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1997, a good year for Indian science

Indian science took significant steps forward in 1997, the most important one arguably being India's launching of satellites weighing over 1,000 kgs on the first operational polar satellite launch vehicle, PSLV-1C.

Other singular achievements during the year were the development of a genetically-engineered vaccine for hepatitis-B, pioneering liver and lungs transplants, the first space odyssey by Indian-born Kalpana Chawla and Indian-born Dr Rajan Puri's accidental discovery of 'IL-13 smart bombs' to kill cancerous tumours.

Besides, India became the first Asian country design, develop and build a missile destroyer for its navy, grew a race of the fattest rats in the world, another of opium-free poppy, developed a drug to treat kala azar, cloned identical buffalo calves from a single embryo and allegedly created a herbal memory-enhancing drug.

India challenged and won a decisive battle over the patenting of turmeric, nuclear scientists revived a dead nuclear reactor in Rajasthan when a reactor of the same class in Canada had to be buried. This, at a much lower cost than estimated by Canadian scientists. A Rs 1 billion plant gene bank was also set up during the year.

The PSLV-1C, with the indigenously-built IRS-1D riding piggy-back, was launched and, despite a snag, deployed the satellite in its designated slot. By showing it could launch bigger satellites, it proved India could launch satellites for other countries too -- at very competitive prices.

Indian-born Kalpana Chawla became the country's first woman to go into space. She was part of the crew of space shuttle Columbia.

Dr Rajan Puri at the Food and Drug Administration in Bethesda, USA, found that Interleukin-13 targeted cancerous cells. When he attached a anti-cancer drug to the protein, he watched in amazement as the combination exterminated tumours in mice within a few weeks.

The country also commissioned its first indigenously-built missile destroyer -- the INS Delhi, the first to be built by any Asian navy.

Scientists at a private firm in Hyderabad developed the nation's first genetically-engineered vaccine for hepatitis-B --- the Shanvac-B. The vaccine, which will cost just one-third the price of imported varieties, is allegedly far more potent.

The National Institute of Nutrition at Hyderabad created a stir in the scientific world by producing the world's fattest rats, each weighing 1.4 kg, against a normal of 300 gms. Developed by selective breeding, the scientists claim these are also the world's most genetically pure breed of rats.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi carryied out the country's first liver transplant while surgeons in Madras did the country's first bilateral lung transplant.

India developed a liposome-based drug to treat kala azar and fungal infections. It is for the first time that such a drug has been produced outside the United States.

Scientists in Lucknow developed Sujata, a opium-free poppy which can be harvested as a non-narcotic crop for its seeds and seed-oil.

The Central Drug Research Institute at Lucknow shot into the limelight with its herbal memory-enhancing drug, 'Memory Plus'. But it stirred a hornet's nest since no clinical trials were conducted before marketing it.

Meanwhile, at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, technologists developed a procedure to clone several identical buffalo calves from a single embryo of a superior breed. While this is not a cutting-edge breakthrough like the development of a sheep -- Dolly -- using non-reproductive cells, this is an important development, with much promise for dairy breeders.

India won the court battle after two Indians in the US applied for patents for the healing properties of turmeric. This is seen as a first step towards Indian assertion of its intellectual property rights.

Nuclear scientists and engineers resurrected a dead nuclear reactor at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station in Rawatbhatta. They finished the Herculean task without the help of robots that Canadian scientists hoped to use at a similar dead plant in their country. They had to bury that plant; in India, it came back to life -- and looks forward to an extended life of at least another 30 years -- at a fraction of the expected cost.

In a bid to preserve the country's valuable plant resources, a Rs 1 billion plant gene bank was set up by the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in New Delhi.

Despite the achievements, Indian science had its share of controversies.

The Indian Council of Medical Research came under a cloud over a project that involved study of the progression of uterine cervical dysplasia (cancer) in over 1,100 women. The Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology of the ICMR, which undertook the project, did not attempt to contain the spread of cancer in these woman.

The country lost its Insat-2D communication satellite which was in orbit for just four months. This had a deleterious effect on the country's communication network.

An Amritsar-based woman lent her womb to raise Rs 50,000 for her paralytic husband's needs. The trouble was that the lady conceived by natural means and not through artificial insemination.

Physicians in the capital strongly protested against the opening of the 'Mantra Healing Centre' at the Maulana Azad Medical Centre by Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma. Once it became clear that such a centre ran contrary to law, it was quietly shut down.

The past year also saw a resurgence of various diseases in different parts of the country. Leptospirosis, dengue, cholera, kala azar, encephalitis, tuberculosis and HIV intensified their hold in various parts of the country. The sal-borer insect, which ruined thousands of sal trees in Madhya Pradesh, now also threatens to overrun the Kanha wildlife sanctuary.

Indian science received a fillip at the end of the year, when A P J Abdul Kalam, the man behind India's missile programme, was conferred the Bharat Ratna.

Overall, it was a good year for Indian science.

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