.
For their part, officials with an actual say in rate policy aren’t quite forecasting a recession. At the March meeting, their median projection was for the U.S. economy to grow 0.4 percent — a rate so slow that it could easily dip negative. Meanwhile, they expect unemployment to rise roughly a percentage point, conditions that would be consistent with an economic contraction.
Fed officials expect the recent string of bank failures to lead cash to flow less freely through the economy as lenders are less willing to part with it, something Chair Jerome Powell has noted could act as essentially another rate hike.
Central bank policymakers are considering whether another rate hike will be needed when they meet next in May, or if borrowing costs are high enough for now to bring inflation down over time.
Members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee said in March “that it was too early to assess with confidence the magnitude of the effect of a credit tightening on economic activity and inflation, and that it was important to continue to closely monitor developments,” according to the minutes.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hyderabad: City police commissioner C V Anand said here on Saturday that women alone can realise their potential and they should seize the day.
“Women have to realize that no one is going to give you. You must go and get it,” the police commissioner said while attending the annual general session and Change of Guard of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry The FICCI’s ladies’ organization and Young FICCI ladies’ organization.
“I have always encouraged my wife to pursue her dreams, studies, go out, help others,” he said.
“When I came to know that there has never been a woman SHO (station house officer), I promptly appointed one in Lalaguda police station. She has outperformed her male counterparts in the last year,” C V Anand said.
Anand suggested women should actively take part and be encouraged to become entrepreneurs, including the rural areas.
Ritu Shah succeeded Shubhraa Maheshwari as FLO chairperson and Arthi Shah succeeded Sonali Modi Saraf as YFLO chairperson for the year 2023-2024.
Delivering her address, Shubhraa Maheshwari described the journey as incredible, filled with experiences, challenges, triumphs, and memories.
“Our team strived hard to bring value to members through many speaker sessions from the likes of Nitin Gadkari, Rajat Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Sonu Sood, R Madhavan, Mithali Raj, and many more. We could impact 25,000 women pan-India through our national financial literacy initiative. The digital literacy and education initiatives have benefitted over 1,000 school and college-going girl children,” she said.
President of HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association) and Delivery Head of Infosys Manisha Saboo was also present.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the grand jury wouldn’t hear evidence in the Donald Trump case on Thursday. | Karsten Moran for POLITICO
NEW YORK — The Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence in the criminal investigation of Donald Trump’s alleged role in hush money payment to Stormy Daniels is evaluating an unrelated case Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter, making any potential indictment of the former president unlikely before next week.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the grand jury wouldn’t hear evidence in the Trump case on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the panel was adjourned, POLITICO reported. The grand jury typically meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and it heard from at least one witness in the Trump case earlier this week.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
No, but it appears very likely. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has brought numerous witnesses before the grand jury and offered Trump a chance to go before the grand jury, an indication that the office will seek to indict him. Though it is possible for the grand jury to vote against charging him, grand juries rarely decline to indict. And if the district attorney’s office thought they were in danger of the grand jury voting “no,” prosecutors likely would have paused the proceedings.
What does the grand jury vote entail?
After prosecutors finish presenting witnesses, an assistant district attorney will tell the 23-person grand jury which charges they will be considering and will read them the text of the law. The grand jury will then leave to discuss the case and vote on it. An indictment requires 12 or more jurors to vote yes. If that happens, the vote will be recorded on a form and signed, then taken by someone from the district attorney’s office to either the clerk’s office or to the office of the judge who is overseeing the grand jury. It will be placed into an envelope, sealed and stamped by a clerk.
How will we know if and when Trump is indicted?
Once the indictment is stamped, the district attorney’s office will notify an attorney for Trump that he has been indicted. At this point, Trump is free to make this information public.
Will he be arrested? Will his mug shot be taken? When will he appear in court?
