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CSIR Technofest 2010

Shri Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Union Minister for HumanResource Development, Science & Technology and EarthSciences inaugurated the CSIR Technofest 2010 on 14November 2010, the 14-day exhibition organized by CSIRin Hall No: 11 of Pragati Maidan, as a part of the IndiaInternational Trade Fair·2010. A large number of invitees,senior officials of CSIR were present on the occasion.

Addressing the gathering, the Hon’ble Minister said,

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CSIR Technofest 2010 being inaugurated by the Hon’ble Union Minister forHuman Resource Development, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences,

Shri Kapil Sibal in presence of DG CSIR, Prof. Samir K. Brahmachariand other dignitaries

The Hon’ble Union Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal addressing at the inauguration ofCSIR Technofest 2010 – Showcasing Industry-CSIR linkages,

“The partnership of CSIR and Industry has broughtaccessibility and affordabillty of technology to the society.Several nutritious products, healthcare services,petrochemicals and agricultural products and machinesare now easily available at low price in India which arevery costly if imported.”

Shri. Prithviraj Chavan, Hon’ble Chief Minister ofMaharashtra also visited the theme pavilions in CSIRTechnofest 2010. He appreciated the efforts made byCSIR in creating awareness about science & technologyamong the common people.

CSIR Technofest 2010 was the first of its kind event organized by CSIR to showcase its contributions in driving forward thecompetitive industrial growth coupled with sustainable inclusive growth towards improving the quality of living of the commonmasses. As this fair highlighted the potpourri of the industrial competence and cultural diversity of India, it attracted a largenumber of people including the important stakeholders of CSIR.

The exhibition showcased CSIR’s expertise in the field of science and technology through 15 theme pavilions. Thismega event envisaged to strengthen CSIR linkage with existing and potential industry partners and to effectively disseminatethe benefits of knowledgebase to the masses. It also showcased CSIR’s R&D competence, the technologies & productssuccessfully commercialized by the industry in addition to many achievements of CSIR.

The fest aimed to create awareness about the latest developments in the field of science and technology. The addedattractions of the mega event were special talks, business-to-business meetings and interactive sessions with captains of theindustry, leading technoprenures and academicians. Concurrent to the exhibition, technical sessions were conducted onthese themes. A large number of trade visitors and scientists from India and scientific delegations from abroad also visitedthe CSIR pavilion. Quiz competitions were also organized on all public days of IITF-2010 as a part of CSIR Technofest2010. A four-page Newsletter highlighting the current events at CSIR Technofest 2010 was brought out in collaboration withFICCI, on every alternate day. Seven issues of the Newsletter were brought out during the entire event.

The credit for the successful culmination of CSIR Technofest 2010, on 27 November 2010, for sure goes to the untiring effortsof the members of CSIR family who worked as a dedicated team to effectively showcase the multifaceted contributions of CSIR.

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Director General’s MessageCSIR Technofest 2010 is anoutcome of a large number ofyears of effort in bringingCSIR’s contribution to theforefront. Such an exhibition isbeing held for the first time on ascale never done before, toshowcase CSIR’s valuableinputs that have helped inproviding competitive industrialgrowth on one hand, andsustainable inclusive growth onthe other, improving the qualityof the lives of the commonmasses.

The CSIR Technofest 2010is being held as a part of the IndiaInternational Trade Fair. This has threeroles to play; First, to expose theIndustries and the partners of CSIR whohave matured CSIR knowledge andtechnology processes and products.Secondly, this is an opportunity for youngstudents to see what they can do in CSIRlabs to build their careers. Finally, this isalso an opportunity for young innovatorsand entrepreneurs to seek CSIRtechnologies for creating national asset.In addition, this is a good destination forthose seeking funds for entrepreneurialopportunities. CSIR Technofest 2010 is

an excellent platform for meeting andhaving interactive sessions with thecaptains of the industry, scientists andtechno-entrepreneurs and for holdingbusiness-to-business discussions.

There is a special pavilion on CSIR800, which is showcasing agriculture andfloriculture. This is a special attractionas it shows how S&T can make adifference in the economies of the poorestof the poor. The participation of strategicsector with CSIR is an ampledemonstration of how CSIR is contributingin strengthening India’s strategic sector.

CSIR Technofest 2010 is particularly

The Director General, CSIR, Prof. S.K. Brahamachari briefingthe press about the CSIR Technofest 2010

relevant for the budding younggeneration for exploring theopportunities they will have underthe CSIR Academy of Scientificand Innovative Research(AcSIR): a world-class academyof national importance impartingtech-nology-based education infrontier areas of S&T, which arenot ordinarily covered bytraditional institutes of higherlearning.

The uniqueness of thisexhibition lies not so much in theexhibition itself but the spirit inwhich it was conceived. It is an

exhibition that will also present CSIRthrough the eyes of Industries that havebenefited from CSIR’s knowledgebase.It is not just CSIR that is putting up theexhibition; rather it is the Industry puttingup the exhibition on behalf of CSIR. Thisis what separates CSIR Technofest2010 from the conventional exhibitions.

The CSIR Technofest 2010 isan acknowledgement of all that CSIRhas contributed to the national causein addition to being an opportunity toshowcase additional CSIR technologiesthat are now available forcommercialization.

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A view of the audience

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In a unique attempt, the Institute of Genomics &Integrative Biology (IGIB), engaged in researchof national importance in the areas of genomics,molecular medicine, bioinformatics, proteomicsand environmental biotechnology, put forward awonderful opportunity for the general masses togain awareness about their DNA. With their newage technology, IGIB demonstrated how DNA isactually derived from saliva in just 15-minutes. TheDNA strands were then stored in an ethanolsolution and given to the individual as a souvenirto carry home.

The Strategic Sector including Aerospace was oneof the theme pavilions in CSIR Technofest 2010.In its impressive and informative pavilion in theexhibition, National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL)highlighted its successful partnership with Industry.

Dr A R Updadhya, Director, NAL, Bangaloresaid, “I am happy to say that CSIR Technofest 2010is a good platform to inform the general public andthe scientific community about the achievements ofCSIR in the field of strategic sector like aerospace.”He said that CSIR-NAL is an advanced technologysolution provider to the aerospace programme of the country and mentioned that NAL is proud to be associated withthe CSIR 70-90 seat passenger national civil aircraft programme.

Dr Upadhya further mentioned that NAL is associated with the SARAS programme for designing, developing andmanufacturing 15 aircraft for the Air Force. NAL is also associated with Mahindra Group to produce the 5-seaterNM-5 aircraft, which is the country’s first venture under the public-private partnership scheme. The aircraft is all setto be launched by next year. He added that the Carbon Fiber Technology developed by NAL, used in aerospace anddefense sectors, has been transferred to Kemrock Industries in Baroda which is setting up a plant to produce 400tonnes of carbon fibre annually.

Under the theme pavilion: Mining, Minerals & Materials,10 laboratories of CSIR and their industry partners participated.Shivaye Namah Manufacturing Co. Pvt. Ltd., an industrypartner of CSIR, displayed their products, aptly titled, WoodWithout Trees as they are manufactured from natural fiberderived from agricultural waste and recycled plastics, withoutusing wood in any form. The manufacturing process wasadopted by them was an advanced indigenous technologyhaving back-up support from Central Building Research Institute(CBRI), Roorkee. The products are suitable substitute forwood with equivalent strength and quality, and are much betteras the moisture content is low when compared to wood.

DNA Sample as a Souvenir,Thanks to IGIB

Miracle Wood fromCBRI Technology

NAL Pushes the Limits of Aerospace Technology

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Dr A.R. Upadhya, Director, NAL at CSIR Technofest 2010

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CSIR ApplaudedThe CSIR Technofest 2010 attracteda host of VIPs. They were all dazzledby the pioneering work being done byCSIR and its laboratories in anendeavour to take science andtechnology to the common man.

Dr. R. Chidambaram, thePrincipal Scientific Advisor to theGovernment of India and Chairman ofthe Scientific Advisory Committee tothe Cabinet, visited CSIR Technofeston 15 November 2010. After visitingvarious theme pavilions he said, “CSIRhas a very important role in India’sdevelopment as it has been promotingindustry-oriented technologies. TheTechnofest is showcasing many areaslike mechanical engineering, chemistry,environment, leather and so many otherareas.” He added that CSIR has beengreatly associated with manytechnological developments. Whenasked to comment about the mostimportant product and technologydisplayed among the pavilions. DrChidambaram said, “CSIR has manyfaces and I don’t think that onetechnology and product can be singledout, as there are dozens of technologiesand products which demonstrates thevarious aspects of CSIR”. He wasdelighted by the efforts of CSIRtowards pushing forward the country’sname in the field of science and technology.

Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary,Department of Science & Technology,Government of India, visited the 11FTCSIR Technofest 2010, on the

15 November 2010. Expressing greathappiness in attending this mega event,he said, “What is presented in thepavilion is the synthesis of alllaboratories under CSIR and itspartnership with various industries. Theexhibition has given an opportunity toCSIR to take technology and itsproducts to the common people.” Hefurther elaborated that technology assuch does not appeal much to themasses but only the products steerinterest. Dr Ramasami added thatthrough various pavilions, CSIR and itsindustry partners have tried toshowcase these very products.

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, formerPresident of India visited CSIRTechnofest 2010 on 24 November2010. In his address to the gathering,he stressed on the fact that Indianindustries have to taste the results ofindigenous research and development.He said that he was happy to know thatCSIR is contributing in multipledimensions of technology. He said, “Irealize the technology growth andapplications are continuouslyprogressing in high trajectory.”

In his interaction with the childrenattending the fest, Dr Kalamemphasized on how the youth has gonefrom asking, “What can I give to thenation?,” towards the answer “I cando it,” “we can do it” and the “Nationwill do it.” He also mentioned that hewas happy to see the 540 million youthof the nation, ready to participate in the

development process. He added thatrelationship between the economicdevelopment, technology and creativeleadership is essential for economicdevelopment. The higher the proportionof creative leaders in a nation, thehigher the potential of success of visionslike “developed India”.

Dr Kalam also mentioned that toachieve the distinctive profile of India,we have the mission of transformingIndia into a developed nation.Addressing the youth he said, “Thechallenge, my young friends, is that youhave to fight the hardest battle, whichany human being can ever imagine tofight; and never stop fighting until youarrive at your destined place, that is, aUNIQUE YOU!”

Shri Digambar Kamat, ChiefMinister of Goa said that CSIRTechnofest 2010 was a celebration,scientifically outstanding and practicallymeaningful. He said, “Anyone whovisits CSIR Technofest 2010 would feelvery proud about Indian scientificresearch and technology.” He furtherelaborated that it is a melting pot forgetting the best of science to solve thenation’s problems.

Shri Kasturirangan, Member ofthe Planning Commission of India saidthat the CSIR Technofest 2010 was aunique platform for scientists,industrialists and the common folk togain a better understanding of theinnovations and advancements in thefield of science & technology.

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Immunology, New Delhi visited CSIRTechnofest on 14 November 2010. Hesaid that stepping into Hall No: 11 wasa relief after the glittering extravaganzain the neighboring pavilions, throngedby the ilk of Samsung, lG, and Sonyetc. In contrast, he added that browsingthe CSIR Technofest 2010, the largehall tastefully decked with premierindigenous technologies developed inCSIR laboratories generated a warmerand more intimate feeling of possession.“For me as an ex-CSIR person, thespectacle mobilized an avalanche ofnostalgia, about the people behind thecommercial products of today I knewfrom yore.”

