A special report on India's biotech scenario: Advancement in biopharmaceutical and health care sectors

India's biotechnology industry has been growing towards new heights in conjunction with the recent economic outburst. The country has the potential to revolutionize biopharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. In this review, we have highlighted the achievements of India's biotechnology industry, especially biopharmaceutical and healthcare sectors that include therapeutics, diagnostics, stem cell research, human healthcare related bioinformatics and animal health care. We have also described regulatory mechanisms involved in India's health care biotech including manpower development.     

The Social Life of Rights: ‘Gender Antagonism’, Modernity and Raet in Vanuatu

In the northern Vanuatu town of Luganville a small group of men have responded to social and legal changes engendered by women's rights activists by forming a male support group called ‘Violence Against Men’. Members of this ‘backlash’ movement argue that the insidious promotion of Western‐style ‘women's rights’ is leading to discrimination against men in divorce proceedings, child custody battles, and in domestic violence and rape cases. They directly oppose recent and ongoing legal changes aimed at protecting women from domestic violence, such as Domestic Violence Protection Court Orders, and the repeatedly tabled (but long‐delayed) ‘Family Protection Bill’. Such interventions, they argue, undermine Vanuatu's ‘natural’kastom and Christian patriarchal gender order and, in doing so, pose a serious threat to the socio‐economic productivity of the nation‐state. For other men, however, rather than opposing women's rights activism, such challenges have raised questions about how men might successfully negotiate their identities in ways that are sensitive to contemporary issues of gender equality without undermining existing paradigms. Thus, this paper addresses the value accorded to universalism and relativism in gender activism in Vanuatu, and especially in terms of the linked discourses of kastom, church and modernity. It therefore explores gender relations in terms of the contemporary entanglement of indigenous and exogenous epistemologies, and in doing so argues that the contextual analysis of ‘rights’ should consider the specific historical, political and socio‐cultural circumstances in which they are put to use.     

Mothers,Fathers, Families,and Circumstances: Factors Affecting Children's Adjustment

The burgeoning empirical literature exploring the factors accounting for individual differences in psychological adjustment is reviewed. Many studies have shown that adjustment is largely affected by differences in the quality of parenting and parent–child relationships, the quality of the relationships between the parents, and the richness of the economic and social resources available to the family; more recent research signals the importance of congenital differences as well. Dimensions of family structure—including such factors as divorce, single parenthood, and the parents' sexual orientation—and biological relatedness between parents and children are of little or no predictive importance once the process variables are taken into account, because the same factors explain child adjustment regardless of family structure. These findings have important social and legal implications, especially in relation to decisions regarding foster care and adoption, as well as those concerning children's well-being following family dissolution.     

Sexual Desire,Piety, and Law in a Javanese Pesantren: Interpreting Varieties of Secret Divorce and Polygamy

Very little anthropological research has explored the polygamous worlds of women in Indonesia's traditional Islamic boarding schools known as pesantren. These traditional schools are patriarchal institutions that teach women to be ideal Muslims according to male-defined notions of shari'ah-based piety that construct polygamy as normative. This article challenges dominant discourses on polygamy, which are mostly concerned with public protest and feminist agendas that seek to have the practice banned, and instead reveals an agentive side of women in polygamous marriages. It examines the experiences of a group of pesantren women whose actions transgress state and Islamic laws on marriage and divorce in their endorsement of polygamous union and nikah batin (Sufi spiritual marriage). It builds on feminist arguments that recognise female agency in polygamy by considering the legal ambiguity surrounding secret and informal divorce and polygamous practices initiated by women restricted from obtaining legal divorces for socio-cultural reasons. In doing so, it further considers some aspects of a notion of a woman-centric polygamy that includes polyandry, which women create based on their understanding that Islam acknowledges women's sexual rights in marriage.     

India–Madagascar vicariance explains cascade beetle biogeography

India and Madagascar drifted apart more than 80 Mya, yet few taxonomic groups currently found in these regions bear any signature of this split. When drifting in isolation, extensive volcanic activity covered almost half of India in lava flows, likely triggering widespread extinction on the island. Consequently, most of India's rich extant flora and fauna are considered to be the result of recent Cenozoic dispersal, and no lineages are conclusively a result of ancient vicariance. Many of Madagascar's lineages also stem from either Cenozoic diversification or dispersal events, with the latter being a result of the close proximity of the island with mainland Africa. In the present study, we focus on two remarkable lineages of cascade beetles in the genera Scoliopsis and Tritonus (Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae), respectively, dwelling in the mountains of south India and Sri Lanka, as well as in Madagascar. Based on a molecular phylogeny of the family Hydrophilidae dated with eight fossils, we show that these two lineages are sister taxa, and diverged when Madagascar and Greater India (India, Sri Lanka, Seychelles) separated, suggesting a pattern of Gondwanean vicariance. The results of the present study show that, despite geological upheaval, the present‐day fauna of India still retains traces of its Gondwanan past.     

