Diabetes is a chronic, life-threatening disease affecting over 8.8% of the Indian population. These individuals often need specialised medical care and support to keep the blood glucose levels in check and ward off complications. Hypertension, a condition where the blood pressure is high, is also chronic and is known to affect about one in three adults in India. As both these conditions are chronic and life-threatening, they pose a significant burden on India’s healthcare system. But, what happens when they coexist in an individual?
A recent study, published in the Journal of Human Hypertension, highlights the plight of individuals in India, with both hypertension and diabetes.

Researchers from the IDFC Institute, look into the sustainability of the current definition of “urban” in India.

Among the illustrious list of Padma awardees for 2020 on the eve of Republic Day, the Government of India has announced Padma Shri to Prof. Kattungal Subramaniam Manilal under Science and Engineering category. He is among the eight of 118 Padma Shri awardees under the Science and Engineering category.

Prof Subimal Ghosh, Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), has been awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 2019 by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). This award recognises his significant contributions to our understanding of how land surface processes influence the Indian monsoon, as well as for improving regional monsoon simulations and predictions. 

We all remember learning to read—at first, we were taught to read each letter or sound at a time laboriously. Eventually, we picked up reading entire words and sentences effortlessly. But, it is not yet clear as to what changes in our brain when we learn to read. In a recent study, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, have identified these changes in the brain changes that help in visually processing the words and helps us to read efficiently. The study was published in the journal Psychological Science and was funded by the Department of Biotechnology-Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Partnership Programme and the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.

An international study, led by researchers from the USA, which also included researchers from India, have designed a point-of-care testing approach for individuals suffering from TB. The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine and supported in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, proposes a rapid, cost-effective, and readily accessible triage test kit that can be used at the site of patient care.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru study how a protein called lysozyme, an integral component of our immune system, causes persistent nerve pain during nerve injury.

In a recent study, Dr Sachdev and an international team of researchers have shown that India’s mortality rate due to severe acute malnutrition is a fraction of the WHO estimates. This study is published in the journal PLOS Medicine.

As Newton’s famous quote, “standing on the shoulders of giants”, this year, science has made considerable advances, building on many feats achieved in the past years. New discoveries, insights and inventions in the areas of astronomy, biology, medicine, paleontology and physics marked the year. Here is a selected pick of ten such breakthroughs in science witnessed in 2019.

While looking forward to 2020, the editorial team at Research Matters looks back on some of the interesting stories that we published during 2019. There were many interesting ones ranging from the first photograph of a black hole to air pollution in Delhi to using vibrations for painless injections. Here is a list to highlight India's year in science during 2019. This is in no way ranked and the order is just incidental.