Press Release

Dr. Harsh Vardhan Congratulates CSIR-CEERI on the Development Handheld GPS-Enabled ‘Ksheer Tester’

“The Ksheer Tester will empower the common man with a technology to tackle a national level health hazard due to adulteration in milk”, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences. The Minister was addressing the media on the occasion of the 64th Foundation Day Celebrations of Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CEERI) in Pilani today, where he presided over the event as the Chief Guest. Padmashri Prof. Sankar K. Pal, Former Director, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata was the Guest of Honour for the function.

 

 

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, while appreciating the R&D achievements of the lab, specifically highlighted the ‘Ksheer Tester’, a newly developed handheld GPS-enabled version of the recently launched Ksheer Scanner technology to check adulteration in milk. The device, developed by the CSIR-CEERI, would enable any person to track the location of the tested sample and receive the test results through SMS on the device.

 

On this occasion, Dr. Harsh Vardhan delivered the Foundation Day address and presented Service Awards to staff members. He also released the Annual Report of CSIR-CEERI for the year 2015-16, the logo of the Institute and the CSIR-CEERI profile folder. The Minister inaugurated CSIR-CEERI foundation technology exhibition which demonstrated the technologies developed by CSIR-CEERI for dairy products, smart automated systems for water quality assessment, health care devices and strategic sectors such as Defense, Atomic Energy and Space.

 

The Minister took keen interest in the R&D achievements of the lab in very high power Microwave tubes (Gyrotron, Travelling Wave Tubes (TWTs), Klystrons & Magnetrons), Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), sensors & nanotechnology, hybrid micro circuits, opto-electronic devices, Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), instrumentation systems for societal needs such as water, milk etc., wireless sensor networks (WSN), Internet of Things (IoT), industrial electronics, image processing and electronic control systems.

 

  

 

Dr. Harsh Vardhan stressed on the necessity of building robust R&D infrastructure and promoting synergies between industry and research institutions for the implementation of “Make in India” programme of Government of India. “The R&D output of the institute should match to the needs and expectations of the industry and our society so that the CSIR-CEERI can render appropriate state of the art technological services”, he added.

 

During the event, Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, Director, CSIR-CEERI, gave a presentation on the latest R&D achievements of the lab to the Minister. Heads of the local organizations, dignitaries of Pilani, the retired staff members of CSIR-CEERI and the media representatives attended the function.

Date:
Thursday, September 22, 2016
5th BIRAC Innovators Meet

BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council), a non-profit Public Sector Enterprise under the aegis of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, is organizing the 5th Innovators Meet on 22-23 September 2016 in New Delhi. The theme of the meet would be ‘Biotech Innovation Ecosystem - Strategizing the Next Leap’.

The Innovators Meet is being organized for marking BIRAC’s continuous efforts to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in all places of research. BIRAC’s mandate is to serve as a single window interface to promote affordable innovation in key social sectors with higher focus on start-ups & small and medium enterprises. It is a confluence of around 300 Scientists, Entrepreneurs & Industry Experts, and Policy Makers, who come together to discuss the contemporary issues in the biotech innovation ecosystem and to leverage the networking opportunities offered by the platform.

In the past 5 years, BIRAC has forged partnerships with reputed organizations such as Tekes, Finland; Hort Innovation Australia; and Nesta, UK. These partnerships and BIRAC's initiatives have made it possible to supported more than 300 Biotech Companies, mainly Start-ups and SMEs and over 100 young Entrepreneurs. Today, over 35 Products/technologies mainly Healthcare Devices and Industrial products have been delivered through BIRAC support. 31 early stage technologies have been developed and 105 New Intellectual Property (IP) generated.

Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan will be the Chief Guest and Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Y.S. Chowdary will be the Guest of Honour. Other key Dignitaries to be attending the event would be Mr. Yigal Erlich, The Yozma Group, Israel and Dr. Sarvajna Dwivedi, Global TiE Silicon Valley, who would be delivering the Plenary Talk. In addition, there will be a high level panel with Dr. K. VijayRaghavan, Secretary, DBT; Dr. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST; Shri Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, DIPP and other Investors & Industrialists who will discuss the theme of the.

The discussions will aim at chalking the action plans required to scale up the innovations pertaining to the biosciences sector that affect the lives of a 1.3 billion in India and has potential to make positive impact on the masses across the globe. 5 BIRAC Innovators would also be awarded for their outstanding contributions and Innovative products / technologies.

