Indian Science and Technology Developments : Updates and Discussions
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First India-made MRI scanner developed by the Bangalore-based Voxelgrids Innovations to be launched for clinical work in October . Its a new class of scanner characterized by several innovations, including avoiding reliance on scarcely available liquid helium, bottom-up software design, and customized hardware . would be “40% cheaper” than the new ones currently available in the market .
www.thehindu.com
Significant development in my opinion as MRI scanner is produced by few MNCs . The cost involved in purchase and maintenance is very high .
First India-made MRI scanner to be launched for clinical work in October
India faces MRI scanner shortage due to helium shortage. Bengaluru-based Voxelgrids Innovations has developed a new MRI scanner that avoids reliance on helium, and uses cheaper, more abundant liquid nitrogen. The scanner is 40% cheaper than current models, and can be transported to healthcare...
Significant development in my opinion as MRI scanner is produced by few MNCs . The cost involved in purchase and maintenance is very high .
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Researchers from the Department of Biochemistry at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed an innovative imaging technique to examine how bases, the building blocks of DNA – stack up on top of each other in a single strand.
pioneering research could pave the way for the construction of intricate DNA nanodevices and provide crucial insights into the fundamental structure of DNA.
www.thehindubusinessline.com
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati in collaboration with scientists from Christian Medical College, Vellore, have reported a method to convert regular human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells. . The conversion of mature cells into iPSCs was first shown by Prof Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his discovery. . iPSCs can be programmed to become beta islet cells to treat diabetes, blood cells to treat leukaemia, or neurons to treat disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
economictimes.indiatimes.com
pioneering research could pave the way for the construction of intricate DNA nanodevices and provide crucial insights into the fundamental structure of DNA.
Imaging technique reveals potential for advanced DNA nanodevices: IISc
Scientists from IISc use imaging to identify how DNA building blocks stack on a single strand, paving way for nanodevices & insights into DNA structure. Base-stacking interactions are stronger than base-pairing & can amplify DNA stability by 250x. DNA-PAINT used to study 16 combinations & build...
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati in collaboration with scientists from Christian Medical College, Vellore, have reported a method to convert regular human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells. . The conversion of mature cells into iPSCs was first shown by Prof Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his discovery. . iPSCs can be programmed to become beta islet cells to treat diabetes, blood cells to treat leukaemia, or neurons to treat disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
Multi institutional team led by IIT Guwahati produces pluripotent stem cells from skin cells
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) and Christian Medical College Vellore have developed a safe method to create pluripotent stem cells from regular human skin cells. The conversion of mature cells into iPSCs was first shown by Prof. Shinya Yamanaka, who won the...
IIT Delhi researchers achieve secure quantum communication for 380 km in standard telecom fiber
This long secure length is highest achieved so far, not only in India but first globally for DPS QKD protocol
TNN | Posted October 07, 2023 11:41 AM
Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have achieved a trusted-node-free quantum key distribution (QKD) up to 380 km in standard telecom fiber with a very low quantum bit error rate (QBER).
According to the institution, this long secure length is the highest achieved so far, not only in India but first globally for the Differential Phase Shift (DPS) QKD protocol, keeping IIT Delhi at the forefront of research and development in quantum communication technologies. Such low QBER enables the DPS QKD scheme resistant to collective and individual attacks and implementable for various applications, such as securing financial transactions, medical records, and secret codes. It is also capable of securing network communication, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), and is ready to revolutionize the field of cyber security.
Bhaskar Kanseri, lead researcher and associate professor at the Physics Department and Optics and Photonics Centre, said, “This realisation using state-of-the-art technology would not only help in reducing the need for trusted nodes for intercity or long-distance quantum key exchange, increasing the security of the cryptography scheme, but would also prove to be a crucial step towards the commercial production of long-distance secure practical QKD devices.”
“In quantum communication, security is guaranteed by the laws of Quantum Physics and, in principle, it cannot be broken even using a quantum computer. This QKD demonstration shows methods to get rid of the intermediate trusted nodes, which are weak security loopholes and are vulnerable to several kinds of attacks. It paves the way for more secure long-distance communication useful for strategic areas such as defence and online banking, making digital transactions safer in the near future,” added Kanseri.
