IIT Guwahati develops low-cost technology to produce psychoactive drugs and anti-aging compounds from agricultural resources

The low-cost technology is patented and developed by Prof. Mihir Kumar Purkait, Head, Centre for the Environment, and Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering along with his M Tech student Mr V L Dhadge

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News 

KRISHNAGAR, 28 OCT: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Guwahati researcher has developed a low-cost membrane technology to produce psychoactive drugs and anti-aging compounds from wide range of agricultural resources like camellia sinensis, citrus fruits and peels especially orange peels, berries, ginkgo biloba, parsley, pulses, tea, sea buckthorn and onions.

The technology is patented and developed by Prof. Mihir Kumar Purkait, Head, Centre for the Environment and Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati along with his M Tech student Mr V L Dhadge. 

The low-cost technology doesn’t use any organic solvents. The health-related benefits of psychoactive drugs (caffeine) and anti-aging compounds (flavonoids) attributed to stimulating detoxification of enzyme activity and inhibition of cell invasion and angiogenesis. Because of medicinal applications, flavonoid components have gained popularity as ingredients in pharmaceutical industry. These are also found in smaller amount in bamboo leaves, grapes, apples, and other natural sources. 

While explaining the process about how the technology works, Prof. Mihir Kumar Purkait, said, “The developed technology is exclusively pore/particle size based pressure driven membrane separation process. The water extracts of above mentioned plants/fruits/leaves at optimum operating conditions are passed through a specially made cascade membrane units of fabricated with appropriate molecular weight cut off (MWCO) membranes capable of separating targeted flavonoids selectively. Permeate and retentive part from appropriate membrane unit is then fridge dried to get the powdered product. We have synthesized stimuli responsive smart membrane for the selective separation and purification of targeted compound from the mixture of plants or leaves or fruits extract in simple water”.

The commercially available techniques are using various costly organic solvents like: Chloroform, Acetone, Acetonitrile etc. As a result the prices of these important pharmaceutical raw materials are quite high that ultimately increases the price of the antioxidant. Since organic solvents are used, the technology suffers various disadvantages like: low product quality and yield, high operating and product cost, more time consuming and high energy intensive process for solvent recovery and has limitation to run continuation mode in industrial scale.

Camellia Sinensis

The technology developed by Prof. M K Purkait doesn’t require any costly organic solvents and uses only water. Hence, the cost of the process and price of pharmaceuticals thereon is much cheaper than that of existing solvent based separation technique. The patented membrane based green technology has enormous scope to replace existing costly organic solvent based techniques and can be used for continuation mode of operation in industrial scale.

India is the largest consumer (20% of the global production) and second largest producer of camellia sinensis. Worldwide, there are very few manufacturers of flavonoids produced using solvent based technique having less purity (40-80%) and high price. It has been estimated that the global market for flavonoids is expected to reach about 412.4 MT by 2022 from 347.8 MT in 2017 reported in the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India’s Import-Export current statistics. The developed technology will support “Make in India” initiative of the Government of India by producing these compounds in the country. This will definitely reduce the import of said polyphenolic compounds. Implementation of the said technology will also create job opportunities in agriculture sector of the country.

Now, any Indian citizen can buy land in Jammu & Kashmir

Unacceptable amendments to the land ownership laws of J&K. Even the tokenism of domicile has been done away with when purchasing non-agricultural land & transfer of agricultural land has been made easier. J&K is now up for sale & the poorer small land holding owners will suffer.

Biswabrata Goswami 

Hummingbird News

KRISHNAGAR, 27 OCT: In a significant move, the Center has paved the way for people from outside Jammu and Kashmir to buy land in the Union Territory (UT) by amending several laws.

The Union home ministry said in an order that the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016 has been notified in the UT while 12 laws of the erstwhile state have been repealed.

