Odisha HRD

Institute of Mathematics and Applications (Bhubaneswar) comes of age; has 9 regular faculty now

The Institute of Mathematics and Applications Bhubaneswar now has 9 regular faculty and several guest faculty. Its 9 regular faculty are:

In comparison, the more established Institute of Phyiscs (IOP), Bhubaneswar currently has 18 regular faculty and 4 open positions and the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar has 13 regular faculty and is recruiting.

In terms of academic programs, IMA offers a B.Sc(Hons) in Mathematics and Computing and an M.A/M.Sc in Computational Finance. It also supervises Ph.D and post-doctoral students. It has plans to introduce a 5 yr integrated Computer Science program and a 5 yr integrated B.Math/M.Math program. The National Board for Higher Mathematics, Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India has agreed to fund the B.Math/M.Math programme. It is also involved in Math olympiads, RMTS (Rural Math Talen Search) and mathematics training camps for school students to prepare them for olympiads.

In contrast IOP offers predoc (M.Phil), doctoral (Ph.D) and post-doctoral programs and ILS offers only Ph.D and post-doctoral programs.

2 comments January 31st, 2011

NISER formalizes collaboration with KIDS and Institute of Life Sciences

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with two city-based institutes for analysing the origin and progression of stress and metabolic syndrome (SMS) and its links with diabetes. 

The NISER signed an MoU with the Kanungo Institute of Diabetes Specialities (KIDS) to carry out a collaborative project on clinical, behavioural and epidemiological data on SMS and diabetes yesterday.

It also roped in the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) to use the KIDS’ expertise in genomic studies, laboratory facilities and library for research.

… Chairman and managing director of KIDS Dr Alok Kanungo said: “While India has the highest prevalent diabetes – about 20 per cent of the total diabetic population in the world, there are 40 lakh diabetics in the state. As per statistics released by the state health department, the number of patients has been increased upto 5 lakh in the past five years.”

… “Currently more than 20 per cent of the adult population are suffering from stress related diseases due to change in lifestyle. This also leads to the pre-diabetes stage. However, we are yet to get the Indian database either on SMS or pre-diabetes. This collaboration is expected to let us know the role of Indian genetics in diabetes,” he added.

“The KIDS has a state-of-the-art super speciality diabetes centre with latest infrastructure,” he said.

“Our focus area of research will be SMS leading to diabetes and other physiological abnormalities at molecular level. The clinical, behavioural, epidemiological and susceptibility aspects of the patients of the KIDS will be studied to understand the link in Indian genetic perspective. The research is based on the private public entrepreneurship model of the NISER,” said Palok Aich, the chairperson of School of Biological Sciences, NISER.

“The ILS, being a leading centre of studies in genetics, will help our students and researchers regarding infrastructure and library use,” he said.

This is really great. Once the AIIMS-like institution gets operational it will further increase such collaboration the Biology, Life science and Human Health areas.These kind of collaborations is one of the motivation behind having clusters of institutions nearby. Their impact gets multiplied and the overall impact becomes many times the sum of their individual impact. However, Odisha needs multiple such clusters. Hence my suggestions on several tiers of clusters. See http://www.orissa2020.org/home/area-wise-plan. 

Some past relevant articles:

• Mathematics researchers in NISER and in the Bhubaneswar area.
• Status of AIIMS like institutions.
• NISER local collaboration plans.
• Ad for faculty positions at NISER.
• Faculty composition comparison across NISER and IISER.
• NISER campus layout (an older version).

August 9th, 2010

Ministry of Sc. & Technology (DST and DBT) Labs in India: None in the DST list are in Orissa

The following list is from http://dst.gov.in/autonomous/autonomous_index.htm. Orissa does not figure in that list. In 2005 Orissa was trying for one. See https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=948. But nothing seems to have happened since then. (Orissa does have the "Institute of Life Sciences" which is funded by the Department of Biotechnology, which is under the Ministry of Science of Technology.)

• Agharkar Research Institute, Pune
• Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational-Sciences, Nainital
• Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow
• Bose Institute, Kolkata
• Centre for Liquid Crystal Research, Jalahalli, Bangalore
• Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata
• International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Hyderabad
• Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
• Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Mumbai
• Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore
• National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories, New Delhi
• Raman Research Institute, Bangalore
• S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata
• Sreechitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram
• Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC), New Delhi
• Vigyan Prasar, New Delhi
• Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun

The Department of Biotechnology labs are listed in http://dbtindia.nic.in/institutions/instmain.html. They are:

1. Centre For DNA Fingerprinting And Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad (http://www.cdfd.org.in)

2. Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development  (IBSD), Imphal, Manipur (http://www.ibsd-imphal.nic.in)

3. Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar ( http://www.ilsc.org)

4. National Institute Of Immunology, New Delhi (http://www.nii.res.in )

5. National Centre For Plant Genome Research (NCPGR), JNU, New Delhi (http://www.ncpgr.nic.in)

6. National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), Gurgaon (http://www.nbrc.ac.in)

7. National Centre for Cell Sciences, Pune (http://www.nccs.res.in )

April 23rd, 2008

ILS Bhubaneswar part of a team looking for medicinal molecules in Bacterias

Following is an excerpt from a report in indiainfoline.com.

Nicholas Piramal India Ltd. said on Friday that NPIL Research & Development Ltd. (NRDL) has signed an agreement with the Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi on ‘Screening for Bio-molecules from Microbial Diversity Collected from Different Ecological Niches’, thereby initiating an industry – university / national institute partnership programme in drug discovery.

An agreement was signed on Feb. 22, in the presence of Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister of Science & Technology between the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi, and NRDL of Nicholas Piramal, Mumbai, to initiate an industry – university / national institute partnership programme in drug discovery.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has recently initiated a network project called ‘Screening for Bio-molecules From Microbial Diversity Collected From Different Ecological Niches’. The public private partnership project involves nine institutes, with NRDL, Mumbai, as an industrial partner. The total cost of the project is about Rs250mn, Rs180mn of which will be contributed by the Government and Rs70mn by NRDL.

The participating institutes are: National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur. National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune. Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi. University of Delhi, South Campus (UDSC), Delhi. Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneshwar. M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai.

Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar. Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Imphal. National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Panjim. The project envisages a mega-scale screening programme for various environmental isolates. This is the first project in the country in which industry and academia will work together to screen such a large number of bacterial isolates.

Different academic institutes will isolate organisms specific to diverse ecological niches. For each sample, isolation of bacteria will be carried out on 30 different growth media. This multi-institutional effort will generate approximately 7000 isolates / month (~1000/institute), which will be regularly sent to NRDL, the industrial partner of the project. Each of these institutes is an expert in niche areas of microbial biodiversity. The microbial isolates have not been tested for potent medicinal properties, if any.

5 comments February 23rd, 2008

List of Research Institutes in Orissa

Following is a list of research institutes in Orissa which I earlier compiled at http://orissalinks.com.

Continue Reading 33 comments May 31st, 2007