|
NIOT Develops Indigenous Data Buoy For Ocean Research
SUDHIR CHOWDHARY (Financial Express)
Thursday, July 29, 2004 at 2241 hours IST 
NEW DELHI: Researchers at the National Institute of
Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, have successfully
developed an indigenous marine technology - data buoy - for
long-term monitoring of surface meteorological and
oceanographic parameters in the coastal and deep waters of
the Indian seas.
These data buoys are
aimed at providing accurate data at regular intervals, which
help predict climatic changes, cyclones, air pressure and
temperature, and even monsoons.
The indigenous
development will not only bring down the price of the device
by one third but will also help Indian government to
increase the numbers of data buoys for ocean monitoring.
“The buoys are now
fully indigenised. The research and development (R&D)
efforts of the NIOT researchers has been instrumental in
bringing down the cost of these data buoys from Rs 60 lakh
to Rs 20 lakh,” department of ocean development (DOD)
secretary Dr Harsh K Gupta told eFE. With the indigenous
buoy technology, India is now poised to increase the number
of buoys to 80 from 20 during the Tenth Plan period, he
added.
According to Dr
Gupta, systematic time-series meteorological and
oceanographic observations are necessary to improve
oceanographic services and prediction of short and long-term
climatic changes. The existing systems for collecting the
ocean-related information are remote sensing, ships and
moored/drifting buoys. Among these, the moored data buoys
occupy an important place by providing long-term time series
observations at a fixed point.
The data buoys are
floating platforms which carry sensors to measure wind
speed, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, air
temperature, wave parameters, etc. These are equipped with
global positioning system (GPS), beacon light and satellite
transceiver and are fitted with solar panels to charge the
battery pack.
Dr Gupta said, “NIOT
has indigenously developed buoy components such as central
processing unit (CPU) for data acquisition and processing
and transmission, satellite transceiver, buoy hull,
mechanical components, solar power system, etc.”
He added that fully
indigenised buoys with INSAT communication have been
successfully deployed in shallow waters off Ennore Port and
in deep waters of Goa.
The INSAT hub system
has been commissioned for data transmission from data buoys
to various end users like Indian Navy, Ports, Indian
Meteorological Department, Coast Guard, etc. This data will
be utilised by meteorologists, oceanographers,
environmentalists, offshore engineers and scientists, for
their reference, research and development activities in the
marine-related issues, Dr Gupta said.
Top
Cost factor limiting GM cotton adoption: Study
Our Bureau
(Business Line)
Mumbai , Aug. 1
THOUGH the use of
genetically-modified (GM) cotton varieties is expanding in
many countries, the relatively slower adoption of such
varieties in some regions indicates that there may be costs
and consequences that limit the usefulness of GM varieties
in those regions.
An additional study
to evaluate the potential consequences of using genetic
engineering in cotton, including costs for seeds and
technology, the potential for gene transfer, likely
development of resistance and environmental impact, has been
initiated by the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).
The report will be presented at the plenary meeting of the
global cotton community to be held from November 29 in
Mumbai.
There is an emerging
scientific consensus that biotech cotton varieties are safe
and economical for farmers in areas where target pests are a
major threat to cotton production, the ICAC said, adding
that the current generation of biotech cotton varieties
provide insect resistance and herbicide tolerance, but there
was potential for improvement in product quality, higher
yields, lower costs and improved sustainability of
production systems.
Biotech cotton
varieties account for over a fifth of world cotton area and
an estimated 30 per cent of world cotton production in
2003-04. About a third of cotton traded in the international
market is said to be GM. Nine countries, including the US,
China, Australia, Argentina, South Africa and India,
cultivate GM cotton varieties.
In a related
development, the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO)
in a statement on the National Academy of Sciences' report
on modified foods said crops improved through biotechnology
are not inherently hazardous. It said that food safety
evaluations should be based on the resulting food product,
not the technique used to create it, and that genetic
modification applies to a wide variety of breeding
techniques, from traditional cross-breeding to chemical
radiation to transfer of genes for important traits.
In an indirect
reference to the European Union's stand on biotech crops,
the statement said that while setting future course of
regulation, the goal should be to reinforce the fundamental
principles of existing regulation, which is that all
regulations are science-based, that they focus on properties
of the transferred gene, and that the level of regulation is
based on the level of risk to public health.
Top
SC notices on cancer drug marketing rights
C.R. Sukumar
(Business Line)
Hyderabad , Aug. 6
THE debate over the
issue of exclusive marketing rights (EMRs) to overseas
pharmaceutical company took a fresh turn on Friday with the
Supreme Court issuing notices to the Central Government,
Drug Controller General of India and the Controller General
of Patents and National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority
following a petition filed by the Cancer Patients Aid
Association (CPAA).
