DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

 New Initiatives

            A major initiative to promote  research in Nano Science and Technology has been taken up by the Department.   A strong nano base has been developed in the country. Ten Units/Core groups in Nanoscience and Technology  across the country have been identified for quality nano research. Nano S&T Mission is in the process of being formally approved.

Ramanujan Fellowship  scheme has been initiated to attract brilliant scientists and engineers from all over the world to take up scientific research positions in the country  with a very attractive fellowship of Rs.50,000 per month.

National facility on Pharmainformatics at National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali has become operational. 

Vigyan Mail was successfully run under the science popularisation activity apart from other science popularisation activities.  

For updation of maps using satellite imagery, procurement of imageries covering about 3000 sheets of 1:50K has been completed. 

India Meteorological Department installed and commissioned  one Doppler Weather Radar at Vishakhapatnam. Establishment of National Satellite Data Centre in  Delhi is in progress. 

Modernisation of laboratories of Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New materials, Hyderabad, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore and Raman Research Institute, Bangalore has been completed.

New international S&T cooperation programmes have been launched with Canada, Columbia, Iceland, Mozambique, UK, Russia, Israel, Switzerland and USA.

Under Synergy projects, specialised rural technology up-gradation projects have been initiated in Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, Karnataka and Rajasthan. National energy map for India has been prepared.

Other major achievements include encouragement to 70 women scientists through fellowship scheme, improvement of infrastructure for research in Universities and Higher Educational institutions, support to Technology Business Incubator for promoting knowledge based industries,  implementation of National Mission for Bamboo Applications, and Seismology Mission  for upgradation of facilities for earthquake related information.

CSIR

CSIR mounted several projects under New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiaitve (NMITLI) scheme during the period. In its relentless efforts towards enabling the availability of drugs for the diseases of the poor at affordable prices, developed a new anti-mycobacterial molecule named ‘Sudoterb’ under the programme NMITLI, first in last 40 years. 

Under NMITLI programme, an oral herbal-based anti-psoriatic formulation has been developed with modern science inputs for treatment of psoriasis

Country’s first prototype of indigenous civil aircraft SARAS designed and developed by national Aerospace Laboratories took to the skies for its maiden flight.

In all, 128-node parallel supercomputer (256 giga flops) with indigenously developed customised communication device (Optical FloSwitch); and (ii) a new weather prediction code (Varsha 1.0). The capability of the Varsha code has already been demonstrated on an experimental basis during monsoon 2005. 

Biotechnology for Leather: Adopted biotechnology approach and developed environment friendly bio-processing methods for some of the highly polluting operations. The development would cause a paradigm shift in leather processing and is poised to change globally the leather processing.

A new TB vaccine -  A candidate vaccine has successfully been evaluated in the form of live Mycobacterium habana in animals. M. habana is an atypical mycobacteria reported non pathogenic in mice, guinea pig and monkey.

Anti-leukemic compound from paan leaves - The scientists from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), have discovered a new anti leukemic compound isolated from a betal plant.

Exciting Break Through in the Oral Delivery of Insulin & Hepatitis B Vaccine -  The development of Oral Delivery of Insulin and Oral Delivery of Hepatitis B vaccine has been achieved at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, through a collaborative work with  M/s Transgene Biotek Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad for which US patent has been jointly granted. The Oral Delivery of Insulin and Hepatitis B have demonstrated exciting results with respect to efficacy. This new invention is a boon to the diabetic population showing the reduction of blood glucose levels comparable to that of the injectable Insulin.

Bioactive integrated orbital implants: CGCRI has designed and fabricated two varieties of porous hydroxyapatite-based orbital implants which have been clinically tried in more than 100 patients at different hospitals in India and has not reported post-operative complications. One of the significant advantages of these Hap implants over the glass/polymeric material is that they become invested with fibro-vascular tissues of the orbit and provide natural movement to the eye. This artificial eye is very light (less than 2 gms.) and costing only Rs. 2,000 compared to around Rs. 25,000 for the imported ones.

Arsenic & Iron Removal Plant: CGCRI has developed technology for arsenic/iron removal plants based on ceramic membrane technology for the production of safe drinking water from contaminated ground water.

A “Comprehensive Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)” is being established in CSIR with the objective to prevent misappropriation of traditional knowledge.

Bio-Safety Level-3 - BSL-3 Compliant Laboratories have been established at CDRI, IICB, IGIB, IMTECH and Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu to enable to carry out research on infectious diseases caused by micro organisms such as Tuberculosis, Cholera, Leishmaniasis, etc. and viruses like retgroviridae (HIV) mycobacterium. The research will lead to development of drugs, diagnostics and vaccines for these diseases.

GM Food Referral Facility - GM food referral facility to detect GM food has been established at Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore. The facility will be useful in detecting GM foods particularly GM Soya, GM Maize etc.

