• It’s a first Pan-India 1000 Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 Completed
• He reviewed the COVID-19 activities of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and DBT-Autonomous Institutions (AIs) in the meeting with DBT.

Along with this Minister also launched the largest network of five dedicated COVID-19 Biorepositories by the DBT at

1. Institute of Life Science (ILS), Bhubaneshwar
2. Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad
3. Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), New Delhi
4. National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune
5. Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (InStem), Bangalore.

What is Pan India 1000 SARS–CoV-2 RNA Genome Sequencing programme? 

• This programme was launched by the Department of Biotechnology(DBT) in May 2020.
• It was conducted by the autonomous institutes of DBT in collaboration with the national laboratories and clinical organisation.
• The consortium was coordinated by National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG-Kalyani), West Bengal and five other National clusters, Institute of Life Science (ILS)-Bhubaneswar, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD)-Hyderabad, InStem- National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) -Indian Institute of Science(IISc) -Bangalore, and National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS) – Pune are actively participating in sequencing and analysis.

The institutes and clinical organisations that are involved in the programme are include ICMR – National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases,

• Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) – Kolkata,
• IISc – Bangalore,
• All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) – Rishikesh, Uttarakhand,
• Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) – Delhi,
• THSTI – Faridabad,
• Grant Medical College (GMC) – Aurangabad,
• Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS) – Wardha,
• Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC)