India, UK based biotech firm wins 'Star Trek' creator's better humanity award
London: An India and UK headquartered genomics biotech company is among four worldwide projects awarded the USD 1-million 2020 Roddenberry Prize designed to advance the vision of 'Star Trek' creator Gene Roddenberry to better humanity.
Launched this year in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, the prize pivoted to engage organisations who demonstrated their agility and innovation on the frontlines of COVID-19.
Global Gene Corp was recognised in the Science category for democratising healthcare through genomics by mapping and organising the world's genomic diversity.
In the process, the company based out of Mumbai and Cambridge was lauded for helping the world overcome the bias that 80 per cent of all existing genomic data come from people of European ancestry.
"Growing up in India as a 'Star Trek' fan, Gene Roddenberry inspired us with his vision of a future where technology is a force for incredible positive impact on humanity," said Sumit Jamuar, Chairman & CEO of Global Gene Corp.
"This recognition of our work to create an equitable and fair world where all of us, irrespective of where we live, can benefit by leapfrogging to the healthcare of the future enabled by genomics, digital health and creating the next generation of therapeutics is a truly remarkable moment in our journey to create lasting transformation," he said.
Global Gene Corp said that the prize money of USD 250,000 for each winning project will go towards furthering its research and development programmes.
"To deliver our mission, Global Gene Corp has built technology platforms to enable large scale studies on human health and well-being, facilitating creation of Electronic Health Records, Genomic data repositories and analytics, Biobanking, Digital Health apps and accelerating Therapeutic discovery," explains Jamuar, an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni who co-founded the firm with a strategic priority to map and organise the world's genomic diversity.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted unacceptable inequities in healthcare globally by infecting more than 20 million people so far, with greater trauma, not unexpectedly, in developing countries. The need for inclusion of different ethnicities and populations to understand the disparity in healthcare outcomes and research has never been clearer," he said.
The other winners of the 2020 Roddenberry Prize include two US-based projects: Digital Green in the Environment category for its work in empowering smallholder farmers by harnessing the collective power of technology across India, Ethiopia and other parts of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Generation in the Humanity category as a non-profit that trains, places, and supports people of all ages into life-changing careers, also operating in India as well as France, Italy, Spain and Mexico.
The fourth winner, under Education, is France-based Bibliotheeques Sans Frontieeres (BSF) or Libraries Without Borders, set up to democratise access to information and education.
"Gene's vision was for big, bold ideas to change the world," said Roddenberry Foundation Chief Executive Lior Ipp.
"The year's prize invested in organisations able to move quickly and boldly in combating COVID-19, from spreading COVID-19 awareness to 'last-mile' populations to delivering online job training to contact-tracing and risk evaluation in genetic mapping, this year's prize winners are extraordinary organisations responding to humanity's needs during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond, he said.
The organisers said that the 2020 prize attracted over 2,500 applications from non-profit and for-profit enterprises of all sizes from around the globe.
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Karnataka MLA Vinay Kulkarni disqualified after conviction in Goudar murder case
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Saturday issued an official notification regarding the disqualification of Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni following his conviction in the murder case of BJP leader Yogeshgouda Goudar.
The former minister is currently in prison, serving life imprisonment in the case.
“Consequent upon the conviction of Vinay Kulkarni, Member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly representing the Dharwad constituency, by the LXXXI Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge, Bengaluru City (CCH-82), in Spl CC No. 565/2021, he stands disqualified from the membership of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the date of conviction, i.e, April 15, 2026,” the notification read.
“He stands disqualified in terms of the provisions of Article 191(1)(e) of the Constitution of India, read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and such disqualification shall continue for a further period of six years after his release, unless the conviction is stayed by a competent court,” it added.
Hence, one seat in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly has fallen vacant, the notification said.
Bypolls were held on April 9 to fill two other seats in the 224-member Assembly that fell vacant due to the death of sitting MLAs. The results will be declared on May 4.
On April 15, Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat convicted Kulkarni and others under various IPC sections, including criminal conspiracy and murder. Subsequently, on April 17, the court sentenced Kulkarni and 15 others convicted in the case to life imprisonment.
The case pertains to the killing of Goudar, a BJP Zilla Panchayat member, in Dharwad on June 15, 2016. Kulkarni was a minister at that time. Hired assailants attacked and hacked Goudar to death in his gym at Saptapur in Dharwad.
Following demands from Goudar’s family and others, the then-BJP government transferred the case to the CBI in 2019.
The CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet in 2020, naming Vinay Kulkarni as the “main conspirator.” It alleged that he perceived Yogeshgouda Goudar as a growing political rival in Dharwad and hired contract killers to eliminate him.
Kulkarni was arrested by the CBI in 2020. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in August 2021 under certain conditions, including a ban on entering Dharwad district. However, in June 2025, the apex court cancelled his bail following allegations of witness tampering and attempts to influence prosecution witnesses.
Kulkarni again sought bail in January 2026, but the High Court rejected it, citing judicial propriety.
However, the Supreme Court granted him bail on February 27 after noting that all witnesses had been examined.
