Hyderabad: CSIR chief for scaling up tech to boost start-ups

Hyderabad: There is a need of setting up technology scale-up corridors in a big way to ensure sustainable support for startups in the country, stated Dr N Kalaiselvi, Director-General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), here on Tuesday. She was speaking during the inaugural session of the One week- One lab" initiative at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology(CCMB ).

During the inaugural many school and college students were seen engrossed in exhibits explaining research and development activities taken by researchers of CCMB.

Expressing joy, a few students stated such events will help the public come closure to science and also how science and technology are important in daily life; people who are not aware of genes will get a vast impact of genes.

Around 15 stalls were set up displaying work done by researchers, including wildlife conservation and ecology, development biology, cell and stem cell biology.

The first day’s highlight stall was science and society where scientists showcased research on wastewater-based Pathogen Surveillance, during Covid. The wastewater samples were taken from various places in the city; they were analyzed for infectious diseases.

Inaugurating the programme, Dr.Kalaiselvi stressed on the necessary for India to become a developed nation in the coming years. The CSIR is proposing to set up as many as such corridors to support startups in a sustainable manner to make technology ready for taking to the masses.

‘Sustainability is the call of the nation today;it requires different labs, scientists, entrepreneurs, and industry to collaborate together. Covid-19 brought many of these stakeholders together; it is now important to maintain the momentum and solve the many problems in society, she added.

Dr. Vinay Nandicoori, director of CCMB, said .“ during the week-long celebrations, scientists will discuss how the cutting-edge tools in life sciences help us not only to understand living systems, but also address problems in infectious diseases, wildlife conservation, and agriculture’.

‘We are looking forward to interacting with various stakeholders on these aspects,” he said. “Along with hosting an interactive session and a technology showcase for college students, a teacher training workshop will be conducted to popularise the CCMB educational kits on molecular biology for high schools.

The CCMB staff will meet farmers and farming produce organisations from Telangana and nearby areas to distribute improved rice varieties. They will conduct a lecture on how wildlife forensics help in wildlife conservation, and host a consultative meeting on how to control invasive species in aquatic ecosystems,” said a senior CCMB officer.

‘This One week- One lab’ initiative gave us, specially students, an opportunity to meet young researchers and scientists; I was able to see valuable research done by scientists in genetics, said Seema, a degree second-year student of Kasturba Gandhi College; same was quoted by Reehana, a third-year student.