Science in India Newsletter

Index

S&T Policies:

 S&T Policies:

1. Prime Minister releases Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, released the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016 in January 2007. The mission plan will be the blue print for the growth of the Indian Automotive Industry. It has been prepared by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India in collaboration with the Indian Automotive Industry.

In the light of growing global concern about climate change the Prime Minister urged the Indian Automotive Industry to invest in energy efficient and environment friendly technologies.

The Prime Minister urged Indian companies to think ahead and adopt fuel-efficient technologies and technologies that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

(Press Release, Indian Government, 29.01.2007)              

                                                                                          

Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce & Industry, has stressed the need for greater cooperation between India and Germany in the field of science & technology, manufacturing and energy sector, while meeting the German Minister for Education and Research, Dr. Mrs. Annette Schavan on 06 February. Nath highlighted the special importance of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for both the Indian and German economy and invited German SMEs to interact with the Indian SMEs and participate in India’s economic growth. He also invited German investments and cooperation in India’s booming pharmaceutical and engineering sector.
 
(Press Release, Indian Government, 06.02.2007)      

                                                                                        

Science&Technology Minister Sibal said that India has recently signed its intention to enrol in the Hi-Tech International facility for Anti-Proton and Ion Research (FAIR) at Darmstadt, Germany. This international facility, with participation of 13 other countries including China, Russia, UK, France, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Finland and Italy is to be set up at total construction cost of 2.7 billion Euros spread over a period of seven years including operation and maintenance cost for 10 years, he said. India will participate with 3% of the total costs.

(PTI Science Service, 15.-31.03.2007)
  

India has increased its science spending by 21 per cent in its 2007–08 annual budget.
Presenting the budget in Parliament on 28 February, Indian Finance Minister Chidambaram earmarked around USD 5 billion for projects in various science fields, focusing on three key social sectors: agriculture, health and education. There will also be tax incentives for projects in biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology, seed research and development, and research into new chemical entities. Chidambaram allocated around USD 22 million for the creation of centres of excellence in two leading Indian agricultural universities — Govind Ballab Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar in North India and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University at Coimbatore in South India.
Dr. Ramasami, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, said it was a "substantial" increase. He said some of the funds would be channelled towards the department's long-term projects to attract young people to science and rejuvenate the research system.
The increase comes despite the revelation that India is not using its entire science allocation. On 8 January, President APJ Abdul Kalam told the Indian science congress that more than 20 per cent of the science funds from the 2005–06 budget were still unspent.

(www.scidev.net, 28.02.2007) 

                                                                                          

India today proposed a major sop to promote clinical trial of new drugs in the country by exempting the research activity from service tax. Finance Minister Chidambaram said the exemption was aimed at making India a "preferred destination" for drug testing. India is fast emerging as a destination for clinical trials of new drugs with the research outsourced to the country estimated at USD 100 million. Around 20 organisations in India specialise in clinical trials. The cost of conducting clinical trials in India ranges between 20 and 60 per cent of the cost in Western countries and the number of patients in Indian trial sites constitute 20 per cent of patients in global clinical trials.

(www.share.onlypunjab.com, 28.02.2007)                 

                                                                                          

 Research:

6. Indo-German infectious diseases centre

The Indian Council of Medical Research and the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres announced the setting up of an Indo-German Science Centre for Infectious Diseases. The proposed five projects will be set up over three years at an estimated cost of 4.5 billion Euros. The cost will be shared equally by the two partners. The centre will work in the areas of virology, developing vaccines and anti-infectives, animal models of infective diseases and zoonosis.

(The Hindu, 04.04.2007)

                                                                                          

India's health biotech firms are gaining global influence, with growing means and know-how to produce new and generic drugs and vaccines at low cost, say researchers. A study of 21 leading biotech firms in India published in Nature Biotechnology shows they can address local needs and produce cheap generic alternatives to many drugs manufactured by Western companies.

The study, led by Peter Singer of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health at the University of Toronto, Canada, predicts a biotech boom in India and makes a number of recommendations for biotech development. It says the government should take steps to prevent Indian companies becoming subsidiaries to large Western companies.

The impact on drug prices is already being felt in India. The 1997 launch of a domestically-produced hepatitis B vaccine, Shanvac-B, developed by Shantha Biotechnics of Hyderabad, drove prices down from about USD 15 to roughly USD 0.50, say the researchers. Shantha today supplies nearly 40 per cent of the UN Children's Fund's global hepatitis B vaccine supplies.

