30 JANUARY 2009 17 17 17 17 17 ISSN 0409-7467 VOL 59 NO 2 30 JANUARY 2009 D irector of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, along with his staff welcomed the newly acquired Research Vessel , which arrived at the Captain of Ports Jetty, Panaji. She sailed on 14 November 2008 from the port of Dunedin, New Zealand. Besides the regular officers and crew, three members of NIO and Mr Malcolm A Macleod, previous owner, accompanied the vessel. The 56 m long and 9 m wide vessel with a gross tonnage of 709 tonnes, would be used to study the seas around India. Sindhu Sankalp NIO's newly acquired RV Sindhu Sankalp
Transcript
30 JANUARY 2009 1717171717
ISSN 0409-7467
VOL 59 NO 2 30 JANUARY 2009
Director of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, along with his staff welcomed the newly acquired Research Vessel , which arrived at the Captain of Ports
Jetty, Panaji. She sailed on 14 November 2008 from the port of Dunedin, New Zealand. Besides the regular officers and crew, three members of NIO and Mr Malcolm A Macleod, previous owner, accompanied the vessel. The 56 m long and 9 m wide vessel with a gross tonnage of 709 tonnes, would be used to study the seas around India.
Speaking on this occasion, NIODirector Dr Satish Shetye observedthat the seas around India (theArabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal andthe equatorial North Indian Ocean)are unique in several respects. Thisuniqueness arises from two factors:First, the water of the Indian Oceanis blocked in the north by landmass(Asia) from having access to polarregion; Second, because of themonsoon, these waters experienceone of the strongest seasonalvariability of atmosphericconditions anywhere in the worldoceans. This gives rise to largevariations of wind stress,evaporation, precipitation andcoastal run-off that not only makethe dynamics of this water unique,but also have a profound influenceon biogeochemical cycles. NIO hasmade an impact on the globaloceanographic research arena bysustained observations of thesewaters.
“The acquisition of RV SindhuSankalp is an important milestonein the history of NIO,” Dr Shetyefurther added. “It will help thescientists advance into the seas inand around Indian waters forresearch purposes.”
Earlier, Dr P. S. Rao, SeniorScientist and Project Leader,briefed the gathering on the vesselacquisition process. Dr Rao saidthat the vessel would be modifiedto suit the requirements of NIO bygetting it fitted with necessaryscientific equipment. As the vesselis proven to be a stable platform,the scientists can plan experimentsround the year.
Mr Sanjeev Afzalpurkarproposed the vote of thanks.
Mini Versatile Dhal Mill for Rural Areas
The Central Food TechnologicalResearch Institute (CFTRI),
Mysore, has designed a versatilemini dhal mill to dehusk all kind ofpulses. Basically the unit consistsof three principal components, i.e.the dehusking, aspiration andgrading systems. The unit isspecifically suitable for rural areasand has a good market potentialfor a large number of these unitsin Maharashtra, Orissa, MadhyaPradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.It will prove beneficial to the pulsefarming community and will be aboon for agro-based economy inthe rural sector.
The salient features of this minidhal mill include: 75-77% yield ofdhal and dehulling ratio around 97-98% with breakage limited to 2-4%.The unit has the capacity toprocess 150 kg dhal per hour.
All variety of pulses can beprocessed and the operation isuser friendly. Since the unit hasbeen designed for dry pre-milling,minimum dust is generated during
Process for Preparation ofExpanded Horse Gram
Horse gram is generally usedafter soaking, germination,
cooking and also as extract or soup.Papad from horse gram flour arealso prepared in southern region ofIndia. Pulses like Bengal gram andpeas are available in puffed /expanded form but not horse gram,
the operation. It has an adjustableclearance to suit different size ofgrains. Also, the byproductsgenerated such as husk and brokendhals could be used for animalfeeds. The investment required isquite small and well suited forcottage and rural industry.
New Processes released by CFTRI
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Natural Flavourant from Swallow Roots
Decalepis hamiltonii is amonotypic genus found in the
Deccan (South) peninsula, mostly inthe forest regions of Eastern andWestern Ghats. The swallow roothas a strong aromatic odour andsweet taste, and it is used intraditional Indian medicine as anappetizer and blood purifier. Thesliced root is pickled as such or alongwith lime fruit where it acts as aflavourant as well as a preservative.The chemical compound responsiblefor the aroma and taste of
Swallow rootsDecalepis hamiltonii plant
D. hamiltonii root is 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy benzaldehyde (HMB),which is an isomer of vanillin.
CFTRI has developed a processfor optimizing extraction andisolation of HMB from swallowroots. Swallow roots are grated andsubjected to steam-hydrodistillation. The organic fraction ofthe distillate contains HMB as themajor volatile compound along withother flavour compounds. Thedistillate is then subjected to solventextraction. After desolventization,
because raw horse gram does notgive puffed or expanded product atnormal moisture content andconventional puffing conditions. Aprocess has been developed forexpanded horse gram to give an
acceptable expanded ready-to-eatsnack product. The producthas ‘ reduced anti-nutritionalfactors’ with improved proteindigestibility.
