Annual Report 2006-2007

Infrastructure Development

Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure in Universities and Higher Educational Institutions (FIST) Program

"FIST - Fund for improvement of S&T infrastructures in universities and higher educational institutions scheme was launched by DST in 2000-2001. Under this scheme, financial supports have been provided to all University departments and Colleges for creating basic infrastructure & enabling facilities for promoting high quality teaching and R&D in new and emerging areas.

The Program is being implemented in six broad subject areas of S&T i.e. Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences & Mathematical Sciences through two levels of support e.g. Level - I & Level - II.

Under this scheme, supports are given for acquiring latest equipment to carry out R&D in thrust areas, renovating laboratories for better post graduate teaching & research, setting up of computer laboratory for computational facilities and for accessing to internet, etc, acquiring books and journals in the relevant areas.

Since inception of the scheme, more than 950 departments in two levels spread over 265 academic institutions have been identified and supported under this scheme at a total outlay of about Rs 520 crores for 5 years. The grants for these departments are being released in installments from time to time under various heads. While all departments, identified and supported during 2000, have completed the projects successfully, the departments identified during the years 2002, 2003, 2004 & 2005 are in process of implementation their projects.

For effective implementation of Program, the follow-up visits to the departments including review of the progress are also undertaken. The monitoring of departments identified during 2002 & 2003 has been completed now through on-the-spot visit by Expert Members and also through presentations of the concerned departments. Several departments have quoted that the FIST Program has brought a remarkable impact in the progress of the department by enhancing their teaching and research facilities. The review/monitoring of departments identified in subsequent years are now being planned for.

The Program has enable department to install some of the state-of-art facilities such as Ion Chromatograph, Automated DNA Sequencers, Ultracentrifuges, FACS, X-ray Diffractometer, Scanning Probe Microscope, Oligonecleotide Synthesizer, HPLC-cum-FPLC, Molecular Imaging System, Small size Liquid Nitrogen Plant, High Resolution Powder X-ray Diffractometer, Single Crystal X-ray Diffractometer, 300 MHz & 400 MHz FT-NMRs, Mass Spectrometer, Thermal Analyser Systems, Plasma Deposition Eatching System, Universal Testing Machines (UTMs), Reneshaw Raman System, Electron Microprobe Analyser, High Resolution Microscopes, Confocal Microscope, Protein Sequencing Platform, AFMs, Scanning Tunneling Microscope, Vacuum Melting Furnace, Mass Spectrometer, etc. Apart from this, more than 800 departments in various universities, colleges and academic institutions have also created a Central Computer Laboratory in the department which are being extensively used by students, research scholars and faculty members for computational and other activities.

The Program has helped to improve the research base and capability at the university and college departments due to availability of the state-of-the-art facilities. This in-turn has improved the quality of research publications and also provided better exposure of students with newer & better facilities at the departments. The Program also indirectly helped to improve the faculty strength in departments and also to control the outflow of students to better institutes. With the enhancement of the budget limit to more than double for supporting a department, it is expected to provide much better state-of-the-art facilities to departments towards improvement in quality of research, better exposure of students with newer facilities, attracting fresh talents in the departments etc.

In the current year, the announcement for submission of fresh proposals has already been made and the proposals thus received would be considered for support in the year 2007-2008. Infrastructure Development

Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIF)

Sophisticated analytical instruments are vital for pursuing research in many areas of modern science and technology. Many institutions in the country do not have such instruments. These instruments are expensive and cannot be provided through individual project mechanism. The Department of Science & Technology has set up Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIFs) in different parts of the country to provide the facilities of sophisticated analytical instruments to the research workers in general and specially from the institutions which do not have access to such instruments through its Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIF) programme to enable them to pursue R&D activities requiring such facilities and keep pace with developments taking place globally. At present the Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIFs) are being supported by DST at IIT, Chennai; IIT, Mumbai; CDRI, Lucknow; Panjab University; Chandigarh; NEHU, Shillong; Nagpur University; Nagpur; IISc., Bangalore; AIIMS, New Delhi, Gauhati University, Guwahati; IIT, Roorkee, CVM, Vallabh Vidyanagar and Sophisticated Test & Instrumentation Centre (STIC), Kochi.

Analytical Instrument Facilities available at the Saifs

The SAIFs are equipped with sophisticated analytical instruments such as Scanning Electron Microscopes, Transmission Electron Microscopes, Electron Probe Micro Analyzer, Mass Spectrometers, ICP, NMR, EPR Spectrometers, X-ray Diffractometers, Thermal Analysis Systems etc. to meet the needs of research workers in various areas of science & technology. Some of the major instrument facilities installed at the SAIFs during the year are: Single Crystal X-ray Diffractometer and GC-Mass Spectrometer at SAIF, Chennai, 400 MHz FT-NMR Spectrometer at SAIF, Chandigrah, FT-IR Spectrometer (range : 50-400 cm-1 and DART

Single Crystal X-ray Diffractometer at the SAIF, Chennai

Mass Spectrometer at SAIF, Lucknow. The following instrument facilities are further being added to the existing SAIFs to strengthen them: 500 MHz FT-NMR Spectrometer at the SAIF, Chennai, Laser Ablation ICP-Mass Spectrometer and LC-Mass Spectrometer at the SAIF, Mumbai, LC-MS/MS and Powder X-ray Diffractometer at the SAIF, Chandigarh. Accessories including Microwave digestion system for ICP-AES, Critical Point Dryer, Stereozoom eye piece lens microscope and CCD camera for TEM are also being added to the existing instruments at the SAIFs at Chennai, New Delhi and Vallabh Vidyanagar respectively to meet the needs of research workers. The SAIFs over the years have acquired the capabilities of repair and maintenance of instruments and majority of the instruments with them are being maintained in-house.

