Vinod Scaria, 39
Scientist, CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology

It was as early as January 2020 when Vinod Scaria and his team at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) knew that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was weeks from hitting India. They had to understand the novel Coronavirus better and fast if diagnostics had to keep pace with the spread. But with the nationwide lockdown, their Delhi lab was shuttered. Of the team of 12, a handful were allowed to work from office. The rest had to manage from home with no infrastructure available to them.

In the absence of resources and technology, Scaria realised that scientists like him desperately needed an open-source initiative, where primary research on the virus could be made available to anyone. "Like most professionals, scientists too were stuck at home. We all wanted to work urgently on the virus, but couldn't. Putting up primary information online was the first step to fight the virus head-on," he says.