1.The news item which caught my eye today was about Protein is behind the slow spread in Asia. This was really surprising as there are many third countries in this region, and rest of the world think that Asian have less immunity and they are not strongly healthy.
As per the recent study carried out in National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, a team of scientists have found a biological reason for the slower pace of spread of Corona Virus in Asian countries as compared to the European and American region.
The team has explained that due to presence of higher levels of human protein- neutrophil elastase- helps the virus to enter the human cell, multiply and spread at faster rate from the infected persons. Actually, this protein is kept in check by the biological system, which produces another form of protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT), Deficience of this protein AAT can lead to higher level of neutrophil in the cells which helps in faster spread of virus. This deficiency is much higher among the people from Europe and America than among Asians. The team of scientist have observed that the rate of spread of corona virus has been not uniform in various regions of the world. In order to reach 50% relative frequency the virus took much more longer time in East Asia (5.5 months) compared to Europe (2.15 months) and America (2.83 months).
The team leader further added that “ Many were guessing why corona virus spreads differently across different regions of the world. The most popular speculation was the higher temparature in Asia was not congenial for the spread of this virus. We believed the cause could not be physical or social but it had to be biological one. However some naturally occuring mutations (structure change of gene) in the AAT producing gene results in deficiency of AAT protein. This deficiency is known to be much higher among Americans and Europeans as compared to among in Asians. This deficiency data from these regions proved our contention that considering the pace at which virus is spreading in Asia as compared to fact pace in America and Europe.”
The team leader further added that as per their data AAT deficiency is the least in East Asian countries, which is 8 per 1000 individual, on the other side about 50 in 1000 in Europe and in the USA it is prevalent at 29 per 1000 individuals.
So these are some findings by Indian scientists and now let us see how the scintists from other countries are going to react.
2 Yesterday I wrote about the tragedy which occred in Uttarakhand on Sunday. This has brought the hydro power plant projects across the rivers in Uttarakhand. Presently there are several hydro power plants with total capacity of 2595 MW are operational in the state. You all will be surprised to know that India’s first hydro power plant was in Mussorie (now in Uttarakhand) in 1907.
Presently the state is dotted with 43 micro hydro electric (hydel) power projects. Between 2005-10 the state gave nod to the construction of over a dozen hydel projects. The state also has 17 major hydel projects including the India tallest dam at Tehri.
Earlier an expert committee of Supreme Court (SC) on Kedarnath deluge (2013), had also warned not to construct any hydel plant in upper Himalayas, but this warnings was ignored.The SC committee had warned that the profile of river bed across major hydel projects, which might result in major disaster once again.. But neglecting all the warnings, construction was carried out in the sensitive zones. Notably 20+ hydel power plants were rejected by SC after the expert panel report
The central govt decided in early 2019 had a taken a decision, not to take up any hydel project in the state. All the projects in which the work has not started on the ground were dropped. The PM had stated that ways to could be found to support the power needs of the state rather than building new dams in eco sensitive region. So it is better late than never.
Presently the fate of NTPC’s 520 MW project at Tapovan Vishnugad is definitely hanging in balance, as NTPC has suffered of Rs 1500 Cr due to damage to the construction caused by Sunday’s event.
I hope better sense will prevail among the decision makers , so that in future such type of constructions in the sensitive zones will not be allowed.
Waiting for your comments and views.
Anil Malik
Mumai, India
9th Feb 2021.
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