CPAA had moved the
court alleging that the price of a widely-used cancer
fighting drug would go out of the patients' reach with the
granting of EMR in favour of the Swiss drug major Novartis.
The Supreme Court
bench comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice D.M.
Dharmadhikari issued notice to Novartis, while posting the
case for hearing after four weeks. The court also directed
the petitioners to file an affidavit on the status of the
cases filed against EMR to Novartis in other courts as well.
According to the
industry sources, "This could lead to the transfer of all
the petitions filed against granting of EMR to a single
designated court. At present, several petitions are under
various stages of hearing at courts across the country."
The petitioner
challenged the grant of EMR to Novartis for the drug Gleevec.
The drug contains a crystalline form of the compound
imatinib meyslate used for treating chronic myeloid
leukaemia. The EMR blocks duplication and sale of the drug
by any company other than Novartis for five years.
The petitioners
submitted to the Supreme Court that following the grant of
EMR to Novartis, the price of the drug would go up to Rs 1.2
lakh from Rs 4,000 at which the drug was made available to
CPAA by Indian pharmaceutical companies.
Welcoming the
Supreme Court orders, a senior official of a city-based
pharmaceutical company told Business Line that though
the judgement on the petition was pending, moving all the
cases to one designated court would expedite the issue and
find an early solution to the problem.
"We view that
granting of EMR violates the provisions of right to health
by way of denying access to medicines."
Top
ISRO May Tie Up
With Boeing On Satellites
Posted online: Friday, August 13, 2004 at
0000 hours IST
BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation might
enter into a tie-up with Boeing to jointly build and market
two-tonne class satellites for the global market, ISRO
chairman G Madhavan Nair said Thursday.
“It’s in the
discussion stage; we hope that in another month’s time, we
will have better clarity on that,” Mr Nair told reporters.
It was noted that
the US administration has already given the green signal to
Boeing Satellite Systems to negotiate a tie-up with ISRO.
Meanwhile, Mr Nair
also said that ISRO was in talks with US firm Raytheon to
sign a commercial contract to establish a ground system for
Global Positioning System augmentation, which is required
for aircraft navigation.
—PTI
Top
Indian Space Research Organisation is
identifying new technologies needed for sending a manned
mission to space, its chairman G Madhavan Nair said
Thursday.
“Questions are being asked whether we can send a person up.
We are trying to examine what needs to be done for that,” he
said.
Theoretically, it is feasible, Mr Nair told
reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
But he said a lot of new technologies would have to
bedeveloped in the areas of life-support systems and
satellite with safety and recovery features to make such a
mission possible.
“We are in the process of trying to identify such
technologies....See whether we can take such an initiative
(manned mission),” he said.
Mr Nair said a manned mission could be “very expensive”.
Though ISRO has not made an estimate, Mr Nair said it could
be more than Rs 10,000 crore.
According to him, a national debate is required whether
India has to embark on a manned mission or not. “If we
(India) decide (in favour of manned mission), we (ISRO)
don’t want to lag behind.”
However, he said, “Nobody has come forward with firm
requirement that we should have a man in space”.
—PTI
Top
Largest germplasm collection with Icrisat
Our Bureau
(Business Line)
Hyderabad , Aug. 13
THE R.S. Paroda
Genebank at the International Crops Research Institute for
Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) here has 1,13,849 accessions of
pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut
from 130 countries, according to the institute's Director
General, Dr William Dar.
``The Indian
scientists are the largest beneficiaries of the Icrisat
genebank. On an average, they have been receiving over
12,000 germplasm samples annually for research. Eleven
varieties from the basic germplasm material and 134
varieties and hybrids from breeding materials supplied by
Icrisat have been released for cultivation in India. Icrisat
has almost completed the restoration of the 44,822 germplasm
accessions to NBPGR which was requested five years ago,'' Dr
Dar stated in a press release here on Wednesday.
On the other hand,
he said, India had contributed the maximum number of
germplasm accessions from any one country. The genebank has
32,307 accessions of the 11 crops that were received as
donations from various institutions in India. Fresh
germplasm collections were made (96 missions) which resulted
in an additional 12,515 accessions. The germplasm accessions
receive high priority and attention for regeneration,
characterization, conservation and distribution.
He said that the
chickpea varieties released in Andhra Pradesh and
Maharashtra have given an additional income of $55 and $80
per hectare, respectively. The first hybrid of pigeonpea (ICPH
8) was currently under commercial production in India and it
would give about 25 per cent higher yield. Groundnut
varieties ICGS 44 and ICGV 86564 were making a significant
impact in the southern States and in Gujarat.
The press release
stated that Icrisat was also implementing contained field
trials of one transgenic groundnut variety resistant to the
Indian Peanut Clump Virus and another transgenic groundnut
variety resistant to the rosette disease. Contained field
trials were also on for transgenic pigeonpea resistant to
attack from the pod borer Helicoverpa armigera.
