Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

• CSIR is the largest R&D organisation in India. CSIR has a pan-India presence and has a dynamic network of 38 national laboratories, 39 outreach centres, 3 Innovation Complexes and 5 units.
• It was established in Sep 1942 with HQ at Delhi.
• CSIR is funded by MoS&T and it operates as an autonomous body through the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
• CSIR covers a wide spectrum of streams – from radio and space physics, oceanography, geophysics, chemicals, drugs, genomics, biotechnology and nanotechnology to mining, aeronautics, instrumentation, environmental engineering and information technology.

Organizational Structure

• Prime Minister is the ex-officio President of CSIR.
• Vice President: Union Minister of Science and Technology (Ex-officio).
• Governing Body: The Director-General is the head of the governing body. Shekhar C Mande (Director General of CSIR)
• CSIR Advisory Board: 15-member body composed of prominent members from respective fields of S&T.
• Member terms are of 3 years.

Objectives of CSIR

• Promotion, guidance and coordination of scientific and industrial research in India.
• Establishment and assistance to special institutions or departments of existing institutions for the scientific study of problems affecting particular industries and trade.
• Establishment and award of research studentships and fellowships.
• Utilization of the results of the research conducted under the auspices of the Council towards the development of industries in the country.
• Payment of a share of royalties arising out of the development of the results of research to those who are considered as having contributed towards the pursuit of such research.
• Establishment, maintenance and management of laboratories, workshops, institutes and organisations to further scientific and industrial research.
• Collection and dissemination of information in regard not only to research but to industrial matters generally.
• Publication of scientific papers and a journal of industrial research and development.

CSIR Vision & Strategy 2022:

• Pursue science which strives for global impact, the technology that enables innovation-driven industry and nurtures trans-disciplinary leadership thereby catalyzing inclusive economic development for the people of India.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize for Science and Technology

• It is named after the founder Director of the CSIR, the late Dr Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. He played a key role in post independent S&T infrastructure and in the formulation of S&T Policies. He was also the 1st Chairman of UGC.
• It was instituted in 1957 as the most coveted and revered prize in the field of S&T in the country.

CSIR Key Achievements

Strategic Sector:

• Drishti transmissometer: It is an Indigenous - Innovative –Cost-effective visibility measuring system that provides information to pilots on visibility for safe landing & take-off operations.
• CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) made a significant contribution by developing indigenous Head-Up- display(HUD) for Indian Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. HUD aids the pilot in flying the aircraft and in critical flight manoeuvres including weapon aiming.
• Design and development of Indigenous Gyrotron for nuclear fusion reactor have been accomplished. A gyrotron is a vacuum electronic device (VED) capable to generate high-power, high-frequency THz radiation.

Energy & Environment:

• Solar Tree: It designed by CSIR- The Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) lab in Durgapur. It occupies minimum space to produce clean power.
• Lithium-Ion Battery: The Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI), Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu, has set up the first indigenous Li-ion fabrication facility that has applications in defence, solar-powered devices, railways and other high-end usages.

Agriculture:

• Enhanced cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants in the country brought through the development of new varieties and agro-technologies.
• Samba Mahsuri Rice Variety: CSIR in collaboration with ICAR developed an improved bacterial blight resistant Samba Mahsuri variety.
• Rice Cultivar (Muktashree) for Arsenic Contaminated Areas: A rice variety has been developed which restricts assimilation of Arsenic within the permissible limit.
• White-fly resistant Cotton variety: Developed a transgenic cotton line which is resistant to whiteflies.

Healthcare:

• Johne's Disease Vaccine for Farm Animals: affecting Sheep, Goat, Cow and Buffalo so as to immunize them and increase milk & meat production.
• Plasma Gelsolin Diagnostic Kit for Premature Births, and Sepsis-related Deaths: It is developed to diagnose premature birth and sepsis.
• A programme called GOMED (Genomics and other omics technologies for Enabling Medical Decision) provides a platform of disease genomics to solve clinical problems.

