The government said the ‘smart’ cancer drug has been designed to switch on and work only inside cancer cells, sparing the healthy cells from damage.

In a major breakthrough for cancer treatment in India, the government on Thursday announced a “smart” cancer drug that can replace the traditional chemotherapy which, it said, has been found to harm healthy cells while attacking the cancer cells in the human body.

The government said the ‘smart’ cancer drug has been designed to switch on and work only inside cancer cells, sparing the healthy cells from damage.

“Cancer treatment often damages healthy cells along with cancer cells, causing significant associated adverse effects and side effects. This has created a need for targeted therapies that remain inactive in normal tissues while it travels through the body and become activated specifically at tumor sites,” the government said in a statement.

It said the smart cancer drug, named RK-251, was formulated after collaborative research led by Dr Asis Bala from the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), and Dr KP Bhabak of Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati.

How the smart cancer drug works

Detailing on the mechanism of the RK-251 smart drug, the government said the cancer cells often produce ‘high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are harmful molecules.’

“When RK-251 enters a cancer cell, the high ROS levels trigger the drug’s activation, releasing a powerful anticancer compound called “NBDHEX”. This compound blocks target proteins that many cancer cells use to survive and resist treatment,” it said, adding that the smart drug showed strong activity against aggressive triple-negative breast cancer cells, with much less effect on healthy cells in preclinical studies.

It further added that the drug did not show any obvious signs of toxicity while its behavior was being studied in zebrafish embryos. “It exhibited the desired fluorescence in the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS), suggesting the drug may be safe for further research and validation,” the government said on Thursday, adding that more studies are required before the technology can be tested in patients.

Indian healthcare is facing a mounting pressure on account of rising cancer cases. India records over 1.4 million new cancer cases and more than 700,000 deaths annually, according to the Indian Journal of Medicine. The most common types include breast, oral cavity, lung, cervical, and colorectal cancers. Many of these cancers have been attributed to lifestyle, food habits and use of tobacco.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

Various research groups have over the past decade proposed evidence of life, ranging from 3.9 billion years ago in Quebec and 3.7 billion years ago in southwestern Greenland to 3.4 billion years ago in western Australia.

Twelve years ago, Trisrota Chaudhuri noticed a set of black-and-white patterns embedded on an ancient rock near Bhitardari, about 20km south of Jamshedpur, and wondered whether the black might represent carbon from ancient life forms.

Now, Chaudhuri, a scientist at the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in Calcutta, and her colleagues have found that the 3.5-billion-year-old rock contains distinct chemical signatures of past biological activity — the oldest directly dated evidence for life yet documented on Earth.

Twelve years ago, Trisrota Chaudhuri noticed a set of black-and-white patterns embedded on an ancient rock near Bhitardari, about 20km south of Jamshedpur, and wondered whether the black might represent carbon from ancient life forms.

Now, Chaudhuri, a scientist at the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in Calcutta, and her colleagues have found that the 3.5-billion-year-old rock contains distinct chemical signatures of past biological activity — the oldest directly dated evidence for life yet documented on Earth.

The scientists have interpreted tiny black bands running through the silica-rich rock, known as chert, as remnants of microbial mats, or fossilised remains of thin carpet-like layers of microscopic organisms. Their findings appeared in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.

“The chemical signatures preserved in this rock suggest that by 3.5 billion years ago, life forms were already using sophisticated ways of turning carbon dioxide into organic matter,” Chaudhury told The Telegraph.

Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago, but when life first emerged remains unclear. Various research groups have over the past decade proposed evidence of life, ranging from 3.9 billion years ago in Quebec and 3.7 billion years ago in southwestern Greenland to 3.4 billion years ago in western Australia.

The two older dates remain under debate because some scientists have argued that extensive geological processes would make it difficult to distinguish their biological signatures from features produced by non-biological processes.

Chaudhuri began her field visits to Jharkhand — home to some of the world’s oldest rocks — in 2014. Modern dating studies, for instance, have shown that some rocks in Singhbhum are 3.5 billion years old.

During one such trek, she explored thick layers of ancient volcanic rock interspersed with other rock layers near Bhitardari village and came across black-and-white patterns on the chert.