The researchers conducted this study using the baseline error optimisation method at their Experimental Quantum Interferometry and Polarization (EQUIP) lab.
According to Kanseri, the current DPS QKD demonstration for the first time optimizes most of the sources of errors, which are mainly due to the laser linewidth, modulation bandwidth, detector noise, and dispersion of fibers, resulting in the least QBER (less than 2.5%) achieved so far, which is an international record for such a large distance in fiber.
In this research, Prof. Bhaskar Kanseri was joined by research scholars Nishant Kumar Pathak, Sumit Chaudhary, and Sangeeta.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: IIT Delhi researchers achieve secure quantum communication for 380 km in standard telecom fiber - EducationTimes.com
Phase encoded quantum key distribution up to 380 km in standard telecom grade fiber enabled by baseline error optimization - Scientific Reports
This long secure length is highest achieved so far, not only in India but first globally for DPS QKD protocol
TNN | Posted October 07, 2023 11:41 AM
Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have achieved a trusted-node-free quantum key distribution (QKD) up to 380 km in standard telecom fiber with a very low quantum bit error rate (QBER).
According to the institution, this long secure length is the highest achieved so far, not only in India but first globally for the Differential Phase Shift (DPS) QKD protocol, keeping IIT Delhi at the forefront of research and development in quantum communication technologies. Such low QBER enables the DPS QKD scheme resistant to collective and individual attacks and implementable for various applications, such as securing financial transactions, medical records, and secret codes. It is also capable of securing network communication, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), and is ready to revolutionize the field of cyber security.
Bhaskar Kanseri, lead researcher and associate professor at the Physics Department and Optics and Photonics Centre, said, “This realisation using state-of-the-art technology would not only help in reducing the need for trusted nodes for intercity or long-distance quantum key exchange, increasing the security of the cryptography scheme, but would also prove to be a crucial step towards the commercial production of long-distance secure practical QKD devices.”
“In quantum communication, security is guaranteed by the laws of Quantum Physics and, in principle, it cannot be broken even using a quantum computer. This QKD demonstration shows methods to get rid of the intermediate trusted nodes, which are weak security loopholes and are vulnerable to several kinds of attacks. It paves the way for more secure long-distance communication useful for strategic areas such as defence and online banking, making digital transactions safer in the near future,” added Kanseri.
The researchers conducted this study using the baseline error optimisation method at their Experimental Quantum Interferometry and Polarization (EQUIP) lab.
According to Kanseri, the current DPS QKD demonstration for the first time optimizes most of the sources of errors, which are mainly due to the laser linewidth, modulation bandwidth, detector noise, and dispersion of fibers, resulting in the least QBER (less than 2.5%) achieved so far, which is an international record for such a large distance in fiber.
In this research, Prof. Bhaskar Kanseri was joined by research scholars Nishant Kumar Pathak, Sumit Chaudhary, and Sangeeta.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: IIT Delhi researchers achieve secure quantum communication for 380 km in standard telecom fiber - EducationTimes.com
Phase encoded quantum key distribution up to 380 km in standard telecom grade fiber enabled by baseline error optimization - Scientific Reports
Aerostrovilos Energy: Aiming to be the Tesla of micro gas turbines
Aerostrovilos Energy is building India's first indigenous micro gas turbines for commercial use
BY HARICHANDAN ARAKALI,
Oct 19, 2023 03:13:42 PM IST
The Aerostrovilos Energy team: (From left) Rohit Grover, co-founder & CEO, Pradeep Thangappan, co-founder and COO, Dr Satyanarayanan, co-founder advisor, combustion expert.
Aerostrovilos is made of two Greek words, one for air and the other that comes close to describing a turbine, Rohit Grover and Pradeep Thangappan had explained in a chat with Forbes India almost three years ago. With their IIT Madras-incubated venture Aerostrovilos Energy, they were hoping to become the makers of India’s first indigenous micro gas turbines for commercial use.