Date:
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Dr. Harsh Vardhan chairs Brainstorming session for Ministry of Earth Sciences to chart Strategies and Action Plans for the future

"Think with open minds, strategize and work in a coordinated manner for the betterment of every citizen's life", said Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, while presiding over a day-long brainstorming session for the Ministry of Earth Sciences held here today. The Minister expressed the need to revisit all the action plans focussing on the needs of the common man and reorient the Ministry’s programmes in tune with the National mission.

"Pursue vigorously relevant plans for society's welfare and strengthen mechanisms to monitor and review their success", said Dr. Harsh Vardhan while addressing Senior Officers, Directors and Scientists from Institutes/Laboratories under the Ministry from all over the country. The Minister called upon various units of the Ministry to work proactively with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.

  

The Minister laid stress on the role of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in reducing the risk and devastation due to natural hazards in the country and in providing valuable services for socio-economic benefits. The brainstorming session was organized to discuss the on-going scientific programmes, gap areas, vision, future plans and road map for the Ministry. Issues relating to the weather forecast, climatology, seismology and oceanography were all discussed in great detail.

 

Dr. Harsh Vardhan highlighted that Government of India’s integrated approach to deal with atmosphere, ocean and geosphere has paid good dividends and we have indeed started reaping them. The Minister emphasized on better planning and focused activities on exploring the ocean resources and polar-regions, which are strategically important.

 

Various new initiatives taken up by the Ministry as envisaged in the 2030 vision document were on the agenda of the daylong meeting. These include developing state-of-the-art multi-hazard early warning systems for natural disasters including  Earth Quakes, Coastal Hazards, Tsunamis, high ocean waves, urban and flash floods; Weather and climate services for the northeast region; Marine Observations along Indian Coasts and a Coastal Mission; Support the Initiative of Blue Economy by improving ocean services and innovating and developing cutting edge ocean technology for the generation of clean energy from the oceans (waves, currents and thermal gradient) and map the living and non-living resources in the Indian Ocean and prepare the strategies for their sustainable use and harvest; Develop deep-sea mining technologies, including a manned submersible, for the exploration and mining of polymetallic nodules from the central Indian Ocean were also discussed. Further strategic investments and research for exploring the Arctic, Antarctic and Himalayas were the points of focus.

 

In addition, Dr. Harsh Vardhan also informed that MOES has initiated six new projects as a part of the implementation of the recommendations of the Group of Secretaries submitted to the Prime Minister of India. These six projects have been selected by the NITI Ayog along with 42 other projects for all other Ministries of Government of India.

 

The Minister emphasized that the Ministry needs to identify new user groups and produce tailor made service products for sectors like Renewable Energy especially wind and solar energy, and Tourism. He stressed the need to improve the last mile connectivity to disseminate the forecasts and advisories to the users. Quoting an example, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said under the National Monsoon Mission around 19.4 million farmers are benefiting from agro meteorological information through sms and have contributed to around Rs. 50,000 crores annually to India's GDP. “We are working determinedly to take the present 19.4 million beneficiaries to 93 million by December 2018”, the Minister added.

 

Envisioning the future prospects, the Minister said that at present, agro meteorological and fishermen advisories are given to only 30% of potential users and there is an urgent need to improve the communication strategy by forecasting for the block level under the National Monsoon Mission. Thus, more socio-economic benefits can be brought out by the Ministry.

 

Talking about stakeholder engagement, the Minister informed that on the 28th of September the Ministry is holding an all stakeholder meet with all the existing and potential partner agency representatives at INCOIS, Hyderabad. This meet is planned to work out a road map for expanding the outreach of agricultural and Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisories to 93 million farming household and 8-9 lakh active fishermen respectively.

 

Dr Harsh Vardhan concluded by saying “I am confident that the scientists of the Earth Science Ministry will dedicate themselves making the Ministry as one of the best in the world in providing services for weather, climate, ocean, and seismology and bringing in more socio-economic benefits.”

 

Dr. M. Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr. K.J. Ramesh, Director General of Meteorology, India Meteorological Department, Directors of Institutes/Laboratories, senior scientists and officers of the Ministry attended the session. Presentations were made to the Minister by the Secretary and Directors of Institutes on the details of on-going programmes, challenges and road map of actions for the Ministry.

Date:
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
DST commits 500 Crores for PM’s Vision on Startup India

NIDHI (National Initiative for Development and Harnessing Innovations), an umbrella program is pioneered by the Department of Science & Technology(DST), Government of India, for nurturing ideas and innovations (knowledge-based and technology-driven) into successful startups.

In order to realize the Prime Minister’s ambitious Initiative on Startup India, DST aims to bring both speed and scale to transform the Startup Ecosystem in the country and has committed 500 crores to implement these new programs in next few years. This was announced by the Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, while addressing the media in New Delhi today.

