[Three PASSIONS, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.-BERTRAND RUSSEL]
The Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative of CSIR has released the results of its ‘Connect 2 Decode' (C2D) project to re-annotate the biological and genetic information related to theMycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) genome, in New Delhi. The exercise is to cut short research time and work towards effective medicines to treat TB, which accounts for about 1,000 deaths a day in India. The situation becomes worse, given that TB is increasingly responding less to existing regimens. If a medicine were to emerge, several years down the line from this project, there will not be any royalty or IP-protection, he said. However, every contribution to the research will be attributed.
Under the C2D project, researchers and students pooled their time and skills using online tools to provide insights into 4,000 genes of the deadly pathogens. The researchers also mapped the genes as they relate to functional interactions and pathways. Their work is held in a shared database, which the OSDD will share through a globally accessible database with any research institutions involved in TB research, through its open portal. The gene map is similar to a Google map or a Wikipedia article that can be modified and updated as new information emerges on the features of the genome.
C2D's findings may help to reveal the previously undiscovered details of tuberculosis (TB); resulting in developing TB drugs in India and other developing countries. This is the first time that a comprehensive mapping of the Mtb genome has been made publicly available. From the usual closed-door, non-transparent and hierarchical manner in which scientific research is usually done in private and public quarters, the OSDD initiative has made TB-related research available to any researcher across the world.
CSIR believes that as there is a need to have a balanced view between health as a right and health as a business because there has been imbalance in this view that diseases like TB, with high mortality but low profitability, are neglected by the current system of pharmaceutical research. This is due to observed fact that as virtually no new TB drugs have been developed since the 1960s, the OSDD's model in particular holds great promise for the scientific community by stimulating the development of better drugs and diagnostics for patients.
As a first of its kind government initiative, the OSDD was launched in September 2008 by CSIR. It is a $35 million (Rs 146 crore) collaborative research effort that focuses primarily on TB. Its objective is to accelerate R&D for TB drugs. With a global community of nearly 3,000 members from 74 countries, the OSDD brings together scientists, doctors, students, policy experts, software professionals and others to work on TB research.
Though scientists have mapped several organisms from yeast to humans, culling all the information known about constituent genes in one place is among the holy grails of biology, being an extensively time consuming and expensive exercise. The MTB map will be hosted on a Web portal custom developed by Infosys Technologies Ltd, that uses an emerging format called Web 3.0. This format allows users to get better search results, when querying for data.
With people living with HIV in developing countries bearing the greatest burden of the disease, with the emergence and spread of TB that was resistant to treatment by the standard anti-TB drugs, there was an urgent global need for new drugs. New TB drugs are desperately needed. The existing treatment is a mixture of drugs that must be taken over 6–8 months period. Often, one of the biggest challenges facing healthcare professionals is to make sure that their patients finish the course of treatment.
Despite the seriousness of India’s TB problem, inadequate funds and a paucity of concerted research have crippled new drug discovery. CSIR’s Open Source DrugDiscovery (OSDD) aims to find new drug candidates by first collating all known information on the different genes that make up the bacterium on single web portal. Though the MTB genome was completely sequenced in 1998, meaning scientists knew the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) alphabets that made up the organism’s genes, less than 40% of these genes were deciphered or annotated.
Summary of lecture given by Professor Judith Rees, Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy. This was a part of India-Uk Lecture Series 2010
Two of the massive challenges identified by the National Action Plan on Climate Change are to implement the pathways to a low carbon economy and secondly to shape adaptation policies minimizing cost of climate change impacts on economy and society.
The adaptation strategies have to be undertaken considering the markets and technology in consideration, focus on human development, plans for deforestration and ecosystems, developing capacities and legal instruments for governance of climate change, and evolving institutions which will take care of economics of climate risks especially insurance.
We should consistently ask adaptation questions in terms of research approaches and gaps, decision making under uncertainty, distinctive approaches between science based action and social science inspired action, cost-benefit trade-off.
There are basically two types of adaptation mechanisms; Planned and Autonomous Adaptation। Scientific knowledge of climate change takes care of quantitative aspects of impacts arising out of climate change. We should give more and more emphasis on qualitative aspects through certain specific case studies by suggesting cost effective interventions either as governmental, community based approach or private firm level approach.
There exists huge knowledge gaps regarding adaptation mechanism. Science and technology has measure role to provide input to this mechanism by proposing adaptation measures, strategies and risk aversion policies. While doing this sources of adaptation investment, adaptation cost have to be generated while taking care of barriers towards adaptation. Here individual and community incentivisation of the adaptations is very very necessary.
Therefore we must start thinking adaptation in social science way.
There is lot of uncertainty at the decision making level. The limitations of climate and integrated models for decision making are obvious. Limitations of local climate trend data are also beyond any question.Uncertain abilities of eco-systems have been observed many times. Uncertain pace and success of mitigation is also not in question, Paucity of socio-economic projections for assessments of vulnerability, adaptive capacity and growth paths are also increasingly visible.
The science of climate change believes in evolving predictions and then moving towards action. This approach first tries to structure a problem, assess the relevant changes, assess the relevant impacts, design and assess adaptation options, evaluate outcome. Approach considering socio-economic priorities believes in assessing risk and then evolving towards policy regime. First it structures a problem, then it proposes adaptive strategies, further it assesses strategies, assess trade-off between various options available and eventually evaluating outcome. Here it should be remembered than science based approach comes with optimization and that of social science approach comes with robustness. In both the situations it is the social cost that is very very significant to take into account.
As we know that adaptation is deliberate action reducing adverse consequences and harness beneficial opportunities from climate change which may be actual, anticipated, perceived. These also may be normal actions, and mechanisms to cope with past climate variability and address adaptation deficit. These are responsive actions to climate related change in macro economy. These are actions not related to climate change nevertheless reducing vulnerability or increase adaptive capacity.
In the planned adaptation it is public actions by national, state, local government owned bodies that are responsible for adhering to the procedures. Autonomous adaptation is done by private companies (transitional or local), NGOs, community groups are equally crucial. There seems to be artificial divide due to uncoordinated autonomous actions by spatially and functionally segmented public sector actors. So, there is need for governments to inform, incentivise and regulate both public and private actors.In essence character of agency affects outcome of the process. Understanding nature of agency is significant in managing trade-off between different interest groups, thus balance in coordination is keenly desirable.
Is six billion dollar public relation business in India a sitting elephant in the media room which no one wants to discuss? What are the implications of the paid news on credibility of journalism? Is line between advertising and public relations is so blurred to distinguish the ever growing space of manipulation being exploited by politicians, corporate henchman and marketing managers? How all this business of public relations has engulfed the creative and content-ful profession of media busy in opinion forming, information diffusion and raising the entertainment quotient of the public.
The subject of panel discussion was The Influence of Public Relations on Journalism and the veterans participated were Mr. Vinod Mehta, Editor, The Outlook; Mr. Pankaj Pachauri of NDTV-India; and Mr. Dilip Cherian of Perfect Relations. It was topped by crispy moderation of Mr. Paranjoy Guha-Thakurta. This followed after ceremony of Chameli Devi Jain Award 2010 which was given to Shoma Chaudhari, Editor of Features from Tehalka. She said that the moral weight behind the news coming out of immense hard work always matters. Sometimes neutrality may be misunderstood as an attitude of saying nothing but we have to make our stand clear on the issues of binaries of life; whether we wish to work for the privileged or underprivileged class. She was particularly very critical about the power relations being used to suppress the voice of the people dedicate their life to pronounce the dissent for the injustices done by the privileged. She asserted that discourse has to shift from equity to justice.
Pankaj of NDTV kicked off the discussionby saying that PR firms have made journalists lazy because it is the pressure of the profession and the luxury of the news craftingsimplified by many ICT facilities which is making journalism to be prey to the PR culture. It is true that we cannot escape from the 'difficult times' where more and more money is being piled up to sustain the media business, there is shrewd convergence between advertisers, public relation firms, ownership of media platforms and allegiance to corporate firm. Mr. Mehta said that these are the times where we take pride in attacking the politicians. But why we do not question the vested interests of the corporate hegemony. Even though it is very clear that bread and butter of media people is sourced from all these corporate interests, if we decide we can resist any pressure. After all this is the profession where ultimate success lies in the fact that how we can resist temptations unless it leads to serious issue of clash in your office. We have to live with the fact that PR is here to stay and we have to decide how to deal with it courageously. Press Council investigator Mr. Guha Thakurta intervened to expose newspapers that have indulged in paid news and other kinds of media corruption. The list includes a local Maharashtra supplement of the Times of India, Hindustan of HT Media group, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, EenaduSakshi from Andhra Pradesh , Lokmat in Maharastra, Gujarat Samachar, and Punjab Kesri.