Dr Basu expressed happiness atseeing the CSIR flagship project onthrombolytic agents, showcased byENEM Nostrum as the Klotbusterexhibit on streptokinase. “It sure wouldbe a blockbuster given the rapid rise incardiovascular diseases in India and thedeveloping world. One cannot but bemoved by the thought how these CSIRcontributions touch the lives of thecommon,” he added.

European Delegates fromProject New INDIGO shared theirviews on CSIR Technofest 2010.Project New INDIGO is a consortiumof European and Indian S&Torganizations involved in promotingresearch cooperation between Europeand India. It is intended to strengthenthe international dimensions of theEuropean Research Area (ERA) byproviding a networking platform forIndian and European S&T

organizations. Ms. Aurelie Pachkoff,Managing Coordinator of NewINDIGO said, “CSIR is the co-coordinator for their Project in Indiaand it is a very good opportunity to behere in CSIR pavilion to learn therecent S&T developments in Indiancontext and tell them about ourproiects.” She also mentioned that theyare creating a new programme betweenIndia and Europe, which will enhanceEuro-India relationship in the field ofscience and technology. According tothe delegation, visiting CSIR Technofest2010 gave them immense opportunityto interact with CSIR counterparts andknow much about its varied activities.

Prof. Daniel Ostrowsky was verymuch impressed by the diversity withwhich CSIR and its constituentlaboratories were working fordeveloping science and technology. Mr.Alexander Degelsegge, anotherrepresentative of ENRS. a Frenchequivalent of CSIR talked about howthe CSIR Technofest 2010 had createda platform for developing betterunderstanding to promote morecooperation in the field of science andtechnology between Europeancountries and India. He mentioned that30 representatives from variousEuropean countries like Portugal.Austria, Spain, Netherland, etc. werehere to see the advancement made byCSIR during the last so many years. Inall they were left baffled by CSIR’sefforts in carrying forward the spirit ofInnovation in the field of science andtechnology.

Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, formerDirector General of CSIR said that theshow throws light upon the power ofCSIR and the impact of the TeamCSIR. He said, “You see not just theposters, there are products actuallydisplayed in the pavilion. The fair meetsits objective by making technology sosimple to understand.” He added thatthe fest has been organized at par withworld-class quality and is presented ina way to rnake it user-friendly. Hementioned his delight in being able tofeel, touch and get ideas on how scienceleads to advancements in technologyand cultures.

Dr. Srikumar Banerjee,Secretary, Department of AtomicEnergy, Government of India, termedthe CSIR Technofest 2010 as acommendable show. He said, “I amvery happy to see the kind of innovativetechnologies the scientists are workingon. Such fest would provide betterplatforms to exhibit new ideas andtechniques.”

Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, an eminentscientist and the Father of GreenRevolution spoke with DG CSIR andsaid, “It was a privilege visiting CSIRTechnofest. You have demonstratedvery efficiently the power of IndianScience and the key role played by itin science and technology for publicgood. You are a role model for all ofus. I wish you and CSIR continuedsuccess in the very important work inwhich you partake.”

Dr. Sandip Basu, Prof. ofEminence, National Institute of

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Dr. Martin Goller and Dr. DorteMerk, Federal Ministry of Education& Research in Germany, mentionedthat they had a wonderful experienceat CSIR Technofest. They were quitehappy to see the interesting products.Dr. Martin said, “Combination ofscience & technology which isaffordable to poor people is here. Veryinnovative projects in healthcare sectorgreatly interest me. I am impressed bythe diversity that CSIR has showcased.It is an excellent show by CSIR.”

In addition to the VIPs a largenumber of visitors hoarded theinnovations and models displayed in thepavilions. Mr. Ajay Chaudhry of HCL

said, “We are looking at creatingtechnologies for people who can’tafford. We have to create technologiesfor the 500 million.” Other esteemedguests included DCP Mr. A.V. Guptawho showed keen interest in the DNAapparatus and claimed that it would helpin fight crime in India. Mr. SubhashChandra, from Zee Group, was leftimpressed by CSIR’s dedicationtowards building a better Nation.

The industrialists andentrepreneurial aspirants thronged toCSIR Technofest to experience theinnovative technologies and understandtheir commercial applicability. Scientistsand students from world over flocked

here, excited by the streams of researchexplored by CSIR institutions acrossIndia. CSIR has evidently taken longstrides of development in the fields ofhealthcare, leather, aeronautics, watermanagement, nutrition and ecology.Students, teachers, children and parentsall showed keen interest in the productsdisplays and the information presented.

All in all the visitors were leftoverwhelmed with the technologiesdeveloped and showcased at CSIRTechnofest 2010. Kudos to scientistsand representatives of CSIR, who leftone and all amazed by their innovativeadvancements in science andtechnology.

Quiz Competitions at CSIR Technofest 2010CSIR Technofest 2010 started its rounds of quiz competitions from 19 November 2010. There were three rounds ofcompetitions conducted at 11 am, 12 pm and 1 pm. The preliminary round had 15 questions and a lucky draw wasconducted among the participants who had maximum correct answers. Six top ranked participants, on both days,were short-listed for the final round that was conducted on 26 November 2010. The first and second day saw over300 participants. It was interesting to note that among the participants there were people who were not from a formalscience background but still made it to the next round. The participants were from different realms of life: from schoolstudents to professors, children to adults, all seemed to be very excited about the competition. Even the audience hada chance of winning prizes for answering questions that were passed on to them. The winner of each day’s competitionwas given a choice between taking home an MP3 player and a year long subscription of a popular magazine, ScienceReporter published by NISCAIR.

CSIR Technofest 2010 concluded its quiz competitions for the general public with a mega-quizzing event, on 26November 2010. The participants who held the top six positions on each day of the quiz were called to participate inthis main quiz. Over 2500 people had participated in these quizzes since their commencement on 19 November 2010.The competition was also a rage among school and college students. Hansraj College, Amity University, RashtrashaktiVidyalaya, DAV School, Jamia Millia lslamia, Dayal Singh College, PC GhAziabad, JCD Haryana, Ramjas, etc werea few colleges from which there were a large number of participants. The winners of the grand finale took home anumber of exciting prizes.

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Highlights of Technical SessionsAerospace and Related

Technologies

National Civil Aircraft Development(NCAD) has established a designbureau that provides the seedling for civilaircraft design in the country and is inthe process of developing a 100 seateraircraft. Such an aircraft will be usefulfor connecting cities in rural and semirural areas. It is estimated that thecountry may be requiring 1000 to 4000such aircrafts in the coming years. Theaircraft will be made based on high-endtechnology. CSIR is strongly supportingthe technological initiatives required byNCAD. This project is looking for morejoint ventures and also for public-privatepartnerships, suppliers, vendors, originalequipment manufacturers and risksharing partners for financial help.

Mr. Prasad of Mahindra AerospacePvt. Ltd. in his presentation said thatthey are associated with CSIR-NAL toproduce the 5-seater NM-5 aircraft,which is the country’s first venture underthe public-private partnership scheme.The aircraft is all set to be launched bynext year. Describing the salient featuresof the aircraft, Mr. Prasad said that thisis a unique programme and the aircraftis best suited for connecting remoteareas in shortest time. The aircraft isdesigned to carry people alone and notgoods, while the other feature is a flatcabin with removable seats, which canalso carry cargo. It is a low cost aircraftand will be highly affordable. The sessionexplored the tremendous possibilities inthe field of aviation with respect tofighting terrorists, disaster management.

maintenance, search missions etc, byemploying micro air vehicles or otherunmanned air vehicles. These wouldlessen the risk factor for the operatorsand would minimize the civilian casualty.

Mining, Minerals andMaterials

A Technical Session on Mining,Minerals and Materials was organizedon 17 November 2010 as a part of CSIRTechnofest-2010. Representatives fromindustries like - Coal India Ltd, BHEL.,EATON, NAlCO, VEDANTA, GeneralMotors, etc participated In the TechnicalSession. Speaking at the session ProfSamir K. Brahmachari, Director Generalof CSIR said, “We are ready for anycooperation with Industry keeping inmind the concept of interest of India andIndian People.”

An interesting feature of the themepavilion ‘Mining, Minerals and Matenals’was a product Wood Without Tree,based on the technology developed byCBRI, Roorkee. This technology wasdeveloped using natural fiber derivedfrom agricultural waste like husk andstraws in combination with recycledplastics. NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram ofCSIR has also developed a wood likeproduct, which uses coir and resin tomanufacture artificial wood andfurniture. The project is yet to getclearance for commercialization. Thisproduct uses 80-90 percent of coir asraw material.

Advanced Materials and ProcessResearch Institute (AMPRI), Bhopal,another Institute under CSIR in

association with automotive Industriesis working for use of lightweightmaterials for automotive Industry. DrAnil K. Gupta, Director of AMPRI,Bhopal elaborated that they are workingwith automotive giants like AshokLeyland, Eaton, and TATA Motors onthe use of advanced light-weightmaterial such as Aluminium, Magnesium,Foam, and so on.

Ecology, Environment&Water

The CSIR Technofest at IlTF 2010exuded a new energy when the sessionon the above theme was taking place. Itwas attended by 29 partners coveringboth Ecology & Enviroment and Watertheme. Dr. B.D. Kulkarni, Scientist,CSIR chaired the session, while Dr.Pushpito Ghosh, Director, CSMCRI,Bhavnagar co-chaired the session. Thissession was attended by 22representatives from various industries/organizations. Showcasing thetechnologies on environment andecology, 17 industries gave a detailedaccount of their association with CSIRand the benefits gained through CSIR.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. R.V. Assari, Principal Conservator ofForest, Gujarat explained about theenvironment-friendly nature of JatrophaBio-diesel. He informed that 100 busesare being run in Gir forest using JatrophaBio-diesel developed by CSMCRI. Mr.R. John George, Hindustan Unilever ltd.,described about the benefits theyachieved from CSIR technology inremediating soil contaminated with

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mercury, which was used in thermometermanufacturing. He informed that the upscaling of the plant was done inassociation with CSIR and the actual re-mediation is in progress under thesupervision of CSIR. He expressed pridein being associated with CSIR. Thefollowing points emerged for policydecision from the discussions:

• CSIR needs to become more openin supporting industry with policies,which are simple and will facilitateeasy transfer of technologies andsustainable association with industry.

• CSIR should facilitate rapidpropagation of technologies and easyavailability of the technologies/products in the market through somenodal agencies.

• Government should provide subsidyon CSIR technologies for wideapplication in rural areas.

Leather

A panel discussion on Leather Themewas held on 22 November 2010 at CSIRTechnofest. The focus of the discussionwas CSIR Empowering Leather Sector.Eleven industry partners participated inthe discussion. The session was chairedby Prof. V. S. Ramamurthy, Chairman,RAB, CSIR. At the outset, Prof. Dr. A.B. Mandai, Director, CLRI formallywelcomed the industry partners for aninteractive discussion and invited themto share their views.