Top
Glaxo Gives Up
China Patent Fight for Key Ingredient in Avandia
Aug. 18 (Bloomberg)
-- GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Europe's largest drugmaker, gave up
its fight to protect a key ingredient in its leading
anti-diabetes medicine sold in China, the second reverse in
a month for a Western drug company in the $10 billion
market.
Glaxo won't proceed
with a counter-suit against Chinese drugmakers that
challenged its patent for rosiglitazone, one of three
patented ingredients in Avandia, Beijing-based spokeswoman
Lillian Xiao Weiqun said in a telephone interview.
The Chinese
government last month withdrew the patent for Viagra, the
male-impotence treatment made by Pfizer Inc., the world's
biggest drugmaker. China wants to cut the price of Western
medicines and make them more widely available to Chinese
patients, said medical research executive Robert Pollard.
``It's clear that
the perceived high price charged by Western drugmakers for
the development of these drugs is unacceptable to many
developing nations, including China,'' said Pollard,
managing director of U.K.-based Synovate Health Care.
Chinese drug
companies, including Shanghai Sunve Pharmaceutical Co. and
Taiji Group, asked the government to withdraw a patent for
the Avandia ingredient in January. Brentford,
Middlesex-based Glaxo filed a counter-suit in March asking
the companies not to infringe upon its patent.
The Chinese drug
companies hired Xu Guowen, head of Beijing Anboda Patent
Agent Co. Xu, who served on the Patent Review Committee for
17 years and helped win the Viagra case for Chinese generic
drugmakers that challenged the patent.
Avandia Sales
Glaxo decided to
drop its opposition before the case was due to be reviewed
by the State Intellectual Property Office. Spokeswoman Xiao
didn't give a reason for the decision.
The U.K. company is
confident that it can protect Avandia because it still holds
patents on the other ingredients in the drug, which helps
prevent diabetes from worsening, she said.
``Our case can't
compare with Viagra,'' Xiao said. ``We still hold two other
patents on Avandia.''
Sales of Avandia and
another diabetes drug, Avandamet, rose 18 percent in the
first quarter to 238 million pounds ($435.4 million), or
about 5 percent of Glaxo's total revenue.
Foreign companies
such as Pfizer and Glaxo account for as much as a fifth of
about $10 billion in drug sales generated annually by China,
according to Joseph Damond, associate vice president at the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, the
drug industry's largest trade group.
Top
Natural gas does
not find favour with Tata Steel
Pratim Ranjan
Bose
Business Line,
Kolkata , Aug. 24
AT a time when
several major integrated steel plants are queuing up for
natural gas linkage to reduce their rising coal bill, Tata
Steel has discounted the importance of natural gas in steel
making.
Having rich captive
sources of metallurgical coal in West Bokaro and Jharia, the
company does not consider that gas has any role to play in
the steel industry now and in the near future.
Only a fortnight
ago, at a press conference in Kolkata, GAIL India Ltd
officials expressed their interest in exploring
opportunities to sell gas to Tata Steel along with a host of
other industries, which are located along the
Jagdishpur-Kolkata grid.
But, the Tata Steel
Deputy Managing Director, Dr T Mukherjee, told Business
Line that they did not see gas becoming a cheaper option
and that it would not replace coal. "We are not in
discussion with GAIL for gas supply," he said.
Apparently, GAIL had
reasons to be optimistic about its prospects in Tata Steel
because SAIL and Vizag Steel, the two other major integrated
primary steel makers in the country, have been looking at
natural gas in an effort to reduce the coal bill.
Both SAIL and Vizag
Steel do not have captive coal mines and depend largely on
imports to meet their requirement of metallurgical coal,
which is in short supply globally.
While SAIL gets more
than 70 per cent of its coal needs through imports, the
share of imported coal goes up to 90 per cent of the total
requirement in case of Vizag Steel.
Gearing up to take
advantage of the proposed natural gas grid particularly for
its Bokaro and Durgapur steel plants, SAIL is on the verge
of signing a long-term supply pact with GAIL vis-à-vis all
four integrated steel plants. Vizag Steel is also banking
heavily on gas linkage from the Krishna-Godavari basin for
capacity expansion by 2007.
But for Tata Steel,
the situation is different. Its coal import forms just 40
per cent of the total requirement. It is used mainly for
blending. This apart, the company may have access to the
cheapest coal in the industry.
"As far as the use
of gas in new steel-making capacities are concerned, the
long term availability of gas and hence the sustainability
of steel-making operations using gas in India, is yet to be
established," the company said, adding that "natural gas may
find an application in areas like material handling,
transportation and heating in steel industry".
Top
|
