Herbal mosquito larvicide:
CSIR-NEIST once again won the prestigious CSIR Technology Award this year making it 4th time consecutively. This year, the institute was conferred the Technology award in the Life Sciences category for its newly developed low cost and affordable herbal formulation namely “Anti-Arthritis”, which is highly effective for treatment of arthritis, inflammation or any associated problems of arthritis. The award consisted of cash worth Rs. 2 lakhs along with a plaque and a citation. The Award was received by Dr R C Boruah, Acting Director along with Dr P G Rao, Technical Consultant & former Director, Dr N C Barua, Chief Scientist, Dr P R Bhattacharyya Chief Scientist, Dr P K Baruah Medical Officer, Dr P B Kanjilal Chief Scientist, Dr M J Bordoloi Pr Scientist, Dr Mantu Bhuyan,Scientist (all from
CSIR-NEIST) and Prof Samir Bhattacharyya, INSA Fellow, Visva Bharati, Santi Niketan at the glittering award ceremony held on the occasion of 71st CSIR Foundation Day function held at CSIR-IGIB, New Delhi on 26 September, 2013. The award was presented by Hon’ble Minister of Science &Technology, Govt. of India, Shri S Jaipal Reddy in presence of DG CSIR Prof Samir K Brahmachari and Prof M M Sharma, renowned Chemical Engineer from Bombay University. It is worth mentioning here that the award winning herbal formulation has benefitted number of patients throughout the country and being economical and easy to apply along with no side effects has become very popular.
CSIR - NEIST awarded the CSIR Technology Award - 2012 in Business Development & Technology Marketing :
The CSIR Technology Award-2012 in the category of Business Development & Technology Marketing was awarded to CSIR-North East Institute of Science & Technology for significantly enhancing the business through consistently increased cash-flow and commercialization of technologies/marketing of knowledgebase during the last three years. Engaging in knowledge business, is a difficult task in the given situation of NE states characterized by slow rate of growth, largely by micro and marginal entrepreneurs mostly rural-based, compounded geographical isolations etc.
For bringing the benefits of Science to this unreached section of people, the CSIR-NEIST took upon itself the onerous task of developing simple technologies suitable for the micro-scale sector of the industry which were intended to benefit entrepreneurs as well as the consumers from the rural and urban poor besides doing high science and develop state of the art technologies. The Business development group of the institute undertook extensive promotional activities for successful commercialization of the technologies and knowledgebase. At a special function held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 26th September 2012 to mark the 70th CSIR Foundation Day, the award was presented to the Business Development team of CSIR-NEIST by Sri Vayalar Ravi, Hon’ble Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Science & Vice President of CSIR and Prof. Samir K Brahmachari, Director General – CSIR and other dignitaries. On behalf of CSIR-NEIST, the award was received by Director Dr. P G Rao, the Business Development group representatives duo namely Sri B.C. Saikia, Principal Scientist and Sri Probin Boruah, Principal Technical Officer. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh, a plaque and a citation. It will be worthwhile to mention here that with this award, the CSIR-NEIST has made a hat-trick by consecutively winning the CSIR Technology Award for the last 3 years. In the earlier two years, it won the award in the category of Innovation for the year 2010 and in life science in 2011. Most significantly, on 26 September this year the CSIR completed the glorious 70 year of its contribution to the Science & Technology of the country which the organization celebrated through various momentous programme befitting the occasion, and Honorable Prime Minister of India Dr. Monmohan Singh inaugurated the celebration programme held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. On this auspicious occasion a safe and efficient Herbal Drug for Arthritis Treatment “Anti-Arthritis” which is pharmacologically and clinically assured for arthritis treatment with proven relief developed in collaboration with Visva Bharati University was released under CSIR-NEIST affordable healthcare by Sri Vayalar Ravi in presence of Prof. Samir K Brahmachari. Most of the inventors from CSIR-NEIST viz., Dr Mantu Bhuyan, Scientist, Dr PR Bhattacharyya, Chief Scientist, Dr PK Baruah, Medical Officer, Dr NC Barua, Chief Scientist, Dr PG Rao, Director, CSIR-NEIST were present with Prof Samir Bhattacharya, from Visva Bharati in the occasion. The event was observed on-line in the CSIR labs throughout the country. The award is given every year by CSIR to the best performing CSIR laboratory in the business enhancement and for its marketing of knowledge base. The award and the release of this Herbal Drug came as a morale booster to the members of CSIR-NEIST family.
