The latest updates from Nature India on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic.
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT | 12 June 2021
With unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 infections, India is a breeding ground for variants and future mutations. Host: Subhra Priyadarshini. Produced by Jinoy Jose P. and Amrita Gupta Nambiar.
Podcast | 11 June 2021
As researchers around the world race to unravel the two-way enigma of severe mental illnesses and COVID-19, countries should prioritise vaccination for the millions affected by the double malady, says Debanjan Banerjee.
COMMENTARY | 24 May 2021
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT | 19 May 2021
From Sri Lanka to Nepal, scientists with limited resources are working feverishly to discover which variants are driving outbreaks.
NEWS | 14 May 2021
Prevalence, power and portability make the gadgets valuable for pathogen monitoring and citizen science.
FEATURE | 13 May 2021
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT | 12 May 2021
The variant B.1.617 has been linked to India’s surge in infections. Researchers are trying to determine the threat from a mutating virus.
SCIENCE NEWS | 11 May 2021
For millions of TB patients, the post-COVID-19 world will not be ‘back to normal’ unless treatment for the other silent epidemic is prioritised, say Geetha Vani Rayasam and Anshu Bhardwaj.
COMMENTARY | 11 May 2021
SCIENCE NEWS | 6 May 2021
NEWS | 1 May 2021
Researchers have spoken out against policies that have exacerbated the country’s coronavirus crisis. Policymakers must listen.
COMMENTARY | 30 April 2021
With unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 infections, the country is likely to become a hotspot of future mutations unless the contagion is rapidly controlled, say Anurag Agrawal and Disha Agrawal.
COMMENTARY | 28 April 2021
The virus is spreading faster than ever before in India despite previous high infection rates in megacities, which should have conferred some protection.
NEWS | 21 April 2021
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT | 19 April 2021
In a two-part series, Nature India analyses the fresh surge in coronavirus cases, the vaccine pipeline and the challenges of inoculating a mammoth population.
FEATURE | 15 April 2021
The next generation of COVID-19 vaccines will not only tackle viral variants but also provide solutions across the globe at a fraction of the cost.
POLICY NEWS | 4 April 2021
Research Highlights | 6 April 2021
Research Highlights | 30 March 2021
Research Highlights | 17 February 2021
COMMENTARY | 17 February 2021
Research Highlights | 9 February 2021
Indigenus | 8 February 2021
Nanomaterial design and strategies are at the forefront in developing advanced antiviral and antibacterial therapies.
SPECIAL FEATURE | 20 January 2021
Between treating patients and churning out a record number of scholarly publications, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a productivity peak for many medical professionals. In this poignant essay, Debanjan Banerjee, a practicing psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, talks about the many levels at which such hyperactivity affected professionals.
Indigenus | 19 January 2021
Artificial intelligence is harnessed to accelerate drug repurposing in the search for COVID-19 solutions.
SPECIAL FEATURE | 19 January 2021
Responding to a shortage of expensive international ventilators, engineers developed domestically built alternatives.
SPECIAL FEATURE | 18 January 2021
Investigations are under way in China and India over fears that new SARS-CoV-2 variants could undermine vaccines.
POLICY NEWS | 12 January 2021
Research Highlights | 11 January 2021
NEWS | 5 January 2021
India is gearing up to supply COVID-19 vaccine doses to millions of people amidst predictable challenges that such a massive public health exercise might pose.
POLICY FEATURE | 27 December 2020
Coping with the COVID-19 crisis lies not just in vaccines and drugs, but also technologies that the world’s scientists quickly geared up to invent or repurpose. This special issue focuses on engineering and technology solutions deployed to deal with the pandemic.
Special Issue | 11 December 2020
Research Highlights | 8 December 2020
Researchers say it is unclear on what basis the drugs were approved for ‘emergency use’.
POLICY NEWS | 9 November 2020
Research Highlights | 28 October 2020
Research Highlights | 20 October 2020
Research Highlights | 19 October 2020
Research Highlights | 16 October 2020
What could be the challenges for Indian diaspora scientists wanting to explore career opportunities back home during the novel coronavirus pandemic? Sayan Dutta, a doctoral fellow in the Neurodegenerative Disease Research Laboratory at Purdue University, analyses the key learning from a recent global meet.