Dilip Cherian tried to unlock the ambiguous layers between news making, business purpose and vested mutual dependence of media and PR firm involve at the same moment. Many times it is the big media houses are responsible for raising the pitch of the TRP and sensationalism in the content business. He also said that many times it is not that journalists are lazy but they have to be forced to listen to the arguments, thought process and passion of particular person or story. PR is not always bad as it can really disseminate the information about the crucial aspects of development, scientific issues and key information to take preventive measures in emergencies. The work of PR also greatly demands the creativity, immense hard work and consistency in displaying coherence with the client`s goal and aspirations.
All agreed on the suggestion of Pankaj that even though we are in the quagmire of paid news, we should reveal who is paying or sponsoring the program and news being published. Mr. Mehta said that if the PR is allowed to dominate the craft of journalism then there is no need to have a community called journalists. According to him, bigger the firm in the business is, it is more guilty of making interventions in unethical way, so buck does not stop there merely by identifying the problem. This discussion was very much triggered by Paid News Controversy which is being under scrutiny by Press Council of India and other legislative bodies.
"There's a moral we may gather From the busy bee for all, Gather food stuff in the summer, And protect it in the fall. " ---Nettie Sutton
Shodhyatraof ideas, novelty and creativity has been the mantra of the people who struggle to overcome the problems in their daily lives by very small incremental improvements in their approach towards life. A very small shift in the perspective may yield enormous returns in terms of efficiency, profit and satisfaction due to enhanced quality. Where does this motivation for proactive enhancement comes from? Some people call this motivation as 'intrinsic', some call this as induced due to circumstances. Even if this motivation is intrinsic why do not all people have this motivation? This is one of the questions being thought over under the research being lead by Hemant, a Ph.D. scholar in Centre for Studies in Science Policy in JNU. He was recently in Dhemaji district of Assam as a part of Shodhyatra organised by National Innovation Foundation and 'Srishti'. Understanding Motivation, Collaboration and Linkages for Grassroot Innovation Systems in India has been his passion of research.
Rashtrapati Bhavan is hosting the exhibition (10-14 March) of grassroot innovations which were identified, augmented and protected by the help of National Innovation Foundation. Honey Bee believes that "the prevalent mode of knowledge extraction from people, and dissemination among them, were non-sustainable.Knowledge has been extracted, documented without any acknowledgment to the source of knowledge for feedback. These practices have impoverished the knowledge holders by pushing them further down in the oblivion, but also have hampered the growth of an informal knowledge system, that is robust in nurturing creativity."
How to understand innovation from the perspective of a person working in the field, working in factory, in remote areas, in rural areas or in any region crippled with resources, finances, technical inputs and expert guidance. HoneyBee is confident that it is a metaphor indicating ethical as well as professional values, which most of us seldom practice.A honey bee does two things that we intellectuals, often don’t do. It collects pollen from the flowers and flowers don’t complain and it connects flower to flower through pollination. Similarly Honey Bee feels that their innovative and ethical approach to knowledge extraction, their sincere attempt to build up people to people communication and their commitment to let reasonable benefit be shared with the knowledge holders, qualifies them to identify themselves with the great metaphor of Honey Bee.
Everett M. Rogers in his book 'DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS' (The Free Press, 1983) explain to us about basics of innovation, it`s diffusion and it`s mechanism. He says, "Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas. Communication is a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding. This definition implies that communication is a process of convergence (or divergence) as two or more individuals exchange information in order to move toward each other (or apart) in the meanings that they ascribe to certain events."
Rogers narrates characteristics of the innovation from the individual perspective. These are: 1. Relative advantage: It is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes. The degree of relative advantage may be measured in economic terms, but social-prestige factors, convenience, and satisfaction are also often important components.
2. Compatibility: It is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters.
3. Complexity: It is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use. Some innovations are readily understood by most members of a social system; others are more complicated and will be adopted more slowly.
4. Trialability: It is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis. New ideas that can be tried on the installment plan will generally be adopted more quickly than innovations that are not divisible.
5. Observability: It is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others. The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation, the more likely they are to adopt.
Rogers unpacked other aspect of the process of diffusion of innovation. About communication channels he says that, "The essence of the diffusion process is the information exchange by which one individual communicates a new idea to one or several others. This process involves: (1)an innovation, (2) an individual or other unit of adoption that has knowledge of, or experience with using, the innovation, (3) another individual or other unit that does not yet have knowledge of the innovation, and (4) a communication channel connecting the two units. While classifying this he envisages broad category of innovators or adopters which are: (1) innovators, (2) early adopters, (3) early majority, (4) late majority, and (5) laggards.
It will be a daring statement to say that innovators I visited at the exhibition at Mughal Gardens were just like us. But they were more disempowered than us in terms of access of information, channel of finances and reach to the institutions recognizing novelty in their ideas. If we see the list of award winners some of whom presented their inventions, we would be able to reflect on the challenges they are tackling. Consider an invention by Susant from Bhubaneswar whosesuper Brain Modulator is a device by which a completely blind, deaf and disabled person can do all types of work as a normal human being can do and that via breathing. The project helps blind, deaf and dumb disabled person to do day to day work via breathing. 'Super Brain Modulator' received first prize by NIF for year 2009. Through this technology disabled persons can operate the electrical and electronic appliances. They can also communicate with others about their basic requirements in daily life.
In another invention, an automatic asu machine developed by Mallesham to alleviate the pain of his mother. To increase the speed of weaving spin a traditional Pochampalli silk sari, he greatly enhanced the yarn weaving efficiency of hand winding devise to help his mother to make asu for eight sarees per day compared to previous number of two.
A. Muruganantham has developed a mini sanitary napkin making machine by which it is possible to prepare low cost sanitary napkins. The novelty of this invention lies in integration of well known equipments like mixi (defibration), core forming process and naturally operated electric sealing unit to cut down the cost of production.
Yusuf Khan developed 'Groundnut Digger cum Separator Machine'. This is low cost, drudgery reducing, tractor driven device which digs out the groundnuts (99%) and separates them from earth. Normally in post harvest season, about 25 % of groundnuts stay beneath thesoil which needs to be recovered by manual labour.
Annasaheb Udgavi has developed 'Rain Gun' named Chandraprabha which is low cost sprinkler usable for sprinkling of slurries of 110 feet in agricultural field with alternative nozzles size to suit the requirement. The discharge stream is so thick that it can even wash away pests without physicallt damaging the plants.
The list goes on. Many of the inventions like these have been patented by NIF with the inventor`s accent to help inventor to commercialization those. Like on inventor told before patenting he could sell only 50 odd pieces to customers. But after NIF came to his help to patent his invention upto now he has able to sell 1000 pieces of his invention.
Finally let me attract your attention towards what Anil Gupta, a brain behind NIF says in editorial of Honey Bee vol 20(3) of July-Sept. 09. He says, " The game stone piler is a metaphor for building knowledge networks. Every volunteer, scientist, entrepreneur contribute to the network provide the stones to be piled. There are always forces, which disintegrate and delay the building of network, or piling of stones. But without such forces , those who gather courage to rebuild the broken links or forge new piles perhaps will not enjoy their contribution." In short, Prof. Gupta asserts that nectar of innovations will not emerge if these forces did not act. The challenge is to use these forces creatively and constructively.