DSIR

Consultancy Development Centre

The Consultancy Development Centre (CDC), New Delhi has been made an Autonomous Institution of DSIR.

TePP Programme

Under this programme, financial support is provided to individual innovators having original ideas to convert them into working model, prototypes etc.  From the year 2005-06, the financial support given to innovators has been enhanced from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.10 lakh.

Publicity and Promotion

Ø                   Twelve audio visual documentary films on DSIR Initiatives were produced in Hindi as well as in English.  The Hindi version was telecast on Doordarshan National Channel (DD-1-Delhi) on consecutive Saturdays during 19.30-20.00 hrs. from April 30^, 2005 to June 18, 2005.

Ø                   15 Workshops on Technology Promotion, Development and Utilization were organized during the year 2004-05 & 2005-06 at different places in the country like Coimbatore, Bhubneswar, Guwahati Vishakhapatnam, Jabalpur, Rajkot, Kanpur, Kochi, Ranchi, Jalandhar,  and Srinagar 

Information Technology and e-Governance

This unit was formed for progressive implementation of e-Governance and establishing an IT enabled work environment.

 

Technology Development and Utilisation Programme

A Technology Development and Utilisation Programme has been launched for Women (TDUPW) to encourage and promote women entrepreneurs in scientific and industrial research

Industrial R&D Promotion Programme

There are 1205 in-house R&D Centres recognised by DSIR till December 31, 2005.  Out of these, 128 units are having R&D expenditure more than Rs 5 crore and 271 units are having R&D expenditure between Rs.1 crore and Rs.5 crore

 

Ø                   Fresh recognition was accorded to 86 in-house R&D Centres during the year 2004 and to 66 R&D Centres during the year 2005

Ø                   18^th and 19^th National Conferences on in-house R&D in industry  were organised and DSIR National Awards were presented to 16 industrial units

Ø                   23 new Scientific and Industrial Organisations(SIRO’s) were accorded recognition during the year 2004 and 29 SIRO’s were recognised during the year 2005

 EARTH SCIENCES

Subsequent to the Great Tsunami of December 26, 2004, it was decided to set up an Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges in Indian Ocean at the total cost of Rs.125 crore with the following components:

Ø                   Installation of tsunami warning sensors close to the ocean bottom at appropriate locales in the Indian Ocean, with real time connectivity;

Ø                   Tide gauge and data buoys networking to validate arrival of tsunami waves at the coast;

Ø                   Strengthening of  the existing seismological network to indicate, near real time occurrence of  tsunamigenic earthquakes;

Ø                   Modelling of the inundation scenarios for the entire coast and mapping of potential risk areas;

Ø                   Collection of information, analysis and generating status advisories.

An Interim Tsunami Warning Centre (ITWC)  has been established at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad  and is operational on 24x7 basis.  The system is scheduled to be operational by September, 2007 and the activities are as per schedule.

            The first ever Desalination Plant in the country to produce one lakh litres per day freshwater based on Low Temperature Thermal Desalination principle was successfully commissioned in May 2005, at Kavaratti, Lakshadweep islands. A 10-lakh (1 million) litre per day (MLPD) barge-mounted (offshore) desalination plant with a new design was commissioned in April 2006, near Chennai. However, due to cyclonic weather conditions,  the plant operation has been curtailed which is expected to be decommissioned by end of May 2006. 

            Process package to extract Copper, nickel and Cobalt were developed and tested successfully in the a semi-continuous demonstration pilot plant set up at Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL), Udaipur with a capacity of processing 500 kg of polymetallic nodules per day.  It is for the first kind that such a plant have been established in the world with the  process. Another pilot plant has been commissioned at National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamashedpur for generation of industrial standard ferro-silico manganese  from the residue  generated by the process route followed at HZL, Udaipur.

            Two Joint Indo-Russian scientific expeditions to Lake Baikal were launched in the year 2005 and 2006, respectively. One of the longest ( 1.2 m long) gas hydrate sample core recovered using Gravity Corer.  Gas Hydrates, with their abundant resource potential, is emerging as a potential cleaner fuel resource for the future. Two sites have been identified in Krishna Godavari basin for detailed investigations on the basis of available seismic data. National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai is involved in pioneering work pertaining to development of technology for exploration and assessment of gas hydrates.

The construction of Buoy Tender cum Research Vessel “Sagar Manjusha” is in the advanced stage of completion and is likely to be delivered in May 2006.

            Integrated Potential Fishing Zone(PFZ) advisories are generated using the satellite data and are disseminated   in local languages covering about 10 million fishermen. A study conducted in this regard indicates improved fish catch.

So far, 25  Indian  Expeditions have been launched to Antarctica.  Survey and planning for a new Indian Antarctic Base has been completed.

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