The Serum Institute of India in Pune, meanwhile, has become the country's largest domestic vaccine supplier and exporter, its products reaching 138 countries.

(www.scidev.net, 10.04.2007, Nature Biotechnology 10.1038/nbt0407-403 (2007)        
                                                                                         
 

The public sector agricultural research system is close to releasing for commercial cultivation insect-protected transgenic crop varieties, including Bt-cotton, which will not require farmers to buy fresh seeds every year. Besides breaking the virtual monopoly of private companies over genetically modified seeds, the public sector bio-tech crop varieties will help reduce production costs for farmers. In the case of transgenic hybrids, commonly being marketed by the private companies, the farmers have to buy fresh seeds every year, incurring high costs. The pest-protected Bt-brinjal (aubergines) was also in advanced stages of testing.

(Financial Express, 24.02.2007)                                                                               
                                                                                           
 

The first annual meeting of Stem Cell Research Forum of India (SCRFI) began on 30 January with 350 delegates, including 40 international delegates from across 12 countries deliberating on advantages and progress of stem cell therapies. Speaking on the occasion Dr Satish Totey, Director of Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine and Secretary of SCRFI said: ”There is a growing consensus, amongst the policy analyst and scientists alike, that India and China are likely to play a key role in the scientific, clinical and commercial development of stem-cell research.”
He also said that the global market for stem-cell therapies is expected to be $20 billion by 2010. The stem-cell market in India is estimated to be around US $540 million and is growing at 15 per cent yearly. The funding for stem-cell research is increasing by nearly 300 per cent in India.

(www.digg.com, 30.01.2007)                          

                                                                                          

A new cost-effective nuclear medicine kit has been developed by Indian scientists of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) to tackle the growing number of infectious diseases in the country. The kit, which gives specific detection, location and treatment response, is superior to radiological techniques and is being sought after by foreign countries and organisations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency. “We have developed a single vial cold kit of ciprofloxacin for bacterial infection imaging called “Diagnobact”, W Selvamurthy, Chief Controller in Research and Development in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said. When the radioisotopes is added to the cold kit, it binds ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic, which can be injected. The kit was invented by A K Singh, who was last year given the Scientist of the Year prize by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for its invention, has its patent and worked on the project from 1997.

(PTI Science Service, 16.-28.02.2007)                     
                         
                                                                                         

Scientists from Amala Cancer Research Centre in Thrissur have found significant anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour qualities in the extract of the rare Morel mushroom which is found only in Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir. “Anti-tumour activity of the extract was determined using cell line induced solid tumour and cell line induced ascites tumour models in mice,” the study said. Around the world, scientists believe that mushrooms may hold chemicals that could help in developing new cancer drugs.

(PTI Science Service, 16.-28.02.2007)                     
                         
                                                                                         

 Academic Exchange/ Education:

12. Space Science Institute to be set up

The budget has set aside Rs 75 crore (= 1,3 billion Euros) to set up the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, that will train space scientists to carry out various Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) programmes. Based in Thiruvananthapuram, the institute, expected to be functional from 2007-08 academic year, would offer graduate and post-graduate courses in space programmes and technologies and related areas and also have provisions to carry out R&D activities.

(PTI Science Service, 15.-31.03.2007)

                                                                                          
 

Bavarian Minister Dr. Edmund Stoiber signed an agreement with the State Karnataka for the extension of cooperation between the Technical University Munich (TUM) and the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. Main areas of the science exchange are IT (mainly commercial IT), chemistry, physics, life sciences and engineering. 

(Press Release TUM 02.04.2007, www.tum.de)

In accordance with its internationalisation strategy the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has intensified the cooperation with partners in India. The university initiated several new projects in the fields of art history, preservation of historical monuments, pharmacy and archaeology. The delegation of the MLU visited the University Pune, College of Architecture Pune and the pharma company Ranbaxy in Delhi. 

(Press Release MLU 02.03.2007, www.uni-halle.de)

The renowned Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) is the new cooperation partner of the University Oldenburg. An agreement was signed for common research projects and an exchange of students as well as Ph.D. students. After the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai, it is the second partner university in India for the University Oldenburg. 

(www.uni-oldenburg.de, 14.02.2007)
                                                                                          
 

A proposal for establishment of an Institute of Environment Technology was under consideration with the government. The institute to be established through Public-Private-Partnership including international collaboration will have a mandate to carry out focused research on technologies whose application would lead to clean environment, Science Minister Sibal said. The institute, if approved, will
draw its programme keeping in view the challenges being faced by all parts of the country and all sectors of the Industry, he said.

