Science in India Newsletter

Index

S&T Policies:

 S&T Policies:

1. Project proposal on Indian participation in ITER approved

The Union Cabinet gave its approval for the following:
i) To the project titled Indian Participation in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), at a base cost of Rs.2500 crore (=456 Mio. Euro).

ii) To constitute an Empowered Board by the Governing Council of Institute for Plasma Research with sufficient powers required for effective implementation of the project within the framework of the agreement signed among the parties to the ITER and ITER International Organisation and also within the sanctioned amount for the project.

India’s joining ITER is recognition of India’s scientific and technical capability in fusion energy. Considering India’s large energy needs in future, its gaining technological capability in fusion energy will be of considerable long term benefit.

(Press Release, Indian Government, 05.07.2007)              

                                                                                          

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh chaired the first meeting of the National Council on Climate Change. The Prime Minister directed the Planning Commission to incorporate clean development strategies into the sectoral plans and proposals for the Eleventh Plan and to make a strategy to deal with climate change an intrinsic part of the Eleventh Plan strategy. The Prime Minister said that the Government would launch a major aforestation programme called "Green India" to convert six million hectares of degraded forest land into green areas. The Prime Minister also called for a long-term strategy to deal with glacial melting of the Himalayas. The meeting decided that a national strategy paper on climate change will be prepared before the end of the year. Participants at the meeting emphasized the need for funding research on impact of climate change including research on management of impact of droughts and floods on crop production and urban planning. Participants emphasized the vital importance of encouraging public transportation in urban areas, reducing dependence on fuel inefficient technologies. Emphasis was placed on collection of reliable data, funding of research for analyzing the data and implementation of practical programmes to improve energy efficiency and reduce wasteful use of natural resources.

The National Council on Climate Change has been asked to come forward with a national strategy that protects India's developmental goals and interests while at the same time addressing concerns, both at home and abroad, with respect to global warming and sustainable development.
 
 
(Press Release, Indian Government, 13.07.2007)      

                                                                                        

 Research:

3. BARC to develop high temperature nuclear reactors

A prototype Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR) is being developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) as part of the Indian programme to produce hydrogen as a substitute for fossil fuels. CHTR prototype would be a technology demonstrator for all high temperature nuclear reactors planned for the future, Director, Nuclear Reactor Engineer Division, R K Sinha said.

“The high temperature nuclear reactors are being developed with an objective to provide energy to facilitate combined production of hydrogen, electricity and drinking water,” Sinha said. The reject and waste heat in the overall energy scheme is proposed to be utilised for electricity generation and desalination respectively, he said and added that hydrogen production using nuclear reactors will become economical too. CHTR is mainly a Uranium-233-thorium fuelled reactor using lead-bismuth as coolant and beryllium oxide as moderator. The reactor is designed to operate at 1273 deg Kelvin (about 1000 degrees Centigrade), to facilitate demonstration of technologies for high temperature process heat applications such as hydrogen production by splitting water through high efficiency thermo-chemical process.
 

(PTI Science Service, 01.-15.07.2007)

                                                                                          

India’s multi-wavelength astronomical observatory “Astrosat” will be launched in 2008, eminent astrophysicist and former ISRO chairman Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan has said. The biggest challenge of creating a control system in space for the Astrosat had been overcome with the use of highspeed wheels to facilitate tilting of the telescopes at the desired angles. Orbiting 600 km above the earth’s surface, the Rs 200 crore (= 36 Mio Euro) Astrosat would facilitate study of astrophysical objects ranging from nearby solar system objects to distant stars and objects at cosmological distances.

Kasturirangan said Astrosat’s scientific objectives were multi-wavelength studies of cosmic sources, monitoring of the x-ray sky for new transients and all-sky survey in the x-ray and ultra-violet bands. Its other objectives included broadband spectroscopic studies of galaxy clusters and stellar coronae, studies of periodic and non-periodic variability of x-ray sources, monitoring intensity of known sources and detecting outbursts and luminosity variations, he said.

Led by ISRO, the other collaborators of the Astrosat project include the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Indian Institute of Astrophysicist, Bangalore, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, Inter- University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, Nuclear Research Laboratory, Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai and the S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata.