The discussion started with theaddress of Shri Abhay Kumar, M/sSPIC, Chennai, who recalled that theassociation of SPIC with CSIR-CLRIdated back to 1996-97 in connection with

providing ecobenign technologicaloptions for leather processing. Otherprominent speakers were Shri. C.S.Gnanasekaran, Managing Partner,Kalyanam & Co, Chennai; Shri AbhijitSeth, M/s Ankur Footwear; Shri MaheshReddy, Country Manager, ADIDAS; Mr.Bruno Valanzuolo, Chief TechnicalAdvisor, UNIDO; Shri S.S. Lahiri,General Manager, M/s Liberty Shoes;Mr.Vipan Kumar Seth, M/s VersatileEnterprise Pvt. Ltd. and Vice President,IFCOMA; Shri Tapan Sarkar, Manager(Marketing), M/s Balmer Lawrie & Co.Ltd; Ms. S. Sunanda, CLE, Chennai; andShri Sudarshan Chakraborty, M/sClassic Enterprises.

Research activities andprogrammes/expertise of CSIR-CLRIon Leather processing, LeatherChemicals, Leather Products (Footwear& Garments), Biotechnology, Bio-material, Bio-products, Human ResourceDevelopment, Economic Programmes,Environment and Engineering wereexhibited in different theme pavilionssuch as Leather, Ecology & Environ-ment, Water, Nurturing of HumanResource, Engineering, Healthcare,Energy, Chemical & Petro-chemicals.

Some of the industry partners whowere the licensees of CSIR-CLRItechnologies took active part in theTechnofest by way of participating in thetheme pavilions. Some of the artisanswho were the beneficiaries ofCSIR-CLRI contribution alsoparticipated in theme pavilions.

Food and Nutrition

The Technical Session on Food &Nutrition generated lot of interest

among the participants. Initiating thediscussion, Dr. V. Prakash, Director,CSIR-Central Food TechnologicalResearch Institute, Mysore gave hisopening remarks and introduced thepanel members to the audience.Speaking on the occasion, Ms. ShikhaJain, Proprietor, Flora-O-Foods,Jaipur highlighted the energy foodformulation of CSIR and how it hashelped in fighting the malnutritionprevailing in children by consumingenergy food.

Shri R. Nagarajan, G.M.R&D,Open Innovation and Technical Services,Glaxo Smithkline Consumer HealthcareLtd, Research & Development Centre,Gurgaon shared his experience withCSIR for the work carried out on thedevelopment of specialty foods andstressed on CSIR’s intervention oncapacity building for development ofentrepreneurs and their training.Dr. D.B.A. Narayan of HindustanUniliver Research, Bangalore praisedthe work of CSIR in the developmentof innovative food products andstressed on the need of using traditionalknowledge contained in the Vedasand Ayurveda for development ofhealth/innovative food productsfor different target groups ofsociety.

Shri Naresh Kataria of NeoconceptEnterprises, New Delhi who is asuccessful entrepreneur by adoptingCSIR’s process know-how of chapattimaking plant, expressed his gratitude toCSIR. Dr. A.G. Appu Rao, Head, ProteinChemistry Technology Department ofCStR-CFTRI, Mysore spoke about thevarious ongoing and future R&D themesbeing pursued by CSIR in the area ofFood and Nutrition.

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CSIR Showcases Technology, Innovation & Much MoreDr. Vivek V. Ranade, Chairman, Organizing Committee CSIR Technofest 2010

CSIR Technofest 2010 is a unique eventin which technologies and competenciesof CSIR laboratories spreading acrossIndia (from Trivandrum to Palampur andfrom Bhavnagar to Jorhat) areshowcased under one roof. This eventwas conceived by the DG CSIR. TheCSIR Technofest team drawn from the37 laboratories and the CSIR Headoffice at New Delhi was working torealize this vision. The visitors haveexpressed their satisfaction. The team,however, needs to stay focused andcontinue to build on this foundation toconsolidate the benefits.

CSIR has worked with over 5000industries and have helped them createnew processes and new products. This

has facilitated establishing andmaintaining a competitive edge of Indianindustry. It has also protected andcreated several thousands of jobs andhelped our economy to sustain and grow.It is virtually impossible to showcasethese contributions to the industry in oneexhibition. In CSIR Technofest, morethan 100 industry beneficiaries ofCSIR’s technologies are participating forhighlighting their partnership with CSIR.Many other Industry partners could notbe accommodated because of thelogistics and scheduling reasons.

Besides the technologies andproducts, which are already transferredto and practiced by industry, CSIRscientists are continuously working on

building new competencies & expertiseand translating these into products andprocesses. The CSIR Technofest alsoincludes showcasing of many ready tobe transferred technologies along withthe highlights of ongoing research.Visiting industry participants will get anopportunity to get the first-handunderstanding of these competenciesand may lead to identification of severalnew business opportunities. Besidesindustry, the CSIR Technofest also offersglimpse of exciting science andtechnology landscape to visitorsspanning a wide range of subjectsencountered in our daily life, fromdrinking water to aircrafts; agricultureto nutrition and health, and so on.

Nostrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA ObtainedWorldwide Licensing Rights from CSIR for Clinical Development

of New-Generation Thrombolytic MoleculesAt a function held at CSIR Technofest2010 at IITF, in the presence of ShriKapil Sibal, Hon’ble Union Minister ofScience and Technology and EarthSciences, Dr. Nirmal Mulye, Presidentand founder of NostrumPharmaceuticals Inc. and Dr. GirishSahni, Director, Institute of MicrobialTechnology (IMTECH) signed thelicensing agreement between CSIR-IMTECH and Nostrum PharmaceuticalsInc., USA, based in Edison, New Jerseyto clinically develop and commercializenew (Third and Fourth) generationthrombolytic molecules. This New

Generation Clot-buster(s) compriseclinically beneficial thrombolyticmolecules with enhanced half-lives aswell as target (fibrin/clot) specificity. Thevalue of the Licensing Agreement isapproximately to the tune of 150 millionUS dollars, which would be throughvarious milestone payments androyalties.

The Hon’ble Minister acknowledgedthat this Agreement is of greatsignificance as CSIR-IMTECH hasbeen able to license for clinicaldevelopment of new molecules fortherapeutic purposes. Dr. Girish Sahni,

Director, IMTECH said, “Licensing ofthese molecules to Nostrum is a proudachievement for IMTECH, especiallysince these are the third- and fourth-Generation molecules that IMTECH haslicensed out to Nostrum, and should fillan acute need in the world, especiallythe developing countries where effectivebut affordable treatments for circulatorydisorders such as heart attacks andstroke are a crying need, and where themore expensive option of surgicalintervention via Cath Labs is not an easyoption.”

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CSIR-800 – Empowering the MassesCSIR-800 focuses to cater to the needsof the majority of Indian populationthrough S&T interventions. In thiscontext, CSIR contributions have beenin terms of the utilization of abundantlyavailable sisal fibres into useful productslike handicrafts and roofing sheets;industrial wastes like flyash foragricultural soil reclamation; polymericred mud and flyash composites as woodsubstitute in building applications, redmud radiation shielding material,formulation of a model for the

dissemination of technologies to the ruralmasses, collection of plants and theirextract for assessing medicinal values,bell metal technology, and hydrofracturing of dogged bore wells.

CSIR-800 pavilion showcasedCSIR’s technologies and capabilities thatwould benefit 800 million people of ournation, earning Rs. 100 per day or below.Considering the needs of the country,CSIR-800 focuses on enhancing incomethrough technologies for Value addedAgriculture, Waste to Wealth and

Energy Efficiency. While technologiesfor improving the quality of life includethose for Low Cost Housing, AffordableHealth, Potable water and SustainableEnergy. For example, Solekshaw, aneco-friendly, solar-powered rickshaw,that would revolutionize urban transport,is one of the latest achievements ofCSIR-800. The dual-poweredSoleckshaw is the CSIR’s solution forthe dual problem of decent employmentgeneration for the masses and mitigationof global warming.

Text of Appreciation Letter fromDr. R.A. Mashelkar,

Bhatnagar Fellow & President,Global Research Alliance, NCL

I went around CSIR Technofest 2010 at Pragati Maidan,New Delhi for about three hours and believe me thesewere the best three hours of my life. I felt proud to havebelonged to the CSIR family. The exhibition is world classin terms of its design, content, emphasis and overallexcellence. It shows how CSIR has touched the lives ofIndians from the bottom of the pyramid to the top of thepyramid. When I was there, the Chief Minister of Goawas there, Prof. M.S. Swaminathan was there,Ajai Chaudhari, the CEO of HCL was there and each oneof them were short of words in terms of their praise. Samiris proving every day what I had said, “he will be the DG,who will be 10 times better than me.”

The team of hundreds of scientists led by Samir, Vivekand others have done us truly proud. In fact , I believethat if 18,000 members of CSIR family were to be able tosee this exhibition, they will be filled with pride and CSIRwill rise to unparalleled heights.

Special Honours toTheme Pavilions

CSIR awarded the different theme pavilions, basedon the manner in which they presented theirinnovative technology. The Healthcare andAerospace pavilions got the Platinum Award, theEcology & Environment, Water and Mining,Minerals & Materials pavilions got the Gold Awardand the Food & Nutrition and Leather pavilionsgot the Silver Award. The other pavilions weregiven the Bronze Award.

TECHNOFEST

Thomson Reuters have awarded the India’s mostInnovative High Tech Organization (Academic) 2010Award to CSIR. Prof Samir K Brahmachari,Secretary, DSIR and Director General Council ofScientific and Industrial Research received theAward from Mr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the PrimeMinister of India on Public InformationInfrastructure & Innovations.

CSIR AwardedThomson Reuters Innovation

Award, 2010

CSIR NEWS276

CSIR- Technofest Won the Gold Medal in IITF- 2010CSIR Technofest-2010 wonthe Gold Medal for the best pavilionin the category of Public SectorUndertakings, EPCS, andCommunity Boards & Banks ofIndia International Trade Fair(IITF)-2010. Chief Minister, Delhi,Smt Sheila Dikshit conferred the GoldMedal and Certificate to Dr Daljit S.Bedi, Head, Unit for ScienceDissemination, CSIR in a ceremonyheld in Shankuntalam Theatre,Pragati Maidan on Saturday,27 November 2010. Dr Subas Pani,Chairman and Managing Director(CMD) of IITF and several otherdignitaries were present in the AwardCeremony.

“A great deal of effort was madein not only the get up of the pavilionbut also to provide the best contentand to ensure the availability of thepeople. A large number of technicalevents were organized and extensiveefforts were carried out to mobilize

people from scientific fraternity,industry and general public. TheAward is recognition of all these effortsby ITPO to achieve this objective,”said Dr. D. S. Bedi after receiving theAward. Almost all the researchlaboratories of CSIR were adjusted

TECHNOFEST

The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt Sheila Dikshit confers Gold Medal forCSIR Technofest- 2010 to Dr D S Bedi, Head, Unit for Science Dissemination (CSIR)

under 15 theme pavilions in 5,000sqm of space in Hall No 11, IITF,Pragati Maidan.

The CSIR Technofest-2010 wasconceptualized, executed andmanaged by Federation of IndianChambers of Commerce & Industry(FICCI) along with CSIR. “We arevery much excited about it and welook forward for such partnershipwith CSIR for future endeavor. Thiswas a mammoth exercise,whichincluded mobilizing scientist,academia, industrialists, youngstersand general public. The Award is arecognition and acknowledgement ofall these efforts by IITF- 2010,” saidMr Sumeet Gupta, Head, Scienceand Technology/ Innovation ofFICCI.

The gold medal wonby CSIR Technofest-

2010 for being thebest pavilion of India

International TradeFair (IITF)-2010 in

the category of PublicSector Undertakings,EPCS, Community

Boards & Banks.