Delhi Sustainable Development Summit(DSDS) 2010 organized by The Energy and Resources Institute witnessed mobilization of wide support for the scientific claims of IPCC and belief in it's leadership responsible for creating worldwide attention and public opinion about urgency to initiate mitigation, adaptation and legal steps in order to climate change. Prime Minister of India himself lauded the role played by IPCC in following words: “Some aspects of the science that is reflected in the work of the IPCC have faced criticism. But this debate does not challenge the core projections of the IPCC about the impact of greenhouse gas accumulations on temperature, rainfall and sea level rise. Let me here assert that India has full confidence in the IPCC process and its leadership and will support it in every way that it can.” These remarks were significant considering the recently levied serious allegations against senior leadership of IPCC. 1
The 10th DSDS focused it's theme of discussions around ‘Beyond Copenhagen: new pathways to sustainable development’. True to it's theme, this summit debated the modalities of upcoming strategies to be adopted in Mexico's city Cancun for the next COP 16 meeting. This summit reflected need for greater harmonization between much debated necessity of legally binding international agreements coupled with the emphasis on local action by decentralized governments. The heads of states participated in this event were premiers of the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Slovenia, the Hellenic Republic of Greece, Bhutan, Finland. The Environment Ministers from Denmark, France, India, Italy, Mexico and Spain represented their respective experiences about need to have legally binding agreement and ways to achieve that amidst the fresh experience of negotiations in Copenhagen.
Their was unanimity about Climate Change being a issue where democratic accountability, scientific accuracy and economic viability must be remembered while addressing the problem. The political agreement achieved in Copenhagen was repeatedly emphasized by environment ministers. The panel of Ministers noted that stagnation in efforts to counter the climate change is observed due to uncompromising position adopted by nations to have a legal agreement as a first step without heeding much attention towards local action. There was vigorous discussion and consensus about inability of isolated environment ministers to forge a pragmatic treaty aiming to remove the ever increasing percentage of anthropogenic carbon in atmosphere. It was reiterated that unless and until it becomes a strategic aspect of policy of national leadership only meetings like Copenhagen are here to stay as only a event documenting the evolving documentation of scientific and economic implications of climate change. Thus environment ministers expressed their hope that in future negotiations finance ministers and other related ministers would be included to cover comprehensive nature of the expanse of problem posed in front of international community.
Summit affirmed it's relevance by a commentary on recent developments by saying that widespread disappointment with respect to reliability of international political process in delivering an effective and timely climate regime doesn't diminishes the indispensability of response to climate change. It laid special emphasis on need to build consensus among various stakeholders particularly business community, civil society. This was evident from one of the sessions titled ‘The Urgency of Sustainability in Business’. The ethical accountability and legal force to implement all these agreed positions was the major inspiration behind bringing all the stakeholders together. The business community which influences the production flows and consumption patterns has important role to play in this direction. The business practices including resource utilization, income distribution, rate and direction of development is significant to achieve the criteria of sustainability while addressing the twin challenge of climate change and development. A major difficult task in this regard would be to develop rewarding business opportunities around sustainability,
The meeting raised key questions facing the global community which are still rooted in mitigation and adaptive capacities of developing countries simultaneously transforming unsustainable consumption patterns and life styles. The session titled ‘Enhancing Financial Flows and Technology Access’ brought to the fore the urgency to strengthen the enabling pillars i.e. access to technology, finance and mitigation and adaptation building. This regularly pronounced case for technology, along with increasing need to connect growing scientific certainty about climate change with climate strategy made pitch for immediate, comprehensive action plan. For such a visionary strategy embedded in action plan would require addressing two key questions: a) How do we aspire the developmental aspirations in favor of sustainable development. b) What needs to be done in social, political and economic spheres to implement the sustainable development agenda efficiently?
These two questions definitely follow the assumption that never before in human civilization, there is greater opportune time than this to seriously act to decouple the economic growth from the growing consumption pattern of energy. Gone are the days when the growth and development of the country was benchmarked in terms of degree of per capita energy consumption. Now, the world has to usher in new era of ‘Sustainability Benchmarks.’ Environmentally friendly infrastructure is vital during the emphasis on access to technology. So, the massive scaling up of proven technologies capable of contributing significantly to GHG reduction is the most sought after target. This quest of clean technology is unavoidable. It goes without saying that substantial R & D is still required to develop new technologies capable of mitigating and providing development benefits. This includes the issue of magnitude and sources of resource mobilization (private and public), technology road maps for mitigation and adaptation, absorption capacity(capacity building), accountability and transparency in investment and policy decisions. Major challenge remains in effective transfer, deployment and diffusion of technology is the rigid IPR regime., lack of finance and international cooperation.
The critical tasks around which the discussion followed lead the summit towards session of ‘Strengthening Knowledge Institutions and Dissemination.’ It reaffirmed the belief that deeper understanding of subject among the actors is necessary in comprehending the exact nature of the problem at hand and to design effective strategies to tackle it. Thus production and dissemination of precise knowledge is of vital importance. Without access to knowledge of the links between ecological processes and human activities, there can be little understanding of the seriousness of climate change. And without there can be no hope about actions and responsible behaviors from stakeholders. In this regard, it was felt that linkages of knowledge generating institutions with that of policy making institutions are vital to realize the seriousness of this behavior. Summit culminated with renowned emphasis on political accountability based on building blocks of mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance. This emphasis came with candid statement that the lack of legal agreement, rather merely a political accord at Copenhagen forces us to consider importance of working towards restoring trust in international political process as well as trust among countries.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1Recent article and interview published in ‘The Economist’;
If you want to listen to a man who can explain ecology in terms of economics, language in terms of philosophy of life and nature in terms of unending web of paradoxes you have to have the occasional leisure to meet scientist like Dr. Madhav Gadgil; a man with deep instincts of mathematical ecology embedded in interface of humble dialogue with the audience. Moment was The Fifth Sat Paul Mittal Memorial Lecture organized by Indian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development.
He started with throwing light on basic traits of evolution which permits finite combinatorial systems with unlimited heredity to involve itself in variation and heredity. He said, “During the course of evolution life became increasingly complex with expansion and diversification. Life keeps utilizing increasing range of resources. The genes are not only replicating entities. Memes and machines (artifacts) do multiply with increasing social activity which involves social imitation which are shaped by behavioral changes.”
In a smooth flow of scientific illustration animated by pictures, diagrams and cartoons he tried to discuss the questions like: Why some variants are more efficient than other? Why 95 % of the DNA has no clear function taking control of whole organism? How gene replicates itself and destroys incompetent one? Indicating towards a male peacock advertising itself as a more attractive male with ‘wasteful’ but beautiful feathers, he mentioned ‘Principle of Sexual Selection’ over which Darwin did not ponder much.
He elaborated how ‘deliberative act of wasteful expenditure is actually a evidence of resourceful organism which can afford bearing wasteful material which in real sense is not needed for it's survival. But this wasteful expenditure makes the reliable feeling of superiority among the community of diverse population. Memes and artifacts grow in number, diversify and complexity to confer the extraordinary advantage on bearers, designers and fabricators of that ‘The Unnecessary Leisure’.
Open ended language occupies our cognitive niche. Languages are richer as they are finite combinatorial systems with unlimited heredity. So we need to understand the group of complex intellectual modules which are: Social, Technical, Ecological, and Language. Language holds enormous potential and value in enhancing the capability to exercise the remaining three models. Language being the basis of elaboration in the form of stories, song, histories, and myths. Thus language narrates how to represent models of working world i.e. science and also models of how to manipulate world i.e. technology.
Prof. Gadgil asserted that key to success of science is effective system selecting memes. So he quoted J.D. Bernal who pioneered work on history of science. “Science is not just a matter of systematic procedures, it is a systematic enterprise of skepticism embodying a) Open access to all facts and inferences; b) Rejection of all authority other than empirical facts and c) Welcoming all interested parties to question all assertions as to facts as well as logic.
He compared what we have done post independence in the name of development. He said, “We have tried to homogenize agricultural ecosystem, modern mechanization, economic productivity with little transformation of dry lands and degradation of grazing lands coupled with erosion of fertile land. He expressed his concern over rapid rise of unemployment in rural and agricultural sector by nearly six percent over a period of two plan periods. His hoped for better results regarding a) Joint Forests Management, b) Collection fees in Biodiversity Act and c) Community Forests Right. His urge was to focus on putting local community in the planning process, no imposition of destructive model and rebuilding ecological resource base.