400 MHz FT-NMR Spectrometer at the SAIF, Chandigrah

Services provided/other activities undertaken

Analytical services

• A wide range of sophisticated analytical instrument facilities/techniques are being provided by the SAIFs to the research workers. The instrument facilities at the SAIFs are meeting the analytical needs of scientists including qualitative/quantitative elemental, molecular/compound analysis/characterization, structure determination, surface topographic studies etc., and enabling them to pursue research in various frontline areas of S&T.
• Facilities and assistance for sample preparation are being provided to the users. Testing of quality of raw material and end-products is also being done for industries/users.
• Consultancy services like solution to analytical problems including development of analytical methods for specific needs, sampling problems, spectrum analysis and interpretation of results etc. are also being offered by the SAIFs.
• The facilities at the SAIFs facilitated research in various areas of Science & Technology. Some of these include synthesis of organic/organometallic compounds, drug intermediates, extraction/study of natural products/screening for their biological activities, drugs & pharmaceutical research, study of biomolecules and their structure elucidation, R&D in material science, nano science & technology, molecular biology, studies related to crops/seeds, insecticides, various diseases etc.
• About 10,000 scientists/users from all over the country utilized the facilities during 2005-06. These included research workers from almost all the universities in the country. About 80% of the users were from academic sector.
• About 1,05,000 samples were analyzed at the Facilities during 2005-06.

Short term courses/training programmes/workshops

Short term courses/training programmes/workshops were organized by the SAIFs on use and application of various instruments and analytical techniques to create awareness among the research community about them and on maintenance/repair/operation of the instruments for technicians. Some of the training programmes/ workshops/short term courses organized are as follows:

• Training programmes on Electron Microscopy for research workers by SAIF, Chandigarh.
• Training programmes on Electron Microscopy for research workers/technical personnel by SAIF, New Delhi.
• Workshop on NMR Spectroscopy by SAIF, Chandigarh.
• Training programme on AAS and HPLC by SAIF, Shillong.
• Workshop on X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy by SAIF, Mumbai.
• Workshop cum hand-on-experience course in GC-Mass Spectrometry by SICART, Vallabh Vidyanagar.
• Short term course on 'Modern Instrumental Methods & Analysis' by SAIF, Kochi.
• A workshop on 'Good Laboratory Practices' by SAIF, Kochi.
• Five research workers were trained in operation/maintenance of various analytical instruments including Mass Spectrometer, NMR Spectrometer, IR & UV Spectrometers, GLC & HPLC at SAIF, Lucknow.

Analytical techniques developed/significant analysis done/research work facilitated

Some of the analytical techniques developed/significant analysis done/research work facilitated by the SAIFs are as follows:

• Procedures were established to do elemental analysis of ayurvedic medicines by ICP-AES at SAIF, Kochi.
• NMR studies on live cereal pests were done using HRMAS Spectroscopy at SAIF, Lucknow to understand the metabonomic profile for pest control. This opens a new application of NMR Spectroscopy in Entomology.
• Metal cationization studies were conducted with Mass Spectrometer at SAIF, Lucknow to help characterize stereoisomers of monosaccharides. Metal cationization using ligated metal ions has been found to offer a convenient way to differentiate monosaccharide stereoisomers.
• A lot of effort in NMR spectroscopy is directed towards enhancing signals of nuclei like carbon and nitrogen. In a work facilitated by SAIF, Bangalore, unusually, the normal natural signal available from carbon has been utilised to increase cross peak intensities in the 2D NMR experiment known as 2D-SLF spectroscopy. The experiment utilises relatively less r.f. power and hence contributes less to sample heating, a problem of serious consequence while dealing with biological and liquid crystal samples.
• In a study on diffusion of water in nanotubes facilitated by SAIF, Bangalore, it has been shown by NMR that water diffusion inside nanotubes is different than in bulk water.
• Fungal peptides, expected to have medicinal properties, have been investigated in detail for their structure with different amino acid components by multi-dimentional and multi-nuclear NMR methods at the SAIF, Bangalore.
• In a study facilitated by SAIF, Bangalore, well known theorems of quantum mechanics have been experimentally verified by NMR and their utility explored for quantum information processing.
• Identification and characterization of a novel tryptophan-rich antigen from the human material parasite and explanation of its possible involvement in infectivity was facilitated by Electron Microscope Facility at SAIF, New Delhi.
• Studies to show beneficial effects of turmeric, in inducing apoptosis of Ehlrich ascetic carcinoma cells were facilitated by the Electron Microscope Facility at SAIF, New Delhi.
• Efficacy of a wee extract on damage of sensory system of an agricultural pest was detected with the help of Electron Microscope studies at SAIF, Shillong.
• A new type of sensoy structure was detected in the muga silkworm, Anthcraca assamensis with Electron Microscopy at SAIF, Shillong.