The product is crisp, crunchy
and shelf stable. It can be used assuch or as a snack after salting orspicing. It can also be added as aningredient in cereal bar or chikki.The process can be had from theinstitute for commercialization.
the extract is crystallized in a lowpolar solvent to get the final product.HMB (2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde) from swallow rootsfinds application as a naturalflavourant in beverages, dairyproducts and bakery products. Itcan also be used as a naturalpreservative in many preparations.
The principal plant andmachinery required include: wetcomminuting mill, steam-hydrodistillation still, extraction unit,mixing tank, refrigerated tanks and
chilled waterplant. Theother auxiliaryrequirementsare boiler,g e n e r a t o r s ,quality controllaboratory ande f f l u e n tt r e a t m e n tsystems. Theprocess know-how isavailable fromthe institutefor commer-cial exploita-tion.
Nanoscale Textures and Metal-Insulator Transitionsin Correlated Electron Systems
Dr Pinaki Majumdar’s Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize-winning Work
Dr Pinaki Majumdar of theHarish-Chandra Research
Institute (HRI), Allahabad, has beenawarded the Bhatnagar Prize inPhysical Sciences for the year 2007.His area of research is materialstheory with focus on topics likemagnetism and superconductivity.To set his work in context it wouldhelp to quickly review the linkbetween solid state theory andmaterials science.
The modern theory of solidscame into being in 1930’s, after theadvent of quantum mechanics. Thefirst triumph was in explaining thedifferent electrical properties ofsolids in terms of electronic bandsin a crystal. A partially filled bandled to a metal, a fully filled band toan insulator, and a full band with a‘narrow gap’ led to a semiconductor.The 1940’s saw the development ofsemiconductor-based transistors,using the microscopicunderstanding gained from thetheory. Silicon basedsemiconductors have dominatedtechnology for the last six decades.
While the silicon story is wellknown, there are two properties ofsilicon as a ‘device material’ thatdeserve highlighting: (i) Si needs tobe ‘ultra pure’ to function in adevice, and (ii) the effects ofelectron-electron interactions, etc.,in Si are negligible. For a theorist,Si is a ‘clean’ non-interactingsystem. The physics is simple,almost boring! There are no
uncertainties in our understanding.The last couple of decades have
seen a shift of focus to more complexmaterials, many of them oxides oftransition metals, where a variety ofphenomena emerge due to stronginteractions between the electrons.The most famous in this category arethe copper oxide based high Tcsuperconductors. Close at theirheels came the ‘colossal magnetoresistance’ (CMR) manganites.There have been many others, e.g.,cobaltates with unusualthermopower, and ‘multiferroics’—capable of huge electric or magneticresponse. They all involve unusualcollective states arising frominteractions among electrons,phonons, magnetic moments, etc.and the 1930’s approach to solids iswoefully inadequate. A new branchof solid state physics - the theory of‘correlated electrons’ came intobeing.
While there is no single theorythat describes cuprates, manganites
and multiferroics, there is a commonfeature that all these materialsinvolve multiple competing phases.Small changes in doping, pressure,strain, etc. could, for example,convert an insulator into asuperconductor (in the cuprates) oran antiferromagnet to a ferromagnet(in the manganites). The proximityof competing phases and their tinyenergy difference amplify the effectof small perturbations. In particular,dilute impurities that would be‘irrelevant’ in a traditional metal(copper or gold, say) could now havea dramatic effect. Compared to ourearly example of silicon, the newmaterials necessarily involve stronginteractions and often require an ‘abinitio’ understanding of impurityeffects. Interactions and disorder areno longer afterthoughts, they are thestarting point of the theory.Unfortunately there are noreadymade tools to approach aproblem of this kind.
Dr Majumdar’s major effort atHRI has been in developingmethods for studying correlatedelectron systems in the presence ofdisorder, and understanding spatialtextures in such systems. This ismotivated by recent experiments(see Fig.1 for manganites) whichsuggest that in many materialsmatter at the nanoscale is veryinhomogeneous. An understandingof the spatial character of such astate is key to controlling itstransport properties, and possible
use in devices. The computationaltools developed by Dr Majumdarand his students helped clarify theunusual transport in the manganitesand its relation to spatial textures.The typical result from a large scalesimulation is shown in Fig.2,mimicking the experimental resultsin Fig.1. These calculations definethe state of art, and now allowtheoretical access to a wide rangeof complex materials.
Dr Majumdar’s early schoolingwas in Bengal. He won a NationalScholarship in the Secondaryexamination, studied at St. XaviersCollege, Kolkata, for his class XI-XII, and did his B.E. in Electrical
Engineering from JadavpurUniversity in 1986. He did Mastersin Solid State Technology from IIT-Madras, winning an Institute MeritPrize and Medal for his work there,and joined the Physics Departmentat IISc Bangalore in 1990 for hisPh.D. He worked at IISc from 1990-96 with Prof. H. R. Krishnamurthy.Among his mentors were Prof. T. V.Ramakrishnan. He moved to BellLaboratories, Lucent Technologies(formerly the AT&T Bell Labs)towards 1996 end and stayed on fortwo years as a postdoctoral fellowin the Theoretical Physics group.Much of his work at Bell Labs wasdone with Dr Peter Littlewood (now
Figure 1: A pattern of coexisting insulating and ferromagnetic metallic regions in a manganite, measured using tunneling spectroscopy.The dark regions are metallic. The image is for a sample roughly 1 µm wide. The panels, left to right, are for increasing magnetic field
Figure 2: Result of a simulation exploring coexistence effects in the presence of dilute impurities. The red regions are ferromagnetic metals,and the panels, left to right, refer to increasing field.
head of the Cavendish Lab atCambridge).
