GARBH-INi Initiative:
The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology said that India’s largest pregnancy cohort study of 12,000 women under the GARBH-INi initiative is aimed at developing indigenous, AI-driven solutions to address preterm births.
- GARBH-INi Initiative promotes Maternal and Child Health and develops prediction tools for preterm birth.
- It is an interdisciplinary Group for Advanced Research in BirtH outcomes- DBT India Initiative (GARBH-Ini) has initiated a cohort study of pregnant women has been initiated in 2015.
- Objective:
- To acquire deep fundamental knowledge on adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth (PTB) and fetal growth restriction (FGR)
- Apply this knowledge to identify efficient and sustainable solutions that would assist in reducing associated mortality, immediate and long term morbidity.
- It is an initiative under the Department of Biotechnology of the Union Ministry of Science and Technology as a collaborative interdisciplinary programme.
- This program is led by the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), NCR Biotech cluster, Faridabad.
- It is part of the Atal Jai Anusandhan Biotech Mission – Undertaking Nationally Relevant Technology Innovation (UNaTI).
- Preterm Birth is defined as babies born alive before 37 weeks of pregnancy are completed. There are sub-categories of preterm birth, based on gestational age:
- Extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks)
- Very preterm (28 to 32 weeks)
- Moderate to late preterm (32 to 37 weeks)