Because the case is white-collar, the district attorney’s office will ask Trump’s attorney when he plans to come to New York to be arraigned. The law doesn’t require a defendant to turn himself in within a specific timeframe, so the timing here is flexible. Whenever he comes to New York, he and his attorney will report to the district attorney’s office where Trump will be arrested and booked, which means he’ll be finger-printed and have his mug shot taken. He may also get a DNA swab. It is unclear how his Secret Service protection may affect this process.
He’ll then be taken to a judge, where the district attorney’s office will ask for the indictment to be unsealed. It is possible that he’ll be handcuffed when he is transported from the district attorney’s office to court — a short walk away within the same building.
At this point, he’ll be arraigned, which means he’ll have to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. And then he’ll be released, because the charges he is likely to face are non-bailable.
What happens next?
The judge will set a date for his next court appearance, usually for the defense and prosecution to discuss additional steps as well as a potential discussion about the discovery process.
After his initial court appearance, Trump will most likely be able to return to his Florida home, or wherever he chooses.
And how far will House Republicans take their Bragg investigation?
House Republicans followed through with a pledge to investigate Bragg over claims of a politicized judicial process — but the probe is still in its infancy. Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), James Comer (R-Ky.) and Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) — the chairs of the Judiciary, Oversight and Administration committees — fired off a letter to Bragg accusing him of “actions [that] will erode confidence in the evenhanded application of justice and unalterably interfere in the course of the 2024 presidential election” if Trump is indicted. (A DA spokesperson responded saying they wouldn’t be “intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process.”)
Republicans are giving Bragg until 10:00 a.m. Thursday to set up an interview with committee staff. They also want a tranche of documents and records, including any related to federal funding or communications with the Justice Department and other federal law enforcement agencies.
Those requests are, for now, voluntary, and the letter doesn’t include a mention of a “compulsory” process if Bragg doesn’t comply. In other words, no subpoenas.
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari has revealed that it received a ransom demand related to customer contact details that may have been compromised in a ransomware attack. In a statement released on March 20, Ferrari said that it immediately began an investigation in collaboration with a leading cybersecurity firm upon receipt of the ransom demand. It also informed the relevant authorities and expressed confidence that they would investigate the incident to the fullest extent of the law.
While Ferrari did not specify when the attack occurred, it may be related to reports of a ransomware attack in October 2022, when the RansomEXX group claimed to have stolen and leaked 7 GB of data from Ferrari. The car maker denied the claims at the time.
“As a policy, Ferrari will not be held to ransom as paying such demands funds criminal activity and enables threat actors to perpetuate their attacks,” Ferrari stated. “Instead, we believed the best course of action was to inform our clients and thus we have notified our customers of the potential data exposure and the nature of the incident.”
The company has contacted its customers via email, informing them that the exposed information includes their name, address, email address, and phone number. Ferrari has not found any evidence that financial information or details on owned or ordered cars have been compromised.
With one of the most expensive car lineups in the world, a contact list of wealthy customers is very attractive to cybercriminals. They could use the information to customize malicious, targeted emails.
Ferrari has confirmed that the breach has not affected the operational functions of the company and that it has worked with “third-party experts” to strengthen its system security. The company has not mentioned RansomEXX in its statement, but the ransomware gang has been linked to several other attacks, including those on logistics giant Hellmann Worldwide, software and services firm Tyler Technologies, and others.
Ferrari’s stance on not paying ransoms is in line with industry best practices, which discourage organizations from funding cybercriminals. However, this can lead to the exposure of sensitive information, which can be damaging to a company’s reputation and lead to potential legal repercussions. As such, it is essential that organizations take steps to secure their systems and protect their data from cyber threats.
Rep. Chip Roy said an indictment of the former president would be “politically-motivated” — a symptom of what Roy called a “politicized ‘justice’ system that will be (is being) weaponized against ALL Americans.”
Sen. JD Vancetweeted “We simply don’t have a real country if justice depends on politics,” maintaining that a Trump indictment would not cause him to reconsider his endorsement of the former president in 2024.
