A Critical Perspective on the Indian Experience

Growth in the use of satellites for education has been phenomenal in India. Beginning in the 1970s with the SITE project (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment) using a borrowed US satellite, then in the 1980s having its own indigenous INSAT satellite for educational TV, to having a full fledged educational channel on national TV in the 1990s, to the potential of 72 educational channels on EDUSAT at the beginning of the 21st century, shows long-term interest and commitment to this sector

Marine ornamental fishes and their breeding: CMFRI initiatives

The marine ornamental fish trade is a sunrise industry in aquaculture and has become a growing industry worldwide. As a result the trade of marine ornamentals has been expanding in recent years and has grown into a multimillion dollar enterprise mainly due to the emergence of modern aquarium gadgets and technologies for setting and maintenance of miniature reef aquaria. Since the marine ornamental trade is operated throughout the tropics, the global marine ornamental trade is estimated at US$ 200- 330 million. Since India is endowed with a vast resource potential of marine ornamentals distributed in the coral seas and rocky coasts with patchy coral formations and the increasing the demand in the domestic trade, it appears very much lucrative for India to venture into this industry

PHARMACOGNOSTICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF THE DRUG SAHADEVI (CYANTHILLIUM CINEREUM (L.) H. ROB.)

Sahadevi (Cyanthillium cinereum (L.) H.Rob.) (Family Asteraceae) commonly known as Purple Fleabane in English, Sahadei in Hindi and Poovankurunthila in Malayalam, an erect annual branched herb with pubescent cylindrical stem found as a weed throughout India is extensively used in folkore medicine. The present paper highlights the pharmacognostical and phytochemical characters of the plant to give clear standards for identification of the drug. Microscopic evaluation of root, stem and leaf as well powder microscopy of the plant were carried out. Physicochemical parameters like moisture content, total ash, water insoluble ash, acid insoluble ash, volatile oil content, sugar content, fibre content, alcohol soluble extractive and water soluble extractive were studied. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of the plant Sahadevi [Cyanthillium cinereum (L.) H.Rob.] showed the presence of steroid, flavonoid, glycoside, saponins and tannin. The present study signifies the use of TLC and HPTLC fingerprint profiles of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of the drug for determining the identity, purity of the drug and also for developing standards. The findings drawn from the study substantiates the genuineness of the drug Sahadevi [Cyanthillium cinereum (L.) H.Rob.], which is at par with the descriptions available in the authentic books

Manual on Entrepreneur-Ready Technologies of CMFRI

CMFRI presented five entrepreneur- ready technologies in the “Innovation 4 Industry Meet” organized by Zonal Technology Management Centre, Business Planning & Development Unit (ZTMCBPDU), South Zone, CIFT and National Fisheries Development Board held at Visakhapatnam on 8th September 2010 and in the ‘Rural Technology Mela’ organized by National Institute of rural Development at Hyderabad during 2nd to 5th February, 2011. A detailed presentation and exposition including prospective business proposals on the five technologies namely‘Green Mussel extract (GMe)’, ‘Varna (the marine ornamental fish feed)’, ‘Broodstock development, captive breeding and larval production of 17 species of marine ornamental fishes’, ‘Larval production of Cobia fish’ and ‘A device for breeding and culturing marine fish in open sea through cage farming’ were made in the meets. ‘Open sea cage farming in HDPE cage’ and ‘Low cost cage farming in GI cage’ were show-cased in the recently held ICAR-CII Industry Meet organized at NAAS Complex, New Delhi on 23rd May, 2011. The presentation and the exhibition in these meets got the attention of many prospective industrialists/ entrepreneurs which resulted in signing up of a few business proposals

Cross-correlations in NMR

The phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) involves placing magnetically active nuclear spins embedded in a gas, liquid or solid phase in a constant, large and uniform magnetic field, causing a splitting of magnetic energy levels.Energy can be absorbed by these spins from a resonant radiofrequency (RF) field causing transitions between these levels. Immediately following this absorption, the spins start to exchange this energy among themselves and also pass it on to other degrees of freedom, that is, the spins start to relax. Relaxation is central to the NMR phenomenon as a necessary prerequisite for its detection. It is also used as a probe for obtaining information on the local environment of the spins and about the dynamics of the molecules in which the spins are embedded