DECEMBER 2010 277

‘CIMAP- Patra’ A New Mint VarietyA high menthofuran containing genotype of menthofuranmint has been developed by CIMAP for commercialutilization. The variety was released on the occasion ofCSIR Foundation Day, on 26 September 2010.

Menthofuran mint oil is used in cosmetic, flavouringand pharmaceutical industries. Though regarded as theundesirable monoterpenoid component of peppermintoil that is derived from alpha, beta-unsaturated ketones,currently both Indian and foreign traders are showingtheir keen interests especially with menthofuran-richpeppermint genotype for reconstitution of differentaromas.

Menthofuran, an expensive compound of limitedavailability, naturally occurs in the oil obtained frompeppermint plant and not produced by any other mintspecies for commercial use. The present variety, uponextensive cultivation, is likely to meet the industry’sdemand (stated to be approx. 150-200 tonnes perannum) for menthofuran.

Plants of Menthofuran mint in the field

Chromatogram of ‘Menthofuran mint’ oil

Professor Ram Rajasekharan, Director, CIMAP (in centre) releasingMenthofuran Mint var. ‘CIMAP-Patra’ on the occasion of CSIR Foundation

Day. Standing with him are Prof. D. N. Rao of IISc, Bangalore (right) andDr Birender Kumar , Scientist, CIMAP

R&D HIGHLIGHTS

Plant Character CIMAP-Patra

Growth habit ErectPlant height (cm) 50-65Leaf length (cm) 4.86 – 5.93Leaf width (cm) 2.93 – 3.53Propagule formation SuckerFlowering Non-FloweringLeaf: Stem ratio 0.87 – 1.22Oil content (%) 0.25 – 0.35Menthofuran content (%)in the oil 35.0 – 46.0Oil Yield (kg/ha) 60-65

CSIR NEWS278

Seasonal Variations and Trophic Ecology ofMicrozooplankton in the Southeastern Arabian Sea

The seasonal ecological response ofmicrozooplankton in the southeasternArabian Sea was studied by NIOscientists. During the springintermonsoon period, stratification anddepletion of nitrate in the surfacewaters cause low integratedchlorophyll a (av. 19 plus of minus 11.3mg m sup(-2)) and primary production.On the other hand, nutrient enrichmentassociated with coastal upwelling and

river influx during the onset and peaksummer monsoon resulted in highintegrated chlorophyll a and primaryproduction. During all three periods,diazotropic cyanobacterium,Trichodesmium erythraeumdominates in the nutrient depletedsurface waters. A general increase inabundance of larger diatoms wasevident in the surface waters of thein-shore region during monsoon

periods. The microzooplanktonabundance was found to besignificantly higher during the springinter monsoon as compared to onsetof summer monsoon and peak summermonsoon.

Microzooplankton communityduring the spring intermonsoon wasnumerically dominated by ciliates whileheterotrophic dinoflagellate was thedominant ones during the monsoon

NAL develops Wear Resistant Ni-SiC Composite CoatingsThe National Mission Project towardsthe indigenization of rotary Wankelengine for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) was initiated in January 2004.The consortia involving ADE, NAL andVRDE, Ahmadnagar planned to develop55 hp, single rotor, liquid cooled enginewith ADE as the end user for theNISHANT UAV. DRDO entrusted theProject on design and development ofthe 55 hp core engine to PropulsionDivision, NAL.

Al-Si alloy castings are used forfunctional requirements of the trochoid(rotor housing). This alloy possesses

poor wear resistance. SurfaceEngineering Division (SED) had takenup the activity of developing wearresistant NALNISIC coating by simpleand cost-effective method ofelectrodeposition. The challengesinvolved in this activity were: obtainingan adherent coating on Al-Si alloy whichis a difficult-to-plate material uniformdistribution of SiC particles on the boreof the trochoid, besides the micro-hardness of the coating above 450 Hv.

All the challenges have been nowsuccessfully met. The coated trochoidhousing has been fitted in the indigenous

prototype rotary engine. Ground levelevaluation tests were carried out byPropulsion Division and ADE,Bangalore. Finally, the provisional flightclearance was given by the certifyingagency RCMA.

An abandoned World War IIrunway at a village near Kolar was usedfor the first ever flight of an indigenousrotary engine that powered theNISHANT UAV. The flight took offand climbed to an altitude of 1.8 kmbefore cruising for a duration of 35minutes. It was recovered safely at thedesired location.

R&D HIGHLIGHTS

NALNISIC coated onthe bore of theTrochoid of NAL’sWankel engine

NISHANT fitted with the coated Trochoid in NAL’s indigenous Wankel engine

DECEMBER 2010 279

Ballast Water Management Extended toEight Major Indian Ports of India

periods. The high abundance of ciliatesduring the spring intermonsoon couldbe attributed to the stratifiedenvironmental condition, which favorshigh abundance of smaller phytoplanktonand cyanobacteria, the most preferredfood of ciliates. On the other hand, thedominance of heterotrophicdinoflagellates during the monsoonperiods could be linked to their ability

Over 90% of the world cargo ismobilized trans-oceanically and nearly10 billion tonnes of ballast water is filledat one part of the ocean and dischargedat the other. In doing so, it introduces awide range of living organisms, includingpathogens, into alien regions, usuallyalong the coasts of the continents. Theseorganisms can establish and invade anenvironment, if found suitable and poseeconomic and human health hazards.

Many cases of marine bioinvasionhave been reported and their harmfuleffects on the ecosystem and humanhealth have been documented.Therefore, marine bioinvasion has beenconsidered as one of the greatest threatsthat are challenging the health of the oceans.

Realizing the importance of thisissue, the International MaritimeOrganization (IMO) had formulated theInternational Convention for Control andManagement of Ship’s Ballast Water andSediments in 2004. The conventionincludes various guidelines and standardsthat are required to be followed by allthe maritime countries.

As per the convention, various

R&D HIGHLIGHTS

to graze larger diatoms which wereabundant during the monsoon periods.

The overall results show lowabundance of microzooplankton in theeastern Arabian Sea during themonsoon periods mainly due to adecline in ciliates abundance. Thisdecline during the monsoon periodscould be the result of low abundanceof smaller phytoplankton and high stock

of mesozooplankton predators.Authors: AshaDevi, C. R.;

Jyothibabu, R.; Sabu, P.; Jacob, J.;Habeebrehman, H.; Prabhakaran, M.P.; Jayalakshmi, K. J.; Achuthankutty,C. T.; Citation: Continental ShelfResearch, Vol.30(9); 1070-1084;Copyright: An edited version of thispaper was published by Elsevier.URI:http://hdl.handle.net/2264/3600.

ballast water management options canbe utilized. These options aremid-oceanic exchange, ballast water riskassessment and ballast water treatmenttechnologies. In addition, the studiespertaining to establishment of databasesthrough port biological surveys andlocating appropriate site(s) for ballastwater discharge in emergency situationwould also help in managing ballastwater.

The National Institute ofOceanography (NIO), has beenidentified by the Ministry of Shipping,Govt. of India as a lead R&D agencyfor helping the Ministryin addressing theballast watermanagement issuesand preparingcomprehensive portspecific managementplans for the country.

In this regard,initially the Institutecompleted workrelated to port,biological baseline

surveys, ballast water risk assessmentand identification of ballast waterdischarge sites for the ports of Mumbai,Jawaharlal Nehru, Mormugao andVisakhapatnam under “Globallast” and“Government of India Initiative”Programs.

Through this Program, NIO alsodeveloped a user-friendly and self-validating e-form for reporting ships’ballast water history, which is anessential requirement for conductingballast water risk analysis. It is nowenvisaged to extend these efforts to theremaining eight major ports (Mangalore,

CSIR NEWS280

NIO provides scientific back-up forthe India’s claims to extend its EEZ

The National Institute of Ocaenography(NIO), Goa and National GeophysicalResearch Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad havebeen working to identify the country’s limitsof the continental shelf under the Ministry ofEarth-Sciences (MoES), Government ofIndia initiatedprogram fordelineation of theouter limits of India’scontinental shelf.

This importantwork has helpedIndia in providing thescience behindIndia’s claim toextend its presentlimit of the ExclusiveEconomic Zone(EEZ), the marinearea over whichIndia enjoys specialrights for explorationand exploitation (ourpresent area is ~2million sq. km.).

India madeaformal presen-tation in this regard tothe Commission onthe Limits of theContinental Shelf atthe United Nations ,New York. Amongthe delegation,Dr. A. K. Chaubey,a senior geophysicistfrom NIO presented

before the Commission the science behindthe country’s claim to extend its EEZ. Thereare in all 53 countries that have madesubmissions to provide them extended areasbeyond their EEZs through the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to the

Cochin, Chennai, Haldia,Kandla, Tuticorin, Paradeepand Kolkata) of the country,through a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU)between NIO and theDirectorate General ofShipping (DGS). This willenable NIO to prepare acomprehensive port specificballast water managementplan for these ports to fulfillthe following objectivesduring 2010 to 2016.• To carry out port biological

baseline surveys• To conduct Ballast water

risk assessment.• To develop geographical

information system onballast watermanagement

• To identify suitable sitefor each port, throughmodeling studies, fordischarge of ballast waterin emergencies situation.

• To conduct on-voyageBallast Water Sampling.

• Implementation ofelectronic ballast waterreporting form.

Necessary support interms of funding andlogistics is provided by theMinistry of Shipping throughDirectorate General ofShipping, Mumbai. Thisprogram will be executedby NIO at various portswith the participation ofUniversities and R&Dinstitutions with relevantexperience.

R&D HIGHLIGHTS

15°

10°

20°

90°80° 85°

20°

15°

10°

Extended

200 M LimitOuter Limit

Accepted Manitime BoundaeryPotential Manitime Boundaery

Projection MereatorLongitude of Projection Centre: 87°, 30°

Latitude of Projection Centre: 12°

0 0 .5 1 2 3 4

Decemial Degrees

90°80° 85°

15°

10°0 0 .5 1 2 3 4

Decemial Degrees

200 M LimitPotential_Manitime_Boundaery

Outer limits of the ExtendedContinental Shelf delineatedby:

Fixed Points onPotential MantimeBoundary

350 M ConstraintLine ConnectingFixed Points

20°Projection Mereator

Longitude of Projection Centre: 87°, 30°Latitude of Projection Centre: 12°

: WGS 34

Outer limits of the extended continental shelf in theeastern offshore region of India

65° 70° 75°

10°

15°

20°

Outer limits of the extended continental shelf in thewestern offshore region of India

75°65° 70°

DECEMBER 2010 281

Commission on the Limits of theContinental Shelf. Several countrieshave already made presentations.

Among the eight memberdelegation from India, Dr. ShaileshNayak, Secretary, Ministry of EarthSciences (MoES) made introductory

UCE to Market Autoclaves Developed by CSIR-NAL

Unique Chemoplant Equipments (UCE),Mumbai, will market autoclavesdeveloped the National AerospaceLaboratories (NAL). When autoclaveswere in embargo list of exportingcountries, CSIR-NAL has starteddevelopment of indigenous autoclavesfor aerospace applications, i.e. formanufacture of advanced polymercomposite structural components ofaircraft such as LCA.