Prominent Trump-allied Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also responded in support of McCarthy’s tweet as Democrats immediately hit back.
“The guy who created a committee to look into ‘weaponization of government’ is using his powers in government to stop an independent prosecution of his boss,” Rep. Eric Swalwellwrote in his own tweet.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg defended the ongoing investigation in various media appearances this week, saying his team of prosecutors are “focused on the evidence and the law.”
Earlier in the morning, Greene unleashed a tirade of accusations against Bragg and “Biden’s DOJ,” calling on congressional Republicans to respond with legal action.
“Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this! We have the power to do it and we also have the power to DEFUND their salaries and departments!” Greene tweeted. “The American people deserve a government that actually works for them NOT a bunch of self centered communists who bail out their donors, protect the elites, and weld [sic] their power to punish their political enemies!”
Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, the only Republican presidential hopeful in 2024 to comment so far, said a Trump indictment “would be a national disaster,” and that it is “un-American for the ruling party to use police power to arrest its political rivals,” before calling on the Manhattan DA to “reconsider this action and to put aside partisan politics in service of preserving our Constitutional republic.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
As the 2024 race heats up, Walker is now weighing in on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential White House hopeful who is heralded as one of the more promising Republicans to emerge in the post-Trump era.
“I think of all the governors in America, he probably handled the best during the last four years,” said Walker.
POLITICO’s video team showed Walker some clips from DeSantis’ State of the State. Watch here to see what he had to say, including what grade he would give Desantis.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
A junior scientist at SKUAST-K, Dr Khalid Zaffar Masoodi is an award-winning biotechnologist who has been working on cancer biology. Founder of Kashmir’s first faculty-led biotech company of Kashmir, Cashmir Biotech Pvt. Ltd, he has been working on low-cost, healthy, non-toxic, and safe designer foods to cure and prevent various disorders including cancer through futuristic functional foods. Currently, his laboratory’s research is related to the identification of anticancer molecules for prostate cancer from medicinal plants endemic to Kashmir. In a freewheeling interview with Masood Hussain, he offers his knowledge about awareness to deliver and contribute new innovations in biotechnology and research on the causes, treatment and prevention of cancer through anticancer functional foods, designer foods, and superfoods.
TheNewsCaravan (KL): The conventional wisdom is that local issues have local solutions. Can we have local solutions to local health issues as well?
Khalid Z Masoodi (KZM): There are more than 200 types of cancer throughout the world and we can classify cancers according to where they start in the body, such as breast cancer ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer etc. We can also group cancer according to the type of cell they start in and these cancers are increasing day by day worldwide. 20 per cent of these cancers are genetic in origin according to studies and 80 per cent are caused by environmental factors, food habits and lifestyle changes. These factors mutate the DNA and cause changes in normal cell growth.
For example, our bodies intake 210 mcg per day of cancer-causing hormone-disrupting chemical phthalates found in every soft and flexible plastic we use in our daily life. The beverages in the plastic bottle are injurious as these plastic containers have phthalates that bind to endocrine receptors and overexcite them resulting in malignancies.
In dark chocolates toxic metals are lurking, it is a state of serious concern as they cause cancer. Preservatives used in foods contain carcinogenic components. Every single person consumes 150 pounds or 60-88 kg of preservatives in a year. Most of the preservatives’ in vogue contain acrylamide which is carcinogenic. The most popular fast food of today’s generation is French fries, potato chips, pizza, and cold drinks in which the presence of Acrylamide and glycidamide has been found. Burgers contain Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Studies show HCAs and PAHs cause changes in DNA that may increase the risk of cancer. Pizza preservatives – TBHQ and BHA, has been identified as human carcinogen. 1n 2016 as we all know potassium bromate used to soften bread and in many other food items was banned in India as they were found carcinogenic during the course of research.