‘Our bones are made of Iron’: the political ecology of Garhwali women's activism

In the Garhwal Himalaya of India's Uttarakhand State, a series of social movements emerged in the late 2000s to contest hydroelectric dams on a tributary of the sacred River Ganga. Within these opposition movements, men often took high‐profile leadership roles whereas women from a range of socio‐economic backgrounds formed the overwhelming base of participation at meetings, assemblies, and rallies. This article draws from event‐based participation and semi‐structured interviews to explore the diverse concerns that women gave to explain their engagements with opposition efforts. I counter essentialist frames and employ a feminist political ecology approach to argue that the gendered dynamics are attributable to historical, cultural, religious, and political‐economic influences. The article contributes to anthropologies of gender, environment, and social movements by taking an approach focused on disparities of practice and power that helps situate Garhwali women's roles in development contestations.     

Non‐edible oil seed producing Calophyllum inophyllum ideal for India's future biofuel development

The impending climate change crisis has stimulated enormous interest in the development of biofuel globally. The supporters of biofuel hail that it is naturally carbon‐neutral whereas the critiques argue that the large‐scale plantations and production of biofuel based on Jatropha can not only strain agricultural resources but also threaten future food security. India's subsistence farmers are often faced with challenges and constraints of poverty. Foremost among the challenges are the marginal environmental conditions for agriculture often influenced by erratic rainfall, drought, poor soil quality, and unreliable irrigation water supply. In this article, we have presented a case study on the potential to use nonedible seeds from naturally occurring tree species, Calophyllum inophyllum to meet the increasing demand for biofuel production in India.     

Double impact: What sibling data can tell us about the long‐term negative effects of parental divorce

Abstract

Most prior research on the adverse consequences of parental divorce has analyzed only one child per family. As a result, it is not known whether the same divorce affects siblings differently. We address this issue by analyzing paired sibling data from the 1994 General Social Survey (GSS) and 1994 Survey of American Families (SAF). Both seemingly unrelated regressions and random effects models are used to study the effect of family background on offspring's educational attainment and marital stability. Parental divorce adversely affects the educational attainment and the probability of divorce of both children within a sibship; in other words, siblings tend to experience the same divorce the same way. However, family structure of origin only accounts for a trivial portion of the shared variance in offspring's educational attainment and marital stability, so parental divorce is only one of many factors determining how offspring fare. These findings were unchanged when controlling for a number of differences both between and within sibships. Also, the negative effects of parental divorce largely do not vary according to respondent characteristics.     

The biological sciences in India: Aiming high for the future

India is gearing up to become an international player in the life sciences, powered by its recent economic growth and a desire to add biotechnology to its portfolio. In this article, we present the history, current state, and projected future growth of biological research in India. To fulfill its aspirations, India''s greatest challenge will be in educating, recruiting, and supporting its next generation of scientists. Such challenges are faced by the US/Europe, but are particularly acute in developing countries that are racing to achieve scientific excellence, perhaps faster than their present educational and faculty support systems will allow.India, like China, has been riding a rising economic wave. At the time of writing this article, four Indians rank among the ten wealthiest individuals in the world, and the middle class is projected to rise to 40% of the population by 2025 (Farrell and Beinhocker, 2007). Even with the present global economic setbacks, India''s economy is expected to grow to become the third largest in the world. India''s recent economic boom has been driven largely by its service and information technology industries, fueled to a large extent by jobs provided by multinational companies. However, this “outsourcing” model is unlikely to persist indefinitely. India''s future must rely upon its own capacity for innovation, which will require considerable investment in education and research.Biotechnology represents a potential sector of economic growth and an important component in India''s national health agenda. Appreciating the important role that biology will play in this century, the Indian government is expanding as well as starting several new biological research institutes, which will open up many new positions for life science researchers. Funds also are becoming available for state-of-the-art equipment, thus decreasing the earlier large disparity in support facilities between the top research institutes in India and the US/Europe. India is becoming an increasingly viable location to conduct biological research and a fertile ground for new biotechnology companies. However, success need not rise in proportion to money invested, unless India attracts and supports its best young people to do research.Many academic centers and industries in the US/Europe are beginning to have an eye on India, the world''s largest democratic country, for possible collaborations. Western institutions have long benefited from having Indian scientists on their faculty or postdoctoral fellows/graduate students in their laboratories (perhaps benefitting more than India itself). However, Western scientists, by and large, know very little about the scientific and educational systems in India. (As was true of authors of this article before we began our 8-month sabbatical at the National Center for Biological Sciences in Bangalore). The goal of this article is to provide a brief historical and contemporary view of the biological sciences in India. We also provide an editorial perspective on the upcoming challenges for the Indian life sciences, with a particular emphasis on how India will grow and support its next generation of scientific leaders.     

