Category Archives: Science & Technology

Military graduate engineers develop all-terrain wheel chair

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

An all-terrain wheel chair, a vehicle mounted wind turbine, an underground cable fault detection system, a solar-based automatic drainage cleaning system were among several interesting projects developed by the graduating officers at the Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (MCEME), Secunderabad.

Governor E S L Narasimhan who conferred engineering degrees to 20 Officers of Technical Entry Scheme Course (TES-29) urged the graduates to harness technologies for the army.

“Rapid advances in technology are relentlessly fuelling changes at a rate that is both awesome and exhilarating. Your challenge is to harness these technologies for the Army and ensure that each and every one is touched by this change,” he said.

The ceremony was attended by a host of senior dignitaries from military and civil administration and gathering of more than 300 Service personnel and their families.

Delivering the inaugural address, Lieutenant General Paramjit Singh, Commandant, MCEME said the institution had not only excelled in the field of technology and training but has also left its indelible mark in the field of sports and adventure activities.

The GOC-in-C ARTRAC Trophy, Best student book prize and DGEME Gold medal were awarded to Lieutenant Siddharth Siwal for standing best all round student officer of the course. Lieutenant Aayush Vatsal (Electronics) and Lieutenant Nitin Dabas (Mechanical) were awarded Commandant’s silver medals. The chief guest, Governor Narasimhan appreciated the Best project “Vehicle mounted wind turbine” designed by Lieutenant Nitin Dabas, Lieutenant Bhupendra Singh Rathore, Lieutenant Jai Prakash Saraswat and Lieutenant Gaurav Chaudhary.

The Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering, Secunderabad was established in 1953. Over the years, the College has developed into a premier training institution of the Indian Army. The training standards of the College have been recognised and College has been rewarded with Prime Minister’s Awards for various Students Projects. The MCEME trains technical capital for providing sustainment and engineering support to the complete equipment of the Indian Army.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Hyderabad News / by Ch. Sushil Rao / TNN / June 28th, 2018

University of Hyderabad increases bioavailability of harpin biopesticide

Agriculture, Education, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Science & Technology

To address poor bioavailability of harpin arising from its inability to permeate into plants, the researchers led by Appa Rao Podile (second from right) turned to nanotechnology.

Up to 90% reduction in severity of fungal infection in tomato plants was seen

Researchers at the University of Hyderabad have found that harpin biopesticide brought about 80-90% reduction in severity of fungal infection in tomato plants when it is encapsulated in chitosan nanoparticles. The fungal infection was caused by Rhizoctonia solani. The reduction in disease severity is only about 50-55% when the biopesticide is used without loading it in nanoparticles. The results were published in the journal Carbohydrate Polymers.

Though harpin is used against several bacterial, fungal and viral infections, poor bioavailability is a major hurdle when harpin protein, taken from the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae, is just sprayed on the leaves like any other pesticide.

Chitosan to the rescue

To address the issue of poor bioavailability of harpin arising from the inability to permeate into plants, the researchers led by Prof. Appa Rao Podile from the Department of Plant Sciences turned to nanotechnology. They used the biocompatible and biodegradable chitosan in nanoparticle size to encapsulate the biopesticide. Chitosan nanoparticles are capable of getting into the plant through the stomata (pores on the leaves through which gas exchange takes place) and then diffuse through the cell wall to enter the cells. The team found that chitosan nanoparticles containing harpin pass through the cell wall and end up in the chloroplast of tomato plants.

As a result, bioavailability of harpin inside tomato plants increases sharply when loaded in chitosan nanoparticles. Also, less amount of harpin will have to be sprayed on leaves when it is contained in nanoparticles.

Chitosan by itself has another advantage. “Chitosan’s antifungal property and its role in triggering plant defence responses are already well known. Its ability to biodegrade inside the plant without harming the plant cells is why we chose it for encapsulating harpin,” says Prof. Podile.

The disease severity in tomato reduced significantly and there was fivefold decrease in fungal biomass in the case of harpin encapsulated in nanoparticles compared with bulk harpin sprayed on leaves. While the fungus failed to colonise and infect tomato leaves upon extended incubation, it completely destroyed the leaves used as controls.