NIDHI focuses on building a seamless and innovation driven entrepreneurial ecosystem especially by channelizing youth towards it and thereby bringing in the positive impact on the socio-economic development of the country. The program aims to provide technological solutions not only to the pressing needs of the society but also targets to create new avenues for wealth and job creation.

NIDHI, by design connects and strengthens all the links of the innovation chain from scouting to sustaining to securing to scaling to showcasing, because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The key stakeholders of NIDHI includes various departments and ministries of the central government, state governments, academic and R & D institutions, mentors, financial institutions, angel investors, venture capitalists, industry champions and private sectors. NIDHI strongly addresses the new national aspirations by massively scaling up DST’s experience of three decades in promoting innovative startups.

There are 8 components of NIDHI that support each stage of a budding startup from idea to market. The first component PRAYAS (Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring Innovators & Startups), launched on 2nd September, 2016, aims to support innovators to build prototypes of their ideas by providing a grant up to Rs.10 lakhs and an access to Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab). The final component is the Seed Support System which provides up to One Crore rupees per start-up and is implemented through Technology Business Incubators. During the current financial year with a view to drive the innovation and startup centric new initiatives in a scaled up manner for its wider outreach across the country, a 450% increase in allocation (Rs. 180 crores) has been made in the Department’s budget.

So far, DST has established more than 100 Technology Business Incubators in academic and R & D institutions of repute. These institutions include IITs, IIMs, NITs and other institutions. Each of these incubator is focused on a Technology Domain and all of these combined together house more than 2000 startups currently and offer a total incubation space of approximately 7 lakh square feet.

The Minister, also mentioned that various successful and high growth stories in affordable health care, diagnostics, applications of unmanned aerial vehicles, renewable energy, service oriented online platforms, payment gateways etc. have emerged out of these incubators.

In the recently concluded National Expert Advisory Committee Meeting on 3rd September, 2016, proposal to establish 6 Centers of Excellence were decided, at SINE- IIT Bombay, Venture Center-NCL Pune, CIIE-IIM Ahmedabad etc.,14 Technology Business Incubators which include IIT Patna and Mizoram University etc.

Ten more Incubators to be supplemented with Seed Support Systems for startups include Startup Oasis-Jaipur, Amrita TBI -Kollam, Venture Center, NCL -Pune etc. establishing a Research Park at IIT Gandhinagar . In addition, a variety of other new programs including a fellowship program for Entrepreneurs i.e. Entrepreneurs in Residence, scaling up of startups through accelerator program and women empowerment through entrepreneurship.

Apart from setting the ground ready for the prospective startups in an enabling a environment of Incubators, DST has also partnered with large corporates like Intel, Lockheed Martin, Texas Instruments and Boeing to initiate variety of technology driven and innovation based programs to promote startups. Further, DST has also partnered with Department of Higher Education, MHRD to establish Research Parks and Startup Centers in various academic institutions of national importance.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that Indian youth is highly talented and innovative and through NIDHI we would like to ignite the spark and help the youth to succeed and make India a preferred Startup Nation in near future.
 

………..

Date:
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Hanle - a potential site for the Thirty Meter Telescope

Hanle in Ladakh has been identified as one of the potential alternate sites for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The original site for TMT was Mauna Kea in Hawaii in the United States of America. The construction work for TMT at Mauna Kea was started but had to be stalled due to revocation of Permit by orders of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.

Shri Y.S. Chowdary, Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, in a written reply to a Question in Rajya Sabha today, informed the House that in view of significant investments and efforts already made towards realizing the project, it has been decided by the TMT Partner Countries to look for alternate sites, including Hanle, as fall-back options.

Further, the Minister, through the reply, informed that India’s participation in the TMT project is being jointly funded and overseen by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), with DST as the Lead Agency. DST has received clearances from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs for hosting TMT at Hanle in Ladakh.

The Minister also informed that Indian scientists leading this project, led by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, visited the region and have completed measurements of the key scientific parameter, viz. ‘Atmospheric turbulence or Seeing measured in arc-second’.

The necessary site-specific details have been submitted to the TMT alternate site selection team. Hanle site has lower seeing values of 0.9-1.2 arc sec as compared to the alternate sites in Chile and Canary Islands of Spain (La Palma) which have seeing values of 0.55 arc sec. Thus, scientifically, Hanle has less advantageous characteristics for hosting a mega telescope like the TMT in comparison to the other alternate sites, the reply added.