Over the years, it has developedseveral autoclaves meeting differentrequirements. While Mark-IV is thelatest and largest indigenous autoclaveever built in the country with a working

Signing of MoU between NAL & Unique Chemoplants, Mumbai (left) and Signing of MoU between NAL & DATASOL, Bangalore (right)

space as big as 4.4 m (D) × 9m (L), theMark-III is specially built for ever-growing R&D needs for hightemperature composites.

The technology has matured andthe autoclaves developed have beenhighly reliable, demonstrated bythe fact that one of the autoclaves aslarge as 4m (D) × 8m (L), supplied byCSIR-NAL, has been functioningvery effectively as work-horse at oneof the premier PSUs, over the lastdecade.

In line with the character of CSIR,NAL has established long-termcollaborative tie-ups with private

industry. While, M/s UniqueChemoplants will manufacture allmechanical hardware, in addition tomarketing; M/s DATASOL, Bangalore,would fabricate all electrical &electronics hardware. These willoperate as back to back arrangements,so as to deliver the autoclaveswithout any loss of time, avoidingthe usual sub-contracting procedures.

The main impetus of this exerciseis not only to mitigate imports, but tofoster private-public participation on afirm basis. Prospective buyers can seethe functioning of these autoclaves atCSIR-NAL.

R&D HIGHLIGHTS

and concluding remarks during thepresentation; Dr. A.K. Chaubey,Scientist, NIO and Mr. Narinder Singh,Joint Secretary (Legal and TreatiesDivision), Ministry of External Affairsmade presentations on their areas ofexpertise. Other members of

delegation were Manjeev Puri, DeputyPermanent Representative to the UN;Dr. M.P. Wakdikar, Scientist, MoEF;Dr. B. Ashalatha, Scientist, NGRI;Dr. D.K. Pandey, Scientist, NCAOR andMr. Pradip Chaudhury, Legal Counselor,Permanent Mission of India to the UN.

CSIR NEWS282

NIO Signed MoU with Fisheries Survey of IndiaIn 2009, NIO participated in a NationalProgramme “Isotope Fingerprinting ofWaters of India (IWIN)”. The specificobjectives of this Programme included:(i) identifying dominant sources of watervapour supply (Arabian Sea, Bay ofBengal, local and long distant continentalsources) at different locations within thecountry during different seasons; (ii)quantifying the partitioning of vapoursinto rain and re-partitioning of rain intovarious components as evapo-transpiration, soil moisture, stream flowand groundwater; (iii) quantification ofthe extent and rates of interactionsbetween these components, and (iv) thecontrols that geographical and climaticfactors exercise over the entirehydrological cycle both temporally andspatially.

In addition to estimate moisturetrapped over the designated landsegments over the Indian Peninsular, NIOwas also identified to organize ships ofopportunities to collect surface watersamples from Arabian Sea to cover allthe four seasons. In this context,

Fisheries Survey ofIndia (FSI) has comeforward to participatein this NationalProgramme by offeringto collect water samplesfrom Arabian Sea usingthe fleet of ships undertheir command. Furtherdiscussions between theDirector General, FSIand Director, NIOculminated in formu-lating a Memorandum of Understandingwhich was signed by the two parties on4 October 2010 in a formal functionorganized at NIO.

Dr. P. M. Muraleedharan, ProjectLeader at NIO and Dr. M. E. John, zonaldirector of Fisheries Survey of India, Goawere also present. FSI has three fieldstations at the west coast with six vesselsin their command. Continuous surfacewater sample collection using all the sixvessels over a period of time will provideevenly distributed samples in space andtime to cover all the seasons. Isotope

fractionation data derived from thesesamples are extremely useful tounderstand the fate of escaped moisturefrom this part of the ocean and its roleon the ensuing hydrological cycle.

NIO is also engaged in researchactivities to understand the hydrologicalbudge of the Indian peninsular. Theinformation gathered from IWIN will beuseful to support the activities at NIO. FSI is looking forward to use thiscollaboration for a better interaction withthe scientists of NIO to understand theocean-atmosphere processes.

Under the CSIR- 800 rural development programme, a MushroomProduction Centre was installed on 28 June 2010 at Baba SahebDr. Ambedkar Smriti Jana Kalyan Sanstha at Gandhigram inAgartala (Tripura). Dr. P. R. Bhattacharyya, Scientist F, NEISTand Dr A. K. Bordoloi, TO, NEIST were present on the occasion.A Training Programme was also conducted by Dr. Bordoloi onsetting up of Spawn Production Centre and Mushroom cultivation,which was attended by 38 trainees.

Mushroom Production Unit Installed Under CSIR-800

R&D HIGHLIGHTS/MOUS

NEIST personnel conducting the training on mushroom cultivation at Gandhigram

Signing of the MoU in progress

DECEMBER 2010 283

Pondicherry University Signed MoU with C-MMACS, BangaloreThe Pondicherry Universityhas signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) with theCenter for MathematicalModeling and ComputerSimulation (C-MMACS) forsetting up a carbon dioxidemonitoring station at theUniversity campus. Themonitoring station at theUniversity is being funded bythe Department of Scienceand Technology, New Delhi.

The CO2 monitoringstation will be a nationalfacility for studying the impactof greenhouse gases on global climateparticularly related to India. The stationwill collect the air flowing from the landand also from the sea in different seasonsdepending on the direction of the windblowing in the area. The data generatedwill be utilized by both the University and

Dr. A. R.Upadhya, Sc-Incharge, CMMACS (left), with Mr J.A.K Tareen,Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University at the singing of the MOU

A Memorandum of Understanding was signedbetween the Institute of Minerals andMaterials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar,and the Korea Institute of Geoscience andMineral Resources (KIGAM), on14 October 2010 at KIGAM, South Korea.The MoU was signed by Prof. B. K. Mishra,Director, IMMT and Dr. Ho Wan Chang,President KIGAM to collaborate inresearch areas of national importance in thefield of mineral processing and extractivemetallurgy.

IMMT Signs MoU withKorea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM)

MOUS

Prof. B.K.Mishra, Director, IMMT and Dr Ho Wan Chang, President, KIGAM after signing the MoU

C-MMACS for research and analysis.The facility will be part of a globalnetwork of similar monitoring stations.The University will provide allinfrastructural support for the facility.

Vice Chancellor of PondicherryUniversity Mr. J. A. K. Tareen said that

the MoU signals the“University’s entry into a newera of advanced research inboth basic and social science.”He said that the Universitycannot grow in isolation andsuch interaction with premierinstitutions such as C-MMACS will help achieve itsvision. He also said that theUniversity in its 25th year hasnow become the fastestgrowing central University inthe country and has recruitedmore than 175 teaching staffin the last two years. Dr A. R.

Upadhya, Scientist-Incharge ofC-MMACS, made a presentation aboutthe organization and its contribution tocivilian airspace technology in thecountry. Dr. N. K. Indira, Scientist,CMMACS and project coordinator wasalso present.

CSIR NEWS284

International Symposium on ‘Organic Synthesis andHuman Well Being: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges’

Indian Institute of ChemicalTechnology, (IICT),Hyderabad recently organizeda symposium on ‘OrganicSynthesis and Human WellBeing: Emerging Oppor-tunities and Challenges’ onthe occasion of 60th Birthdaycelebrations of Dr. J. S. Yadav,Director, IICT, a leading lightin the field of natural andsynthetic organic chemistryand one amongst the top contemporaryorganic chemists in the world.

The prime focus of the Symposiumwas to highlight the novel developmentstaking place in the frontiers of organicsynthesis with relevance to healthcare.The major goal of the Symposium wasto bring the knowledge of the industryand academia together, providing aplatform that enables the academicians,scientists and researchers from Pharmaindustry for useful interactions andfruitful collaborations in organic andmedicinal chemistry.

During the inauguration, Prof.Goverdhan Mehta, former Director ofIndian Institute of Science, (IISC),Bangalore and now associated withUniversity of Hyderabad said that therewere plenty of job opportunities forresearchers in Chemistry and other basicsciences, as the expansion of universitynetwork has brought in many teachingvacancies. He however, added thatinspite of making some mark globally inchemical research, Indian scientists hada long way to go. The contribution ofIndian scientists in the internationaljournals is a mere 3% of global outputand we need to advance more.

Prof. Oliver Reiser, one of theleading scientists from Germanyparticipating in the Symposium, said thatthe recent policies of the Govt. werehelping to lead the pharmaceuticalindustry towards exploring neweravenues of drug development. Thisbrings more capital into the country.Taking into consideration the humanhealth scene in India and otherdeveloping countries, he stressed theneed for Indian scientists in the area ofPharmaceutical Sciences and drugmanufacturing to strive for discovery ofnew medicines for the benefit of thecommon man.

Welcoming the participants Dr. J. S.Yadav, Director, IICT said that the four-day Symposium would provide a goodforum for discussion on the recentdevelopments in Chemical Sciences.Prof. L.F. Tietze from Germany was theChief Guest of the Inaugural Function.

During the Symposium, 20th SidhuScience Lecture was also organized on3 August 2010 wherein Dr. T. Ramasami,Secretary, Govt. of India, Dept. ofScience & Technology spoke on thetopic, ‘Some Excitements at the Cross

Borders of Science’. Prof. C. N. R.Rao, National Research Professor,Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for AdvancedScientific Research, Bangalore delivereda popular lecture on ‘Nanotubes andGraphene’ where he highlighted theextraordinary qualities of carbon andits isotopes and said that nanocarbonscould be ideal for making supercapacitors, batteries and transistors infuture.

Other speakers of the Symposiumincluded Prof. Paul R. Hanson,University of Kansas, USA; Prof.Hidehiro Sakurai, Institute of MolecularScience, Okazaki, Japan; Prof. ReneGree, CNRS, France; Dr. RamVishwakarma, Director, IIIM, Jammu;Dr. N. E. Nifantiev, Russain Academyof Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Dr.Mukund S.Chorghade, THINQPHARMA, Natick, USA; Dr. Dong500-Shin, Changwon NationalUniversity, South Korea; Dr. GaneshPandy, National Chemical Laboratory,Pune; and Dr.Vinod K. Singh, IIT,Kanpur. About 400 scientists from Indiaand abroad participated in theSymposium.

SYMPOSIA

Glimpses of the Symposium

DECEMBER 2010 285

5th International Symposium on Biological and EnvironmentalChemistry of DMS(P) and Related Compounds held at NIO, Goa

The National Institute of Oceanography(NIO), Dona Paula, Goa, hosted the5th International Symposium onBiological and Environmental Chemistryof dimethyl sulfonio propionate DMS(P) and Related Compounds during19- 22 October 2010.

The objectives of this Symposiumwere: a) facilitate world ‘DMS(P) andrelated compounds’ communityinteractions and promote relatedresearch; b) review the recent advanceson DMS(P) and related compoundsbiological and environmental research;c) document the advanced under-standing in a special issue of a reputedjournal; and d) identify new areas forDMS(P) research with particular focuson relating biology to climate.

The inauguration was presided byDirector, NIO, Dr. Satish Shetye. Inhis Welcome Address, Dr. Shetye

welcomed the distinguished gathering.Dr. Gill Malin from the University ofEast Anglia, Norwich, UK andConvener of the 4th InternationalDMS(P) Symposium gave an overviewon the previous symposia. She dwelton the need for a link between the seaand the atmosphere. Dr. Dileep Kumar,Senior Scientist, NIO, Goa, andChairman of the LOC of the presentSymposium thanked the internationalDMS(P) community for choosing NIOas the venue for the 5th Meeting, andstressed on the need to understandDMS dynamics from molecular biologyto climate processes.