Violence,Victimhood and Trauma: Exploring the Partition Narratives of Bombay Cinema

This article focuses on a corpus of Hindi films that, from a variety of ideological and generic viewpoints, articulate Hindi cinema's presentation of India's Partition trauma. It asserts that the cinematic mediation of this trauma appears symptomatic of the vicissitudes of larger discourses at work, and can be categorized into three phases with definite trajectories; wherein Partition first appears as a “denial,” where the traumatic episode becomes a Barthesian absence in the immediate aftermath of the Partition. Later, Partition reappears as “supracommunal trauma” transcending established national boundaries or spheres of sectarian interest in deference to the national conciliation project of Nehruvian secularism. In its third trajectory of the Hindutva milieu, films like Gadar and Hey Ram mark the “expropriation” of the Partition narratives from collective consciousness of experiences into a purely sectarian phenomenon.     

Children's health and their mothers’ risk of divorce or separation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine how children's health conditions are related to their mothers’ risk of divorce or separation. The study is based on data from over 7,000 children born to once‐married mothers identified in the 1988 Child Health Supplement to the National Health Interview Survey. The effects of 15 childhood health conditions on the mothers’ risk of divorce are estimated with Cox's proportional hazard models. Controlling for demographic, marital, and reproductive measures, we find that mothers’ prospects for divorce are affected both positively or negatively by their children's health status, depending on the type of childhood condition and, in the case of low birth weight children, timing within the marriage. Women whose children have congenital heart disease, cerebral palsy, are blind, or had low birth weight appear to have higher risks of marital disruption than mothers of healthy children. In contrast, mothers whose children have migraines, learning disabilities, respiratory allergies, missing/deformed digits or limbs, or asthma have somewhat lower rates of divorce.     

Ecological determinants of divorce: A structural approach to the explanation of Japanese divorce

Abstract

This paper examines the ecological determinants of contemporary Japanese divorce rates on the prefectural level. LISREL and computer‐generated graphics are the analytic methods used. The aggregate level of analysis demands the use of the ecological model which posits that demographic changes, economic activities, migration patterns, and the level of urbanization are significant predictors of divorce rate. Our analysis demonstrates that sex ratio, female labor force participation, female in‐migration patterns, population increase, and net household income all play a significant role in affecting the divorce rate. Our findings also confirm the well‐supported hypothesis that both population density and modernization positively influence modern Japan's divorce rates. The residual analysis also points out that in order to account for the large proportion of the unexplained variance of Japanese divorce, behavioral‐related variables and island‐ or prefecture‐specific dimensions need to be included in the ecological model of divorce.     

Profiles of four top biotech companies in India

Serum Institute of India – India's top BioPharma company Biocon: Aiming for innovation leadership Rasi Seeds: Changing the face of India's bioagriculture India's iconic biotech company: Shantha Biotechnics     

Cartilage acidic protein 1, a new member of the beta‐propeller protein family with amyloid propensity

Cartilage acidic protein1 (CRTAC1) is an extracellular matrix protein of chondrogenic tissue in humans and its presence in bacteria indicate it is of ancient origin. Structural modeling of piscine CRTAC1 reveals it belongs to the large family of beta‐propeller proteins that in mammals have been associated with diseases, including amyloid diseases such as Alzheimer's. In order to characterize the structure/function evolution of this new member of the beta‐propeller family we exploited the unique characteristics of piscine duplicate genes Crtac1a and Crtac1b and compared their structural and biochemical modifications with human recombinant CRTAC1. We demonstrate that CRTAC1 has a beta‐propeller structure that has been conserved during evolution and easily forms high molecular weight thermo‐stable aggregates. We reveal for the first time the propensity of CRTAC1 to form amyloid‐like structures, and hypothesize that the aggregating property of CRTAC1 may be related to its disease‐association. We further contribute to the general understating of CRTAC1's and beta‐propeller family evolution and function. Proteins 2017; 85:242–255. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Withholding or Withdrawing Extraordinary Life Support—Optimizing Rights and Limiting Liability

For many years physicians, ethicists and members of the legal community have attempted to minimize ambiguity and unpredictability in making decisions to withhold or withdraw extraordinary life support. Recent developments in national and California law now afford medical care providers unparalleled protection from criminal and civil liability in surrogate decision-making situations. They also reinforce the concept of patient''s rights by providing medical care consumers with new and effective mechanisms for enforcing their “right to decide,” even after they have lost decision-making capacity. A case in point is California''s new Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, which serves as a model for other jurisdictions that do not have such legislation. Thus, the medical and legal professions, working together, can contribute immeasurably to respectful medical decision making by educating the public about these developments and by adopting policies that reinforce these rights.     