So eventually Prof. Gadgil was trying to attract the mind of the audience towards large-scale environmental destruction achieved due to what we call an endless quest of artefacts which deliberately try to reflect the prosperity by signalling person`s ability to bear serious handicap which is consistently engaging in hugely wasteful expenditure. He pointed out at arms, fashion and narcotic drugs being most unnecessary, destructive and expensive passions of contemporary mankind`s economic activity giving us a sense of how atrociously we are imposing huge costs on environment. By unraveling the character of ‘The Selfish Gene’ in the light of ‘Handicap Principle’ Prof. Gadgil exposed the deep impact “The Leisurely Life’ is having on our ecology and it's relation to our conception of economic growth vs. development. Extrapolating this evolutionary concept of gene believing in ‘survival of fittest’ to the conflict of understanding about economic growth and sustainable development’, he referred to Amartya Sen`s belief in “Process of expanding real freedoms that people enjoy.”
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurated 97th Science Congress on 3 January organised by Indian Science Congress Association, Kolkata and jointly hosted by Kerala University and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Tiruvananthapuram. Dr.G.Madhavan Nair former Chairman of ISRO is General President of this Congress. PM`s serious observation about unfortunate red tape, political interference and lack of proper recognition of good work contributing to a regression in Indian science drew large attention from Media and other distinguished scientists throughout the proceedings of the congress. Prime Minister clearly set the tone for the congress by underlining the need to focus on food security, disease control, and investment in clean technologies, water resources and biodiversity. He also cautiously added that the technology of genetic modification must be given full weightage, with appropriate regulatory control based on strictly scientific criteria. Finally he appealed to explore and engage with government to liberate Indian science from the shackles and deadweight of bureaucratism and in-house favouritism to usher in the coming Decade of Innovations which Government has declared for the period 2011-2020.
Minister of Science and Technology (IC) Mr. Prithviraj Chavan expressed serious shortage of faculty followed by rapid increase in number of Institutions of higher education in the country. He stressed to generate creative solutions for addressing this challenge and suggested to remedy it by encouraging re-entry programmes for women scientists and return of Indian Diaspora. With reference to Decade of Innovations (2011-2020) he highlighted crucial aspect of Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) which emerged as one of the important parameters for assessing the technology and innovation status of Nations. Eventually he outlined ministry`s strategy to a) Enhance synergy among academy, research and industry, b) Build new strategies for development of private-public partnerships in R&D and c) Sep-up global alliances developed during the Eleventh Plan and d) Aim at acceleration of the pace of conversion of scientific outputs to targeted socio-economic and
developmental outcomes.
At the inauguration ceremony Prime Minister honoured eminent statistician Dr. C.R. Rao with ‘The India Science Award’ instituted by the union government under the science and technology department in 2006, carries Rs.25 lakh cash prize, a citation and a gold medal. Other prominent awards winners honoured at this moment were: 1) Srinivas Ramanujan Birth Cenetenary Award to Dr. Rajinder Jeet Hans Gill,Chandigargh, 2) M.N Saha Birth Centenary Award to Prof. S.M.Chitre , University of Mumbai, 3) P.C Ray Memorial Award to Dr. Ganesh Prasad Pande, National Chemial Laboratory, 4) H.J Bhabha Memorial Award to Dr.Anilkumar, National Chemical Laboratory, 5) J.C Bose Memorial Award to Prof. N.K Gupta, IIT, Delhi, 6)Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Award to Dr.K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO, 7) B.P.Lal Memorial Award to Dr.Lalji Singh, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, 8) Millennium Plaques Of Honour to Dr.R.Gadagkar, Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc and Dr.D.Datta, BARC, 9)Excellence in Science and Technology Award to Dr.Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman,AEC, 10) Prof. R.C.Mehrotra Memorial Life Time Achievement Award to Prof. R.Ramamurthi, 11) M.K.Singal Memorial Award to Prof.Satya Deo, Harish-Chandra Research Institute, 12)CSIR Award G.M. Ramchandran Gold Medal to Dr.N.R.N. Murthy, IISc.,13) General President Gold Medal to Dr.A.Jayakrishnan, Kerala University, Dr.T.K. Alex ISRO Satellite Centre, Dr. Roger Yonchien Tsien, University of California, San Diego, Dr.John Cromwell Mather, U.S space agency’s (NASA), Prof.UR Rao, Former chairman, ISRO
Driving theme of the Science Congress was "Science and Technology Challenges of 21st Century: A National Perspective". A Special Science Programme around this theme was organised on inaugural day. Here Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Member(Science), Planning Commission, introduced two terms ‘solution science' and ‘discovery science'. According to him ‘Solution Science’ aims for scientific solution for socially relevant problems to improve the living standard of the people and ‘Discovery Science’ focuses in making scientific discoveries gain leadership position in science and technology. “Total contribution of nuclear energy should increase from the amount of three percent to ten percent by 2032” said Dr. S Banerjee, Secretary Department of Atomic Energy.He revealed that proposed Atomic Energy Parks will be set up at “Mithi Virdi (Gujarat), Jaitapur (Maharashtra),Koodamkulam (Tamil Nadu), Kovvada (Andhra Pradesh), Haripur (West Bengal).
Dr M S Swaminathan in a talk titled “Sustainable food security in an era of climate change” said, “Even a one degree celcious rise in global temperature will reduce the wheat production in India by 6 million tonnes/year which is $ 1.3 billion at current prices. Nearly 50% of the child deaths in India are due to malnutrition and about 230 million people are undernourished and the inflation in food prices have further worsened the situation. We need to establish 50 modern grain storage facilities of 1 million tonne capacity each at different parts of the country to face scarcity of food crops due to severe drought or flood conditions.” He called for renewed research on Vector Born Diseases and further debate on need to have Food Security Act ensuring prevention of imminent crisis due to prevailing chronic hunger in some parts of the country.
ASpecial Science Programme for 21st Century witnessed extensive discussions about future possibilities of growth of Indian Science. Dr. T. Ramasamy, Secretary DST outlined the need of ‘content flow’ in terms of publications justifying the ‘money flow’ driven by government`s plan outlays. He touched on DST`s initiatives like Promotion of University Research for Scientific Excellence(PURSE), innovation clusters and mega-science, technological mission on Winning, Augmentation and Renovation (WAR) for water.
Dr. K. Radhakrishnan Secretary Dept. of Space lauded ISRO`s role in developing cost effective launch vehicles, satellite missions. The commendable achievements by ISRO in the last 45 years include 29 launch vehicles, 54 satellite missions, 22 foreign satellites launched and 21 satellites in operation currently. He said that the imminent actions planned include indigenous supply of raw materials, zero defect systems, centres of excellence in materials research and cross- fertilization of academy and ISRO, self- reliance in space transport, in satellites, low- cost access to space, and inter- planetary exploration. He also shared the features of the future technologies under development at ISRO like RLV-TD, Semi-Cryogenic Engine, Air-Breathing Propulsion, Two-Stage-To-Orbit (TSTO) and Human space flight. He stressed the significance of Indian Space Programme for national development process highlighting the recent initiatives of ISRO regarding Cartographic satellites and other technologies capable for cyclone warning.
Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) spoke on ‘Earth System Science Programmes'. He highlighted on the services of MoES like ocean advisory services, polar science and cryosphere, disaster support, sustainable shore stabilization, ocean mineral resources, deep ocean mining technology, hatchery technology, to name a few. MoES is preparing itself for research related to monsoon mission, high altitude cloud physics lab, mountain meteorology for Himalayas, integrated development of islands. Dr. V. K. Saraswat, DG, DRDO spoke on ‘Defence Science and Technologies'. He explained the missions of DRDO in operation to provide technological solutions to the Services to optimise combat effectiveness. Details of combat aircrafts, Unmanned Air systems like Lakshya, Nishant, Rustom, and Kaveri engine for aircraft propulsion, and main battle-tank Arjun and Arjun Mk-2 were presented. He elaborated on the electronic warfare systems for the army (Samyukta) and the navy (Sangraha), track and wheel based electronic warfare system, and for mountainous terrain. Future missions planned are Endo and Exo atmospheric ballistic missile defense; AAD (Endo) at 15km altitude with warhead, and PPV (Exo) interceptor mission at high (150km) altitude.