Dr. Damodar Shenoy, ScientistNIO and Convener of the LOCproposed the Vote of Thanks.TheSymposium was structured into 42 oralpresentations which included 11 invitedtalks and 14 poster presentations under

the five theme topics. The invitedspeakers included recent doctoraldegree awardees to well known expertsin their respective fields. The 5thInternational DMS(P) Symposium onBiological and Environmental Chemistryof DMS(P) and RelatedCompounds was attended by morethan 60 delegates from 12 countries.

The Valedictory Function was heldon 22 October during in which theconveners of each topical session gavea summary report. The conveners wereDr. Rafel Simo, Dr Maurice Levasseur,Dr Gill Malin, Dr Jacqueline Stefels andDr Sauveur Belviso. Dr. RG PrabhuDesai, Senior Scientist, NIO thankedthe community for choosing NIO, Goaas the venue and wished the DMS(P)community well in their futureendeavour in understanding the scienceof DMS.

SYMPOSIA

The delegates of the 5th International Symposium on Biological and Environmental Chemistry of dimethyl sulfonio propionate DMS (P) and Related Compounds

CSIR NEWS286

Workshop at NGRI, HyderabadSecond Indo-Australian Geothermal Capacity Building

The second Indo-Australian GeothermalEnergy CapacityBuilding Workshopwas held on 3September 2010 atNational GeophysicalResearch Institute,Hyderabad. Aftersuccessful organizationof the first Indo-Australian Workshopduring 8-9 February2010, it was felt thatmore concerted effortsneeded to be made toassess the geothermalpotential of a region in India.

Accordingly, a field visit wasorganized during 31 August 2010 to 3September 2010 for the visiting fourAustralian scientists from GeoscienceAustralia, Government of Australiaalong with Indian scientists to Tattapanigeothermal area, Surguja district,Chhattisgarh State. During thefield visit, water samples and rocksamples were collected in addition tovisiting the existing boreholes inand around the Tattapani geothermalfield.

The Workshop at NGRI wasdeliberated on the field visit and decidedto initiate the 3D modeling by compilingall the available geological, geochemicaland geophysical data of the Tattapani

area. Thus the development of a3D model under Indo-Australiancooperation will be helpful inidentification of a deep borehole target for exploitation of geothermalenergy for electrical powergeneration.

The Workshop was inaugurated byDr. R. N. Sawant, Director, Ministryof New and Renewable Energy,Government of India and presided overby Dr. Y. J. Bhaskara Rao, the ActingDirector, NGRI, Hyderabad andcoordinated by Dr. T. Harinarayana,Scientist G, Head, MagnetotelluricGroup. Dr. Anthony Budd fromGeoscience Australia, the Head of theAustralian team and other threeAustralian colleagues: Mr. Edward

Gerner, Mr. TonyMeixner and Ms.Alison Kirkby madedetailed presentationson geothermalmodeling, powergeneration etc. Dr. O.P. Pandey, Dr.Sukanta Roy, Dr. A.M. Dayal, Sri D.N.Murthy, Dr. B. P. K.Patro, Dr. K. K. AbdulAzeez and otherNGRI scientists andstudents participatedin the discussions.Dr. K. Veeraswamy

concluded the Workshop by pro-posing the Vote of Thanks.

At the Workshop, it was agreedthat the Third Phase of the collaborationwould be for four scientists from NGRIand MNRE to attend the AustralianGeothermal Energy Conference,Adelaide from 15-19 November 2010.This would be an opportunity to makecontacts with international geothermalresearchers and industrialists. In thefollowing week, the Indian delegationwould visit Geoscience Australia,Canberra, to progress the Tattapani 3Dmap and thermal model, and to discussgeothermal policy issues with officialsat the Australia GovernmentDepartment of Resources, Energy andTourism.

The inauguration of 2nd Indo-Australian Geothermal capacity building Workshop held at NGRI,Hyderabad on 3 September 2010. Sitting (Right to Left): Dr.Anthony Budd, Geoscience Australia;

Dr.Y. J. Bhaskar Rao, Acting Director, NGRI, Dr.R. N. Sawant, Director, MNRE,Dr.T. Harinarayana, Scientist G, NGRI.

WORKSHOPS

DECEMBER 2010 287

CSIO conducted a one-day Workshopon 28 July 2010 on MetrologicalAdvancements as a part of the GoldenJubilee Celebrations. Shri Suresh N.,General Manager, Bharat ElectronicsLtd (BEL) Panchkula and Member,Research Council, CSIO was the ChiefGuest on this occasion. He said that inBEL, Metrology is applied to the RF andcrypto applications, besides all theinstruments used are properly calibratedin-house. He emphasized that whendealing with defence equipment, themetrology aspect has to be taken veryseriously to ensure the state-of-the-artperformance.

Mr Anil Jain, Managing Director,Vaisheshika Electron Devices based atAmbala delivered the Keynote Address.He said that business understands onlyone thing and that is money. To earn

Workshop onMetrological Advancements at CSIO, Chandigarh

money one has to be competitive andfocus on improving quality. Metrologyplays a significant role in value additionthrough quality assurance. He said thatCSIO had Midas touch and if it helpsscientific instruments industry in Ambalain improving the quality throughmetrology, it will be able to survive inthe global competition.

Dr. Pawan Kapur, Director CSIOwhile welcoming the Chief Guest saidthat every product manufacturing stagecalls for precision measurement andconforming to certain standards. Thisis where the journey of metrology beginsand propagates right from the rawmaterial to the finished product and evenafterwards through maintenance andcalibration for prolonged trouble-freeuse. At any stage, the issue of meetingthe specifications arises, which needs to

be settled for product acceptance andits marketability. This involves bench-marking and certification conforming tocertain well-defined standards, whichchange every time a new technology isadopted for either product refinement ornew product development or even forthe matter related to new product-planning.

Mr V.P.S. Kalsi, Convener,introduced the theme of the Workshopand emphasized that we makemeasurement to progress while it isobvious that wrong measurements canbe disastrous. He stressed on theimportance of metrology and ended withthe note that, “Knowing is not enoughwe must apply it and willingness is notenough, we must do it.” Shri H. K. Pir,Scientist, CSIO, formally presented theVote of Thanks on the occasion.

HRDC Conducts Refreshers Training Programme forFinance & Account Personnel of CSIR

India being a welfare state, its constantendeavour is to provide for its citizensincluding employees the best governancepractices. Such measures requireenactment of enabling and facileadministrative practices, transparentfinancial and accounting systems, peoplefriendly legislative reforms etc. Thisrequires its functionaries at all levels andof all cadres to be most up-to-date andsensitive to these ongoing changes/reforms.

Therefore, with a view to keepFinance & Accounts personnel of theCSIR acquainted with these ever goingreforms and important changes in thefinancial procedures/mechanisms, newaccounting system, service tax / incometax etc, HRDC launched a series ofrefresher programmes in July, 2009 inassociation with Institute of Cost &Works Accountants of India (ICWAI)New Delhi, an autonomous professionalinstitute set up by the Govt. of India.

Three such programmes wereorganized earlier, and the fourth one wasorganized from August 16 to 21, 2010for Section Officers in Finance &Accounts sections of various CSIRlaboratories. The programme wasattended by a total of 22 participants.Apart from general subjects like Payfixation, Budgeting, Audit, AccountingFormats, GFR, LTC/TA bills, GPF &Pension rules; the participants wereexposed to new areas like Service Tax,

WORKSHOPS/TRAINING PROGRAMMES

CSIR NEWS288

IFRS & Contract Management etc. Oneday of the programme was strategicallydedicated to the soft skills training.

The programme was well received

by the participants with most of themsuggesting organization of such skillenhancement programmes at regularintervals. The faculty for these

programmes comprised eminent expertsfrom ICWAI, CSIR and other Govt.organizations.

CSIR FOUNDATION DAY 2010

Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI), Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu

CSIR Foundation Day was celebratedat CECRI on 26 September 2010 atScience Auditorium, CECRI, Karaikudi,Tamil Nadu. Dr. N. Palaniswamy,Scientist ‘G’ welcomed the gathering.Dr V. Yegnaraman, Director, CECRIdelivered the Presidential Address andlater, issued cash awards to themeritorious wards of the staff.

Dr Yegnaraman also gave away Prizesfor the wards of staff members who hadwon the Essay and DrawingCompetitions conducted in connectionwith CSIR Foundation Day. The staffmembers who had retired on attainingthe age of superannuation during the lastone year were also honoured with shawlsand mementos. The Function ended with

the Vote of Thanks by Shri ManuelThomas, Controller of Administration,CECRI.

Shri P. Venugopalan, DirectorDefence Research & DevelopmentLaboratory (DRDL), Hyderabaddelivered the CSIR Foundation DayLecture on 30 September 2010. Withan introduction about the DRDL missile

Sitting Row: (left to right) Bhaskar Kumar Ravi, Arvind Khanna, Sonu Roy, M.V. Bhargavan, S. Vaidyanthan, Ishwar Das,Vinay Kumar, Naresh Kumar, Fuad Mahommod, Girish Chand, Ajay Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Sunil Kumar

Standing Row: Ankeshwar Mishra, N.Rana Murthy, D.C. Bandyopadhyay, Asheem Kumar, Bhuyan, S.S. Singh, Asim K Jha, Dheeraj Singh,Babu Ram, Maharaj Singh, Ganeswar Malik, Ranjit Kumar Das, Kolla Ramesh

TRAINING PROGRAMMES/CSIR FOUNDATION DAY CELEBRATIONS

DECEMBER 2010 289

Complex that contains DRDL, RCL,ITR and ASL, he began his lecture withthe details of the Russian surface-to-airmissiles such as Prithvi, Agni, Akash,Trishul and NAG that includes bothstrategic and tactical categories. Hediscussed the capabilities of differentversions of Prithvi (I, II and III),launcher for ship application, long-rangestrategic systems such as Agni 1, 2, 3and A2 & A5 of futuristic version alongwith the details of anti-tank guided NAGmissile and the extended version of thesame, viz. Helina. AKASH, ASTRA,BRAHMOS and anti-ballistic missiles of

AD-1, AD-2 along with ship based andground based systems were alsoelaborated by him.

Challenges with special relevanceto material that can withstand atemperature of 19000C (aftercombustion that escalates to 27000C) forabout 20 sec were highlighted by ShriVenugopalan. He mentioned thecollaborative efforts of DRDL withDMRL and other agencies. Materialchallenges that exist in terms ofincreased mechanical strength reducedweight, fracture toughness to facilitateadequate ductility, dimensional stability,

surface finish, strength at elevatedtemperature especially in the absenceof coolant and damage tolerance werepointed out along with the environmentalrequirements that warrant moisture freeabsorption, corrosion free products etc.were discussed.