Laboratory studies found harpin was released from the nanoparticles in two phases. “The biopesticide adsorbed on the nanoparticles gets released in a burst in the first 48 hours followed by slow release up to 120 hours,” says Dr. Sandhya Rani Nadendla from the Department of Plant Sciences at UoH and first author of the paper.

Currently, the shelf-life of harpin nanoparticle is limited to 30 days as the encapsulation loses its efficiency. “The nanoparticles are currently stored in a liquid phase. We are trying to make some chemical changes at the time of preparation of chitosan nanoparticles to make it more stable. We are also trying to make it in a powder form by spray drying to further increase the shelf-life,” says Prof. Podile.

Tomato plants and R. solani fungal infection were only used as a model system to test the efficacy of chitosan nanoparticles containing harpin in controlling the disease. “The objective was not to develop an exclusive disease control method. We used this particular fungal infection as an index,” he says. “The plant defence activated by harpin is broad-spectrum so can control even bacteria.”

The team is planning to test harpin-containing chitosan nanoparticles on a large-scale on four different crops and at least two pathogens per crop. Two of the crops to be tested will be grown in fields and two others will be greenhouse crops.

source:http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Science / by R. Prasad / June 30th, 2018

EPAM opens Hyderabad facility

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Hyderabad :

EPAM Systems,a US-based digital platform engineering and software development services company has opened a development centre here.

The Hyderabad centre houses about 900 employees. Its Pune office has about 100 employees.

The Hyderabad facility, which has a capacity to house 1,600 employees, has a Design Studio, an Innovation Garage and a digital engineering centre. “We are planning to increase the headcount by 20 per cent this year,” Arkadiy Dobkin, Chief Executive Officer and President,EPAM, said.

Telangana Information Technology KT Rama Rao formally inaugurated the facility in the IT hub of Madhapur.

EPAM’s India operations began in 2015 as it acquired Alliance Global Services, a software product development services and test automation solutions firm.

source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home / by The Hindu Bureau / Hyderabad – June 29th, 2018

Telangana Formation Day Award for TITA

Records, All, Science & Technology

Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) has been conferred with the ‘Telangana State Formation Day Award – 2018’ recognising the efforts and services to promote digital literacy among common people.

IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao presented the award during the annual report of the IT Department. TITA was awarded under the ‘NGO with Best Outreach’ category.

100K Digithon program, Telangana Yuva Nirmaan and Telangana Innovation & Incubation Centre (TIIC) are the few major initiatives of TITA. These have been appreciated and taken as basis for award by the government and this is the third consecutive award for TITA by the Government, said a press release from global president Sundeep Kumar Makthala.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – June 04th, 2018

ICRISAT releases bio-fortified pearl millet varieties

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

The bio-fortified variety of pearl millet being grown at ICRISAT at Patancheru in Sangareddy district.

Iron and zinc levels increased using conventional breeding methods: scientist

Consuming supplementary nutrients for better health has become common. Making it more convenient, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has promoted project to include the micro-nutrients in millets.

The ICAR has set minimum levels of iron and zinc that have to be bred into the varieties of pearl millet (Bajra) available across the country. The scientists at a national-level workshop, part of the All-India Coordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet, early this year decided a minimum of 4.2 milligrams of iron per 100 grams and zinc 3.2 milligrams per 100 grams. Any variety or hybrids to be sold to farmers by public or private seed producers should follow this micro-nutrient standards apart from giving a higher yield.

Dhanashakti — the first bio-fortified pearl millet variety released in 2014 — has been a grand success and is currently being cultivated in 65,000 hectares across the country and the seed is largely being supplied by Nirmal Seeds, Maharashtra State Seed Corporation and Karnataka State Seed Corporation. The International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here has recently developed four bio-fortified pearl millet hybrids with iron and zinc — the most deficient nutrients in current diets.

The hybrids are — AHB 1200 Fe, HHB 299, RHB 233 and HHB 311 — officially released in collaboration with agricultural universities of Maharashtra (VNMKV), Haryana (CCSHAU), Rajasthan (SKNAU).