Dr. Samir K. Brahmachari, DG, CSIR highlighted achievements of CSIR by citing Salt parks, lavender parks, biodiversity screening, India's first parallel computer Flosolver, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library along with CSIR`s top ranking in patent filings. He emphasised on CSIR`s contribution in development of Recombinant Streptokinase and ‘first major advancement in TB therapy in 40 years by a new drug which is 23 % more cheaper than available options.’ He tried to attract attention towards new development in model of research which is Science 2.0 to be understood by another initiative of CSIR, Open Source Drug Discovery. Dr. V. M. Katoch, Director General, ICMR elaborated on the Dept. of Health Research`s aims to bring modern health technologies to the common man, and to promote innovation in diagnosis and treatment techniques. Shri M. A. Baby, Education Minister of Kerala said summarised the whole session by stressing upon the importance of science and technology by quoting Gothe— “Science and Art break all barriers”. He concluded by saying that when we develop science, we have to develop a scientific temperament too.
Public lecture by Prof. C.N. R. Rao (JNCASR) revolved around his conviction that science develops not only because of funds but because of free thinking. He discussed in detail Future of Science in India. He said, “Around 60 percent of quality research in India has happened in educational institutions. Real science happens in small laboratories across the reputed institutions across the world. Best research in fundamental sciences is being done by Engineers. So we have to revamp our curricula of science and engineering education so to accommodate new dimensions. The widening gap between India`s and developed country`s research performance is subject of deep concern. Asian counterparts China, Japan and South Korea are producing one of the largest scientific contributions. We need massive and urgent improvement in scientific performance of country so as to be visible in top one percent of best scientific work being done across the world. The real national priority at this point of time should be to join the mainstream of science. Unfortunately our value system of society does not respect science.”
Highlight of Day two was Space Summit. Prof. U R Rao, former Chairman of ISROwhile delivering a lecture on Challenges in Space said that there are nine challenges we have to combat in coming years. Those are: food security, energy security, environmental security, resource security, space security, space transportation, and search for life, exploration of the universe and colonisation of Mars. He said that the current food productivity of India, which is 1.7 tonnes/ha, should be increased to about 4 tonnes/ha by 2050 to meet the growing food requirements. This can be done by initiating a new green revolution with the application of space technology along with biological inputs. The space technology can be used for better meteorological forecasting and thus for mitigation of disasters and regular monitoring along with evolving coping strategy to counter India's energy deficit by better utilisation of energy resources and in the learning of the effects of global warming. He stressed the importance of energy security for industrial expansion, agriculture and infrastructure growth.
John C.Mather, Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist and currently senior Project Scientist, James Webb Space Centre, said that several projects were taken up by the space nations to study the origin of universe like the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) in 1989, Wilkinson's Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) in 2001 and Planck in 2009. While delivering a lecture on the topic “From the big bang to life and the end of universe”, he shared the details of James Webb telescope, a deployable infrared-optimised space telescope that will be launched by 2014 which has a diameter of 6.5m and will be put in Lagrangian Point 2 (L2). He said that the universe is expanding and the rate of expansion has increased in the last five billion years due to an unknown phenomenon called ‘dark energy' and more needs to be learnt in this regard. Dr. Lars Parhm, DG, EUMETSAT, talked about the application of space technology in weather forecasting and disaster management. He listed out the collaborative activities undertaken by space agencies across the globe for this purpose. He talked about the cooperation between ISRO and EUMETSAT in the sharing and management of earth observation data. He said that, EUMETSAT is talking with ISRO for the sharing of ocean wind vector data from the recently launched Oceansat-2. Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO chaired the summit.
In afternoon session of Space Summitpaper ‘Future of Indian Aviation in Mission Oriented R&D’ was presented by Dr. Krishnadas Nair and Dr. C G Krishnadas Nair, the Chairman of Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL). Dr Nair said that the future of R&D in military aviation is going to be exciting with many technologies are in line for development. He also expressed concern on the lack of private investment in aviation R&D in India and said that it is the right time for private players to enter the fray. Dr. Marc Pirtcher, Director of CNES, the French space agency said that The European Space Agency will not be jumping into the human space program bandwagon. He said that all the space fairing nations should work together for the realisation of manned exploration to other planets like Mars. Dr. Pritcher, a Stanford graduate, gave an overview of the French Space Program, describing the Ariane and Vega launch vehicles. He mentioned the Indo-French cooperation missions such as Meghatropiques and Altika-Saral. Dr. Pritcher noted that the easy part of science in space has already been done and what is left is the expensive part for that all the nations should come together as Space is the future of Mankind. Mr.S.Ramakrishnan, Director of Projects, VSSC said that working in the space industry is interdisciplinary and the opportunity is equally open for all students of science and engineering. During his talks he gave the details of the Polar Satellite launch Vehicle (PSLV), Space Recovery Experiment (SRE) and Chandrayaan-1. He commented that PSLV itself could be used to send a spacecraft for interplanetary missions. He gave a description of the Indian Space Transportation Systems from the sounding rocket of 1963 to the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and explained possibilities in the Human Space Program (HSP) would open new technical avenues for Indian industry. It is also the next logical step for a country like India which has become self sufficient in launch vehicle technology.
In Plenary session of Food and Nutritional Security Dr V. Prakashdiscussed “Food and Nutritional Insecurity in changing Scenario of Global Warming and Economic Recession”. He observed that the statistical evidence of global food price inflation leading to rise in malnutrition and child mortality reflects a new dangerous dimension of the recession. He put forward skill upgradation, small agriculture grid clusters, and prevention of food loss linking farmers, growers, micro industries and markets as some measures to think over seriously to increase the Food and Nutritional status of the country. Dr Malavika Vinodkumar presented the paper “Combating Micro nutrient Hunger-The Great Challenge”. She highlighted the crucial micronutrient deficiency among children, adults and workmen leading to a depression in the productivity that in turn results in a huge loss in Gross National Product. She said, “A proper birth weight of an individual is a greater right of the individual than freedom because children with low birth weight are regarded as children who lost their childhood.” She put forward Dietary diversification, Fortification and Supplementation as the ways to combat Micronutrient deficiency challenges.
Public Lecture was given by former President Dr. A.P. J. Abdul Kalam who stated his visualization of Global Human Civilization for 2050. He said that a global knowledge society backed by value system and spirit of compassion would be the backbone of his vision. In context of Indian perspective proper water management, sustainable agriculture development using organic farming practices, energy consumption and sustainability, customized healthcare for promoting enhanced longevity, balancing the greenhouse gas budget, ICT transforming into a Knowledge system Powerhouse and emergence of new global leaders focussing on multi-disciplinary action are some of the key points of his visualization. He added that scientists should start considering earth, moon and mars as an economic complex for future habitat expansion of human beings. He listed opportunities for collaboration among universities and organizations like ISRO, DAE, CSIR, etc. and industries, improve science infrastructure in schools and colleges to bring a fundamental change in both academic and research performance. He urged Indian scientists to help science to nurture and promote people with out-of-the-box thinking. Promoting his idea of an Indian Innovation Eco-System, Dr. Kalam said that the Science Congress should be one of action and should work towards this objective.
Day three started with Plenary session of Health. Dr. H.David Wilson, Dean, School of Medicine, University of Kansas said that the medical education has shifted from merely a lecture based training programme to problem based patient centred learning with increased interaction with patients and introduction of simulators and computers for learning. He outlined the history of medical education in USA starting from the 1910 Flexner report which envisioned an ideal medical school`s requirements of properly equipped modern labs, faculty teaching, appropriate funding, qualified students and vigorous university culture. He stressed the need for professionalism in doctors and the importance of integrating medical education into the healthcare system. The co-chair Dr.Surendra Parmar, Vice President of Continuing Medical Education said that impetus should be given on discovery of new drugs, developments of medicines which are safe, less toxic having less interaction with other common drugs in use. Chairman of the session Dr.Irving Zucker, Dept. of cellular & integrative physiology, University of Nebraska talked about Angiotensin II, brain and heart failure. He said that either blockade of Ang I conversion to Ang II or blockade of the Ang II type 1 receptor (AT 1) has been used to treat heart failure. Administration of these agents are effective in ameliorating disease and enhancing survival, even in patients without augmented levels of circulating Ang II. He described various experiments on AT-1 receptors and regulation of AT1 receptor expression in heart failure. Dr. Gary Sieck, President, American Physiological Society spoke on the topic ‘Targeting BDNF Signaling to promote functional recovery after cervical spinal cord injury'. He said that the mortality rates due to cervical spinal cord injury are getting higher and the incidence of this illness is about 2000 Americans every year. He concentrated mainly on the spontaneous recovery of rhythmic diaphragm muscle activity after spinal cord injury.