CSIR Technology award-2011 in Life sciences Awarded to CSIR-NEIST-Jorhat, Assam :
The Technology Award for Life Sciences awarded to CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology (CSIR-NEIST), Jorhat for ‘Developing Terminalia chebula based bioformulation (Muga Heal) as an anti-flacherie agent and a silk fiber enhancer’ The technology was developed by a team headed by Dr.BG Unni, Chief Scientist & area Coordinator (/Biological Sciences) ,Dr.PG Rao (Director) CSIR NEIST and Dr.SB.Wann.(Scientist) . The award was presented to the team by honorable Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences & Vice President CSIR Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh in the presence of Dr.Ashwani Kumar Minister of
State for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Planning, Dr.R.A.Mashelkar Former Director General CSIR, National Research Professor and Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari, Director General, CSIR and other dignitaries at the CSIR Foundation day celebration held on 26th September 2011 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi Muga silkworm (Antheraea assamensis, Helfer), the economic insect is unique, prerogative and Geographical Indicator to the North Eastern region of India. Current information appeared in one of the national dailies shows that the production of Muga in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 was about 105 metric tones while in 2009-2010 it was about 90 metric tones. The golden yellow yarn produced by this insect is lustrous, highly durable, strongest and toughest of all natural silks having multifarious utilities for which its demand is increasing in world fabric market. The silkworm is polyphagous, multivoltine (5-6 crops per year), semi-domesticated in nature, the worms are reared outdoor on standing trees. On maturity, the worms crawl down at the end of completion of five larval instars, are collected by rearers, and allowed to spin cocoons inside rearing house. Muga silkworm feeds primarily on “Som” (Persea bombycina King ex. Kost.) and “Soalu” (Litsea monopetela Pers.). The other food plants include “Diglotti” (Litsea salicifolia Roxb. Ex. Wall.) and “Mejankori” (Litsea citrata Blume) are of secondary importance. Because of its rearing outdoor the muga silkworms, A. assamensis are exposed to the adverse climatic conditions, pests and predators. In muga silkworms the disease which affects large population of silkworms usually during the hot and humid summer climatic conditions results in high mortality, which affects the silk production and even those surviving there is decrease in their silk producing capacity. The diseases associated with pathogenic bacteria come under the general term “flacherie” which refers to the flaccid condition exhibited by infected silkworms due to different ailments. A potent bacterial strain of Pseudomonas aureginosa Strain AC-3 has been identified in the Biotechnology Laboratory of CSIR-North East Institute of Science & Technology as the organism which causes the flacherie disease of muga silkworm. About 60-70% loss of muga silkworms has been estimated to be accountable due to infection of this bacterial strain, which mainly occur during the later part i.e. 4th-5th larval instars. A protein from the bacteria exhibiting toxic affect on the health of the silkworm larvae was also purified and characterized. Recurrence of death due to various diseases caused by different agents including bacteria is an integral phenomenon and a burning problem of the muga silkworm rearers for successful crop harvest. Unfortunately, till date, no report is so far available for controlling the diseases of muga silkworm. As it is a highly sensitive organism towards chemical treatments, use of bio-formulations of plant, bacterial or animal origin is considered as the best alternative for conducting experiments on management of the diseases of muga silkworm. Therefore, attempts of first kind were made by the research team in the Biotechnology Division headed by Dr. BG Unni and his team with the traditional folk medicinal plants extracts in controlling the flacherie of the muga silkworm and a potent bioformulation “ MUGA HEAL” from the Terminalia chebula fruits has been developed. Application of the bioformulation enhances the biting habit of the silkworm to consume more food. It is highly effective in controlling the dreaded disease ‘flacherie’ in muga silkworm thereby reduces the rate of mortality of larvae from 90-100% to 25-30%. It is an eco-friendly material/ substances and non toxic to the silkworms/ host plants. The bioformulation enhances the pupal weight, Shell weight and Cocoon weight and Silk yield from 15-20 %. The larvae fed withbioformulation treated Persea bombycina leaves showed higher yield in non-breakable filament length up to 30-40% with better quality and higher quantity of silk than the untreated plants. The use of Terminalia chebula based bioformulation by sericulture farmers in large scale would uplift the economic status of the weaker section.