These bio-fortified varieties and hybrids will contain 7.5 to 8.0 milligrams of iron per 100 grams and 3.5 to 4.5 milligrams of zinc per 100 grams of millet.

So, consumption of 200 g/day bio-fortified bajra-based foods will provide almost 70% of daily iron and zinc requirement in men and women, and 130 gram will give 100% requirement for children.

“It took more than five years to develop these varieties with active support of ICAR and State agricultural universities. These varieties of pearl millet will offer nutrient rich food to the consumers. Minimum nutrient level has been standardized after examining as many as 120 varieties bajra across the country, ICRISAT Senior Scientist Mahalingam Govindaraj told The Hindu.

Key vitamins

“Bio-fortification is conventional crop breeding to increase micro-nutrient levels. It helps to address preventable deficiencies of key vitamins and minerals like iron, zinc and vitamin A. This project was supported by HarvestPlus Challenge program of CGIAR,” he explained.

“Since the seeds have been developed in conventional breeding method there is no need to worry. This is an excellent move in the background of malnutrition levels in India – with over 58 % of children and 50 % of pregnant women being anaemic in India, further, 38 % of children under five are stunted,” he explained.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by R. Avadhani Pattancheru (Sangareddy Dt.) / June 05th, 2018

Big leap in chickpea and pigeonpea research

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

ICRISAT partners with Israel’s genomic big-data company

Developing high nutritional varieties of chickpea and pigeonpea just got easier. With new technology, genomic processes that could have taken years were completed in a few months.

This has been possible with the work of scientists from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in collaboration with NRGene, Israel, which helped create multiple assembly lines of pigeonpea and chickpea genomes. This means scientists can not only better understand crop traits, they can also significantly speed up work on improved varieties.

With this technology from NRGene, ICRISAT has chickpea and pigeonpea genomes to a reference level quality that researchers can use. This would help maximize favourable nutritional properties of these high-protein legumes.

“The developing world has long faced the pressures of food security with limited farmland,” says Rajeev K. Varshney, research program director of Genetic Gains and director of Center of Excellence in Genomics and Systems Biology, ICRISAT. “For effective use of genomics-assisted breeding, we need reference genomes of several varieties of a given crop. Therefore, new assemblies of chickpea and pigeonpea lines by NRGene and ICRISAT will allow our scientists and partners to better understand plant traits to breed more nutritional varieties,” he adds.

ICRISAT, in partnership with other institutions, has already decoded and documented genomes of pigeonpea and chickpea (Nature Biotechnology 2013, Nature Biotechnology 2012). Traditional methods would have required years to complete each individual assembly. NRGene’s DeNovoMAGICTM 3.0 delivered multiple assemblies in a matter of months.

“While DeNovoMAGIC has been successfully deployed by the world’s leading seed companies and academic institutions, implementing this for organisations like ICRISAT enhances our mission of making an impact on the world food supply,” says Gil Ronen, CEO of NRGene, adding, “Chickpea, pigeonpea, and other protein-rich legumes will be even more critical crops in the years to come and we are glad that our technology can be used to improve the nutrition status of the world.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by Staff Reporter / Sangareddy – May 31st, 2018

Hyderabad-based Icrisat, KeyGene sign pact that will benefit farmers in Asia and Africa

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Hyderabad :

A global partnership on technologies has been signed between ICRISAT, Hyderabad and KeyGene, a Netherlands-based agricultural biotech company which will potentially benefit millions of smallholder farmers across Asia and Africa.

The partnership was entered into on May 25, 2018 in Mumbai by KeyGene and the not–for-profit scientific research organization, the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) with the signing of a Letter of Intent (LoI), for research and co-development on legumes and cereals. The two institutions will work together using novel crop innovation solutions based on KeyGene’s proprietary technologies and know-how.

The signing took place at a high profile trade mission hosted by the High Commission of The Netherlands, in presence of the Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (The Netherlands) Ms Carola Schouten, in Mumbai. The LoI was signed by Dr. Kiran K Sharma, Deputy Director General Research (Acting), ICRISAT and Dr. Arjen van Tunen, CEO, KeyGene.