Their original timetable would have had them close to a commercial product this year, but even if the Covid pandemic had not happened, such are the challenges of deep-science-based ventures that getting everything right almost always takes longer than one initially anticipates. Ask Elon Musk if you like, whose full-stack tech at Tesla inspires Grover and Thangappan.
“We want to be the Tesla of micro gas turbines,” says Grover.
Their first small turbine will be a 100 kW unit that will be compact enough to sit below the cabin of a truck, to generate enough electricity that will easily run the vehicle. This combination of a fossil fuel burning gas turbine and an electric power train offers several advantages, including low emissions, especially when the day comes when hydrogen will be the fuel for the turbine, and much higher power-to-weight ratio.
Proprietary to Aerostrovilos is the combustion tech that the venture has developed in collaboration with IIT Madras’s National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD). This patented tech makes the turbine they’re developing one that can deliver higher efficiency because of the way the fuel and air is mixed for burning and superior thermal management.
Such processes—for example, the “swirl mesh lean direct injection”—are well understood in the aviation industry, but Grover and Thangappan are bringing them to the Indian automotive world and for power gensets. They’ve also innovated to use materials that aren’t costly like the aviation-grade materials used in those turbines. And the same combustor can also burn different fuels—from diesel to hydrogen.
Ashok Leyland partnered with them in October 2022, offering a letter of support and a 9-metre passenger electric bus to test the turbine with. Aerostrovilos is also collaborating with a large Japanese company; the entrepreneurs haven’t revealed its name. A minimum viable product will likely be ready in early 2025, and more likely in the genset segment.
A version that will go into a commercial truck—which needs various certifications—will follow.
And as to local manufacture, “we are aiming for 80 to 90 percent indigenisation, while currently we are at 30 to 40 percent”, Thangappan says. “We think we can get there.”
Aerostrovilos Energy: Aiming To Be The Tesla Of Micro Gas Turbines - Forbes India
Photo of the 5kW scaled down prototype under cold-flow testing:
Video of cold flow test:
Aerostrovilos Energy is building India's first indigenous micro gas turbines for commercial use
BY HARICHANDAN ARAKALI,
Oct 19, 2023 03:13:42 PM IST
The Aerostrovilos Energy team: (From left) Rohit Grover, co-founder & CEO, Pradeep Thangappan, co-founder and COO, Dr Satyanarayanan, co-founder advisor, combustion expert.
Aerostrovilos is made of two Greek words, one for air and the other that comes close to describing a turbine, Rohit Grover and Pradeep Thangappan had explained in a chat with Forbes India almost three years ago. With their IIT Madras-incubated venture Aerostrovilos Energy, they were hoping to become the makers of India’s first indigenous micro gas turbines for commercial use.
Their original timetable would have had them close to a commercial product this year, but even if the Covid pandemic had not happened, such are the challenges of deep-science-based ventures that getting everything right almost always takes longer than one initially anticipates. Ask Elon Musk if you like, whose full-stack tech at Tesla inspires Grover and Thangappan.
“We want to be the Tesla of micro gas turbines,” says Grover.
Their first small turbine will be a 100 kW unit that will be compact enough to sit below the cabin of a truck, to generate enough electricity that will easily run the vehicle. This combination of a fossil fuel burning gas turbine and an electric power train offers several advantages, including low emissions, especially when the day comes when hydrogen will be the fuel for the turbine, and much higher power-to-weight ratio.
Proprietary to Aerostrovilos is the combustion tech that the venture has developed in collaboration with IIT Madras’s National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD). This patented tech makes the turbine they’re developing one that can deliver higher efficiency because of the way the fuel and air is mixed for burning and superior thermal management.
Such processes—for example, the “swirl mesh lean direct injection”—are well understood in the aviation industry, but Grover and Thangappan are bringing them to the Indian automotive world and for power gensets. They’ve also innovated to use materials that aren’t costly like the aviation-grade materials used in those turbines. And the same combustor can also burn different fuels—from diesel to hydrogen.