(PTI Science Service, 01.-15.07.2007)
  

A Rs 100-crore Deep Space Network (DSN) and Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC), being built on a 100-acre campus outside a village 40 km from Bangalore, will be the nucleus of Indian space exploration missions beginning next year. The facility will support Chandrayaan I, the orbiter to the moon, and ASTROSAT, a unique space telescope designed to scout for galactic clusters, new stars beyond the Milky Way and a variety of cosmological phenomenon.

The first two of these missions will be launched in 2008 and critical scientific data beamed by the two spacecraft will be received and analysed at this centre. It will be an important facility for Indian space and astrophysical research and promote international cooperation in space exploration, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said.

Indian space scientists said ASTROSAT, a 1,000-kg spacecraft, will serve as a space telescope to record both ultra-violet and X-ray emissions of galactic objects, recording the birth or death of stars. The Rs 180-crore spacecraft will be built by ISRO's Satellite Centre, Bangalore, and hoisted into space by the indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in the second half of 2008.
On Chandrayaan-I, Nair said: "The design of the spacecraft has already been completed and testing is on. Instruments from NASA, the European Space Agency and Bulgaria are expected to arrive between August and October. We expect the launch to take place in the first half of 2008."

(Hindustan Times, 15.08.2007) 

                                                                                          

India has the unique opportunity to host the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC-2007) during September 24-28, 2007 at Hyderabad. Hailed as one of the prestigious meets of the world's astronautical community, IAC is organised every year jointly by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and International Institute of Space Law (IISL). Astronautical Society of India (ASI) and Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO will be hosting this event in India. ISRO and ASI are active members of IAF and over the years, ISRO/ASI scientists have played a significant role in the activities of IAF, IAA and IISL. Mr G Madhavan Nair, who is the Chairman of ISRO and President of ASI, is also the Vice President of the Scientific Activities of IAA.

More than 2,500 delegates including eminent leaders, professionals and industrialists engaged in space science, technology and applications from all over the world will be participating in IAC 2007.

(Press Release, Indian Space Research Organisation, 03.08.2007)                 

                                                                                          

The Indian space programme is unique in the world for its innovative use of space technology for development programmes. ISRO, which spearheads space research in India, is now planning a manned mission to moon and most probably, an unmanned mission to Mars. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair spoke to Atul Sethi, Times of India:

Q: What are the achievements of India’s space programme?
We have been successful in realising the vision of self-reliant capability. Today, India has established space systems like INSAT for communication, television broadcasting, meteorology and disaster warning and the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) for resources monitoring and management.
INSAT is the largest domestic communication satellite system in the Asia-Pacific region and IRS is the largest constellation of remote sensing satellite providing data in a variety of spatial resolution and spectral bands.
India has developed two powerful launch vehicles; Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) to place its satellites in required orbits.
All these space systems have been developed in a self-reliant way in spite of several challenges such as the absence of the right industrial infrastructure to take on advanced systems realisation and the regime of technology denials.
Today, our space programme is recognised by the world for novel applications to which the space systems have been put to use, in areas like tele-education, telemedicine, village resource centres, forecasting poten-tial zones for fishing, and locating groundwater prospect zones.

Q: Space sciences is an area where, many feel, India has some expertise. What are our areas for research?
Our activities cover astronomy, astrophysics, planetary and earth science and theoretical physics. Ground facilities like mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere radar and ground-based observatories, a series of sounding rockets and spacecraft platforms are available for pursuing scientific investigations.
With the existing capabilities, India has now planned the first mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1, that will carry six Indian scientific instruments besides six instruments from other space agencies (NASA-2, ESA-3, Bulgaria-1).

Q: Is ISRO looking at an unman-ned mission to Mars before the proposed manned moon mission?
An unmanned spacecraft could follow Chandrayaan-1 to Mars. Man-ned space mission will be pursued as another project, for which project report is now under preparation and if approved the mission could be undertaken in about 8-10 years.

Q: What would be ISRO’s thrust areas in the future?
We would continue to increase the capacity and capability of our present space systems. Reduction of cost of access to space is another area. GSLV Mk-III that is already under development is expected to reduce the cost of the present GSLV by about 30 per cent.