Dr Majumdar moved back toIndia in 1998 end and joined HRIas a Faculty Fellow. Over the yearshe got promoted, and became aProfessor in 2007. He has guided onestudent to his Ph.D. and is workingwith several others currently. Hehas organized and taught at SERCschools for young researchers, andalso organized Summer Schools atHRI to attract B.Sc. and M.Sc.students to research. He has heldvisiting positions at Cambridge andOxford University, and the InstitutLaue-Langevin in Grenoble.
The Institute of Minerals and MaterialsTechnology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar
and National Institute for MaterialsScience (NIMS), Tsukuba, Japan, havesigned an MoU and there by agreed tocollaborate with each other for sharing andadvancement of knowledge, developmentof technology and human resources. Thetwo institutions shall cooperate on“Fabrication of advanced ceramics bypowder processing”. The cooperation willinclude exchange of researchers, exchangeof information and publications on theresearch and implementation of thecooperative research of mutual interest.
The MoU was signed by Prof. B.K.Mishra, Director and Dr L. Besra,Scientist, CMC Department of IMMT andProf. Yoshio Sakka, Managing Director,NIMS, and Dr Tetsuo Uchikoshi, ChiefResearcher of Nanoceramics Center,NIMS, in a function organized at NIMSon 21 November 2008.
The initiative is the first of its kind forIMMT to kick start cooperation with anational research institute abroad.
MoU between NAL andTata Advanced Materials Limited
(TAML), Bangalore forCollaboration
in Advanced Composites
An MoU was signed between National AerospaceLaboratories (NAL) and M/s Tata Advanced Materials
Limited (TAML), Bangalore, on 27 November 2008 with themutual intent of working together in the area of AdvancedComposites for aerospace applications. NAL team led by NALDirector had visited TAML in November 2007 to see TAML’scomposite manufacturing facilities at their factory premises.With signing of the MoU both sides will have technicalcollaboration and work together in composite design activities.TAML’s experienced and trained manpower, state of the artequipment and a comprehensive capability to undertake design,development, testing and manufacture of different types ofcomposite products will be useful to NAL in its on-going andfuture civil aviation programmes and in turn, TAML will bebenefited by NAL’s vast expertise in the field of advancedcomposites. Tie-up between NAL and TAML will be one ofpublic-private partnership working together for the benefit ofindustry, laboratory and the nation.
MoU documents being shown after signing by the signatories
Exchange of MoU document
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CSIO signs MoU withPanjab University,
Chandigarh
The Central Scientific InstrumentsOrganisation (CSIO) and Panjab
University (PU), Chandigarh, havesigned an MoU on occasion of theformer’s Foundation Day on 30 October2008, to promote joint research workand human resource development.The areas identified for co-operationincluded Health Monitoring,Geo-Seismic and DisasterManagement Instrumentation,Medical Instrumentation, Sensors/Transducers, Virtual Instrumentation,Soft Computing Techniques, ImageProcessing, Optical and Photonics-based Instrumentation, Physics-basedInstrumentation, Material Science,Nanotechnology, Chemical andBiosensors, Chemistry and HRD.
The MoU was signed by Dr PawanKapur, Director, CSIO and Dr R.C.Sobti, Vice Chancellor, PanjabUniversity.
Under the MoU, students of M.Sc.,B.Tech., and M.Tech. in the respectiveareas of specialization at PU will beallowed to pursue their project workat CSIO and staff members from CSIOwill be able to register for Ph.D.programmes at PU, with jointsupervision on emerging areas ofresearch and applications.
The MoU will help build strongerlinkages between academia and R&Dinstitutions towards quality manpowergeneration and utilization in variousniche areas. It will also help in optimalutilization of R&D facilities in highpriority area programmes of science &technology.
CSIR-UNB MoU for mutual cooperation
The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and theUniversity of North Bengal (UNB), Siliguri – a state university
endeavoring to provide quality education and research, have signeda Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 27 November 2008.CSIR and UNB have complementary endowments in academics andadvance research, and the MoU is to facilitate a working arrangementto jointly move forward and provide greater dynamism and value forthe benefit of both the organizations. The MoU was signed by DrNaresh Kumar, Head, RDPD, on behalf of CSIR, and by Shri P.K.Ghosh, Finance Officer, UNB, on behalf of UNB.
Initially, the cooperation programme is proposed to beimplemented with participation of UNB and a few select CSIRlaboratories, viz. CMERI, CFTRI, CGCRI, CMFRI, IICB, IIP,NCL, NEIST and NPL as UNB’s specific interest is in the areas ofBiotechnology, Materials, Physics, Chemistry, Petroleum (energy) andFood Technology. CSIR scientists shall extend teaching support bygiving lectures on topics of their expertise and those matching withand the UNB course curriculum.
Initially, up to ten students in a year shall be allocated summertraining opportunity at the select CSIR laboratories, where they shallalso be extended use of CSIR facilities. The University of NorthBengal shall extend its facilities to CSIR scientists and researcherson reciprocal basis. The UNB shall also accredit participating CSIRscientists for guiding research leading to Ph.D. degree. Under theMoU, University of North Bengal and CSIR will also explore areasof mutual cooperation through workshops, symposia, short-termtraining courses, etc.