The Act makes it mandatory for each state and UT to set up its own real estate regulator and frame rules to govern the functioning of the regulator. In a gazette notification, the Centre omitted the phrase “permanent resident of the state” from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act, which deals with disposal of the land in the UT.

“With immediate effect, the Acts mentioned in the schedule to this order shall, until repealed or amended by a competent legislature or other competent authority, have an effect, subject to the adaptations and modifications directed by the said schedule, or if it is so directed, shall stand repealed,” said the order.

On August 5 last year, the Centre had abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution which granted special status to the erstwhile state, bifurcating it into UTs of J&K and Ladakh. Earlier, Article 35A prohibited citizens from other parts of India from buying land in J&K. It allowed the J&K legislature to define permanent residents of the state and only those who were eligible could purchase land or property.

As per section 96 of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, the Centre has the powers to repeal or amend the laws for the application of any law made before the appointed date till the expiration of one year from the appointed date in relation to Union Territories.

Earlier, the laws passed by Parliament were applicable to the state only after the state government gave its concurrence due to its special status and separate Constitution. The J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, extended 113 central laws including Muslim Women Protection of Rights Act, 1986, RTI Act, PC Act, Aadhaar Act, Enemy Property Act, Evidence Act, Special Marriage Act, Delimitation Act and Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act to J&K. A total of 165 laws exclusively framed for the state of Jammu and Kashmir were repealed.

Political parties here called it unacceptable saying it was like putting J&K up for sale.

However, the government like previous orders, has not extended the adaptation to Ladakh region. A senior government official said the third adaptation of the laws is only meant for Jammu and Kashmir, not Ladakh.

“Unacceptable amendments to the land ownership laws of J&K. Even the tokenism of domicile has been done away with when purchasing non-agricultural land and transfer of agricultural land has been made easier. J&K is now up for sale and the poorer small land holding owners will suffer,” former chief minister Omar Abdullah said.

Omar Abdullah

@OmarAbdullah

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22h

Unacceptable amendments to the land ownership laws of J&K. Even the tokenism of domicile has been done away with when purchasing non-agricultural land & transfer of agricultural land has been made easier. J&K is now up for sale & the poorer small land holding owners will suffer.

In another order issued on Tuesday, the Union home ministry repealed and amended 25 other central laws including the Stamp Act, 1977, Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Decentralisation and Recruitment Act.

Further amending the J&K Development Act, 1970, the order said, the government might on the written request of an Army officer not below the rank of Corp commander, can declare an area as “strategic area” within a local area “only for direct operational and training requirement of armed forces”.

By amending the J&K Agrarian Reforms Act, 1970 the MHA has also clipped the powers of the Revenue Minister, who citing public interest “could overturn” an order passed by a Tehsildar or Assistant Commissioner in respect of any evacuees land or state land. It is to be noted here that J&K is currently under the Central rule.

In this order, the MHA has further amended the domicile law by allowing “spouse of a domicile” to be deemed a domicile. This was earlier applied only to children of Central government officials posted in J&K for a total period of 10 years, who are also eligible as domiciles.

Under the order, a new body - the J&K Industrial Development Co-operation - has been set up and if it is unable to acquire land, the government could invoke the provision of the Right to Fair Compensation Act, and acquire the land on behalf of the corporation for public purposes.

With the changes in the land acts, the MHA said, “The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), 2016 will now be applicable in the UT.”

The erstwhile state laws, which are completely repealed, include the Jammu & Kashmir Alienation of Land Act, the Jammu & Kashmir Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, the Jammu & Kashmir Common Lands (Regulation) ACT, 1956, the Jammu & Kashmir Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1962, and a few others.

Courtesy: Images from Web.

The cause of racism, bigotry and fundamentalism is sheer ignorance : David J Gross, Nobel laureate says in IIT-Madras virtual convocation 

“Life is not made up of years but of moments. As we look back on our life, what we remember is a collection of moments. None of us remember our beginning and none of us will remember our end. This moment is both a beginning and an ending for you," Prof. Gross

Biswabrata Goswami  

Hummingbird News      

KRISHNAGAR, 25 OCT: Drawing attention to racism, bigotry and fundamentalism, theoretical physicist David J Gross who won the Nobel prize in physics in 2004 said on Sunday that the cause of many of these problems is sheer ignorance.