Date:
Friday, August 12, 2016
India’s Research Performance in Science and Technology Improves Significantly

Shri Y.S. Chowdary, Minister of State for the Ministry of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, in a written reply to a Question in Rajya Sabha today, informed the House that as per Elsevier Report 2016 based on SCOPUS database, India’s research performance in Science and Technology has improved significantly over the past years.

Further, the Minister, in his reply, stated that the scholarly output in the field of science and technology has grown at a rate of 13.9% as against the world average growth rate of 4.1% during 2009-13. India’s global citation impact in scientific research has increased to 0.75 during 2009-13 from 0.68 during 2006-10, whereas World average citation impact stands at 1.0. India’s scholarly output increased to 106,065 papers in 2013 from 62,955 papers in 2009.

Date:
Friday, August 5, 2016
Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement Through Nurturing (KIRAN) – A Ray of Hope for Women Scientists

Shri Y.S. Chowdary, Minister of State for the Ministry of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, in a written reply to a Question in Rajya Sabha today, informed the House that there is steady growth in proposals from the women scientists under Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN) scheme of the Department of Science & Technology (DST). DST received 689 proposals in 2013-14, 882 proposals in 2014-15 and 1012 proposals in 2015-16 under KIRAN from women scientists.

The number of proposals received and recommended under the scheme during last three years, State-wise are given below: -

States/Union Territories

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16
 

Received

Recommended

Received

Recommended

Received

Recommended

Andhra Pradesh

115

25

94

11

42

13

Arunachal Pradesh

-

-

1

-

2

1

Assam

13

3

11

4

24

3

Bihar

2

-

2

-

3

2

Chandigarh

6

2

4

1

10

3

Chhattisgarh

1

-

5

-

6

-

Daman & Diu

-

-

-

-

1

-

Delhi

44

21

56

13

75

21

Gujarat

22

8

26

8

32

13

Goa

3

1

4

3

3

2

Haryana

22

5

27

6

23

11

Himachal Pradesh

6

1

7

2

12

1

Jammu & Kashmir

19

6

14

2

26

5

Jharkhand

2

-

7

1

12

-

Karnataka

48

14

47

18

65

15

Kerala

31

8

33

10

38

6

Madhya Pradesh

18

10

29

3

35

3

Maharashtra

61

20

86

31

91

26

Manipur

7

6

13

5

15

3

Meghalaya

-

-

2

-

1

-

Mizoram

-

-

2

1

1

1

Odisha

16

9

26

9

21

17

Pondicherry

2

1

3

1

3

3

Punjab

18

3

30

10

27

7

Rajasthan

15

3

26

1

41

8

Sikkim

3

-

-

-

-

-

Telangana

-

-

37

28

52

39

Tripura

-

-

4

3

3

2

Tamil Nadu

82

23

116

30

124

25

Uttar Pradesh

67

37

97

23

144

22

Uttarakhand

8

3

13

-

18

3

West Bengal

58

14

60

23

62

33

TOTAL

689

223

882

247

1012

288
Date:
Friday, August 5, 2016
Developments in Bio-Technology Sector

India’s research performance in Pharmacology and Biotechnology indicates that India’s scholarly output based on publication data is nearly 5 % of the world’s total in 2014 and showing strong average growth of over 12 % annually.

Shri Y.S. Chowdary, Minister of State for the Ministry of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, in a written reply to a Question in Lok Sabha today, informed the House that the Department of Bio-Technology (DBT) is implementing an integrated human resource development programme. It comprises of M.Sc./ M. Tech. teaching program, fellowships for doctoral and post-doctoral research in biotechnology and Biotechnology Industrial Training program for post graduate students for skill upgradation. Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowships also provided to 50 scientists each year.

The DBT has implemented postgraduate teaching program in 71 universities, there is a provision of 275 and 125 fellowships per year in DBT-Junior Research Fellowship Program and DBT-research Associateship program, respectively. It is also providing 6 months industrial training to fresh B. E./B. Tech./M.Sc./ M. Tech biotechnology students for skill development and enhancing their employability in biotech industries. The total budget for Human Resource Development program in FY 2016-17 is INR 209 crores, the Minister added.

Further, Shri Chowdary stated that the Department established Biotechnology Industry Research Assessments Council (BIRAC) as a Section 8 (not for profit) Public Sector Enterprise in 2012 with the mandate to build the biotechnology innovation ecosystem in the country. Since its inception, BIRAC has provided funding to entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs and translational organizations to the tune of Rs. 677 crores which has helped innovation research to bring high quality and affordable products towards commercialization.