Exchange of MoU documents by Shri P.K. Ghosh, Finance Officer, UNB and Dr Naresh Kumar,Head, RDPD, CSIR. Prof. A. Basumajumdar, VC, UNB, presided over the function
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Asian Symposium on Medicinal Plants, Spices andOther Natural Products
The Indian Institute ofChemical Technology
(IICT), Hyderabad, inassociation with UNESCO,the organiza-tion forProhibition of ChemicalWeapons (OPCW) andDepart-ment of Science &Technology (DST),organized the XIII AsianSymposium on MedicinalPlants, Spices and OtherNatural Products(ASOMPS) at IICT during3-6 November 2008. Thesymposium focussed on NaturalProducts in Drug Discovery withBotany, Microbiology,Pharmacology, Natural ProductChemistry, Medicinal PlantChemistry and Synthesis of NaturalProducts as the thematic areas. Thedeliberations were held in 11sessions consisting of 16 plenarylectures, 53 invited lectures andabout 200 poster presentations.
Speaking at the symposium, DrJ.S. Yadav, Director, IICT, pointedout that natural products are gainingpopularity as more and moremultinationals are on shopping spreein India looking for New ChemicalEntities (NCEs) for variousdisorders such as cancer, diabetes,ulcer and HIV. This stems from thefact that incidences of side-effectsare relatively lesser or nil in the caseof natural products as compared toallopathic drugs. He informed thatIICT has in the pipeline about 15bioactives derived from naturalproducts for HIV, tropical diseases,Alzheimer, Malaria, and for Memory
enhancing, etc.Prof. Geoffrey A Cordell,
Department of Medicinal Chemistry& Pharmacology, University ofIllinois, Chicago, USA, said thatresearch in the medicinalapplication of natural products is ateam work and there is far greaterneed for collaboration amongst thenations for furthering the knowledgeof natural products. He further saidthat social dimension of research innatural products such as benefits tohuman beings should be decided onbasis of the need of the world bysocial and research networking.
Dr A.V. Rama Rao, CMD,AVRA Laboratories & formerDirector of IICT, said that globallythe drug discovery is slowing downand only 27 new chemical entitieswere registered during the last year.Now, the time has come to look atthe nature for medicinalapplications. The availability of newtechnological tools to understandvarious medicinal properties ofnatural products would make the
research easier andbeneficial.
Prof. Barry Noller,Chairman of theInternational AdvisoryCommittee from Australia,said that India was onecountry that was going tomake its presence felt in thisarea as still traditional andherbal medicines are beingpracticed in many parts ofthe country.
Other importantspeakers included Prof. John
Blunt, University of Canterbury,New Zealand; Dr Muvva Rao,Novartis Pharma, Switzerland; Prof.Eric J. Thomas, University ofManchester, UK; Prof. Rene Gree,CNRS, France; Dr David Y.K.Chen, Agency for Science &Technology & Research, Singapore;Dr Vijay Kumar, University ofPeradeniya, Sri Lanka; Prof.BurtFraser-Reid, Pillboro, USA; Dr SheoB. Singh, Merck Research Labs,USA; Prof. Jyoti Chattopadhyaya,Uppsala University, Sweden, etc.
Prof. Goverdhan Mehta, formerDirector, Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore and Chairman, ResearchCouncil, IICT, delivered a lectureon “Enhancement and explorationof natural products’ diversity”.
About 500 delegates fromacross the Asian subcontinent andPacific region including Pakistan, SriLanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Australiaand New Zealand in addition toUSA, UK and other Europeancountries participated in thesymposium.
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Asian Symposium on Medicinal Plants, Spices and Other Natural Products(ASOMPS) in progress
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IICB and CNMCH organize Conference on Neuroscience
The Indian Institute of ChemicalBiology (IICB) and Calcutta National Medical
College & Hospital (CNMCH), Kolkata, jointlyorganized a neuroscience conference, ‘NeuroUpdate 2008’, at the Central Glass & CeramicResearch Institute (CGCRI), Jadavpur, Kolkata,during 20-21 September 2008. The unique featureof the conference was that half of the speakersrepresented clinicians and other half, basicneuroscientists. The hallmark of this conferencewas bringing together of basic neuroscientists,neurologists and students from both medical andbasic sciences as well as patients or the immediaterelatives on a common platform for an effectivedissemination of knowledge and fruitful discussionon the recent advances in basic and clinicalresearches on neuroscience.
Dr Surya Kanta Misra, Minister of Health,Panchayat and Rural Development, Governmentof West Bengal, inaugurated the two-dayconference, which consisted of seven sessions, viz.Neuro-aids, Epilepsy, Neurodevelopmentaldisorders, Neurodegenerative disorders, Drugdevelopment and Diagnostics, Drug dependenceand Stroke. Each session had two major speakers,one each from the basic science and from themedical field, in the same area of neurological orneuropsychiatry problem of the disease. The sessionfollowed by three panelists, who spoke andcommented on the two lectures, and thecoordinator brought the topics’ essentiality intofocus. The speakers consisted of eminentneuroscientists, neurologists and psychiatrists fromall corners of the country who provided invaluableinsight into the latest developments, challenges andrequirements in the field of neuroscience. The stresswas on how the knowledge gathered at the bench couldbe brought to the bedside of a suffering patient, andwhat the neurologists or the psychiatrists would liketo have from the basic scientists, and vice versa. Theconference also saw the felicitation of three noted
Dr Surya Kanta Misra, Minister of Health, Panchayat and RuralDevelopment, Government of West Bengal, amidst members of the organizing
committee (from left to right): Dr K. P. Mohanakumar(Organizing Secretary, IICB), Prof. B. C. Mohanty (Chairman, CNMCH), Prof.