While speaking at the 57th convocation of IIT-Madras held virtually from Santa Barbara, US, Prof Gross said, “The ignorance of basic facts such as that we all of us had a single mother only a few thousand generations ago that make racism and bigotry still possible. The ignorance of other cultures that promotes radical nationalism”.

Prof. David J Gross, Nobel Laureate and Chancellor’s Chair of Theoretical Physics, University of California, graced the occasion as Chief Guest. Dr. Pawan Goenka, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Madras and Managing Director, Mahindra and Mahindra, presided over the Convocation.

Prof Gross pointed out that the graduating students have the responsibility to be the forces of enlightenment and asked them to strive to dispel the ignorance.

“The reason that fundamentalists are so dangerous is not that they are so dangerous, but they are so certain that they possess the absolute truth. It is this certainty that can lead to oppression, bidotry, racism and fanaticism. The main lessons of science are not partial truths that we labour to reveal. But, an attitude of scepticism towards these truths. We must always remain sceptical, always question our beliefs and confront them with nature” he told the graduating students.

Prof Gross further said, “Many of you are completing your education today and are now wondering what the next few years will bring. One thing I am sure of is that no one can give you any answer. The world is undergoing rapid change and as the event of the last few months show, no one can predict what will happen next week, much less beyond that. The same is true of science and one’s career in science.”

On Covid-19 pandemic, he said many scientists predicted that such a pandemic would inevitably arrive and yet their warnings were largely ignored.

“Similarly, many scientists warn of impending disasters of global warming, climate change. Yet, these warnings have not been sufficiently addressed. I take this occasion to warn all of the continuing and indeed worsening danger of nuclear weapons whose use could destroy all life on the planet. We must not ignore it”, he said.

Prof Gross said, “Life is not made up of years but of moments. As we look back on our life, what we remember is a collection of moments. None of us remember our beginning and none of us will remember our end. This moment is both a beginning and an ending for you. For many of you, it is the end of college tuition and the beginning of repayment of student loans. For many of you, it is the end of the process in which you absorbed vast knowledge and the beginning of the process when you begin to apply that knowledge or pass it along to the next generation. For many of you, it is the end of formal education and the beginning of the so-called ‘real life’.”

“For many of you, it is the end of the period in life where you received from your parents and society and the beginning of the period where you give back to the society. And there is much that you can give back, for you are a privileged lot. Privileged to be citizens of a rapidly-growing country with a rich and glorious history that is now moving on to take its rightful place in the world. You are fortunate to be free of disease, hunger and war that plagued much of humanity for most of the times. You are privileged to have attended a great institution of learning and to have acquired much knowledge,” said Prof. David J Gross.

Prof. David Gross was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics along with H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction. He has been a central figure in particle physics and string theory. His discovery, with his student Frank Wilczek, of asymptotic freedom—the primary feature of non-Abelian gauge theories—led Gross and Wilczek to the formulation of Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of the strong nuclear force.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Madras, remarked, “Class of 2020 - you have a very special distinction. The distinction of graduating from an institute, which has been ranked the #1 Engineering College in India, for five years in a row. Further, IIT Madras also continued to hold on to the No.1 position in the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements. This is a true reflection of the collective commitment of our faculty, administration, staff and students. On behalf of the Board of Governors, I would like to congratulate everyone at IIT Madras for this accomplishment.”

Dr. Goenka added, “Taking on ambitious projects - belief in the capabilities of the youth and the power of collaboration is exactly what our country needs today. While COVID-19 is without doubt, the biggest health and economic crisis mankind has faced, I would want to share a slightly different perspective. The pandemic has given us the opportunity to define a new normal for how we work and how we live – and once we are out of the fear of catching the virus, the new normal in fact may be better than what we will be leaving behind. Covid has accelerated the rate of tech adoption across streams of life. Changes which would have taken 5-6 years have happened in just about 3-4 months.”

