2. Sexual Exploitation: A godman named Swami Premanand in Tamil Nadu was accused of impregnating a girl in his ashram. Despite Swami’s denial, the DNA of the foetus perfectly matched that of the swami. Ram Jethmalani, the swami’s lawyer, asked the court to let a foreign expert test the samples. The foreign tests proved the opposite. Eventually, though, the judge ruled in my favour and jailed the swami.
3. Cheetah Cloning: We’re trying to clone the Indian cheetah, extinct for over 50 years, using cells from the Iranian cheetah and implanting it in an Indian female leopard’s womb.
4. Sex Determination: I’ve found a woman whose genetic profile suggests she should have been a man, implying sex determination tests are not foolproof.
5. Human Origins: My studies suggest that the Andaman tribes were perhaps the earliest descendants of the African Eve.
(Lalji Singh is the director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.)