He also highlighted the contributionmade by CECRI in solving corrosionrelated problems faced in missilecomponents and also the developmentalwork related to protective coatings forvarious missile components. Themeeting ended with the Vote of Thanks byDr N. Palaniswamy, Scientist ‘G’, CECRI

Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow

CSIR Foundation Day Functions wereheld in CDRI on 26 September 2010.TheInstitute was kept open for the generalpublic during the day to give a directglimpse of the activities andachievements of CDRI to the masses.An exhibition depicting pictorial historyof CDRI and its current drugdevelopmental activities and facilitieswas put up to have an on-the-spot feelof the research work being carried outin the campus. A large number ofstudents from local schools and science

enthusiasts of the city visited the campus.The scientific session of the day

started with the morning sessionconsisting of Foundation Day lecture andCDRI Awards Oration. The FoundationDay lecture on “Modulation of HostAdaptive Immunity of HIV” wasdelivered by Dr. Shahid Jameel, theChief Guest of the Foundation Day andan eminent virologist and senior scientistof International Centre for GeneticEngineering and Biotechnology(ICGEB), New Delhi. CDRI Awards

2010 were also awarded during thefunction to Dr. Dulal Panda of IIT,Mumbai for Life Sciences and to Dr. G.Mugesh of IISc, Bangalore for ChemicalSciences. Dr. V.P. Kamboj, formerDirector of CDRI, presided over theFunction and Dr. T. K. Chakraborty,Director, CDRI welcomed the guests.

Dr. Jameel also highlighted the roleof CSIR and its contribution towardsscientific and technological research inthe country and the role played by CDRIin India’s contribution to drug research

CSIR FOUNDATION DAY CELEBRATIONS

CSIR Foundation Day Function at CECRI, Karaikudi

CSIR NEWS290

and for providing cheap and affordable technologiesfor drug production.

The CDRI staff who had completed 25 years oftheir service in CSIR and the staff members whosuperannuated during the period September 2009 toAugust 2010 were honoured. To commemorate thisday many competitions among local school childrenand wards of CDRI staff members had been arrangedduring the fortnight. Awards were also presented tothe winners of these competitions by Dr. (Mrs.)Susmita Chakraborty. Dr C. Nath, Chairman of theOrganizing Committee welcomed the guests andDr Neeraj Sinha, Co-chairman of the OrganizingCommittee, presented the Vote of Thanks.

Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), Palampur

The CSIR Foundation Day wascelebrated on 26 September, 2010 by theInstitute of Himalayan BioresourceTechnology (IHBT), Palampur withgreat enthusiasm.

The Hon’ble Chief Minister ofHimachal Pradesh Prof. Prem KumarDhumal was the Chief Guest of theFuncion. Prof. K.K. Butani, Director,National Institute of PharmaceuticalEducation and Research (NIPER),Mohali delivered the Foundation DayLecture on ‘Drug Discovery &Development and Necessity in IndianContext’. Prof. V. L. Chopra, former

CSIR FOUNDATION DAY CELEBRATIONS

Member of Planning Commission,presided over the Function.

On this occasion, the Hon’ble ChiefMinister, Prof. Dhumal, inaugurated thestate-of-the-art “Regulatory ResearchCentre” at IHBT. Addressing theaudience, Prof. Dhumal congratulatedCSIR for its achievements. He assuredDr. P. S. Ahuja, Director IHBT for fullcooperation from the State Governmentfor setting up of the proposed “HighAltitude Biology Centre” of CSIR inLahaul and Spiti. Expressing his concernabout the climate change particularlyafter the Leh cloud burst, Prof. Dhumal

felt that research needs to be carriedout to assess the impact of vegetation inthe cold desert area, thereby increasingthe precipitation.

The Hon’ble Minister expressedhappiness that both IHBT and CSKHimachal Pradesh KrishniVishwavidyalaya are working in unisonfor the benefit of the region. He releasedthe “Herbarium Catalogue” of IHBTand a technical bulletin on “RoseCultivation.” Further, on this occasionfloriculturist; Mr Ranjit was awarded theIHBT Technology Adoption Award forsuccessfully growing ornamentals and

CSIR Foundation Day Function at CDRI, Lucknow

Glimpses of the CSIR Foundation Day celebrations at IHBT, Palampur

DECEMBER 2010 291

National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), and CSIR Centre for MathematicalModelling & Computer Cumulation (CMMACS), Bangalore

The 68th CSIR Foundation Daycelebration was a well-attended eventat NAL, which was celebrated on the26 September 2010. The two specialfeatures of this year’s celebration wasthat it was jointly organized with thesister organization CSIR-CMMACS,and, secondly, NAL technology exhibitionwas organized which was open to boththe students and general public.

The exhibition organized at newSARAS hangar, Belur campus,showcased products, achievements, andtechnologies developed both by NALand CMMACS. The exhibition attractedboth students and general public in largenumbers. It was successful in raising thecuriosity and interest in the laboratories’achievements in aerospace science andtechnology.

The trump event, though, was theflight demonstration of autonomousMicro Air Vehicles by NAL MAV teamas well as aerobatic flying of the miniUAV by Mr. P. Eshwar from E.N.R.Models, Bangalore. There were 13 flightdemonstrations displayed to the curiousand enthusiastic students and public,more than 3000 in number who werenot only from schools and colleges in andaround Bangalore, but also those whohad travelled from neighboring States aswell. The event surely motivated someyoung, fascinated spectators to be futurepilots and Air Force fighters of thecountry.

The Function, to mark theFoundation Day occasion, was organizedat the S. R. Valluri auditorium includingthe traditional technology and thebusiness lectures. It was presided by theDirector and graced by the Chief Guest,Mr. Ravi Chauhan, Managing Director,India & SAARC, Juniper NetworksIndia Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, whodelivered the Technology Lecture “NewGeneration Networks and CloudComputing”. Mr. Chauhan’s lecturewas lucid and highly informative. Heelaborated the developments of thefastest single-hop network switch by M/s Juniper, an Indian Company, capableof handling up to 5,00,000 computers.

Dr. P. Goswami, Scientist,CMMACS delivered the 13

th NAL-

CMMACS Business Lecture: Businessof Weather Informatics, ushering theera of Equity of Knowledge, thepioneering venture of CSIR. It wasinteresting to learn the formation of ajoint corporate by CSIR with the privateindustry where knowledge as the EquityCapital from CSIR-CMMACS.

Mr. Ravi Chauhan presented theCSIR Foundation Day Awards and IPRCertificates to NAL employees and tothe children of NAL employees for theiroutstanding academic and sportperformance. The Function wascompeered bilingually in Hindi andEnglish by Mrs. Gomathy Shankaran,Scientist, KTMD while Dr. RanjanMoodithaya, Head, KTMD, deliveredthe Vote of Thanks.

CSIR FOUNDATION DAY CELEBRATIONS

encouraging others to take up floricultureas a trade. “Sammaan Patra” werealso awarded to two superannuatedCSIR employees.

The Irrigation Minister, Shri

Ravinder Ravi; Social Justice Minister,Smt Sarveen Chaudhary; Chiefparliamentary Secretary; Shri VirenderKumar; Chairman of Wool Federation;Shri Trilok Kapoor; Vice Chancellor of

the CSK HP Agricultural University;Prof. S.K. Sharma; local MLAs, ShriCapt Atma Ram and Shri PraveenKumar also attended the Function.

CSIR NEWS292

Dr. Mashelkar Delivered CSIR Foundation Day Lecture at NCL

Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, FRS, CSIRBhatnagar Fellow, President, GlobalResearch Alliance, former DirectorGeneral CSIR and Director NCLdelivered a lecture on “ReinventingCSIR as a Timeless InnovationEnterprise” at National ChemicalLaboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune on theoccasion of the 68th CSIR FoundationDay celebration on 27 September2010.

Dr. Mashelkar in his inspiring andinimitable style delivered a lecture thattraced his experiences and journey asformer DG-CSIR and Director NCL.He stated that great institutions haveboth an ambition and ambience. Trueleaders are those who enable both. Hereminisced that his career in CSIRspanned 15 years pre-economic urbanand 15 years post-economicliberalization era. Thus, the nation’slandscape and outlook has changedsubstantially during his 30 year careerin CSIR.

Dr. Mashelkar, drew lessons fromhis life journey and, defined the futurechallenges for CSIR. He elaborated theterms reinventing CSIR by comparingthe CSIR of the past and the present.He said that the present day scientistsare lucky in the sense that they do nothave to struggle with basicinfrastructure. There were times, whena book would get outdated by the timeit reached India, and when buying halfa crore a rupee worth equipment wasa huge task.

Dr. Mashelkar explained in greatdetail every word that appeared in thetitle of his talk. He defined innovation

as the successfulexploitation of aninvention or a new idea.He pointed out thatmere inventions orexploration is notenough.

CSIR mandate isto create innovationsthrough exploitation.Such exploitation mustbe new to India or tothe world. “Innovationsare not meredemonstrations, andIndia is not short ofideas,” he said. The pity is that Indianscience creates many new ideas, buttechnologies are created elsewhere. Hesaid that this has to change. CSIR mustbecome the engine of India’s Innovationagenda, continuously creating value tosociety, industry or the country. WhenCSIR stops innovating, it ceases toexist.

CSIR’s contribution is generallynot recognized or prominently visibleto the society at large. It lacks apowerful public identity. However,CSIR is inextricably linked to manyprocesses and products that consumersuse; yet are unaware of CSIR’scontribution.

In this context, Dr. Mashelkarquoted the statement of DG-CSIR inhis speech delivered on 26 September2010, which said “the Indian public hasnot completely understood CSIR’s rolein raising the technology capabilities ofthe country. This is primarily becauseCSIR does not generally produce a

product which can be seen in the sameway as launch vehicles, satellites,missiles or nuclear weapons. CSIR doesnot have any large government fundedtechnology development missions suchas light compact aircraft either. It hashundreds of smaller projects which haveraised the capabilities of the Indianindustry while augmenting the nationaltechnology missions mentioned above,it’s not always easy to trace CSIR’scontribution in each instance, except tosay that the Indian industry makesproducts worth US$ 1.3 billion in usingtechnologies developed by CSIR.”

Dr. Mashelkar pleaded for an effortto make brand CSIR more visible. Justlike Intel, “CSIR Inside” must be widelyrecognized by our society. CSIRcreates public, private, societal andstrategic goods. As Dr. Kelkar’sCommittee deliberations showed, valueto cost of CSIR is very high. This mustbe continuously emphasized andeffectively communicated.

Dr. Mashelkar delivering the CSIR Foundation Day Lecture

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DECEMBER 2010 293

Tracing his journey, at NCL, Dr.Mashelkar recollected how in the earlynineties, NCL reinvented itself to facethe challenges of economicliberalization. Similarly, he elaboratedon the challenges faced by him in themid nineties when he assumed chargeas DG-CSIR. The challenge was tocreate a Team-CSIR, a mindset inwhich 37 laboratories thought as one,collaborating and cooperating with eachother, not competing. The otherchallenge was to inculcate the thinkingthat there is no dichotomy betweenbasic science and its industrialapplications and creation of wealth outof science a perfectly desirable andrespectable goal.

Dr. Mashelkar emphasized the roleof IP in the process of creating wealthand enterprise out of scientific research.He said that wealth cannot be createdwithout due protection, especially in

CSIO Holds45th Convocation of its Indo-Swiss Training Centre

“Merely getting a degree or diploma isnot enough, it is the sincerity andhard work that helps chalk out thepath of success”, said Prof. A.S. Brar,Vice Chancellor, Guru Nanak DevUniversity, Amritsar and Chief Guest onthe occasion of 45th Convocation ofIndo-Swiss Training Centre (ISTC) ofCSIO, Chandigarh held on 30 July 2010.Having vision and ideas and courage toconvert those ideas into reality isthe only recipe that can help achieveaccolades in life. ISTC was establishedin the year 1963 in collaborationwith the Swiss Foundation for

CSIR FOUNDATION DAY CELEBRATIONS

high technology industries. He extolledthe virtues of interdisciplinary scienceand called for greater integration ofscientific disciplines and crossfunctional partnerships.