Food & Nutrition:

• Ksheer-scanner: It is a new technological invention by CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) to detect the level of milk adulteration.
• Double-Fortified Salt: Salt fortified with iodine and iron having improved properties developed and tested for addressing anaemia in people.
• Anti-obesity DAG Oil: Oil enriched with Diacylglycerol (DAG) instead of conventional triacylglycerol (TAG) developed.

Water:

• Aquifer Mapping of Water Scarce Areas: in 6 different geological locations in Rajasthan (2), Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
• Understanding the Special Properties of the Ganga Water: An assessment of water quality & sediment analysis of Ganga from different parts being done.

Waste to Wealth:

• Non-toxic Radiation Shielding Material for X-ray Protection: They are utilizing industrial waste like red mud (from aluminium industries) and fly ash (Thermal Power Plants). It has been accredited by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) for application in diagnostic X-Ray rooms.
• Waste Plastic to Fuel: Process for conversion of waste plastics to gasoline/diesel or aromatics developed.
• The Indelible Mark: The Indelible ink used to mark the fingernail of a voter during elections is a time-tested gift of CSIR since 1952 to the spirit of democracy. It is also exported to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Turkey and other democracies.
• Skill development: covers Leather process Technology; Leather Footwear & Garments; Paints & coatings for corrosion protection; Electroplating & Metal Finishing; Lead Acid Battery maintenance; Glass Beaded Jewellery / Blue Pottery; Industrial Maintenance Engineering; Internet of Things (IoT); and Regulatory – Preclinical Toxicology.

Aviation:

• The CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories has designed a plane 'SARAS'.
• In 2011, successfully tested India's 1st indigenous civilian aircraft, NAL NM5 made in association with National Aerospace Laboratories and Mahindra Aerospace.

CSIR has established the first-ever 'Traditional Knowledge Digital Library' in the world.

• CSIR developed this in collaboration with Ministry of AYUSH.
• It is accessible in 5 international languages( English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish).
• CSIR successfully challenged the grant of patent in the USA for use of Haldi (turmeric) for wound healing and neem as an insecticide on the basis of traditional knowledge.

10% of CSIR staff exposed to COVID-19, survey finds

• A first such pan-India survey tracking nearly 10,000 employees of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on the prevalence of COVID-19 found that nearly 10% of the staff were infected.
• Key neutralising antibodies that protect against the virus waned after infection, but were at “detectable levels” even after six months — a proxy for the period of effectiveness of future vaccination and general immunity, the serology survey found.
• About three-fourths of the respondents could not recall having experienced a single one of the symptoms commonly associated with the disease, and a vegetarian diet and smoking appeared to be “protective” against the infection.
• In August, the CSIR announced a project to track 10,000 employees of the organisation for at least 30 years to track an array of health vitals and genes.
• The overarching aim is to be able to build a medical cohort to give long-term perspective on the malaises that affect Indians, and determine if such a data bank can be used to help with predicting, say, the onset of diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

‘Longitudinal study’

• The CSIR has some 40 labs across the country in nearly every State and its staff — from scientific staff to contractual employees — is a microcosm of India, Shantanu Sengupta, Scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), among the corresponding authors of the study, told The Hindu.
• “This is a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study anywhere in the world in that we are tracking a cohort over time and will continue to do so. Some of the associations, of smoking and vegetarianism, are significant, but we can now only speculate on why this is so. We don’t yet have a cause,” he said in a phone conversation.
• An association between smoking and protection against SARS-CoV-2, or lower odds of infection by the virus, has also been reported in studies in China and France.
• CSIR staff and family members who volunteered to be part of the survey filled out questionnaires on their lifestyle, food and disease histories.
• They were also tested with two different kinds of antibody tests to study the kinds of antibodies that were produced following infection.
• It usually takes a week to a fortnight after being infected for antibodies to be detected in the blood.
• A serology survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has estimated 7% exposure to SARS-CoV-2 until mid-August, and a modelling exercise by the National Supermodel Committee estimated that 30% may have been exposed by September.