(Times of India, 01.08.2007)        
                                                                                         
 

The people of the southwest Indian island of Karavatti are using the ocean's own thermal gradients to desalinate seawater and make bad drinking water a thing of the past, reports Yudhijit Bhattacharjee in a Science article (Science AAAS). Most desalination plants remove the salt from seawater either by boiling it and condensing the steam, or by pumping it across a salt-retaining membrane, but these methods are expensive. The Karavatti plant, built by India's National Institute of Ocean Technology in Chennai, uses a process akin to rain formation. Warm surface water is pumped into an onshore vacuum chamber, where some of the water vaporises. Cold water drawn from 350 metres below the sea's surface then condenses the vapour in an adjoining chamber. Using this process, called low-temperature thermal desalination, the plant produces 100,000 litres of fresh water a day. Although the process consumes 30 per cent more energy than its rival technologies, installing more chambers should make it more efficient and — at US$1 per 1,000 litres — cheaper. Plans are afoot to build ten more plants on neighbouring islands. But on the mainland, where cold deep water is farther offshore, the method may be harder to implement.

(www.scidev.net, 02.07.2007)                                                                               
                                                                                           
 

Clinical trials conducted for testing efficacy of new drugs are set to become transparent with the launch of a national registry for recording such an exercise. The Clinical Trials Registry - India (CTRI), the first such initiative in Asia, was launched at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on 20 July 2007. Any researcher who plans to conduct drug trials on humans is expected to declare the details of the exercise in the Registry, that is jointly funded by the Department of Science and Technology, WHO and ICMR. Twenty items that meet the requirement of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform will have to be declared at the time of registration. Only trials properly registered will be considered for publication in international research journals.

(Times of India, 20.07.2007)                          

                                                                                          

Used for ages in Ayurveda to treat a variety of complaints, Kerala’s medicinal rice “Njavara” is now found to have anti-carcinogenic property which fights cancer. A breakthrough in molecular research by scientists of the Kerala Agricultural University here indicated the presence of Bowman-Birk trypsin inhibitor protein in “Njavara”, which has not been identified in other varieties of rice in India, according to the University Vice-Chancellor K. R. Viswambharan.
This protein, having anti-carcinogenic property, especially to fight breast cancer, was isolated earlier from soyabean, barley and sunflower, Viswambharan said. It also has anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic powers and acts against fungal pathogens and insects in crops and animals. Scientifically known as “Oryza sativa”, Njavara is mostly grown in the upland regions of Kerala.

(PTI Science Service, July 16-31, 2007)                     
                         
                                                                                         

 Academic Exchange/ Education:

11. MIT, IIT Kanpur join hands

The Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have decided on joint research and development in the fields of engineering and technology. A three-member MIT delegation visited the IIT-Kanpur campus to work out the modalities.

(Hindustan Times, 07.08.2007)

                                                                                          
 

Four Indian education institutions figure in the latest world university rankings, which continue to be topped by the universities of Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford, for their strengths in teaching and research. The four Indian institutions are the IITs, IIMs, the Delhi- based Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University. The IITs rank 57th in the world’s top 200 universities list and the IIMs rank 68th. JNU comes 183rd. In the list of the world’s top 100 science universities, IITs rank 33rd, while in the list for top technology universities, the rank of IITs jumps to the third place after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. IIMs rank 68th in the list of top technology universities. 57. In the world ranking for top 50 universities outside the US and Britain, the list features IITs (15th rank), IIMs (19) and JNU (47). In the overall rankings, Harvard University remains at the top and Imperial College, London is the only newcomer in the top 10. IANS

(Times of India, 05.08.2007)
                                                                                          
 

Indian government is planning to set up seven more IIMs and three new IITs in the next five years at an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. Aimed at supporting the globalisation of Indian industry, the government has also drawn up a plan to set up 20 more NITs to meet the growing manpower requirement of the industry.

Furthermore, plans are afoot to formulate a "positive policy" to encourage top class foreign universities and institutions to set up collaborative institutions in the country through public and private partnerships and offer degrees and diplomas of same quality and standards of education as in their own countries.

The Commission has projected a fund requirement of Rs 1,32,000 crore for setting up 30 CUs, three IITs, seven IIMs, 20 NITs, five Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and Indian Institute of Information Technologies (IIITs) and two schools of planning and architecture (SPA) during 2007-14.