She collaborated with scientists in Europe and the US to date the samples and analyse their carbon content. Differences in the carbon profile and molecular-structure analysis, using a technique called Laser Raman Spectroscopy, helped distinguish biological carbon from non-biological carbon.

Dating analyses put the chert containing the microbial mats at 3.497 billion years old.

“What distinguishes our study is that we were able to directly date the rock samples,” said Rajat Mazumder, professor of geology at the German University of Technology in Muscat, Oman, who had accompanied Chaudhuri during her 2014 field visits and later for sample extraction.

Similar rocks containing organic residues have been found in Western Australia and South Africa, Mazumder said, but they lack material that can be directly dated. Their ages have instead been inferred from nearby rocks.

Scientists have long hypothesised that life emerged underwater around volcanic vents, where heat and mineral-rich fluids may have provided the chemicals and energy needed for early life to emerge and evolve.

Some of the oldest rocks in the Singhbhum region preserve evidence of such underwater volcanic environments, suggesting that the setting in which Chaudhuri found the chert may have been conducive to life.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

Oschadbank claims that it lost assets and operations in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia after Russian military actions in Ukraine.

Russia has reportedly appointed former Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud as its arbitrator in an investment treaty dispute with Ukraine’s state-owned bank, Oschadbank.

Cost Rican arbitrator and former trade minister Dyalá Jiménez has been chosen to preside over the three-member tribunal, Global Arbitration Review reported.

Jiménez was jointly selected as President by both Russia and Ukraine.

Stavros Brekoulakis, a Greek arbitrator and professor at the National University of Singapore, has been appointed as the third arbitrator by Ukraine’s Oschadbank.

What the Ukraine bank claims

Oschadbank claims that it lost assets and operations in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia after Russian military actions in Ukraine, especially after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Kyiv in February 2022.

Oschadbank’s claim is reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Ukrainian bank initiated the arbitration proceedings after a notice of dispute served to Russia in July 2025 allegedly went unanswered.

The arbitration has been initiated in accordance with the 1998 bilateral investment treaty between Ukraine and Russia, the report said.

Russia is represented by Pinna Goldberg partner Andrea Pinna, counsel Pratyush Panjwani and senior associate Dimitrios Papageorgiou.

On the other hand, Ukraine’s Oschadbank is represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partners, Epaminontas Triantafilou and Alex Gerbi, along with Asters partners Oleksiy Didkovskiy, Andrii Pozhidayev and Oksana Legka.

Russia-Ukraine investment treaty dispute

Oschadbank had earlier pursued Russia for losses in Crimea after Moscow annexed the territory in 2014.

The Ukrainian bank was awarded approximately US$1.1 billion by a Paris-seated tribunal, formed under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, in 2018.

However, the award has been the subject of prolonged proceedings before the courts in France.

In 2021, the award was set aside after a French court accepted Russia’s argument that the treaty’s offer to arbitrate applied only to investments made after the opening of Oschadbank’s Crimean branch, reported LiveLaw Business.

The very next year, the French Court of Cassation reinstated the award, stating that the French courts could not review the relevant provision.

In 2023 and 2024, the Paris-seated tribunal issued two further decisions, rejecting Russia’s request to revise the award on the basis of new evidence. The tribunal reportedly directed Moscow to bear the costs of the revision proceedings.

Recently, the Paris Court of Appeal annulled the tribunal’s decision on Russia’s request to revise the award, and the cost order. This is because the court found that an amicus curiae brief, co-signed by arbitrator Charles Brower, created reasonable doubts about his fairness.

Therefore, Russia’s revision request remains undecided, with the need for a fresh arbitral.

Russia approached Chandrachud earlier as well

Notably, Justice Chandrachud was previously approached by Russia to serve as its arbitrator in treaty claims brought by German energy company, Wintershall Dea.

The German company had initiated the arbitration proceedings against Russia under the Energy Charter Treaty, Bar and Bench previously reported.

However, Chandrachud had declined the approaches, as they were made on the same day that the Permanent Court of Arbitration designated him as the appointing authority in the Wintershall proceedings.

Chandrachud later stepped down from the appointing authority role after disclosing the communications with Russia.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)