CSIR Recent Achievements (Since May 2004)
The 'inaugural' flight of SARAS took place at 8.20 a.m. on Sunday, 22 August 2004. All those worries about a wet morning disrupting the SARAS flying display evaporated as the SARAS soared stylishly into the skies to a thunderous ovation.
Joining the applause to hail this remarkable step forward in Indian civil aviation were Mr Kapil Sibal, Minister of State for Science & Technology and Ocean Development and CSIR's Vice President, Dr R A Mashelkar, DG-CSIR, Dr V S Ramamurthy, Secretary, DST, Mr N R Mohanty, Chairman, HAL, Dr T S Prahlad and Directors of 35 CSIR establishments.
In his generous response, the Minister of State for Science & Technology and Ocean Development, Mr Kapil Sibal told the SARAS team: "you have given a great gift to the nation today; an order for 30 aircraft would be a small way to compensate this effort's. In his splendidly articulated address, Mr Sibal described the Sunday morning as a "day of great pride". "As the SARAS soared skywards, our spirits soared too. You've grown wings for the Indian nation today!"
Dr T S Prahlad, NAL's former Director and, in many ways, the "Godfather" of the SARAS project, then offered a very detailed narrative of how the SARAS development unfolded. In one of his best-articulated speeches, Dr Prahlad recounted how NAL went through moments both of extreme exultation and deep disappointment. "Building a SARAS kind of aircraft with no legacy databases or expertise to fall back on is indeed a profound challenge", he said. Dr Prahlad thanked CSIR and Dr Mashelkar for providing "vital energy" to the SARAS project.
President of India 14 July 2004
"Launching of this product will put India on the global map in the knowledge area encompassing computational biology, post-genomic drug discovery and so on. The sale of Bio-Suite at competitive prices will enable the Indian students to be trained in bio-informatics and the Indian biotechnology Industry to develop newer products by using software at a fraction of the cost of imported software."
Phase I trial of new TB molecule expected to begin in October
MUMBAI, SEPT 7 (PTI)
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Director General Dr Raghunath A Mashelkar today said the phase I trial of `sudoterb', the new molecule for the treatment of TB, is expected to begin in October this year.
Sudoterb, the result of a private-public partnership, is expected to get mandatory clearance from the Drug Controller of India to carry out the clinical trial by the end of this month, Mashelkar told media here.
The molecule, which may help reduce the treatment time from eight months to two months, could be easily taken by poor patients, he said while highlighting some of the achievements of CSIR.
The new molecule developement is done under the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Intiative Project launched by the CSIR and has been discovered by Lupin Laboratories in partnership with four institutions.
The drug may be available to the patients only after four years, he said adding, the venture is also in the process of developing new delivery systems for the benefit of TB patients.
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