Ashok Leyland partnered with them in October 2022, offering a letter of support and a 9-metre passenger electric bus to test the turbine with. Aerostrovilos is also collaborating with a large Japanese company; the entrepreneurs haven’t revealed its name. A minimum viable product will likely be ready in early 2025, and more likely in the genset segment.
A version that will go into a commercial truck—which needs various certifications—will follow.
And as to local manufacture, “we are aiming for 80 to 90 percent indigenisation, while currently we are at 30 to 40 percent”, Thangappan says. “We think we can get there.”
Aerostrovilos Energy: Aiming To Be The Tesla Of Micro Gas Turbines - Forbes India
Photo of the 5kW scaled down prototype under cold-flow testing:
Video of cold flow test:
Another failure in the making, good luck sourcing 80pc budget from dhandos.
Yaha bhi chindi chori kar diya govt ne.
R&D has become joke under chodi govt, if they don't want to spend on r&d then why don't they announce it publicly instead of this drama and jumlebaazi every year.
Yaha bhi chindi chori kar diya govt ne.
R&D has become joke under chodi govt, if they don't want to spend on r&d then why don't they announce it publicly instead of this drama and jumlebaazi every year.
India: First patient declared ‘cancer-free’ using indigenous CAR-T cell therapy.
WION Web Team
New Delhi, India
Updated: Feb 07, 2024, 08:13 PM IST
The therapy, NexCAR19, is developed by ImmunoACT and Tata Memorial Hospital Photograph
Others)
(With inputs from agencies)
India: First patient declared ‘cancer-free’ using indigenous CAR-T cell therapy
WION Web Team
New Delhi, India
Updated: Feb 07, 2024, 08:13 PM IST
The therapy, NexCAR19, is developed by ImmunoACT and Tata Memorial Hospital Photograph
Others)STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The patient accessed the therapy by paying just INR 42 lakh or $50,000, whereas a similar therapy costs up to INR 4 crore $480,000 abroad.
A few months ago, India’s drug regulator Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), approved the commercial use of CAR-T cell therapy. The therapy includes genetically reprogramming a patient’s immune system to fight cancer.
Today, the therapy has turned out to be a lifesaver for many patients, including for Dr (Col) V K Gupta, a Delhi-based gastroenterologist with 28 years of experience of working in the Indian Army, Indian Express reported.
He accessed the therapy by paying just INR 42 lakh or $50,000, whereas a similar therapy costs up to INR 4 crore $480,000 abroad.
Doctors at the Tata Memorial Hospital, where Gupta underwent the procedure, said he is “currently free of cancer cells.” Gupta is the first patient to have achieved this status, something he could only dream of just a year ago.
The doctor who performed the therapy on Gupta said he was totally free of cancer cells. “While it’s premature to claim a lifelong cure, the patient is currently free of cancer cells,” Dr Hasmukh Jain, hemato-oncologist and associate professor at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre, was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
Still premature to tell success rate.
However, the doctor added that it was still premature to talk about the success rate of the therapy. He said the initial findings suggest “better survival chances and lower remission rates” for patients in the early stages of cancer.
"Years of data are needed to identify potential relapse timelines for patients, if any are ever reported among these patients,” Jain said.
The therapy.
The therapy, NexCAR19, is developed by ImmunoACT, a company incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), IIT-B and Tata Memorial Hospital. It focuses on treating B-cell cancers (types of cancers that form in the immune system’s cells) such as leukaemia and lymphoma.
The CDSCO approved its commercial use in October 2023. Today, the therapy is available in over 30 hospitals in more than 10 cities in India. Patients aged above 15, who are suffering from B-cell cancers are eligible for the treatment.Today, the therapy has turned out to be a lifesaver for many patients, including for Dr (Col) V K Gupta, a Delhi-based gastroenterologist with 28 years of experience of working in the Indian Army, Indian Express reported.
He accessed the therapy by paying just INR 42 lakh or $50,000, whereas a similar therapy costs up to INR 4 crore $480,000 abroad.
Doctors at the Tata Memorial Hospital, where Gupta underwent the procedure, said he is “currently free of cancer cells.” Gupta is the first patient to have achieved this status, something he could only dream of just a year ago.