For the first time in its history, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) conducted its Convocation using a ‘Mixed Reality’ mode. The event was held completely online combining the real and virtual world and showcasing how they can interact. A total of 2,346 degrees were awarded during the 57th Convocation held today.

Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, awarded degrees to the graduating students virtually.

Presenting a report on the Institute's performance in the last academic year, Prof. Ramamurthi, said, “The pandemic led to a nation-wide lockdown in March 2020 and educational institutions have remained closed since. The classes re-started online within a couple of weeks… Due to the heroic efforts of our faculty and students, we completed classes for the January-May 2000 Semester in time to enable our graduating students to take up their jobs, and our pre-final-year students to take up internships in the summer, many of them in the online mode. Our graduating research scholars and students with projects also wound up their theses from home.”

He also said, “Our Strategic Plan 2013-2020, whose targets we have met or exceeded in every aspect, has brought us this far. Our plans as an ‘Institute of Eminence’ will propel us further and take us to greater heights in the coming years. On June 30th this year, the country’s first online undergraduate degree in Programming and Data Science at IIT Madras was launched by the Hon’ble Union Minister for Education, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’. 

"This programme will establish a new paradigm through which IITs can contribute to meet the nation’s high Gross Enrolment Ratio target under New Education Policy 2020, by making high-quality education in an emerging field accessible to everyone who is willing and able to meet our exacting standards. We believe this game-changing initiative will set the stage for many similar programmes in disciplines that can be taught online with high quality.”

 

IIT Guwahati students selected for Prime Minister's Research Fellow Scheme

14 PhD students of IIT Guwahati pursuing interdisciplinary programmes have been selected for the scheme through the Lateral Entry Channel

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

KRISHNAGAR, 24 OCT: Students of theIndian Institute of Technology Guwahati have been selected for the Prime Minister's Research Fellows (PMRF) Scheme that has been announced recently. A total of 14 students have been selected for the scheme through the channel of Lateral Entry.

The PhD students selected for the PMRF fellowship this year are pursuing research in interdisciplinary and forefront areas at various departments and centers such as Departments of Design, Mechanical Engineering, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, and the Centres for Nanotechnology, Rural Technology, Energy and Environment.

Speaking about the PMRF scheme, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “This initiative by the Government of India will attract the best talent from the country for pursuing high-end research at IIT Guwahati and realise the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of high-end multidisciplinary technology development and self-sustenance (Atmanirbhar) through innovation. IIT Guwahati and its faculty members are ready to help the selected PMRF recipients realise their full potential and guide them, so that these awardees can achieve their long-term career goals and contribute to the growth of the country”.

According to the PMRF scheme, each fellow will be eligible to get a monthly fellowship of Rs. 70,000 for the first two years, Rs.75,000 for the 3rd year, and Rs.80,000 in the 4th and 5th year. In addition to this, each fellow would be eligible for a research grant of Rs. 2 lakh per year (a total of Rs 10 lakh for five years).

After the selection, every fellow will be given deliverables to be achieved each year. The deliverables will be decided by the assigned guide. The deliverables will be designed while keeping in view the research topic selected by the fellows and are also likely to be reviewed annually for the progress of their research objectives.

The Prime Minister's Research Fellows (PMRF) scheme was announced in the 2018-2019 Budget and has been designed for improving the quality of research along with providing unparalleled research opportunities in various higher educational institutions in the country. 

The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Education and aims to propel and promote the growth of engineers and scientists through constant annual reviews and weightage recorded in accordance to the publication in reputed journals and conferences.

The Government of India has amended the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship (PMRF) scheme by allowing lateral entry and also modifying the minimum score required to be eligible for the scholarship. As per the revised scheme, the minimum score in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), has been reduced from 750 to 650. 