Dr.Harish Panth spoke about the effects of cycling dependent kinases on neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Krishnan Dromraju talked on human genetic research. Dr.O N Paramasivan talked about the advances in prosthetic surgery techniques and its benefits. He revealed that progress made in developing expendable joint which is movable in 160 degrees. Prof. Indrajit Ray talked about the need to pursue research as part of medical education. Prof. PR Sudhakaran from Kerala University said that the actual benefits of health revolution have not reached the common man. He said that basic science research should be taken up to improve the quality of existing vaccines, development of life saving drugs and genetic modifications to cope up with lifestyle diseases. Dr T.K Bose, Department of Forensic and State Medicine, NRS Medical College coordinated the plenary session. The session extended condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Krishna Agarwal, who was supposed to speak in the session but passed away in an unfortunate car accident.
Next plenary session on the same day was on Weather, Climate and Environment. This session saw the discussion about the efforts of scientists and researchers in improving our understanding and predictability of weather and climate. Prof. Roddam Narasimha, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research chaired the plenary session and gave reviewed the issues connected with climate change. He emphasized that though the problem of climate change has been a controversial issue but the problem has been accepted globally. Dr. Shailesh Nayak, secretary to MoES said, “Global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year over 1961 to 2003. The rate is even faster over 1993 to 2003 and has reached the level of about 3.1mm. The ocean has been absorbing more than 80 percent of heat contributing to the sea level rise. Chlorophyll plays an important role in the oceans' biological productivity and their impact on climate. Indian Ocean has a role in seasonal monsoon variability, intra seasonal oscillation, Madden-Julian oscillation, intra annual variations, decadal variability, cyclones and synoptic scale events, warming trends since the 1970s, ocean circulations, monsoon current and biogeochemistry.” He urged for an improved monitoring and understanding of the regional impacts with reliable scenarios of climate change for India with uncertainty limits and for developing better capability. Dr. R. Krishnan from Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology spoke on monsoon and its predictability in the Indian context. He gave an overview of monsoon variability, anomalous features, mid-latitude teleconnections and numerical simulations and highlighted the role of models and observational data in being able to make a sufficiently good forecast of short and long duration weather events. Answering questions from the audience, he said monsoon phenomenon in Indian context is quite unique and thus the task of predicting the monsoon onset, monsoon breaks, droughts, and rainfall is very challenging. Dr. G. Bala of the Divecha Centre for Climate Change, CAOS, IISc., Bangalore talked about “The Global Carbon Cycle” invited inquisitive attention from the audience. The remaining talks in the section dealt with various aspects of Weather, Climate and Environment, viz., Modeling, Prediction/Forecasting and Observations.
Public Lecture was given by Mr. Atul Gurtu of TIFR who unravelled the mystery surrounding the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC which is hailed the mother of all experiments would usher in a new era of particle cosmology said the eminent physicist who is India's chief spokesman of the LHC. Mr. Gurtu explained about India's involvement in this mammoth experiment. Six institutes from India are contributing in this experiment. He scoffed at the hullabaloo surrounding the experiment such as the experiment will create black holes and this will result in apocalypse. Actually only micro black holes will be created during the experiment, which will be ephemeral. LHC will attempt to simulate the birth of the Universe by colliding protons having near light speed in a tunnel of 27km in circumference. It also hopes to find the existence of the hypothetical “Gods particle” called Higgs Boson. Mr. Gurtu also presented a video showing the working of the LHC. In another spellbound talk, Dr. MGK Menon's detailed lecture about historical story of the birth of meson physics leading towards development of new branch of physics responsible for greater investigations related to secrets of outer space.
Day Four started with Plenary of Nanotechnology and Education. Dr. K M Ninan said that nanotechnology is the future of our country as it plays an important role in solving the major challenges like ensuring food security, energy security and safe surroundingsthat our country is facing. Dr. G Sundararajan while chairing the session said that the charm of nanotechnology is in it`s potential to allow us to scale down all designs cutting across disciplines to nanosizes. Dr. Bahadur talkedabout the interface of chemistry and biology in nanomaterials. He explained about novel methods of specifically targeting tumours using magnetic nanomaterials. Prof. V Ramgopal Rao talked about nanoelectromechanical sensors (NEMS) and use of NEMS biological sensor for the diagnosis of myocardial infarctions. It is christened as iSens which is a very effective, rugged and smart lab-on-chip system. He also described new generation sensors for detection of explosives like RDX, TNT etc which can act as electronic dog nose in airports. Prof. Sundara Ramaprabhu spoke on energy related applications of nanomaterials like batteries, solar cells, fuel cells, super capacitors etc. Prof Ashwini Agarwal said that nanostructure can be replicated to develop future generation self-cleaning fabrics. He shed light on the numerous researches going on in the field of textile technology. Dr. Shanti Nair talked about anti-bacterial nonmaterial coating on doorknobs. He said that nanotechnology allows one to deal with biological problems at the cellular level.
During the next plenary session on Biotechnology, Prof. G. M. Nair said that biotechnology has brought in a revolution in the form of green revolution, value addition to existing agricultural practices, global food security and improved medical facilities. However, Biotechnology or Genetic Engineering should be administered depending on the need, and bio-safety should be adequately regulated to protect the environment. He emphasized on the role of NGOs and media to support the scientists by bringing the original perspective of the latest developments in science to the masses. Dr Ajay Parida, Executive Director, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, delivered the lead talk titled “Ensuring and Enhancing Crop Productivity in Response to Emerging Abiotic Stress Conditions”. Introducing the concept of Hybridization Technology with an anecdote from the life of George Bernard Shaw, he said precision breeding, mutation breeding, and selective hybridization are some of the techniques to achieve a revolution in agricultural practices. He outlined the challenges facing Indian agriculture like loss of cultivable land, decline in water resources, loss of bio-diversity and forests, climate change and invasion of trans-boundary pests. In the age of domestic crisis in production, BT holds the key to bio-fortification and food security and it is a wake-up call for researchers and policy makers in this area. Transgenic plants are capable of withstanding most of the adverse conditions like salinity, drought and undesirable metal content in the soil as well as enhancing the nutrient content and yield. It followed a very vibrant interaction and a panel discussion on issues ranging from “organic vs transgenic” to role of Biotechnologists in building a resurgent and secured India.
The session of University Meet focused on the theme ‘Status and future perspectives of Science Education.’ It observed that international agreements, polices and global forces are causing more good than harm to our educational system. S P Thyagarajan in his paper Research Manpower and Capacity Building dwelled into failure of the existing curriculum and the teaching practices to create a space to work horizontally and think vertically.In his paper ‘Science Education: Current Status and Perspective’, Dr. P T Manoharan discussed about compartmentalization of education , about need to have multi disciplinary mode, cross fertilization of disciplines, teaching science along with research, promotion of discussion-dialogue and decentralized evaluation. The paper Science and Technology Challenges in the Globalized Environment by Dr Ekbal presented on the background of the GATTS and Intellectual Property Rights Act. He explained how GATTS made our education system a “Public Good.”
Prof Dr Helga Nowotny in her paper ‘The ERC-a unique funding opportunity for frontier research’ explained about the administration features programmes of ERC and the annual budget. She asserted that the services ERC provided for the European research world is commendable and can be adopted. Carlo Rizzoto presented the paper on Research Infrastructural development programmes of European Forum on Research Infrastructures. He explained the concept of ‘Research infrastructure’ and gave a detailed picture of the concept from the ancient Greek times to the most modern accomplishments. Best exposure to research and research methodologies, high linkage, accurate database and better marketing facilities are the advantages of this concept. This paper provides few ideas to modify the research field of developing nation. ‘Medical Education and Research in the Globalized Environment’ was discussed by Dr. K. Radhakrishnan.He drew out the change occurred to the field of medical science from traditional medical education days to the present age of information mistakes.