The estimated numbers of cancer in 2022 were 17 per cent in the case of breast cancer, 14 per cent in prostate cancer, 4.9 per cent in thyroid cancer, and lung cancer was estimated to be 14.3 per cent worldwide. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths and the primary diagnosed cancer in men. No defined therapy against prostate cancer is present. Drugs cease to function after treatment in most cases. There is a need to cure and prevent deadly diseases with a healthier approach.
We define here the concept of Designer Foods that have added health benefits. Designer foods are normal foods fortified with health-promoting ingredients. These foods are similar in appearance to normal foods and are consumed regularly as a part of the diet. These foods are safe, non-toxic, organic, are cost-effective while the drugs available are cost-extensive and unaffordable by the majority classes of society and have added off-target effects.
We believe that a smart diet containing anticancer small molecules and molecules that can treat these disorders can help prevent these disorders The changing food habits of the modern world have changed, from green food (green vegetables), and herbs, to fast food, which is the main concern. We have experimentally shown that these greens, underutilised plants have high antioxidant properties. Some of our studies found some Haakh varieties have high anticancer potential against prostate and lung cancer cells.
KL: Can you tell us about your academic journey?
KZM: I completed my schooling at Burn Hall School, Srinagar and continued further studies at AMU. I completed my BSC (Hons) in Botany from AMU and pursued MSc and PhD in Plant Biotechnology from Jammu University under the mentorship of Prof Manoj K Dhar, former VC, University of Jammu, which I completed in 2010.
KL:What were the takeaways from your PhD?
KZM: During my PhD, I worked on the reconstruction of carotenoid biosynthetic pathway genes from purple-black carrot (Daucuscarota L). We successfully engineered E Coli that produced Lycopene and beta-carotene. Besides, we increased the production of these carotenoids using the Amplification Promoting Sequence, which increased the copy number of genes and hence their transcription and translation. We also worked on anthocyanins that act as effective natural food bio-colourant and real-time indicators of food spoilage that later helped in developing a smart gel that changes colour with a change in pH and can be used in food industries, biomedical industries and agriculture industries. Synthetic food colours pose a greater threat to humans and are responsible for causing various types of cancers and cardiovascular diseases.
KL: You continued your post-doctorate in the same field or we changed the subject?
KZM: The main expertise in cancer biology was gained during my post-doctoral associateship at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. There, I simultaneously worked on many projects related to gene and drug discoveries against prostate cancer.
We found the role of many genes in prostate cancer progression like ELL2, DHX15, PABPCA, EAF2, PRP8 etc. I also helped discover new androgen receptors targeting small molecules. I also increased the efficacy of IADT, the study which came out in the Journal of Urology, Journal of Endocrinology, Oncogene, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, and PLoS One.
After my return from the USA, I worked as a Senior Resident at SKIMS, Soura for a short time before joining the Division of Plant Biotechnology, SKUAST-Kashmir as an Assistant Professor. The takeaway for me was that cancer cells are smart and if you try to target them through inhibition of the AR pathway they will salvage their survival through the PI3Kinase pathway. In metropolitan India, prostrate is now the third diagnosed cancer.
KL: You worked on cancer and then joined SKUAST-K which is all about agriculture. Is not it an interesting twist in the story?
KZM: It is always a challenge but biotechnologists revolve around the central dogma of molecular biology so DNA, RNA and proteins are the same which makes every organism. Upon my joining SKUAST-K, I surveyed various regions of Jammu and Kashmir to utilize the rich flora for new therapeutics against cancer.
It is very important that we do translational research that can result in an end product that can be commercialized and can be more useful than a mere publication or a patent. We knew that 60 per cent of the drugs in the market are plant-based or their analogues.
A rich repertoire of around 3054 medicinal and aromatic plant species (MAPs) are endogenous to Kashmir but were not explored for anticancer properties against prostate cancer through transcriptomics and AR targeted approach earlier. In a drug discovery programme initiated at SKUAST-K funded SERB, we screened 25,000 medicinal plant extracts from Kashmir’s around 350-400 medicinal plants. It resulted in the discovery of 16 new anticancer molecules against prostate cancer. Of these 16 molecules, five were from edible underutilised plants. Our laboratory has filed eight patents in the last three years.