The Ethics of Continued Life‐Sustaining Treatment for those Diagnosed as Brain‐dead

Given the long‐standing controversy about whether the brain‐dead should be considered alive in an irreversible coma or dead despite displaying apparent signs of life, the ethical and policy issues posed when family members insist on continued treatment are not as simple as commentators have claimed. In this article, we consider the kind of policy that should be adopted to manage a family's insistence that their brain‐dead loved one continues to receive supportive care. We argue that while it would be ethically inappropriate to continue to devote scarce acute care resources to such patients in a hospital setting, it may not be ethically inappropriate for patients to receive these resources in certain other settings. Thus, if a family insists on continuing to care for their brain‐dead loved at their home, we should not, from a policy perspective, interfere with the family's wishes. We also argue that healthcare professionals should make some effort to facilitate the transfer of brain‐dead patients to these other settings when families insist on continued treatment despite being informed about the lack of any potential for recovery of consciousness. Our arguments are strengthened by the fact that patients in a persistent vegetative state, who, when correctly diagnosed, also have no potential for recovery of consciousness, are routinely transferred from hospitals to nursing homes or long‐term care facilities where they continue to be ventilated, tube fed and to receive other supportive care. We also briefly explore the question of who should be responsible for the costs of such treatment at the long‐term care facility.     

Procreative and performative kinship among residents in Victorian caravan parks

Recent senior anthropologists have heralded a new era where performative social and cultural kinship may eclipse procreational ‘biological kinship’ in contemporary western society. This article takes research on permanent residents in caravan parks as an extreme case that may act as an exemplar for future western contexts. Between 2003 and 2008, interviews with caravan‐park managers, 50 interviews with park residents and short field stays at 17 outer Melbourne and rural Victorian caravan parks, provided multi‐sited ethnographic material for analysis. I argue that contemporary contexts for relatedness give scope for creative development of social performative ties with ‘ex’ spouses and in‐laws, friends and pets. ‘Biological’ kin and family with a material dimension remain central, however, and a response to family need or rupture is often the broadening of the procreative kin links between grandparent and grandchild and between siblings. Childhood institutionalisation and divorce in particular, contributed to pathways towards caravan park housing. Other kin‐based motivations include finding safe accommodation for wives; providing housing for young adult males after injury and family divorce; and arranging for housing succession for children. Ideas of blood and folk biology demonstrate considerable resilience in contemporary kinship arrangements.     

Legalized Abortion in Japan

The enactment of the Eugenic Protection Act in Japan was followed by many changes. The population explosion was stemmed, the birth rate was halved, and while the marriage rate remained steady the divorce rate declined. The annual total of abortions increased until 1955 and then slowly declined. The highest incidence of abortions in families is in the 30 to 34 age group when there are four children in the family. As elsewhere abortion in advanced stages of pregnancy is associated with high morbidity and mortality.There is little consensus as to the number of criminal abortions. Reasons for criminal abortions can be found in the legal restrictions concerning abortion: Licensing of the abortionist, certification of hospitals, taxation of operations and the requirement that abortion be reported. Other factors are price competition and the patient''s desire for secrecy.Contraception is relatively ineffective as a birth control method in Japan. Oral contraceptives are not yet government approved. In 1958 alone 1.1 per cent of married women were sterilized and the incidence of sterilization was increasing.     

The ‘successful’ return: Caribbean narratives of migration,family, and gender

Research on female migrant caregivers has tended to focus upon the emotional and social problems they encounter working abroad, given women's traditional role as caregivers for their own families. This article analyses how Caribbean women who have returned after a period abroad as domestic workers inscribe their migration experiences within the gendered narrative of the good relative who migrates to help the family left behind and therefore deserves social recognition in the community of origin. It argues that this narrative allows the women to both affirm and reinterpret local family and gender roles within the context of migration. This analysis points to the close connection between narrative structures, accounts of migration experiences, and self‐presentations and suggests that narratives about family and gender roles not only reflect people's lives, but are also a malleable resource that can be (re)shaped to validate a variety of life‐courses.