Day Five witnessed the plenary on Biodiversity & Sustainable Development.Chairman Dr. R. S. Parida said that realising the significance of biodiversity conservation, the General Assembly of the United Nations has declared the year 2010 as the “International Year of Biodiversity”. The richness of India in terms of her biodiversity resources should be used and conserved and not simply be studied and documented. He further added that realising the significance of the issues of biodiversity conservation and utilization, India has been one of the few countries with a National Biodiversity Act and Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers' Protection Act. He observed collaboration among Universities, institutions and the Government as the first step in bringing the benefits of the biodiversity resources to mankind. He remarked Conservation doesn't mean not to exchange, Genetic resources should be freely exchanged taking care of the protection of rights”. Dr. Sujata Arora, Director, Ministry of Environment & Forests said that conservation of genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity constitute the three equally important branches of biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity not only maintains ecological balance but also continues the evolutionary processes. Emphasizing that biodiversity and its value is imperfectly mapped and improperly used, she said today scientists have a better idea of the number of stars in the galaxy but not the number of species on earth.
Dr. Ghosh, Head, Centre for Environment Development, took a strong opposition to the thought that Biological Sciences is a soft science where as Physical Sciences is the real science. Dr. Ramakrishnan, Director, Zoological Survey of India, spoke on “Biodiversity Conservation” He said that the Survey is playing a important role in the mapping, documentation and conservation of zoological resources of India since its early days of formation. He concentrated primarily on the fauna on India and said public awareness & more number of taxonomists are needed to map and conserve the vast and rich bio-reserves of India. Dr. Sanjappa, Director of Botanical Survey of India, gave a broad overview of the status of Botanical explorations in India in his talk “Contribution of the Botanical Society of India in Biodiversity Documentation & Conservation”. He said that the floral and fauna resources are under great threat and in fact about 10% of the floral species in India have been classified as threatened. Unless urgent steps are taken and a suitable methodology is evolved, this would rapidly threaten the biodiversity reserve of India.
Plenary session on Information technology focussed mainly on the state of IT and IT enabled services, its relevance in the current economic crisis challenges and future scenario trends. Shri Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary, Govt of Kerala said that in order to unleash the potential of Indian IT industry, we should work towards more inclusiveness and innovation. Dr. Shraddha V. Ingale stressed on the use of fuzzy logic in arriving at drug decision making model and nuclear research and it`s relevance in infusion pump, which is an emerging application in the field of fuzzy technology. Dr. L.M Patnaik, Director, DIAT, Pune spoke on the changing paradigms like development in computing from parallel to grid and cloud computing, in interfacing from graphical user interface to brain computer interface, in intelligence systems from artificial intelligence to computational intelligence. He noted that the main challenges of mobile computing are energy conservation, mobility and connectivity and listed the potential applications of wireless sensing in environmental conservation and statistics collection. Eventually Goldi Mishra, CDAC predicted that the computing power would increase from a mere 1 flop/s in 1941 to 1 exaflop in 2016-2018.
Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former chairman AEC chaired the plenary session on energy. He called upon the scientific community to embark on comprehensive research for innovative solutions to address the problems in the energy sector. He also spoke on the importance of developing environmental friendly techniques to extract energy from fossil fuels, necessity to make liquid fuels from non-liquid ones to cater to the needs of the transportation sector and need to strengthen the base of fast breeder reactors and AHWRs to create ground for thorium based reactors in the third stage. Dr. S K Chopra (Advisor, MNRE) quoting Jules Verne said that ‘Water is the coal of future'. He hailed the process of dissociation of water into hydrogen and oxygen as the ‘Holy Grail' in renewable energy research due to high amount of untapped energy in Hydrogen. He said, “R&D on hydrogen fuels is going into the ‘Valley of Death' as “we are extremely slow in converting R&D to products”. We have to accept the tremendous challenges in the production, storage, and transport in hydrogen power generation.”
Dr. R K Sinha, BARC during his talk on ‘Leapfrogging towards the goal of energy independence’ expressed his belief in using the plutonium based metallic fuel obtained from Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) as fuel in Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR). FBR creates nuclear fuel along with power generation producing less nuclear waste. He listed achieving rapid growth, large volume of deployment, managing nuclear waste and meeting non-electricity requirements as the major challenges in the Indian nuclear power sector. Dr. B N Bankapur, Director (Refineries), IOCL stressed on the need of more research on algae based bio fuels and ethanol form lignocellulose waste to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. Dr.H.S. Brahma, Secretary, Ministry of Power spoke on sustainable energy security in the electricity sector. Dr. Brahma asserted that despite the fact that the energy demands of our country are growing at the rate of 10 % per annum the growth in electricity generation is barely 6%. He suggested measures like change in energy mix, use of super critical technologies and smart grids as new strategies in the supply and demand chains to ensure proper utilisation of electric power. Dr P S Bhattacharya, Chairman, Coal India Ltd (CIL) talked about ‘mining with a human face' and apprised about the technology of ‘high wall mining' where coal is mined without much disturbance to the land.
About 7,000 delegates, including 2,000 students from across the country, participated in the five-day mega event, held for the first time in this picturesque coastal city and for the second time in the southern state after two decades at Kochi in 1990. About 2,000 scientific and technical papers were presented.
SupSupplements-Parallel Events
A)Third Science Communicators Meet:
This meet was organised by the initiative of Mr. Anuj Sinha, Consultant, NCSTC, DST. Mr. Pallav Bagla, Science Editor, NDTV said in invited lecture that if the information disseminating from media must be accurate and precise, the quality and demand of the news will be more appreciated than anything. He was sharing his experience of covering the Chandrayan-1 mission. He said, “The message, which the media gives, should be simple and authentic especially while dealing with science and technology, for it is the pride of a nation and the result of dedicated scientists. The young journalists should come forward with passion and quest in reporting of space events.” Mr. T.S Subrahmanian Associate Editor, Frontline said that coverage of science in media should not make the temper elude. Also, he stressed on the clarity of language & correctness of facts. In this Science Communicators Meet six lead papers and 40 other papers were invited. The meet made following observations: Much of scientific knowledge is confined to a small minority of scientists. Regular science coverage in the media is absent and only occasional and sensational science news appears in print and electronic media. Science and technology journalism has progressively developing in India, in terms of quality and quantity, but is still far behind the desired level, (estimated around 3 % against a desired level of 15 %.)
A A)Seventeenth Children Science Congress
4th January 2010: Over 3500 students from various schools from all over the country attended Children Science Congress. In his presidential address, Dr. G. Madhavan Nair stressed the “need to have passion for science cultivated from very young stage”. He exhorted the youngsters to pursue science, learn and observe the nature and thus solve the mysteries of science and thereby improve the quality of life. APJ Abdul Kalam inaugurated Children's Science Congress. In his address, he talked about how science empowers the nation by recounting his experiences while working with Dr. Vikram Sarabhai,Prof. BrahmaPrakash and Prof.Satish Dhawan in his initial years which helped him in formulating the basic qualities of a scientist. He narrated biographies of great scientists to drive home the point that people who did not fear of failure proved the words of even the brightest minds wrong. He made the youngsters repeat a great thought by Patanjali “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds”. He told them that simple question arising in the minds of great scientists like Sir C.V Raman and Sir Isaac Newton, like why sky is blue and why things fall towards earth have led to path breaking discoveries in science. He urged the young children to plant and nurture more trees for saving our environment as part of his ‘billion trees for billion people' programme. He concluded by asking the students to take an oath to pursue science as a lifetime mission and not to be disheartened by failures.
5th January 2010: Children’s science exhibition was organised by Department of Science & Technology and NCERT was inaugurated by ISRO Chairman Dr. K.Radhakrishnan. Talks on career guidance were delivered by Dr. Unnikrishnan Nair, Professor, IISER, Dr.G.M Nair, Professor, Dept. of Biotechnology and Prof. Mathai, Dept. of Mathematics. The students were taken for space museum visit and rocket launch in VSSC. Some of the noteworthy exhibits include an innovative methodology of food preservation using juice from a moss plant, pesticides for protecting garden plants using neem, tobacco etc. Many posters and projects focussed on the ill effects of pollution and pollution mitigation. An interesting proposal for energy saving is done by the students of DPS, Bihar. They propose simple steps like putting sunshades, light reflecting glasses on windows, use of CFLs and outdoor classes for saving power. Their proposals include a very simple yet effective device called earth air tunnel, which provides air at 260C at all weather conditions and could be the AC of the future. The implementation of these proposals in their school has reduced the electricity by 50%, which is equivalent to around 3500 kg of carbon footprint.