Indigenus | 15 October 2020
Timely crowdsourcing efforts are supplementing the COVID-19 fight.
FEATURE | 14 October 2020
Research Highlights | 12 October 2020
SCIENCE NEWS | 8 October 2020
As India’s pandemic case numbers inch towards the seven million mark, healthcare workers are feeling burnt out with unprecedented work load, anxiety and uncertainty.
FEATURE | 5 October 2020
Research Highlights | 4 October 2020
NEWS | 4 October 2020
Research Highlights | 29 September 2020
COVID-19 is impacting women more than men, say Nitya Rao and Jayashree Balasubramaniam.
Features | 23 September 2020
Research Highlights | 16 September 2020
As COVID-19 cases continue to soar in India, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan announced that a vaccine would possibly be rolled out in the first quarter of 2021.
News | 14 September 2020
Research Highlights | 29 August 2020
Mental health of societies is justifiably under the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, psychiatrist Debanjan Banerjee of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) Bengaluru is sceptical that the important issue may be pushed back into obscurity once the crisis ends.
Indigenus | 25 August 2020
Mounting evidence points to the possible neurological effects of SARS-CoV-2.
Features | 25 August 2020
Study finds India, US and China fuel the rumour mills most.
News | 13 August 2020
Research Highlights | 25 July 2020
More than six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still a noticeable explosion in new scientific information and counter-information. Jahnavi Phalkey says countries need a more nuanced approach to engage with publics overwhelmed with evolving knowledge.
Features | 21 July 2020
Almost 90 per cent of the world’s museums are facing closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aditi Ghose, an Education Assistant at Birla Industrial & Technological Museum in Kolkata, says museums will have to become emotionally intelligent and responsive to stay relevant through the crisis.
Indigenus | 20 July 2020
Timely data on the contagion will be crucial to saving millions of lives, say Weixing Zhang, Rockli Kim and S.V. Subramanian.
Features | 14 July 2020
Research Highlights | 7 July 2020
From the belief that drinking tea will protect against COVID-19, to confusion with tragic outcomes, such as poisonings, misunderstanding and hoaxes are common in this time of uncertainty.
Features | 3 July 2020
Jitendra Kumar and Pradip Sinha take a look at traditional approaches in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Special Feature | 2 July 2020
Indigenus | 30 June 2020
It’s a race against time to produce accurate and efficient diagnostic results, says Shanti Kalipatnapu, as she walks through IISER Pune’s testing centre, one of the 1047 across India checking samples for the novel coronavirus.
Indigenus | 30 June 2020
Webinar | 29 June 2020
Research Highlights | 28 June 2020
Webinar | 8 June 2020
Laboratories abuzz, the country can only reap the full benefits of her science with more openness in policy.
News | 3 June 2020
As the pandemic restricts imports of reagents and kits, India’s biotechnologists are making their own, writes Somdatta Karak in this guest post.
Indigenus | 30 May 2020
As India’s eastern state of West Bengal reels under the effects of a devastating cyclone, choosing between life and physical distancing has become tricky.
News | 29 May 2020
Webinar | 20 May 2020
Rural communities grappling with livelihood issues and looking for support for farming activities are increasingly embracing technology for survival. Jayashree Balasubramanian, who heads communication at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai, talks of her experience with farmers attending virtual ‘plant clinics’.
Indigenus | 21 May 2020
Religious leaders have distinctive networks that can help disseminate important messages in the COVID-19 crisis, write Sima Barmania and Michael J. Reiss.
Features | 20 May 2020
Research Highlights | 18 May 2020
Indigenus | 15 May 2020
Research Highlights | 13 May 2020
As the coronavirus crisis triggers a large scale exodus of migrant agricultural workers from India’s food basket, it's time the country diversified beyond labour and water intensive crops, write Arabinda K Padhee and Prabhu Pingali.
Features | 12 May 2020
When a bunch of database experts peered through archival information on coronaviruses, they saw substantial data that could aid the world’s fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Indigenus | 6 May 2020
Webinar | 5 May 2020
Webinar | 2 May 2020
More than 115 vaccines are under development to bring the novel coronavirus pandemic to a halt. It is time to spruce up a global supply mechanism to ensure everyone gets the vaccine, say Arun Kumar and Tung Thanh Le.