BIRAC has several flagship programs for supporting startups and SMEs across the biotechnology innovation pipeline including funding (from ideation stage to commercialization), incubation, patent assistance, capacity building through training and mentoring including business and technical mentoring. The total budget from BIRAC in FY 2016-17 for startups and innovation research in industries is Rs. 120 crores.

The Minister also informed the House that it is proposed to set up an independent regulator for bio-technology including Genetically Modified (GM) crops for which the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill (BRAI) Bill, 2013 was introduced in 15th Lok Sabha and was lapsed with the tenure of the same. BRAI Bill 2013 has now been revised taking into consideration recent developments in genetic engineering technologies for reintroduction through appropriate legislative process.

Meanwhile, the Minister noted, that as an interim measure to implement the best practices contained in the BRAI Bill, establish a separate office dealing with biosafety issues it is proposed to get Genetically Engineered products within the existing regulatory framework under the Rules for the Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous Micro-organisms/ Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells (Rules, 1989) of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), 1986.

The proposed Office of Biotechnology Regulation will have an Inter-Ministerial Board represented by senior officials of concerned ministries for overall supervision along with strengthened risk assessment and management system through a functional unit of multidisciplinary scientists, the Minister added.

Date:
Thursday, August 4, 2016
CSIR Ranks 12th in the World Among Government Institutions: Scimago Institutions Rankings

The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) has been ranked 12th in the world among the government institutions in the world, improving its position after being at 14th spot for three consecutive years, according to 2016 report of the prestigious Scimago Institutions Rankings. The overall global ranking of CSIR also improved from 110 to 99th position.

CSIR leads the country at the top spot and is the only Indian organization to have found a place among the top 100 global institutions.

The Scimago rankings is a classification of academic and research related institutions ranked by a composite indicator that combines three different sets of indicators based on research performance, innovation outputs and societal impact measured by their web visibility. The ranking measures areas such as:

Research

Output, international collaboration, normalized impact (leadership output), high quality publications, excellence, scientific leadership, excellence with leadership and scientific talent pool

Innovation

Innovative knowledge and technological impact

Societal impact

Web size and domain’s inbound links

The constituent institute of CSIR, the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST) has been ranked first among Indian government research institutions, improving its global overall ranking from 425 to 353. The CSIR-NIIST became the first among 59 ranked government institutions in the country, followed by CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad.

Date:
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Dr. Harsh Vardhan launches the ‘Solar Power Tree’ – an Innovation aimed at utilizing minimum land to harness maximum Solar Energy

Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, launched the ‘Solar Power Tree’ today in New Delhi. It has been developed by the CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The Solar Power Tree harnesses solar energy for producing electricity with an innovative vertical arrangement of solar cells. It thus reduces the requirement of land as compared to conventional Solar Photovoltaic layout, on one hand, while keeping the land character intact on the other. Even the cultivable land can be utilized for solar energy harnessing along with farming at the same time. The innovation finds its viability both in rural and urban areas.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, while appreciating the efforts of the scientists of the CSIR-CMERI, added that the Solar Power Tree innovatively addresses the challenge of increasing demand for Green Energy by gainfully utilizing scarce land resources in the country. Further, the Minister noted that in order to produce 1 MW of solar power it requires about 3.5 acres of land in the conventional layout of solar panels. Thus, for any State in the country to survive on green energy, there will be requirement of thousands of acres of land. Acquisition of land is a major issue in itself, he added.

Dr. Girish Sahni, DG, CSIR, also present on the occasion, informed that the device has been functioning effectively at three places in West Bengal as a pilot project. As a future prospect, the Solar Power Tree would be developed in a rotatable module, which would have a motorized mechanism to align itself with the movement of the Sun during the day. Hence, it would be possible to harness 10-15% more power over and above the current capacity.

The Salient Features of the Solar Power Tree are:

• It takes only 4 square feet of land for a 5 KW Solar Power tree, whereas in a conventional layout, it requires 400 square feet of land.

• By holding the photovoltaic panels at a higher height, on an average it gets more sunrays for one hour in a day. As a result, it is possible to harness 10-15% more power in comparison to a conventional layout on ground.

• It has a battery back-up of 2 hours on full load, hence giving light even after sunset.

• It is facilitated with water sprinkler at the top for self-cleaning of panels, that increases the efficiency of the solar panels.

• The estimated cost of the device is around Rs. 5 Lakh for a 5 KW specification.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, while appreciating the strong connect of CSIR with the Industry as well as the Society, emphasized the need for greater partnership and linkage with the stakeholders in order make the indigenously developed technologies reach out to the society.
 

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Date:
Monday, July 25, 2016

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