In addition to the direct entry, provision for lateral entry has also been made permitting ongoing PhD students who have already been enrolled for 12 or 24 months to avail this fellowship. This has allowed more and more students to benefit from this prestigious fellowship.

Hindi Academy plans to promote Hindi language in West Bengal 

         

Soma Mookherjee

City Editor, The Statesman  

KOLKATA, 24 OCT: West Bengal Hindi Academy today discussed various steps to promote Hindi language, literature and culture in West Bengal.

It was decided on the first meeting of reconstituted West Bengal Hindi Academy as directed by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

In this meeting, various discussions held to promote Hindi language, literature and culture in West Bengal. 

Mr Vivek Gupta, former Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP stated, “Four points - language, literature, culture and arts – were mainly discussed in the meeting. The members praised chief minister for taking initiative to set up first Hindi University in the state. It was also decided that in near future West Bengal Hindi Academy will stage one act play, organise poetry sessions, conferences on various topics across the state. The Hindi Academy will also focus on Hindi translations of famous Bengali writers and poets.”

Mr Gupta also said important initiatives will be taken to attract and encourage the new generation towards Hindi language.

“A move was also taken to set up a library and a large number of general and public interest books in it,” he said.

“With the co-operation of all the members, the academy will try to reach Hindi-speaking students and intellectuals not only in Kolkata and nearby areas but all over Bengal,” Mr Gupta said. 

Apart from this, the academy will organize discussions on other current topics of literature, language and culture, he said.

Earlier, the chief minister donated Rs five crore for the Hindi Academy.

Mr Dinesh Trivedi, Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP is the chairman of the reconstituted West Bengal Hindi Academy.

Coronavirus : ICMR approves low-cost testing method developed by IIT-Kharagpur

This new testing method implements a highly reliable & accurate molecular diagnostic procedure, conducted in an ultra-low-cost portable device unit & costs only around Rs. 500 per test 

Biswabrata Goswami  

Hummingbird News

KHARAGPUR, 21 October: IIT Kharagpur researchers have developed a diagnostic machine named ‘COVIRAP,’ the diagnostic machine, which has been successfully validated for its efficacy in COVID-19 detection by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Various commercial units have already approached the Institute for technology licensing to enable a rapid reach of this innovation to the common people.

This test has been designed to be fairly easy to conduct and affordable as well and can produce results in a custom-developed mobile phone application within one hour.

It has an automated pre-programmable temperature control unit, a special detection unit on genomic analysis, and a customised smartphone app for results.

Three master mixes work as markers of different genes to confirm the presence of SARS-CoV-2, said Prof Suman Chakraborty, Dean, Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy, IIT Kharagpur. Samples collected react with these mixes. When paper strips are dipped into these reaction products, coloured lines indicate the presence of the virus.

Dr Arindam Mondal, Assistant Professor, School of Bioscience, IIT-KGP, said the technology has been subjected to rigorous testing protocols as per ICMR guidelines.

Addressing a Virtual Press Conference on 21 October, to announce this major development in the nation’s fight against COVID-19, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister of Education, Government of India, said, “I am glad the researchers from IIT Kharagpur have achieved the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat through this medical technology innovation. This would go on impacting the lives of many in rural India as the device is portable and can be operated on a very low energy supply. Minimally trained rural youth can operate this device.” 

Further, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, said, “This innovation has made high-quality and accurate COVID testing affordable for the common people with a testing cost of around ₹ 500/- which can further be reduced through government intervention. As informed by IIT Kharagpur, this machine can be developed at a cost of less than ₹ 10,000/- with minimal infrastructural requirement making the technology affordable to common people. The testing process in this new machine is completed within one hour. I congratulate Prof. V.K. Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, and the research team led by Prof. Suman Chakraborty and Dr. Arindam Mondal for this path-breaking innovation taking molecular diagnostics from high-end labs to the field.”