The doctor who performed the therapy on Gupta said he was totally free of cancer cells. “While it’s premature to claim a lifelong cure, the patient is currently free of cancer cells,” Dr Hasmukh Jain, hemato-oncologist and associate professor at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre, was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
Still premature to tell success rate.
However, the doctor added that it was still premature to talk about the success rate of the therapy. He said the initial findings suggest “better survival chances and lower remission rates” for patients in the early stages of cancer.
"Years of data are needed to identify potential relapse timelines for patients, if any are ever reported among these patients,” Jain said.
The therapy.
The therapy, NexCAR19, is developed by ImmunoACT, a company incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), IIT-B and Tata Memorial Hospital. It focuses on treating B-cell cancers (types of cancers that form in the immune system’s cells) such as leukaemia and lymphoma.
(With inputs from agencies)
India: First patient declared ‘cancer-free’ using indigenous CAR-T cell therapy
Why has India developed an atmospheric testbed near Bhopal?
Funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), the facility will house 25 high-end meteorological instruments for studying vital cloud processes associated with the monsoons over central India’s Monsoon Core Zone (MCZ).
indianexpress.com
A micro-accelerator for MeV electrons: TIFR Hyderabad researchers generate super-fast electrons with table-top laser systems
Peer-Reviewed Publication
TATA INSTITUTE OF FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH
TATA INSTITUTE OF FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH
In massive particle accelerators, sub-atomic particles (like electrons) are sped up to super-high speeds comparable to the speed of light towards a target surface. The collision of accelerated sub-atomic particles gives rise to unique interactions enabling scientists to obtain a deeper understanding of the fundamental properties of matter.
Conventionally, laser-based particle accelerators require expensive lasers (in the range of 1-20 million USD) and are contained in massive national facilities. A set-up as complex as this is able to accelerate electrons to megaelectronvolt (MeV) energies. But can a simpler laser costing only a tiny fraction of the presently used lasers, be used for designing comparable schemes of particle acceleration?
Representative Image
In an exciting leap, scientists from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad (TIFRH) have designed an elegant solution to successfully generate MeV (106 eV) temperature electrons at a mere fraction (100 times smaller) of the laser intensity previously thought necessary. The technique implements two laser pulses; first to create tiny, controlled explosion in a microdroplet, followed by a second pulse to accelerate electrons to megaelectronvolt (MeV) energies. What's even more exciting is that they achieved this with a laser that's 100 times less than what was previously thought necessary, making it more accessible and versatile for future research! The implications of this discovery can be dramatic due to the ability to produce high-energy electron beams for applications that range from non-destructive testing, imaging, tomography and microscopy and can influence material science to biological sciences.
The set-up developed by TIFRH researchers uses a millijoule class laser, firing at a rate of 1000 pulses a second with ultrashort 25 fs pulses, and is used to dynamically chisel micro-droplets of 15 µm diameter. This dynamic target shaping involves two laser pulses working in tandem. The first pulse crafts a concave surface in the liquid drop, and the second pulse drives electrostatic plasma waves, propelling electrons to MeV energies.
Electrostatic waves are oscillations in plasma are much like the mechanical disturbances created in a water pond when you through a stone. Here the laser creates disturbances in the sea of electrons and generates an “electron tsunami” that breaks to give high energy electrons much like the splash of a wave in the sea coast. The process generates not one but two electron beams, each with distinct temperature components: 200 keV and 1 MeV. This innovation, produces directed electron beams beyond 4 MeV with a laser that fits on a tabletop, making it a game-changer for time-resolved, microscopic studies across diverse scientific fields.
A micro-accelerator for mega-electronvolt electrons: TIFR Hyderabad researchers generate super-fast electrons with table-top laser systems
<p>Conventional laser-based electron acceleration schemes hinge on the generation of high accelerating electric fields that require massive and complex lasers. Challenging this limitation of large lasers, researchers at TIFRH have found a ground-breaking way to generate super-fast electrons with...
www.eurekalert.org