P. K. Gangopadhyay (General Secretary, CNMCH) andDr Sumantra Das (Organizing Secretary, IICB)
Dr Surya Kanta Misra, Minister of Health, Panchayat and RuralDevelopment, Government of West Bengal, lighting the inaugural lamp
scientists of Kolkata, namely Prof. J. J. Ghosh, a notedneurochemist and Centenary Professor ofNeuroscience of Calcutta University; Prof. K. L.Mukherjee, an eminent teacher and clinicalbiochemist, retired from Calcutta University; andProf. Shyamal Sen, a well known doctor ofneuromedicine, retired from Calcutta University.
Indo-US Workshop on Micro Air Vehicles (INDUS MAV ’08)
As a part ofN a t i o n a l
A e r o s p a c eLaboratories (NAL)and DRDO’sGolden Jubileecelebrations, aworkshop on ‘MicroAir Vehicles’ wasjointly organized byNAL, ADE andAFRL, USA on 13-14 November 2008.The US teamconsisting of members from AFRL,AOARD, US Army’s RDECOM andMIT was led by Dr Douglas Blake,Deputy Director, AFRL, USA.
The inauguration was held in SRValluri Auditorium at NAL. MrShyam Chetty, Co-ordinator of theworkshop, initiated the inauguralproceedings with a brief overviewof the objectives of the workshop.The main objective was to identifycore technology areas of commoninterest related to MAVaerodynamics, structures, control,guidance and navigation.
Dr A.R. Upadhya, Director,NAL, delivered the welcomeaddress. Mr P.S. Krishnan, Director,ADE, gave a perspective on MAVsand the activities being pursued atADE. Dr Douglas Blake deliveredthe inaugural address and alsoreleased a souvenir containing theabstracts of the presentationsscheduled for the technical sessions.In his address, Dr Blake covered thestrategic vision of AFRL and thechallenges in development ofautonomous system technologies forMAVs. He indicated that by 2015,
AFRL would be able to demonstratea biomimetic bird-sized UAVplatform with the capability of semiautonomous operations and hopedto design and autonomously fly a beesized MAV by 2030. The keynoteaddress was delivered by Prof.Dattaguru, IISc, who gave aperspective of R&D activities in thefield of MAVs being pursued indifferent academic institutions inIndia.
The inaugural session wasfollowed by paper presentationsspread over three technicalsessions. Lt. Gen. Sundarampresented an overview of the MAVactivities in India. Lt. Col. John Seo,Technical Director, AOARD, USAand Mr C.U. Hari, Director,Directorate of Aeronautics, DRDO,New Delhi, presented the role ofAOARD and AR&DB in promotingresearch activities in the area ofMAVs. Dr Siva S. Banda fromAFRL, and Prof. Jonathan How fromMIT then gave interesting talks onthe autonomous MAV flight researchbeing carried out in theirinstitutions. The papers presented
in the subsequenttechnical sessionsby scientists fromUS and Indiacovered a varietyof topics dealingwith unsteadya e r o d y n a m i c s ,flapping wingMAVs, flightd y n a m i c s ,g u i d a n c e ,navigation andflight control,
smart materials, active flow controltechniques and CFD applicationsfor MAVs.
The technical sessions on thesecond day were held at ADE. Thefocus this time was on vision-basedsurveillance, visual sensing andprocessing for navigation andcontrol and efficient storage of opticflow data for vision sensors. Paperson task allocation, search strategiesand consensus mechanisms for MAVswarms and group coordinationtactics were also presented. Thiswas followed by round tablediscussions in the areas of MAVaerodynamics, controls andstructures. The final round ofdiscussions at the workshopfocussed on exchange of ideas andarrive at a roadmap for future jointcollaborative research in thisstrategic area with special emphasison autonomous flapping wing andbio-inspired flight.
More than 150 delegatesfrom various R&D organizations,private industry and academicinstitutions in India participated inthe workshop.
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A dais view of Indo-US Workshop on Micro Air Vehicles (INDUS MAV ’08)
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Workshop on Herbarium Techniques
The National Institute of ScienceCommunication And
Information Resources (NISCAIR),New Delhi, conducted a six-dayworkshop on herbarium techniquesduring 20-25 October 2008. Theworkshop was aimed at impartingcurrent knowledge on scientificmethods of plant collection,preservation, identification,nomenclature, techniques forcreation of herbarium database,documentation of information onplants, management of herbaria, etc.to the participants and to make themaware of the latest developmentsrelated to the herbariumtechniques. It was targeted toherbarium curators, bioscienceteachers of schools, college/university lecturers, scientists fromresearch institutions, researchscholars and students and those whowere interested in setting up aregional herbaria. Eighteenparticipants from India, Pakistanand Nepal attended the workshop.