KeyGene and ICRISAT will work together on innovative approaches for trait development and gene discovery. KeyGene will share its knowledge and expertise on crops and the use of KeyGene’s crop innovation platforms. This includes KeyGene’s Sequence Based Genotyping (SBG) and mutation breeding technologies. The genetically diverse grain legume resources of ICRISAT will serve as a reservoir for the identification and exploitation of useful traits. These will be used as a starting point for crop breeding and mutagenesis programs. Capacity building and skill development of start-up entrepreneurs is also envisaged in this collaboration through ICRISAT’s BioNEST-Bioincubator “BioNCube”.

“We look forward to this collaboration with ICRISAT to combine scientific expertise from both organizations. The applications of KeyGene technology in the germplasm of ICRISAT’s mandate crops can help develop highly productive and resilient crops for food and nutrition security of the poorest populations in India and Africa,” said Arjen van Tunen, CEO KeyGene.

“As part of this partnership, we are hopeful to see rapid improvements in the applications of technology and its translation into next-generation agricultural products to benefit smallholder farmers in the drylands. We also believe that the combined knowledge will enable building capacity to foster innovation in agriculture,” said Peter Carberry, Director General (Acting), ICRISAT.

The collaborative efforts are aimed at improvement of the crops such as chickpea, pigeonpea, and groundnut. It reflects the mission of both institutions – where KeyGene has been supporting organizations for R&D challenges in agriculture and ICRISAT has been partnering private sector capabilities for public good.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> India News / by Ch. Sushil Rao / TNN / May 28th, 2018

Farmer awarded, gives Governor a gift that grows

Agriculture, Amazing Feats, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

Tuber Man’s ‘seed pen’ germinates into tree after pen is disposed of

Shaji N.M., a farmer who was conferred the Biodiversity Award under special mention category by the National Biodiversity Authority, attracted many eyeballs during the award ceremony on Tuesday.

After receiving the award, he presented seed pens as return gift to the dignitaries, including Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan from whom he received the prize. “It is made of paper. You can use it as a normal disposable pen, and when the ink is exhausted, you can just throw it away. It contains a seed, which will give birth to a tree in future,” he explained.

Making seed pens is more like a hobby for Mr. Shaji, whose major occupation is conserving tuber species.

Started 20 years ago as a response to the drought conditions in Wayanad district where he lives, his passion has taken him places across the country, in search of newer tuber species. “I have a collection of 200 edible tuber species, including the rarest ones, besides herbs and medicinal plants on my four-acre land,” he says proudly.

He has shared the germplasm of the tubers with institutions such as Central Tuber Crop Research Institute and Kerala University.

Recipient of many awards, including National Plant Genome Saviour Award, Mr. Shaji’s conservation efforts are not limited to tubers; they extend to rice. He grows 17 traditional varieties of rice on the meagre plot, besides dabbling in fish farming, bee keeping and horticulture.

There were nine winners and 13 special mentions in total at the biodiversity award ceremony, among whom two were from Telangana.

Sangham Women Farmers Group from Medak won the award for ‘Sustainable use of Biological Resources’ for its efforts in traditional and organic methods of seed processing.

The Biodiversity Management Committee of Modi (Jheri) village of Kerameri mandal in Asifabad district won under special mention category, for conserving 26 native varieties of pulses and cereals. Among them, two varieties ‘Erra Machala Kandulu’ (a variety of pigeon pea) and ‘Vayunowka Jonna’ (a variety of sorghum) have been registered with the Plant Varieties and Farmer’s Rights Authority of India, while the recognition of another variety, ‘Balintha Pesalu’, is under way.

Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve Management Committee from West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh won the award for protecting the community reserve, while Lemsachenlok Organization ( Y.NukuluPhom), Longleng, Nagaland, received it in the Institutions category.

Awards were also given under Special Mention category to corporates such as Godrej & Boyce, Mumbai, and Coromandel International, Kakinada. Coringa BMC of East Godavari too won under this category.

