Lok Sabha Question No. 3226 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-23
Subject: One Health for All
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: C. R. Patil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3226 TO BE ANSWERED ON 23/03/2022

## One Health for All

## 3226. SHRI C.R. PATIL:

## Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has taken initiative to evaluate the concept of one health for all living organisms  including  the  invisible biota in soil that sustain our agricultural systems;

- (b) If so, the details thereof; and

(c) whether the Government has initiated steps to prepare a strong and extensive cadre of human resources required to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century and if so, the steps taken in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  OF  THE  MINISTRY  OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) and (b) Yes, Sir. To evaluate the concept of one health for all living organisms including the invisible biota in soil that sustain our agricultural systems; following initiatives have been taken:

- (i) Department  of  Biotechnology  (DBT),  Ministry  of  Science  and  Technology  has launched  a  Consortium  for  One  Health  at  DBT-National  Institute  of  Animal Biotechnology, Hyderabad where 27 participating centres, including major medical colleges (AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur, etc.) and veterinary universities (GADVASU, TANUVAS, etc.) , are partnering to undertake surveillance of certain select zoonotic diseases.
- (ii) Council  of Scientific &  Industrial Research  (CSIR)  through  its constituent laboratory namely, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-NBRI) has taken initiative to evaluate the concept of one health for all living organisms including  the  invisible  biota  in  soil  that  sustain  our  agricultural  systems  through

Metagenomic Mapping of agricultural soil from 75 district of UP under CSIR-Root biology project.

- (iii) Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare has initiated Soil Health Card Scheme under which the soil health cards carrying crop-wise recommendation are issued to farmers.  In  this  health  card  one  parameter  i.e.  Soil  Organic  Carbon  indirectly assesses the soil microbes required to sustain agriculture system. Further, ICARIndian  Institute  of  Soil  Science,  Bhopal  (MP)  and  ICAR-National  Bureau  of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (NBAIM), Mau (UP) have the mandate to research on soil biota that sustain the agriculture system in the country.
- (iv) Indian Council  for  Medical  Research  (ICMR),  New  Delhi  has  started  the preparatory activities for establishment of a dedicated infrastructure in the form of National Institute of One Health (NIO) at Nagpur which will also house a BSLIV laboratory.
- (v) To  adopt  a  holistic  and  integrated  approach  towards  solving  health  issues  and developing a roadmap on One Health approach in the country a High Level InterMinisterial Steering Committee was constituted by Department of Health Research (DHR) and a meeting was held on 26th March 2021which was chaired by Hon'ble Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare. The committee has members from various ministries and departments.

(c)  Human  Resource  Development  (HRD)  programmes  in  all  areas  of  Biotechnology including  Environmental  Biotechnology  have  been  implemented  to  support  post-graduate teaching programme, junior research fellowship programme, research associateship programme,  re-entry  fellowship,  innovative  young  biotechnologist  fellowship  and  young researcher's  fellowship  programmes.  Further,  under  competitive  research  and  development programme, DBT  is supporting fundamental and applied research in the area of Environmental Biotechnology which also provides a platform to prepare strong and extensive cadre of human resources having expertise in environmental research.

CSIR-National  Environmental  Engineering  Research  Institute,  (CSIR-NEERI)  has  already taken  an  initiative  to  prepare  a  strong  and  extensive  cadre  of  human  resources  through various short-term and long-term academic, training, and skill development programmes to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century such as air pollution, water pollution and waste management.

Under the National Mission on Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) and National Mission on Strategic Knowledge  for Climate  Change (NMSKCC),  coordinated and implemented by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), human capacity building programmes on climate change science (CC) and adaptation strategies have been supported.

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