At the end, Dr. Mashelkar touchedupon the qualities of good leadership,relevant to CSIR. First and foremost istrust. A true leader must be highlytrustworthy. He must be innovative,passionate and compassionate. Hemust be capable of sacrificing hisnarrow self interest to the greater goodof the institution, must have a sense ofethics, possesses an open mind andmust be a good listener.

Dr. S. Sivaram, the then Director,NCL welcomed Dr. Mashelkar. Hedescribed Dr. Mashelkar as legendaryand iconic who has mastered the depthsof science as well as possesses anincredible breadth of knowledge. Hehas the unique distinction of publishing

a paper in PNAS and HBR in the samemonth, a feat unlikely to be equalledby anyone. Dr. Sivaram referred to thespeech that Dr. Mashelkar deliveredwhen he took over as Director NCL inJune 1989, and said many of thethoughts and ideas addressed by himis what NCL has been executing overthe years. Dr. Sivaram acknowledgedDr. Mashelkar’s tenure as DG-CSIRas transformational with many changesand policy initiatives. CSIR has beenreaping the rewards of these initiativesin terms of more freedom and greateranatomy to the laboratories.

The Function was followed by anAward Ceremony where the pastemployees were honoured uponcompletion of 25 years of service toCSIR, employees who havesuperannuated from the Council andscholarship and Awards to meritoriouschildren of NCL wards.

Technical Assistance, Switzerland.Earlier, Dr Pawan Kapur, Director,

CSIO highlighted the activities of ISTCand welcomed the Chief Guest. Whilechalking out the history of the successof ISTC, he described it an Institute ofExcellence for imparting technical skilledtraining of high quality. He advised thestudents to do hard and quality work toachieve greater heights.

Shri R.C. Arora, Principal, ISTCwhile presenting the Annual Report ofthe Training Centre, informed thegathering with pride that this year mostof the 61 passing out graduates had

already been picked up for employmentby various industries of repute. Hefurther informed that the Centre hadproduced so far 3026 graduates invarious streams. Later, graduatingstudents were awarded diplomas andadvanced diplomas by Dr Pawan Kapur,while the Chief Guest Prof. A.S. Brargave away the prizes and medals to thestudents who had excelled in variousfields.

The programme concluded with theformal Vote of Thanks proposed by ShR.C. Agnihotri, Sr Faulty, ISTC.

CSIR NEWS294

Dr. Chandra Shekhar Nautiyal Takes Over as Director, NBRIDr. Chandra Shekhar Nautiyal, a wellknown plant-microbial biotechnologistof the country, has taken over asDirector of the CSIR-NationalBotanical Research Institute(CSIR-NBRI) with effect from26 November 2010. Prior to thepresent assignment, he had beenheading the Plant Microbial Interactionarea of NBRI.

Born on May 25, 1956,Dr. Nautiyal did his B.Sc. fromKumaon University in 1975; M.Sc.from Lucknow University, Lucknow in1977 and Ph.D. from the M.S.University of Baroda in 1982. Afterspending about 10 years in Canada andUSA working on various positionsranging from Post Doctoral Fellow toProduction Manager in a BiotechnologyCompany in USA, he moved to NBRIin February 1994 as Scientist-EI in thePlant Microbiology Division inFebruary 3, 1984 and becameScientist-G in February 2009. Hisresearch interests include area offundamental and applied aspects ofPlant-Microbe Interactions and relateto elucidation of relationships betweenmicrobial populations andenvironmental stresses.

In his distinguished career, he hascarried out extensive research onexploitation of India’s rich microbialdiversity for agricultural applications,microbial diversity of India;development and popularization ofbiopesticides and biofertilizers, plantgrowth promoting bioinnoculantsapplication package for sustainable

agriculture; development of rhizospherecompetent bioinnoculant applicationpackage for enhancing production ofpulses; genetic manipulation ofcompetitive rhizosphoric bacteria forlow input biotechnologies for soilrestoration in degraded ecosystem;mechanism of high tolerance inRhizobium; bio-fungicides frombacteria for controlling plant diseases;development of biotic and abiotic-stress tolerant crops using microbialinvention.

His contributions lead to workingout the intricacies of relationshipbetween microbes and plants. Theknowledge base thus developed wasutilized for enhancing the yield of plantsthrough transfer of commerciallyexploitable technologies for its furtherdissemination among farmers and forthe development of sustainablemanagement of soil fertility and cropproduction that so desperately need tobe protected. Major spin-off of hiscontributions has been several patents,numerous research papers in reputednational and international journals,technologies and utilization of these

technologies by several national andinternational biotechnology companiesand farmers.

Dr. Nautiyal has about 47 researchpapers and 12 review papers in highpeer reviewed journals. He has 20 US,PCT and Indian patents to his creditand has filed 27 international and 10Indian patents. He has been recipientof several awards and honours. Theseare: Vigyan Bharati RashtriyaPuraskar (2001), All India BiotechAssociation Award (2000-01); DBTBiotech Product and ProcessDevelopment andCommercialization Award (2004);Industrial Medal Award of theBiotech Research Society of India(2007), Gopal Gaurav Puruskar,Karnataka (2007) and recently theprestigious TATA InnovationFellowship (2009) for his outstandingresearch contributions. Dr. Nautiyal hasbeen elected as Fellow of the NationalAcademy of Sciences and NationalAcademy of Agricultural Science andmember of several learned professionalbodies.

Dr. Nautiyal’s future vision is toprovide best-of-scientific solutions forour country’s need based orientedresearch in the area of agriculturebiotechnology, by adopting anappropriate mix that suits its needs andresources to improve plant stresstolerance and yield, to accomplishCSIR’s mission of providingscientific R&D that maximizes theeconomic, environmental and societalbenefits to the people of India.

APPOINTMENTS

DECEMBER 2010 295

Dr. Sourav Pal Takes Over as Director, NCLDr. Sourav Pal, Head Physical andMaterials Chemistry Division at theNational Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) Pune took over as the ninthDirector of NCL. The Institute has staffstrength of over 1400 with about 300scientific & technical professionals and450 research students.

Dr. Pal is a distinguished theoreticalchemist. He has contributed to diverseareas of theoretical chemistry whichspan the intellectually demanding andchallenging aspects of methodologicaland conceptual developments. Hiscontribution in the response theoryformulation for closed and open shell systemsis well recognized in India and abroad.

Dr. Pal brings with him, apart fromhis extra-ordinary scholarship andcontributions to science, a deepunderstanding of NCL and has hadprivilege of working with four previousDirectors of NCL namely Dr. L.K.Doraiswamy (1978-1989), Dr. R. A.Mashelkar (1989-1995), Dr PaulRatnasamy (1995-2002) and Dr. S.Sivaram (2002-2010).

Dr SouravPal obtained hisi n t e g r a t e dM a s t e r sDegree inChemistry fromIndian Instituteof Technology(IIT), Kanpur in1977. He received his Ph.D. degreefrom Calcutta University and joined NCLin 1982. He was a post-doctoral fellowat the University of Florida, Gainesville,USA (1986-87) and has been Alexandervon Humboldt Fellow at the Universityof Heidelberg, Germany (1987). He wasa visiting Professor at the University ofArizona, Tucson, USA (1995) and theInstitute for Molecular Sciences,Okazaki, Japan (1997). He is currentlyalso an adjunct Professor at IndianInstitute of Science Education andResearch (IISER) Pune.

Dr. Pal has been recognized byseveral awards and honours for hiscontribution to science and technologyincluding the prestigious Shanti Swarup

Bhatnagar Award in ChemicalSciences in 2000. He is a recipient ofthe Prof. R. P. Mitra Memorial LectureAward, Delhi University, 2010, INSA DrJagdish Shankar Memorial lectureAward, 2006, Chemical ResearchSociety of India (CRSI) Silver Medal,2009, Bimla Churn Law MemorialLecture Award of IACS, Kolkata, 2005,P. B. Gupta Memorial Award of IACS;1993 as well as INSA and CSIR YoungScientist Awards in 1987 and 1989,respectively. He is a Fellow of all threeNational Academies of Science in India,J.C. Bose National Fellow ofDepartment of Science and Technologyand Dai-ichi Karkaria Endowmentfellow of ICT, Mumbai, 2004-05.

Dr. Pal serves on the editorialboards of several international andnational journals in Chemistry and hasguided over 20 Ph.D. theses. He haspublished about 170 papers inInternational peer reviewed journals. Hehas authored a book titled Mathematicsin Chemistry and contributed tochapters in several books.

CGCRI Scientist WinsCCMR Image Contest in USA

Dr. Kausik Dana, Scientist, AdvancedClay & Traditional Ceramics Divisionof Central Glass & Ceramic ResearchInstitute, (CGCRI), Kolkata while ondeputation as BOYSCAST Fellow toCornell University, USA won theSeventh Microscopy Image Contestjointly with his group member, Dr. LuisEstevez, for the best Scanning Electron

Microscope picture. Bothwere working in Prof. E. P.Giannelis research group, atMaterials Science &Engineering Department,Cornell University. Thepicture showed Nafionpolymer that has beenengineered into a

APPOINTMENTS/HONOURS & AWARDS

(Left to right) Dr. Kausik Dana and Dr. Luis Estevezreceiving the Award from Prof. Melissa Hines,

Director of CCMR at Cornell University

CSIR NEWS296

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HONOURS & AWARDS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

macroporous structure usingthe crystallization of water toprovide a removable template.

The CCMR maintainseight state-of-the-art facilities,which comprise an integratedsystem for materials’ synthesisand preparation, analysis,testing and characterization,and advanced researchcomputing. CCMR is fundedby the National ScienceFoundation, Cornell, andnumerous State and Federalagencies. CCMR funds a largenumber of graduate studentsand coordinates researchamong approximately 100Cornell faculties across 12departments.

The CCMR image contestis held annually to select bestpictures taken by electron/lightmicroscopes at CornellUniversity. These includeSEM, FIB, TEM, STEM,AFM, Light microscopes, FIBand Raman probe. The Awardincludes a citation.

COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) invites nominationsfor the CSIR Young Scientist (YS) Awards for the year 2011. The Awardsare to be given for research contributions made primarily in India. Thenominee should be a regular employee of CSIR system holding a positionof a Scientist in Group IV and he/she should have joined before26th September 2010. The age of the nominee should not be more than35 years as on 26th September 2010.

The YS Awards are given annually in the following disciplines:(1) Biological Sciences, (2) Chemical Sciences, (3) Earth, Atmosphere,Ocean and Planetary Sciences, (4) Engineering Sciences, and(5) Physical Sciences (including instrumentation). The YS Awardcomprises a citation, a cash award of Rs.50,000 (Rupees fifty thousandonly), and a plaque.

Nominations should be addressed to Head, Human ResourceDevelopment (HRD) Group, CSIR Complex, Library Avenue, Pusa,New Delhi 110 012, and should be sent as per the prescribed proforma(original + nine copies) along with one set of research papers publishedduring the last 5-year period, by 31st January 2011. The details of the YSAward and the prescribed proforma for nomination can be obtainedfrom above address or may be downloaded fromwebsite: http://csirhrdg.res.in

CSIR Young Scientist Awards for 2011

NOMINATIONS INVITED

(HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT GROUP)CSIR COMPLEX, Library Avenue, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012