Dr Khalid Zaffar Masoodi (SKUAST)
KL: Is there something that you can share with us about the new molecules you discovered?
KZM: The molecule SKIDDDL-1 present in the TaxO was the best among all the edible plants, which has been consumed for ages in Kashmir as a food supplement and as a vegetable. Over time, however, its use has diminished. This molecule effectively targeted androgen receptors in prostate cancer and decreased cellular progression, cancer cell migration (metastasis) in vitro and reduced tumour volume, and doubled the life expectancy in the mice xenograft model. A smart diet may help reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer, slow the progression of the disease, and prevent invasiveness and metastasis.
Awaiting a patent, we designed Magic Foods – a range of safe, non-toxic, plant-based anti-prostate cancer futuristic functional foods fortified with our secret TaxO that can be consumed on daily basis by populations worldwide that are at high risk of getting this peculiar cancer. The technology is cheap, safe and has no side effects.
Since SKUAST-K is the first Farm University to implement NEP 2020, now the faculty is permitted to have a start-up. I was joined by my two MSc students as directors of the faculty-led start-up. They are still studying but are job providers at the same time.
When we were doing this research, we had a great visitor from the University of Buffalo, Prof Samina Raja. We thought we can give something better to humanity if we worked together. So we have one collaborative project Haakh.
I am glad to share that soon you will have an anticancer Haakh variety. We are in the final stages of assessment and experimentation and after a thorough study of about 70 different variants of haakh we found some variants that have good activity against lung and prostate cancer.
The American University provided us with a small grant which we utilised in DNA bar-coding our Haakh, which can be accessed through GenBank. SERB, DST, Government of India has been kind enough and given me three successive grants without which what we did would not have been possible. My NC has always been my great support.
KL: Kashmir is India’s main apple basket. Have you worked on apple scab?
KZM: For Kashmir, agriculture is the backbone, especially the apple. The scab results in almost 30-40 per cent loss in apple. To prevent it we use around Rs 325 crore worth of fungicides which eventually go into our bodies through water and food. That is why people living around apple orchards have a higher incidence of endocrine-related issues.
We have worked on biotechnological approaches to scab pathogens in which we have identified new genes that can be used for producing cisgenic apples for scab resistance. This study was also published in one of the reputed high-impact journals. We used comparative transcriptome technology (RNA-Seq) for research that showed some genes expressed in the Maharaji apple and wild-type genotypes like Florina are not expressed in red delicious, so these genes can be transferred into red delicious to make the variety scab resistant. The process of producing cisgenic apples and breeding both techniques is underway.
KL:You have also identified some new wilt-causing pathogens. Tell us something about this.
KZM: One of my PhD scholars, Dr Tasmeen Parihar has identified six new Fusarium spp infecting solanaceous crops that were not earlier known to cause wilt in chilli, brinjal, tomato and capsicum. These findings came out recently in reputed journals.
We have many scientists in collaboration within and outside institutes. I am lucky to have good collaborations with Dr Zahoor A Bhat (Plant Pathology), Dr Khalid Bhat (Fruit Science), Dr Khursheed (Vegetable Sciences), Prof Mudasir Andrabi (Animal Biotechnology), Dr Tawheed Amin (FST) and many more.
KL: There is a major ethical debate regarding biotechnology, especially GM foods.
KZM: In biotechnology, we always have to face challenges related to transgenic plants but the fact is that in the near future (2050) breeding techniques will not be able to fulfil the need of the growing population. We will have to move towards biotechnology to feed the growing population of around 10 billion.
CRISP-Cas technology will enable us to knock out the antibiotic genes used in transgenic progress and we will have transgenic plants with only the gene of interest and not these antibiotic-resistant genes. Besides, we also use recombinant-based excision repair to make Cisgenic Apple. Since this research is going on we will have soon some good results.
