I am delighted to participate in the launching of 'BU-DRDO Centre for Excellence in Life Sciences', at this beautiful campus at the backdrop of Marudhamalai hills in the Western Ghats range. The University is named after Mahakavi Bharathiar whose poems are full of life with reverberating spirit of victory and self reliance. He recites in Saraswati Vandhanam in 'Panchali Sabatham';





This means: Physicists claim electrons of atoms are always in an orbit. Astronomers have established that every star and its planets are in an orbital motion. If perpetual motion be the nature of all systems around, O! Goddess of Learning! Kindly bless my mind also to work ceaselessly in acquisition of knowledge. I think it is an important message for all of us, for continued acquisition of knowledge, work and continued prosperity.

Bharathi called upon the Indians to continuously put their best efforts not only to achieve freedom for the nation but also make it a large economic power. For the first vision of our Nation, namely political independence the leaders and people worked for the freedom and we achieved it. We have now before us the second vision of realising a 'Developed India by 2020'.

Self-Reliance in Critical Technologies

This vision has five missions namely a) Agriculture and food processing, (b) education and health care, (c) Information and communication technology, (d) infrastructure development including power, PURA ? Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas and (e) Self reliance in critical technologies. I would like to emphasize once again that India can be developed only if it has all round economic prosperity and self-reliance in critical technologies. Therefore, it is essential that the national vision and missions must be interlinked with technology development and scientific achievements. This is possible only if there is a strong partnership between R&D organisations and Universities.

Technology is the Key for Development

In the present situation, India?s focus of education is on syllabus, curriculum and project works in the case of professional courses and higher studies. The real issue is that development of creativity among the students for innovations is still absent. If we have to create universities like Nalanda where scholars of more than 30 countries came for research, we must have research based universities in frontier areas of science and technology. A strong link with R&D laboratories and universities only can bring such dynamic environment for research in R&D projects and the results must be acknowledged world-wide. This only can build the vital knowledge resources. The research will help our industries to make competitive products which can stand in the international markets. Hence, a strong triangular partnership between R&D, Academy and Industry will only bring scientific and technological competence of the nation and thereby economic prosperity and military strength.

Technology Incubators

Realising the fact that the academic institutions and universities are the Technology Incubators, DRDO has launched major research programmes with multiple universities. One such effort of DRDO was with Bharathiar University started through an MOU in 1998. I am very happy to know that this partnership has resulted in completion of 14 R&D projects in vital areas such as, thin-film technology, bio science, physiology and psychology in partnership with 7 DRDO laboratories and the Armed Forces. With 8 more R&D projects in progress and 2 patents already filed in this research and 3 more in pipeline and with the generation of large number of post graduate and PhD scholars by Bharathiar University. This cooperation has blossomed over the last 6 years with certain core competencies. When I am in the midst of this gathering I would like to complement the BU and DRDO Scientists, Researchers and staff members for actively participating in these projects.

Mission of BU-DRDO Centre

Time is now ripe for intensive interaction between DRDO and BU in the life sciences area, encompassing environmental science, bio-sciences and bio-remediation. As a part of environmental science, it is essential to study the molecular mechanism of adaptation to various military environments. For example, the study of heat shock protein of the blood sample of an individual can be used as a bio-marker for determining the susceptibility of an individual to high altitude sickness and the level of acclimatization needed for different individuals. This type of segregation of individual will enable the army to keep a panel of individuals with low susceptibility for emergency induction into the high altitude sector. I would suggest that Bharathiar University should work towards a novel therapeutic solution to pulmonary oedema through molecular biology approach.

Bio-Nano-Info Revolution

We must take the advantage of convergence of Information and Communication technology and Nano technology with Biotechnology. This Nano-Bio-Info combination will be the future technology and solution to give advanced diagnosis and advanced health care. This centre must address to research areas related to nano-bio-info technologies and products. During my recent visit to Switzerland, I interacted with researchers of Brain Mind Research Laboratory and Nanotechnology laboratory of Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne. These laboratories are working in the areas of Brain Neuron Characterization to enable activation of ineffective neurons in the brain, particularly for the mentally challenged children. As this centre of Excellence is expected to work in bio science, I would like to suggest that the BU-DRDO centre must interact with Federal Institute of Technology in these advanced areas of research, which will lead to innovation in nano-bio-info based devices, as India and Switzerland have agreed to work on this area of research.

Conclusion

This BU-DRDO Centre of Life Sciences must also address to spin-off areas from technologies to the society which could include bio-fuel, environmental radiation protection, environment impact assessment and healthcare devices and systems.

I wish this Centre to become one of the well-known world class technology centres of excellence with full of activities and innovations in the core areas of nano-bio-info science, environmental science, bio-fuel, protein markers, physiological and psychological aspects of our Armed men working in extreme climatic conditions. This cooperation should result in providing greater mobility to scientists and academicians moving across their boundaries and enriching the academic and research environment in the University and Research Labs for mutual benefits.

May God bless you.

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