Features | 1 May 2020
The family, the community and the hospital will be the three most important deciders of where the infection curve goes post-lockdown, say George M Varghese and Suman Rijal.
Features | 1 May 2020
Features | 30 April 2020
When Viny Kantroo, a respiratory diseases specialist, started seeing COVID-19 patients in a Delhi hospital, a whole new world unfolded in front of her – both personally and professionally. “It has never been so tough before, taking care of your own breathlessness and that of your patients’, simultaneously”, she says in this guest post.
Indigenus | 30 April 2020
Unless each sequence of the virus in the global open repositories comes with additional patient information, the practical benefits of such record sequencing are lost.
News | 29 April 2020
Webinar | 27 April 2020
Alternate weeks of strict restrictions and milder physical distancing may be a good way for parts of India to exit the lockdown after 3 May 2020, predicts a new model that also bears at heart the socio-economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
Features | 27 April 2020
Research Highlights | 27 April 2020
Features | 20 April 2020
Computer simulations suggest preventing a second wave of infection in India will need continued aggressive tracking of COVID-19 cases even after restrictions ease.
News | 20 April 2020
Polar scientist Vishnu Nandan has just returned home in Canada from a four-month darkness-engulfed lockdown in the Arctic. In an interview to Nature India, he talks about coming back into a world fighting a pandemic.
Features | 19 April 2020
Webinar | 17 April 2020
Features | 16 April 2020
Research Highlights | 15 April 2020
India will provide free food grains to more than 800 million poor people during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, nutrition security is more important than food security in the coronavirus crisis, experts say.
News | 15 April 2020
When India announced a national lockdown on 24 March 2020 to fight the novel coronavirus, Vinu Valayil, a techie at Springer Nature Technology and Publishing Services, was on a holiday attending a family wedding in a picturesque Kerala village.
Indigenus | 13 April 2020
Just about to start her own dream laboratory, Poonam Thakur found herself in the middle of a pandemic. She shares her feeling of helplessness as a scientist not trained in any aspect of fighting the coronavirus crisis.
Indigenus | 12 April 2020
Without enough test kits, the 1.3-billion-person country is using a gigantic surveillance network to trace and quarantine infected people.
News | 12 April 2020
As COVID-19 cases continue to soar around the world, the physical and psycho-social health of our senior citizens warrants urgent attention, now more than ever before, says geriatric psychiatrist Debanjan Banerjee.
Features | 10 April 2020
News | 8 April 2020
Workshop | 7 April 2020
Research Highlights | 6 April 2020;
News | 5 April 2020
Webinar | 5 April 2020
News | 4 April 2020
News | 3 April 2020
Sharper communication and community engagement will help tackle ethical issues, says bioethicist Anant Bhan.
News | 2 April 2020
Finding rapid solutions to protect a dense population will be crucial.
Features | 1 April 2020
India hasn't gathered enough data to gauge the scale of community transmission, say clinical scientist Gagandeep Kang and virologist Shahid Jameel.
News | 30 March 2020
Webinar | 29 March 2020
Research Highlights | 28 March 2020
While some high end science is rapidly emerging out of India’s laboratories, the missing will to come together may hinder breakthroughs around COVID-19, says Shahid Jameel.
Features | 24 March 2020
Webinar | 24 March 2020
The world's second most populous country changes its public health strategy in a bid to minimise harm from the pandemic.
News | 24 March 2020
Poor internet speed and abysmal healthcare facilities are the real threats, people say.
News | 23 March 2020
The spotlight over the death toll or infection rate of a pandemic unfortunately eclipses its massive psycho-social impact.
Features | 18 March 2020
As an overcrowded country wages its early battle with COVID-19, two things will matter the most – sprucing up testing facilities and drilling in the social distancing message.
News | 15 March 2020
Emergency response mounted as country suspends visas.
News | 12 March 2020
Fact-checkers from across Asia are crawling the deep crevices of the internet and closed social media groups to debunk unscientific claims.
News | 23 February 2020
News | 30 January 2020