Speaking about this test, Prof. V.K. Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, said, “This is indeed one of the greatest contributions in the history of medical science, particularly in the area of virology, and is well set to replace PCR-based tests to a large extent.”

Subsequent financial support to this project was provided by the IIT Foundation, USA, to meet the various expenses in the clinical testing phase. Partial financial support has also been provided from the Common Research and Technology Development Hub on Affordable Healthcare, established by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, at IIT Kharagpur.

Elaborating on the validation process of ‘COVIRAP’ Diagnostic Test, Dr. Mamta Chawla Sarkar, an Internationally acclaimed virologist who oversaw the patient trials on behalf of ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) said, “A detailed scrutiny of the testing results has clearly shown that this assay holds the capability of detecting extremely low levels of viral loads that any other method based on similar principles of testing, even those from the most celebrated research groups across the world, could not come up with so far. In practice, this means that very early stages of infection can be detected, thereby isolating the patient and arresting the uncontrolled spread of infection in the community via asymptomatic patients.”

Further, Dr. Shanta Dutta, Director of ICMR-NICED added, “While overseeing the testing and validation, I was very impressed with the portable low-cost machine unit that can truly be a game-changer for COVID-19 diagnostics at peripheral laboratories with the support of unskilled human resources as operators. This now needs a rapid commercial scale-up to cater to the needs of the underserved population.  ICMR-NICED will be pleased to facilitate support for further improvisations in the method towards even superior performance.”

The novel diagnostic platform, developed by a team of researchers lead by Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, and Dr. Arindam Mondal, Assistant Professor, School of Bio-Science, IIT Kharagpur, has been subjected to rigorous testing protocols as per ICMR guidelines, at ICMR-NICED, an Institute authorized by ICMR. The tests conducted there have revealed that the results from this new assay are of standards comparable to the celebrated RT-PCR tests, with a remarkably high level of specificity and sensitivity, the two common parameters used as indicators of efficacy of any diagnostic test.

ICMR-NICED has further certified the test to be extremely user-friendly. Notably, the number of tests per one-hour batch in a single machine unit can be further increased to much higher limits, for the purpose of testing on a mass scale.

Elaborating on this test, Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Department, IIT Kharagpur, said, “The patented machine unit has not only been proven to be robust during patient sample testing but also extremely flexible and generic. This means that other than COVID-19 testing, many other tests, falling under the category of ‘isothermal nucleic acid-based tests’ (INAT), can be performed in the same machine. In other words, influenza, malaria, dengue, Japanese encephalitis, tuberculosis and many other infectious, as well as vector-borne diseases, can be tested using the same machine. This will virtually minimize the need for thermal cyclers or real-time PCR machines, without sacrificing the expected high standards of a molecular diagnostic test.”

Further, Dr. Arindam Mondal, Assistant Professor, School of Biosciences, IIT Kharagpur, said, “During the testing phase of patient samples, all kits, exclusively developed at IIT Kharagpur, were transported in an uncontrolled environment for hours to the testing unit, which shows high levels of stability of the reagents that are being used for the testing.”

Speaking about the commercialization of ‘COVIRAP,’ Prof. V.K. Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, said, “While the Institute can produce the testing kit up to a certain scale, patent licensing will facilitate commercialization opportunities for medical technology companies. Any corporate or start-up can approach the Institute for technology licensing and commercial scale of production. The Institute is open to tie-ups, with due measures of protecting the interest of public health amidst the pandemic situation.”

“Today, it is COVID-19; yesterday, it was leprosy and tuberculosis; tomorrow, it will be something else. This technology is all set to create a revolution in rapid and low-cost detection of all these, by bringing high-end molecular diagnostics from the lab to the field. The impact of this, therefore, is long-lasting, empowered by the capability of detecting unforeseen pandemics in the coming years that may potentially endanger human lives time and again,” remarked Prof. Suman Chakraborty.