There were five categories of awards — conservation of wild species, conservation of domesticated species, sustainable use of biological resources, replicable mechanisms for access and benefit sharing, and best biodiversity management committees.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Swathi Vadlamudi / Hyderabad – May 24th, 2018

CSR award for NMDC

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Its initiatives support education, health and skill development

Public sector iron ore miner NMDC Ltd has bagged S&P Global Platts Global Metals Award 2018 in the corporate social responsibility category.

Chairman-cum-Managing Director N. Baijendra Kumar and Director (Personnel) Sandeep Tula received the award at a function held on Thursday in London on Thursday. The honour S&P Global Platts Global Metals Award recognises top performers – industry leaders and innovators. It corporate social responsibility (CSR) award recognises the organisation that best demonstrates leadership, commitment to action and real-world social impact on social responsibility of corporate business entity, a release from NMDC said.

The public sector firm is the largest iron ore mining company in India. With iron ore production of around 35 million tonnes per annum, it has a domestic market share of about 25% (non-captive category). NMDC also extracts diamonds through its mine in Panna, which is the only mechanised diamond mine in Asia.

Mr. Kumar said the company’s CSR initiatives adopt a “flexible, inclusive, non-perspective, process-oriented approach to enable the stakeholders to determine the scope of our programmes and activities. NMDC has shown that it is possible to be profitable, while being socially and environmentally responsible”.

NMDC’s CSR spend has increased from ₹86 crore ($13.25 million) in 2011-12 to an average of ₹190 crore ($30 million) during the last three years. The company has been supporting initiatives on education, health, skill development, infrastructure creation, drinking water with a view to enhance the quality of life and empower the local population, the release said.

source:http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / May 18th, 2018

Stoves that are not just poor-friendly, but fuel-efficient

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology

The stoves created by environmental chemist Sai Bhaskar N. Reddy.

Hyderabad-based chemist creates over 50 designs that help in reducing smoke

More than 50 designs, painted in hues of blue and red that adorn the walls of a one-room museum located amid wilderness in Jangaon, were created for a single purpose – to efficiently burn.

The stoves of Sai Bhaskar N. Reddy, a city-based environmental chemist, are a result of years of travel, discovery experimentation with biomass and material to produce designs that are replicable, cheap and can improve fuel efficiency by reducing smoke.

“In 2005 at a village in Mahabubnagar, I found people cooking on three-stone stoves, but could send their children to convent schools and had dish connectivity. The biogas stoves subsidised by the government were not functional. I sought the government’s assistance to intervene, but nothing happened,” he said explaining his resolve to make biomass stoves. Dr. Reddy’s designs have been uploaded on the Internet for free use. Every design, he says, is an improvement over the previous one, to achieve improved burning of multiple types of biomass fuels. Though a large number of rural households now use LPG, a stove that burns biomass, often wood, is also used in rural homes, mainly for heating water.

The WHO estimates that nearly four million people are killed worldwide annually due to indoor pollution caused by inefficient combustion. Stoves at Dr. Reddy’s museum at Peddamadduru in Jangaon are made from low-cost aluminium boxes in which cooking oil is conventionally sold or cast iron. The gasifier variety of stoves is fitted with small fans used as exhaust in computers.

“This, I would say, is the most iconic design,” he says pointing to a stove that looks more like a traditional grill. “The 3G stove allows inflow of air at various levels during combustion. It also helps easy loading of biomass and allows for production of biochar.” Biochar, a charcoal produced from plant material, has found in use many applications, including those of environmental decontamination to agriculture. Dr. Reddy’s stoves have been used by the homeless in Mumbai, in the villages of Mahabubnagar and even possibly by refugees in Europe. “After October 2015, traffic from European nations, including Germany, to my website where I have uploaded designs has surged,” Dr. Reddy says adding that cooking apart, his stoves could also be used for heating.

A proponent of open source knowledge, Dr. Reddy says he does not monetise his designs. He believes that low-cost solutions made available online free of cost for other purposes like treating water, sanitation and makeshift houses could greatly help the poor, refugees and the homeless and help achieve the goals of development that govt.s have been striving to achieve.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Rohit P.S. / Hyderabad – May 13th, 2018