CSIR Technology award-2010 in Innovation Awarded to CSIR-NEIST-Jorhat, Assam :
In a special function held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi today on 26 September, 2010 to mark the celebration of 68th CSIR Foundation Day, CSIR Technology Awards-2010 by CSIR in the category of "Innovation" was formally conferred on the NEIST Scientists for the development of process for making "High Strength Proppants". The award was given away by Hon'ble Minister Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of Science & Technology to Dr Dipak Kumar Dutta, Scientist F, Dr Pinaki Sengupta, Scientist F and Dr Avinash Garg, Scientist G in the presence of Director General, CSIR Prof Samir K Brahmachari. The award carried a cash amount worth Rs. 2 lakhs along with a plaque and a citation.
This award winning and patented innovation is a breakthrough for the hydraulic fracturing operations for economic recovery of oil and gas and as far as India is concerned, the developed know-how is the first in the country in this field. The know-how was initially developed at laboratory scale in collaboration with Keshava Deva Malaviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration (KDMIPE), ONGC, Dehradun and was later on scaled up to 50kg/batch with the financial aid of Oil Industry Development Board, New Delhi. The production conforms to the recommendations of the American Petroleum Institute (API). The Proppant utilizes bauxite of Indian origin and the cost of production is very low. As India has abundant high grade bauxite deposits, the innovation can make the country self sufficient and take a lead position in the manufacturing of High Strength Proppant cutting down on the import and with the idea in view that the oil production activity in the country can be expected to increase many fold in the coming years vis-à-vis its increased demand. The innovation has both huge market potential as well as the added advantage of generating large number of employment.
The work for this technology was headed by Group Leader Dr Dipak Kumar Dutta, Scientist F of Materials Science Division of NEIST and the other members of this excellent innovation included Dr Pinaki Sengupta, Scientist F, Dr Ranju Duarah, Scientist G, Dr Avinash Garg, Scientist G, Mr Umesh Chandra Borah, Scientist G (retd) and Mr Dilip Kumar Dutta, Scientist G (retd). Besides them, two external members namely Mr Gajendra Singh Pundeer and Mr Vinay Chandra Rundwal, both Joint Director, KDMIPE, ONGC, Dehradun were also involved and contributed significantly to the innovation.
Earlier in the day Prof Samir K Brahmachari, DG CSIR gave the welcome address in the celebration function which started at 11.00 am. As a special invitee, Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar of Centre for Ecological Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore gave the CSIR Foundation Day lecture on War and peace: conflict and cooperation in an insect society. The lecture was followed by Presentation of the CSIR Young Scientist & Technology Awards 2010 as well as CSIR Diamond Jubilee Invention Award for School Children 2009 by Hon'ble Minister Shri Prithviraj Chavan. After the award presentation Hon'ble Minister Shri Prithviraj Chavan addressed the gathering. Prof Samir K Brahmachari announced the S S Bhatnagar Prize winners for 2010 and CSIR Award for S & T Innovations for Rural Development 2009.
