CSIR stands tall with 10 innovations in 2018

Hyderabad: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has had an exciting 2018 where India’s first biofuel powered flight, aerospace technology, research in rare diseases, stroke, artificial intelligence and water disinfection have seen a major boost. Ranked 9th in the world, amongst a total of 1,207 government institutions, according to Scimago Institutions ranking, the institute has come a long way. These are ten exciting achievements which are going to take shape in the year 2019.

First biofuel powered flight from Dehradun to Delhi on August 27, 2018: The indigenously produced aviation biofuel technology took its maiden flight on August 27. This enables India to join the club of nations that use biofuel in aviation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent and sulphur oxide emissions by 99 per cent. The objective is to evaluate the system performance in 20 flights and collect the data so that the design for the 19-seater aircraft can be freezed.

Mission of sickle cell anaemia, started in 2018 was to understand the genetic basis of the disease. The management of SCA, genome editing and stem cell research approach for the treatment of the disease were included. The aim is to have an on-ground implementation of an affordable, accurate and accelerated diagnostic kit.

Development of a new clot buster, PEGylated Streptokinase for the treatment of ischemic strokes, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism which will help in the treatment of strokes.

With 72,611,605 million Indians suffering from rare diseases there is a need for cost effective genetic tests which can be provided to the people. CSIR is working with a private company for licensing of 27 approved genetic tests which can be used commercially and will be launched in 2019.

Stents made from simple polymer-metal composites unlike the memory alloy based stents have been developed at a much lower cost by CSIR, whose technology is being transferred to two companies for commercial use. These stents will be cheaper than the currently available stents. Stents are not only used in the heart but also in other parts of the body like in urinary problems where the use is going to increase.

Artificial intelligence super computer with a cutting edge technology has been developed. AI has also been developed for differentiating human and cattle movement from that of vehicles to check on the drug influx at the borders. The system generates an alarm and sends sky information via email and text messages.

Drinking water disinfection system has been developed where the technology has been transferred to a private water purifier to make water at Rs 2 paise per litre available. Presently the model is only of community level of 450 LPH capacity and will be scaled up to 5000 to 1 lakh litre per day.

2,119 hectares have been developed in 15 months for aroma mission where the aroma crops like damask rose, palmarosa, chamomile and improved variety of lemon grass are studied.

Waterless tanning technology with tanners in all clusters will protect the water bodies as the traditional technology used in tanneries is harmful for water bodies. While 50 tanneries are using this technology now it has to be transferred aggressively so that the water bodies can be saved.

Eco-friendly disposal of municipal solid waste by utilising the gases. The technology developed has been transferred to a private company and commercial use has to be within a period of 5 years.