The workshop was divided into
four modules: Herbariumtechniques comprising collectionand preservation of plant materialsand practical exercise including fieldtrip for collection of plant specimens;processing of mycological specimensand preservation of plant geneticresources; techniques of plantidentification, nomenclature andcreation of herbarium databases;
Seen on dais (from left) are : Dr Narendra Kumar, In-charge, NISCAIR Training Programmes;Shri S. K . Rastogi, the then Acting Director, NISCAIR, and Dr H.B.Singh, Co-ordinator
of the workshop on Herbarium Techniques
Participants collecting plants during field collection trip
and the role of herbaria in research,education and conservation ofbiodiversity.
Dr B. Subramaniam, Scientist,NISCAIR, gave a presentation on‘Herbarium and Its Functions’. Heexplained that herbaria are scientifictools for establishing correctbotanical identity and nomenclatureof plants, and housing plant
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specimens in a recognized systemof classification. Herbariumcollections serve as the basis for ourunderstanding of biodiversity. As abasic resource for the study ofsystematic botany and related fields,herbarium serves as a referencecentre, a documentation facility anddata storehouse. Dr H.B. Singhdiscussed the materials andequipment required during thecollection of plant specimens and fordeveloping a new herbarium. DrSingh also demonstrated varioussteps and techniques involved inplant processing such as plantpressing, drying, poisoning,mounting, stitching, labelling,sorting, accessioning, indexing andincorporating of herbarium sheets incupboards. He also threw light onphysical and biological agentsresponsible for deterioration ofherbarium specimens and howdifferent methods are used forpreservation of plant specimens inthe field as well as in herbarium.
The participants were givenhands-on exercise for processing ofspecimens like mounting, stitchingand labelling.
Dr D.K. Agarwal, former Head,
Hands-on exercise on processing of specimens
Mycology Herbarium, enlightenedthe participants regarding recenttechniques used for collection andpreservation of fungi and diseasedplant specimens and maintenance ofculture collections.
A visit to the Herbarium“Cryptogamae Indiae Orientalis”(HCIO) at Indian AgriculturalResearch Institute (IARI), NewDelhi, was arranged.
Dr E. R. Nayar, Head,Exploration Division, NationalBureau of Plant Genetic Resources(NBPGR), gave an overview of thesignificance of Herbarium inpreservation of wild germplasm ofcultivated plants and their wildrelatives and emphasized on theutility of wild species in geneticupgradation of crop species. A visitto the ‘National Herbarium ofCultivated Plants’ (NHCP),National Gene Bank and NationalCryogen Bank of NBPGR enabledthe participants to understand thecurrent techniques of preservationand maintenance of geneticresources of the country.
Dr M. P. Sharma, Professor ofBotany, Jamia Hamdard University,New Delhi, gave an elaborate talk
on plant nomenclature. Heexplained the rules and regulationsof the International Code ofBotanical Nomenclature (ICBN) bywhich name of a taxon isdetermined.
Shri S.K. Burde, Scientist,NISCAIR, made the participantsaware of the methods of creatingherbarium database. He threw lighton the different softwares requiredfor creating herbarium database.
Dr B. Subramaniam in hislecture on plant identificationdescribed the methods of plantidentification in detail and the roleof ‘identification keys’ in theidentification of plants. Hedemonstrated online databasesrelated to plant identification usingvegetative characters of the plants.He also conducted a hand-onexercise on plant identification.
Dr P.L. Uniyal, Reader,Department of Botany, DelhiUniversity, gave a talk on ‘Role ofHerbaria in Conservation ofBiodiversity and Protection ofEnvironment’. He was of the opinionthat herbarium is a centre ofknowledge resource that can be usedfor deciding primary centre of origin
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of genetic resources. He furtherelaborated importance of herbaria toserve as a means of locating hotspots,endemism, rare or possibly extinctspecies via recollecting areas listed onlabel data (conservation biology,environmental impact statements,endangered species, etc.). He pointedout that herbarium could be used todetect evolutionary changes in the timeand space by DNA extraction andfingerprinting methods.
Dr R.D. Gaur, former Head,Department of Botany and Dean,Faculty of Science, H.N. BahugunaUniversity, Srinagar, Garhwal,described the role of herbaria in thestudy of ethnobotany. He pointed outthat the scrutiny of passport datawritten on herbarium labels is one ofthe recognized methods for the studyof ethnobotany.
A field trip for collection of plantspecimens was made in and aroundBuddha Jayanti Park area of New DelhiRidge. A visit to the “Botanical Gardenof Indian Republics (BGIR)”, NOIDA,was also organized.
The technical lecture sessionconcluded with a lecture by Dr H.B.Singh, Coordinator of the workshop, on‘Management of Herbaria”. A CD onHerbarium Techniques, prepared byRaw Materials Herbarium & Museum(RHMD) of NISCAIR, was also played.
In their feedback, the participantsexpressed that the workshop was veryinformative, well planned and rich incontent. Certificates and CDs onHerbarium Techniques were given tothe participants by Shri S.K. Rastogi,the then Acting Director, NISCAIR. Healso released a book entitled “FieldManual on Herbarium Techniques”.
The workshop ended with a vote ofthanks proposed by Dr H. B. Singh.