B)14 Sectional Paper and Poster Presentations were made in the following areas:
1) Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, 2) Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences, 3) Anthropological and Behavioural Sciences, 4) Chemical Sciences, 5) Earth Sciences, 6) Engineering Sciences, 7) Environmental Sciences, 8) Information and Communication Science & Technology, 9) Materials Sciences, 10) Mathematical Science, 11) Medical Sciences, 12) New Biology (Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology and Biotechnology), 13) Physical Sciences & 14) Plant Sciences
The section on Earth System Sciences centred on the theme “Paradigm in 21 Century- Vision for Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation of Natural Disaster, Disaster Resilience and Development of Alternate Energy Resources”. Prof. H. S. Sharma talked on ‘Climate Change, Desertification and Water Resource Management in India’. Speakers stressed that research in Earth System Sciences must move beyond a disciplinary focus to address sustainability issues of planet Earth in the framework of complex dynamical systems. Prof. Rana Pratap spoke on “Impact Study of the Climate change on the Agriculture System of the Middle Ganga Plain Region of Bihar” and sketched the changing scenario of climate and its impact on human activities. He said that the selection of the middle Ganga plain for the study is significant given its geographical location and the dependence of the vast population of this region on mostly agricultural pursuits for their survival. Prof. S. Acharya talked on “Banded Iron Formations and Associated Manganese Formations of S.E. India and their Related Iron and Manganese Deposits”.
The Young Scientist Award Lecture by Dr. Chandrani Singh was on “Quantification of Substratum Response to two M > 4.5 Earthquakes in the Koyna-Warna Region During 2005”. The first invited lecture by Prof. Paul Robbins, University of Arizona was titled “India’s Wildlife Sanctuaries: Opportunities to Return Foresters to Forestry and Citizens to Science”. Prof. Vikram Unnithan, Germany delivered second invited lecture on “Aspects of European Oceanographic and Geological Frontier Research: From Environmental Monitoring to Resource Exploration” Prof. Unnithan's focus was on the vast, renewable and non-renewable seafloor resources present in offshore and in international waters. Referring to the deep-sea science platforms such as ESONET and NEPTUNE projects in the Europe and North-American regions he said such projects are the future of marine science and innovation. Third day session was on “Natural Hazards & Disaster Management”. Presentations were ranging from landslide hazard zonation, waste disposal, groundwater storage, disaster management in arid lands, climate change and transportation, and natural hazards and their mitigation. In fourth day session, S. Roxy, presented the paper titled “Surface Albedo and its variability with solar angle and soil moisture at Astronomical Observatory. She studied the effect of solar elevation angle on surface albedo and found that mean daily surface albedo decreases with increase of soil moisture, showing an exponential dependence on soil moisture. Prof. Md. Kavei, Iran presented work on the relationship between peak ground acceleration and modified Mercalli intensity concluding that “Earthquakes are not disasters, but we make them by our careless tasks”. Prof. Kesharwani, Dr. H.S. Gour presented his research work on the pressure dependence of electrical resistance of frozen Calcium Montmorillonite suspensions, a work on the making of synthetic diamonds. Other talks by Sri S. R. Radhakrishnan and Dr. Tessy Chacko P, concentrated on “Lidar characterization of winter aerosols in the lower atmosphere” and “Thermal Profile of Laterite soil in a tropical region” respectively. The final talk was given by Ms. S. Bora on “Spatial and temporal variation of electron density over Indian equatorial low latitudes and the effect of Solar Cycle 23”.
The session on Anthropological and Behavioural Sciences was chaired by Dr. Bensel. Mr.Aveenesh Singh, Director, Ministry of Labour and Employment, highlighted changing value and life style of youth, gender inequality, domestic violence, ageing population, psychological warfare, terrorism occupational safety and health as the important areas the Indian Anthropological sciences should study. Mr.Deva Prasad Sen Mazumdar talked on ‘Mental Illness and Mind Boosting- a new frontier’. He listed out various examples like Gene therapy for Depression, epilepsy Parkinson's disease etc. The information on the evolution of Smart Medicines and energy foods for Alzheimer's disease was a new realm of mind boosters. Dr. Devraj Kumar, Professor, Florida Atlantic University, College of Education USA talked about “Problem Based Science Learning with Nanotechnology using web-based VIDEO anchors.” He elaborated on the innovative practice of Problem Based Learning which will enhance active learning, critical thinking, group coordination, and collaborative learning.
The session on Agriculture and Forestry Sciences had presentation on Novel Botanical Fungicide Julifloravizole by M.P.Raghavendra from University of Mysore, Anirban Roytalked delivered Pran Vohra Award Lecture, on Emergence of New Recombinant Begomo virus complexes. He said, “In tropical and subtropical region of the world, white-fly transmitted Gemini viruses under the genus Begomo are emerging as a major threat to economically important crops. Genomic recombination is very frequent and takes place between species and even between genera which results in viruses' rapid diversification. Emergence and spread of recombinant begomo virus induced diseases are mostly attributed to changing climatic factors, evolution of newer viruses and variants of existing ones. These diseases pose serious threat to crop cultivation. So identification and detection of such virus is a major challenge for developing management strategies. The paper Biotechnology and Agriculture Development in India: Strategies and Challenges was presented by C.D. Mayee , Chairman, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, New Delhi. He said, "The Green Revolution which commenced in 1968 made India self-sufficient despite a growing population. But facing challenges like soil degradation, low factor productivity, environmental concern etc, and the strategies which assisted first Green Revolution are not helping a second round revolution. Biotechnology in that aspect helps in resolving intractable problems such as drought tolerance, pest-disease resistance, nutritional upgradation etc. In the past 20 years, Plant biotechnology, Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering made remarkable progress. A variety of traits like herbicide resistance, insect-pest and disease resistance, synthesis of Pharmaceuticals, edible vaccines have been introduced and transgenic crops being developed. Mr.C.D.Mayee professed the use of biotechnology as the driving force behind second revolution".
In the session of Homeopathy, Ayurveda and Alternate Medicine carried discussion on treatment of much dreaded Avian influenza using antimony crude mixed with proper amount of earth metals, treatment of uterus prolapse using herbal and biochemical medicines, importance of ethno-medico plants used by tribals of central India; many of them, which have become extinct. remedy in treating haemmorhoids and piles, the role of Chinese healing practice in curing fibromyalgia, a musculoskeltal disorder to a great extent. A symposium on Emerging Behavioural Strategies: National Perspective explored the new realms of Behavioural Sciences.
Session on New Biology witnessed symposium on innovative technologies on health scienes.Chaitanya Purandare presented the stem cell therapy which would be a ray of hope for those suffering from degenerative diseases like cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries etc. Since its introduction in India, two years before, its efficacy has been proved with an amazing recovery rate of 25%, he said. The sectional programme was chaired by Mr P. K. Seth, CEO, Biotech Park, Lucknow and Mr Sandeep Saxena, Founder & CEO, Acton BioTech, Pune. Innovative technologies on various fields of health sciences including an nanosomal spectrum, antifungal drug, laser technologies in ophthalmology and on the therapeutic potential of novel natural bio-materials in wound care were discussed in this session. Another attraction of the section was the lecture on selection of the right drugs and right doses based on the genetic profile of a patient. This type of therapy will be useful for asthma, AIDS etc.
In a Symposium on Clinical Medicine and Epidemiology Dr. O N Paramasivan, disclosed progress made on PRUJ- PLASTY for the lost elbow: The Proximal Radio-ulnar Joint Utilized to replace the Ulno-humeral Joint” introduced the new outfit of medical sciences: Proximal Radio-ulnar Joint. He called this new biological salvage procedure as ‘biological joints' which is useful to restore functional elbow joint when the ulno-humeral joint is destroyed due to infection or trauma. Dr. Bipin.T.Varghese discussed “Reconstructive microsurgery in a high volume low resource cancer centre” and introduced Micro vascular reconstruction- a most modern surgical method. Flaps from the possible parts of body are dissected and are made use to correct the defective parts. He put forward the strategy for the recruitment of patients for reconstructive microsurgery to ensure the best utilization in a tertiary cancer care management and its encouraging results. Dr Saumendra Darbar presented the paper which discussed the result that ginger has significant liver and stomach protective capacity.