(PTI Science Service, 15.-31.03.2007)
                                                                                           
 

A science and technology university is to be included in the Delhi budget for the year 2007-08. The new university may take over the Delhi government-funded institutions like Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NIST). The initial proposal suggests that the university be located in the DCE campus. The government is also thinking of converting some of the larger polytechnics in the city into engineering institutes on lines of what has happened in the United Kingdom.

(Hindustan Times, 12.03.2007)
                                                                                           
 

ISRO, along with Astronautical Society of India (ASI), will select 50 Indian students who will be sponsored as Student Delegates to the International Astronautical Congress (IAC-2007), which is being hosted by ASI and ISRO at Hyderabad, during September 23-28, 2007. The congress is organised by the International Astronautical Federation in cooperation with the International Academy of Astronautics and International Institute of Space Law. It is a prestigious International Space Event attended by about 2,000 delegates from Space Agencies, industries, academia and international organisations.

(Press Release, Indian Government, 13.04.2007. www.iac2007.org)
                                                                                           
 

India will set up an Indian Institute of Space Technology which will be styled on the lines of the seven IITs and help the public sector Indian space industry tide over the shortage of high-quality space scientists. The institute is expected to start with the first batch of 150 students this year, temporarily from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Kerala. It will eventually have its independent campus at a location near Thiruvananthapuram.

(Hindustan Times, 25.04.2007)
                                                                                           
 

 Miscellaneous:
 

18. India to test reusable launch vehicle in 2007

India will test a hypersonic reusable launch vehicle, the first step towards building a space shuttle, later this year. The launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on 10 January, carrying a Space Recovery Capsule (SRE) helped Indian Space Research Organisation gather data to develop a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) that will return to earth after placing a satellite in orbit.

A RLV Technology Demonstrator, scheduled to be launched by the end of the year using SCRAMJET and weighing 1.5 tonnes, would have aerothermodynamic characteristics with a speed exceeding Mach 6 or six times the speed of sound. An aircraft having SCRAMJET engines could dramatically reduce the travel time and reach any place on earth within a 90-minute flight. The SRAMJET is an advanced jet with air-breathing engine that uses atmospheric oxygen to burn fuel unlike conventional rockets which carry oxygen along with fuel. ISRO announced it had successfully carried out tests on the indigenously designed and developed SCRAMJET, a precursor to air-breathing rockets that would make space launches cheaper.

(PTI Science Service, 16.-31.01.2007)

                                                                                           
 

“We will start the construction on the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) sometime this year,” Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar said in a presentation at a theme session on Energy Security at the Indian Science Congress. He said the thorium-based AHWR was currently undergoing pre-licensing review by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. Being developed at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the AHWR aims to meet the objectives of using thorium fuel cycles for commercial power generation.
India has a four-phased roadmap for utilisation of thorium resources which includes the development of AHWRs, Compact High Temperature Reactor and an accelerator driven fast breeder reactor. India has thorium reserves to the tune of 225.000 tons which have an electricity potential of 155.000 Giga Watt Year (GWe-yr). Kakodkar said a country of the size of India cannot afford to plan its economy on the basis of large scale import of energy resources or energy.

(PTI Science Service, 16.-31.01.2007)
                                                                                           
 

After witnessing an IT boom, Karnataka is keen on developing aerospace industry in a big way through a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). A proposal for creating an aerospace and aircraft components manufacturing cluster at Devanahalli for maintenance, operation and servicing of aircrafts is on the way, Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries K.S. Naidu told reporters. Observing that Bangalore was the “natural destination” for the development of aerospace industry, he said many airlines like LUFTHANSA and major players have shown interest because of unprecedented growth in the aviation sector in the country. He said that Devanahalli near Bangalore was suited for the project and already several organisations like Indian Institute of Science, Indian Space Research Organisation and Hindustan Aeronautical Ltd. were functioning there.

(PTI Science Service, 16.-31.01.2007)
                                                                                           
 

India and Japan signed a deal in April to help fast-growing India fight global warming as the two countries look ahead to a framework after the landmark Kyoto protocol expires in 2012. Under the agreement, Japan will invest in India's energy industry and transfer energy-saving technology. Meeting with Japanese Trade Minister Akira Amari, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, said India "understands that global warming is a scientific fact backed by evidence."

(The Hindu, 24.04.2007)
                                                                                          

This newsletter has been prepared by the Science Section of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, New Delhi. Texts of articles from science magazines and newspapers have been edited for their length and are partly based on information from the Embassy. No responsibility for the content of the articles is accepted.