CSIO celebrates Foundation Day
“Measurement Sciences and Instrument Technology are the keycomponents in almost all engineering applications of manufacturingsector and CSIO by virtue of its strength can meet the targets,”remarked Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Science & Technology andEarth Sciences, and Vice President, CSIR, while addressing thedistinguished gathering on the occasion of 49th Foundation Day ofthe Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), Chandigarh.Shri Sibal stressed the need of cloning more CSIO’s to cater to theneeds of the Agro-based Sector and emphasized that more attentionshould be given to the development of technologies, which changethe quality of life of 800 million people. He said that science &technology are the two sides of a coin and they have to work hand inhand with complete synergy. He complemented Dr Pawan Kapur,Director, CSIO, for the efforts and dedicated work done on HeadUp Display which has placed India in the forefront of technologiespertaining to the strategic sector.
Earlier, welcoming the Chief Guest, Dr Pawan Kapur, Director,CSIO, informed about the various on-going programmes of hisinstitute and its achievements of the past year. He also mentionedabout the new programmes on Agrionics and Biomedicalinstrumentation in a network mode, and the proposal for advancedcourses on Agrionics and Lightwave Engineering.
A workshop on Avionics Display and Optical Metrology (ADOM-2008) was also inaugurated by the Minister. This workshop wasorganized by CSIO jointly with Regional Centre for MilitaryAirworthiness (RCMA), Chandigarh; Bharat Electronics Limited(BEL), Panchkula; and Aeronautical Society of India (ChandigarhBranch) on 30-31 October 2008. The workshop aimed at providing acommon platform to scientists, engineers, researchers andindustrialists to discuss and deliberate on the various importantissues related to the emerging technologies of Cockpit DisplayInstrumentation and Optical Metrology.
Shri Sibal also released the Annual Report of CSIO and thesouvenir of the ADOM-2008.
Later during the video conferencing, CSIR Director GeneralProf. Samir K. Brahmachari congratulated CSIO on its 49th
Foundation Day and HUD achievement. Prof. Brahmachari saidthat there are many more miles to cover so that the dream of everyaircraft having CSIO HUD could be realized.
The programme concluded with a formal vote of thanks by ShriA.K. Dimri, Scientist, CSIO.
Foundation Day CelebrationsFoundation Day CelebrationsFoundation Day CelebrationsFoundation Day CelebrationsFoundation Day Celebrations
CSIR NEWS3030303030
CPYLS
CPYLS at CSIO
The Central ScientificInstruments Organisation
(CSIO), Chandigarh, organized thetwo-day CSIR Programme on YouthLeadership in Science (CPYLS) on5-6 November 2008. About 70persons comprising students andtheir parents/teachers, fromdifferent schools of Haryana,participated in the programme.
During the programme, theparticipants were apprised of thescenario of Science & Technology inthe country and the variousactivities undertaken at CSIO.Popular science lectures by CSIOscientists, multimedia science quizcompetition and creativity sessionwere organized to inspire andmotivate them to develop a scientific
temper. The participants had anopportunity to see some sciencemodels and get information aboutCSIO programmes whileinteracting, with the Scientists/Technologists, during visit to variousCSIO labs, including the Indo-SwissTraining Centre (ISTC).
During the valedictory session,Prof. K.R. Sarma, Advisor,Technology, SAMTEL Group ofIndustries and former Director ofCSIO, was the Chief Guest.Addressing the students, Prof.Sarma mentioned that science is anexciting journey and it makes uslearn about the unknown. Althougha lot of efforts have been made byman to unravel the mysteries ofnature, environment, planet earth,
etc. still there is lot more to know inthis direction. Advances are beingmade almost every day, hementioned. He talked about someareas on the scientific horizon likeenergy, alternative sources of energyfor organic photo-voltaic for tappingsolar energy, MEMs and their usein aircraft, automobiles, clinical andbiotechnology research, etc. He alsodiscussed the development ofinstruments to find ground waterlevel depletion. He mentioned thatthe journey of science is full ofchallenges but very exciting andsatisfying. He exhorted the studentsto join the science stream to unravelthese mysteries and to gainknowledge so as to reduce ourignorance. The participants were
awarded thec e r t i f i c a t e s ,medals andmementos.
D i r e c t o r ,CSIO, while wel-coming the ChiefGuest said thatCSIO enjoyed in-teracting with theyoung students inthe last two daysand advised thestudents to be intouch with CSIOfor any furtherguidance.
Shri R.C.Arora, Co-ordinator of thisp r o g r a m m epresented thehighlights of thisevent and
CPYLS at CSIO, seen clockwise (from top left):Prof. K.R. Sarma interacting with participants;
Shri V.P.S. Kalsi (T.O.) (left), Dr Pawan Kapur, Director,CSIO, and Shri R.C. Arora, Co-ordinator CPYLS,
evaluating the entries of Creativity Competition, and oneof the participants giving her feedback
30 JANUARY 2009 3131313131
CPYLS
CPYLS at NEIST
The North East Institute of Science & Technology(NEIST), Jorhat, organized a two-day CSIR
Programme for Youth Leadership in Science (CPYLS)on 5 and 6 November 2008. Thirty-three students alongwith their escorts and parents from different schoolsof north east states participated in the programme.Dr W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, R&D, DRDO,New Delhi, was the Chief Guest and Dr R.B.Srivastava, Director, DRL, Tezpur and Dr B.V. Rao,Director, IIT Academy, Kota, were the Guests ofHonour.