(The Financial Express, 02.08.2007)
                                                                                           
 

On the 5th of July 2007 the first Indian - German MBA-Studies called “International Consulting” (MBA-IMC) in Kolkata was flagged off by the consul of Kolkata, Mr. Guenter Wehrmann, the director of the “Institute of International Management Consulting” (I-IMC) from the college of higher education Ludwigshafen, Dr. Rolf-Dieter Reineke, and the director of the MBA-IMC Studies in India, Prof. Friedrich Bock. The MBA-IMC is one of the first MBA-Programs in India with a German university in cooperation with the “Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management” (IISWBM) in Kolkata. The college in Ludwigshafen will be award the degree “Master of Business Administration” (MBA). The MBA-IMC classes are held in English and after four years of study involving several presentations, workshops and case studies the participants will get a MBA degree, which is accredited by the international standards of the FIBAA. Indian students are required to undertake the third and fourth semester in Ludwigshafen.

(http://www.graduate-school-rn.de)
                                                                                           
 

The nearly century-old famed Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore intends to build a new campus, twice its size, to meet much of its future expansion needs. IISc Director Prof P Balaram said the institute of higher learning is in discussion with the government and has requested to allot it land somewhere close by that can be utilised for the expansion activities. IISc, meanwhile, is currently in the throes of modernisation. It is building new laboratories for aerospace engineering, biology, physics, nano electronics, nano science and nano engineering in the existing campus.

He also said the IISc is keen to increase the clinical interface of its research activities both in biology and in engineering. "Only way to increase the clinical interface is to have a fair amount of in-house research which is clinically directed. This would mean setting up of some kind of a bio-medical centre at a point in future."

Asked if the IISc has plans to introduce under-graduate programmes, Balaram said the issue is still being discussed internally, with some supporting it and others saying it's not a good idea.

(Hindustan Times, 24.07.2007)
                                                                                           

 Miscellaneous:
 

16. Indian Scientists represented at Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting 2007

Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Science and Technology & Earth Sciences, congratulated the team of 21 Young Indian Scientists/ Students who represented India at the 57th Meeting of Nobel Laureates & students in Medicine & Physiology and related subjects at Lindau in June 2007. Department of Science and Technology (DST) launched this programme in 2001 for participation of young Indian Scientists in the Annual Meetings of Nobel laureates & Students in Lindau, which is jointly sponsored by the DST from Indian side and the Committee for the Meeting of Nobel laureates & Students and German Research Foundation (DFG) from the German Side.
Addressing the young scientists who called on him in New Delhi, Sibal urged them to make best use of the opportunity of the meeting with the best brains in the field by appropriately applying the ideas in their own research. After listening to the experiences of each young scientist the Minister gave an assurance that his Ministry will facilitate a Lindau like meeting soon in India so that more Indian students get the opportunity to interact with the great minds in Science and students from other parts of the world. This year’s meeting was dedicated to medicine and physiology with participation by 18 Nobel Laureates and about 500 young scientists from around the world.

(Press Release Indian Government, 16.07.2007)

                                                                                           
 

As a consequence of the Tsunami two years back the buildings in the earthquake prone regions of Southeast Asia came under the lens. Similar is the case of Chennai in south India. The scientists of the Structural Engineering Research Center Chennai together with ILEK of the University of Stuttgart are developing methods for the exhaustion and assessments of earthquake and compile strategies for the maintenance of buildings. The group of researchers on German side is led by Professor Balthasar Novák and on Indian side by Dr. Karusala Ramanjaneyulu.

(www.uni-stuttgart.de)
                                                                                           
 

Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is an annual global summit dealing with sustainable developmental issues from a developing country’s perspective. Besides enjoying international patronage, the Summit is a pre-eminent gathering of development practitioners, policy-makers, private businesses, scientists and government bodies.

DSDS 2008 will focus on the theme “Sustainable Development and Climate Change”.

Date: 7 - 9 February 2008
 

(http://www.teriin.org/dsds)
                                                                                           
 

Four Indian students bagged laurels at the 38th International Physics Olympiad (IPO), winning two gold and two silver medals at the competition held in Iran. Ram Sharma from Jaipur and Rohit Singh from Dehradun notched the top honours with one gold medal each while Harsh Harivansh Pareek from Mumbai and Pratyush Pandey from Jaipur got silver medals at the IPO, Prof. Vijay Singh, national coordinator for Science Olympiads said. Seventy countries with over 326 students participated in the event, Singh said adding “inspite of stiff competition, India stood sixth among 70 nations in terms of marks tally.”

(PTI Science Service, August 1-15, 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.