Dr P.G. Rao, Director, NEIST, in his welcomeaddress briefly spoke about the programme andappealed to the young students to imbibe scientificspirit in them. Delivering his speech on ‘ScienceProfession— A Learning, Earning and Serving Career’Dr Selvamurthy mentioned that the new discoveriesin chemical and biological sciences, engineeringsciences, aeronautical sciences, drug development,medical sciences, etc. could make India one of themajor economic powers in the world. He particularlyhighlighted the achievements of the nation in Air Forceweapons, missiles, tanks, naval aircraft carriers, atomicweapons, etc. He also spoke on weaponisation,biomedical facilities, automobile development, spacemissions, acclimatization programmes for soldiers inhigh altitude snowline areas, etc. He also mentionedthe career opportunities in Indian Armed Force, NavalForce and Air Force and various research activitiesgoing on in DRDO. Dr Srivastava exhorted thestudents to treat science with passion and take upScience and Technology as a career.
The programme comprised popular sciencelectures by eminent scientists, interactions withscientists, visit to NEIST laboratories, culturalprogramme, semi-extempore speech competition andpractical training. Eleven students were selected onmerit basis and given the opportunity to visit two CSIRlabs of their choice in future.
Dr W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, R&D, DRDO, delivering his speech atthe inauguration of CPYLS. Others seated on the dais (from left) are:
Dr R.B. Srivastava, Director, DRL, Tezpur andDr P.G. Rao, Director, NEIST
mentioned the salient features of theCPYLS scheme. The participantsassured to make the optimum useof the knowledge gained through this
programme. They expressed thatthis programme has helped them inbroadening their outlook and nowthey have the courage to look and
The Indian Journal of Marine Sciences (IJMS)published at the National Institute of Science
Communication and Information Resources(NISCAIR), New Delhi, has been selected asCompanion Journal of the International Symposiumon Intelligent Unmanned System 2009. This symposiumwill be held at Juju, South Korea, during 3-5 June 2009.The other companion journals are Chinese ScienceBulletin and Journal of Bionic Engineering.
The organizing committee has also invited theEditor, IJMS, Dr J. Sundaresan Pillai, to give a keynotespeech at the symposium.
IJMS selected as aCompanion Journal of
ISIUS-2009
think beyond books also.Shri M.R. Masan, Controller of
Administration, proposed the voteof thanks.
CSIR NEWS3232323232
Printed and Published by Deeksha Bist on behalf of National Institute of Science Communication And Information Resources (NISCAIR), (CSIR),Dr K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi -110 012 and printed at NISCAIR Press, Dr K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi -110 012
Prof. Samir Kumar Brahmachari, DirectorGeneral, CSIR, has been awarded The
Jagadis Chandra Bose Medal of the IndianNational Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi,for the year 2007. The award has been given tohim for establishing leadership in functionalgenomics effectively integrating experimental andcomputational approaches.
Established in 1976 by INSA, this award isgiven once in three years for outstanding contributions in Biochemistry,Biophysics, Molecular Biology and related areas impact of which hasbeen felt for a considerable length of time.
The award was presented to Prof. Brahmachari, after the Award-lecture on 11 January 2009 at INSA, New Delhi.
Prof S.K. Brahmachari awardedJagadis Chandra Bose Medal (2007)
Dr R.K. Chadha ofNGRI conferred 2008Decennial Award of
IGU
Dr R.K. Chadha, Scientist F,National Geophysical
Research Institute (NGRI),Hyderabad, has been conferred the2008 Decennial Award of theIndian Geophysical Union (IGU) atthe 45th Convention of the IGU atBanaras Hindu University, Varanasion 5 November 2008.
Dr Chadha has been given thisaward for his outstandingcontributions to the area ofbroadband seismology. Hisinitiative to understand the Indianshield seismicity and structure hasbroken new ground in constrainingthe Lithospheric-AsthenosphericBoundary (LAB) below the IndianPlate. This has resulted in providinga convincing explanation to a globalgeodynamical problem of the rapiddrift of Indian Tectonic plate vis-à-vis the Australian and African plates,during Cretaceous times. These
results were published in Naturein 2007. Another major contributionby him is the first estimates ofTsunami Run-ups heights, whichhe provided immediately afterthe December 2004 tsunami. Theseresults have led to the developmentof thousand of scenarios forinundation of Indian coastalareas for different earthquakesources along the Andaman& Nicobar island and Sundatrench.
Dr Chadha has earlier receivedthe National Mineral Award inGeophysics in 2003 and becameFellow of the Andhra PradeshAcademy of Sciences in 2008 andthe Fellow of the Indian GeophysicalUnion in 2007. He is presently
holding several prestigiousinternational positions e.g. he isPresident of the InternationalNatural Hazard Society. Recently hehas been re-elected as the Secretary-General of the Asian SeismologicalCommission for four years (2008-2012). The elections were held inJapan during the 7th GeneralAssembly of the Asian SeismologicalCommission and the SeismologicalSociety of Japan during 25-27November 2008.
Dr Chadha is presently headingthe Seismology Group at NGRI. Hehas published over 52 researchpapers in the international andnational SCI Journals and has beena Guest Editor for four professionalscientific journals.
