Advancing S&T in Northeast India

IN FOCUS: CSIR-NEIST, JORHAT

CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology (the erstwhile Regional Research Laboratory, popularly known as CSIR-NEIST), the only premier national CSIR R&D institute in North East India (NEI), was established on 18 March 1961. In due course of time, two branch laboratories of CSIR-NEIST, viz., at Imphal in Manipur and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh were created to cater to the burgeoning needs and aspirations of the people of NEI.

The institute is engaged in multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research in the natural sciences and engineering and offers academic programmes like PhD and skill development training. The institute gives a major thrust to societal programmes, emphasising skill development programmes for NEI. The institute has published over 800 research papers in the last 5 years and has 33 active patents. It has generated more than 120 technologies, with 60% commercial success, facilitating the setting up of industries (mostly MSME) with more than 400 units across India.

FORMATIVE YEARS: ERA OF PIONEERING INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

Soon after its inception, the institute justified its position as a growth engine for NEI, and scripted a new dawn in the socio-economic milieu of the region. Many noteworthy and diverse achievements of this institute deserve a mention. In 1969, the laboratory’s ‘Caffeine from Tea Waste’ technology was trans­ferred to an industrial estate of Jorhat, named Assam Pharma Company. Circa 1976-78, a paper slate manufacturing unit, a Citronella distillation unit, and a seismic (earthquake) monitoring sta­tion were established at Yaongyimsen village of Nagaland, and training was imparted to empower the local Naga people. In 1979, the technology of the Vertical Shaft Kiln (VSK) mini cement plant was transferred to Kutch Ce­ment Pvt. Ltd., of Gujarat. Similarly, in 1979, Chlorfenvinphos (an effective pesticide) was developed and a plant was set up based on this technology by National Organic Chemical Industries Ltd. (NOCIL), Bombay. It was more than a hat-trick for the institute in the year 1979 as the laboratory bagged a prestigious project from the Bengal Im­munity Company Ltd. (BICL), Calcutta, to re-standardise the process conditions and optimise the process steps for the production of Chloroquine phosphate, which is an anti-malarial drug. These are only a few examples from the past from a host of other R&D accolades of the institute.

SCIENCE FOR SOCIETAL TRANSFORMATION

In the recent past, CSIR-NEIST R&D products such as ‘Herbal arthritis pain reliever Ointment’ has become a pan-In­dia product, and other technologies such as anti-acne face cream, natural dye, natural vanillin, modular brick from Brahmaputra sand, etc., are showing promising signs of commercialisation. Research on the formation of fluorescent ‘carbon quantum dots’ (CQDs) from Assam coal has been highly acclaimed as an important contribution towards import substitution in the nation.

The researchers of the membrane laboratory could invent a broad range of membrane technologies with applica­tions in the environmental, industrial, and healthcare sectors. Another focus area of R&D is volumetric construc­tion using bamboo and steel hybrid rein­forced concrete (BS-HRC), which could produce structures such as BS-HRC toilet units through an innovative ap­proach that combines the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of bamboo with the strength and durability of steel. An­other dimension of multi-disciplinary research nurtured is advanced materi­als, which cover the fields of nanocom­posite materials, ores and minerals to value-added materials, metal-organic frameworks, carbon-based 2D nanoma­terials and their composites, catalysis, small molecules activation and advanced materials for polymer and petroleum, water and gas purification, sensing ap­plication, etc.

The Centre for Petroleum Research, established in the year 2019, is pursu­ing collaborative research with many oil and gas giants, both upstream and downstream industries like Oil India Ltd., (OIL), Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (NRL), etc. The plant science research group of the institute brought about sev­eral hectares of fallow and wastelands in different parts of the NEI under the cultivation of medicinal, economic, and aromatic plants, which are improved va­rieties produced in the institute’s experi­mental farm and have been propagated commercially.

The institute has a high level of ex­pertise in the area of biotechnology, too, which has been exemplified through the development of biotic and abiotic stress-tolerant tomato and rice varieties with improved nutritional traits (North East Indian varieties) through CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing system.

Infectious diseases have profound significance, particularly in the eastern and northeast regions of India, which have a rich diversity of over 200 eth­nicities with their own unique cultures and traditions that involve huge interac­tions in the human-wildlife reservoir-livestock interface. The institute’s Cen­tre for Infectious Diseases (CID), which is a part of the Indian SARS-CoV-23 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), is carrying out SARS-COVID surveil­lance through genome sequencing of samples from the states of Assam, Na­galand, and Arunachal Pradesh. The branch laboratory in Imphal, Manipur, focuses on research areas such as biodi­versity, bioprospection, designing and development of products based on ethnic designs and materials, seismic observatory, weather monitoring station, etc. The branch laboratory in Naharlagun near Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, is mainly specialised in Natural Product Chemistry (NPC).

CSIR-NEIST also provides consultancy services like water sample testing, mineral sample testing, soil and rock sample testing, agro sample testing, etc., to both private and government bodies and has been successfully generating revenue for the institute. For this purpose, the institute has a promising dedicated repository of sophisticated R&D instrumentation which is known as CSIR-NEIST Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (NEIST-SAIF). Some of the examples of such instruments are X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer (NMR-500), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), etc.

NEI is highly vulnerable to seismic hazards like earthquakes which is why geoscience is another niche area of R&D, wherein the institute maintains its earthquake station (seismic) network spread all across NEI to generate earthquake data. Over the years, the prime mandate of this area of research has been seismic (or earthquake) studies with some focus on environmental geology, too. This research domain dealt with problems ranging from seismicity monitoring and earthquake hazard mitigation to studies on arsenic and fluoride contamination of freshwater aquifers in NEI. But gradually, the focus shifted primarily to earthquake research with emphasis on seismic hazard assessment, site characterisation, microzonation, seismic imaging, seismotectonics, geodynamics, statistical seismology, strong motion, and attenuation studies, etc.

Some chief contributions delivered through geoscience research are the site amplification map or seismic microzonation of Greater Guwahati in Assam, probabilistic and deterministic seismic vulnerability map of Shillong city of Meghalaya, seismic microzonation of Dimapur city of Nagaland, site feasibility engineering consultancy research studies have been done for hydel power project sites in North Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and for the Kopili project in Assam, investigation of the felt tremors during the Baghjan gas Blowout in Oil India, development of copyrighted computer programmes for regional earthquake research, etc. A big fillip to geoscience research in CSIR-NEIST is expected as in the recent future, a futuristic game-changer project christened as CSIR- Mission AGHNI (Assessment of Geological Hydrogen Occurrences and Production in India) is on the anvil to boost clean or fuel production and bring about enhanced energy security to our nation. The institute is embarking on an ambitious plan to come out with a 5th generation (most advanced) spatial resolution specific Probabilistic and Deterministic Seismic Hazard map of NEI.

RURAL NEI CENTRIC MISSIONS

To help farmers in the NEI, the institute has established 15 multi-locational experimental research fields and Regional-cum-Facilitation Centre for North Eastern Region (RCFC-NER) through CSIR’s AROMA Mission, Floriculture Mission, etc., in all the states of NEI to augment the earnings of the rural dwellers through enhanced agricultural produce and creating self-employment and rural entrepreneurship avenues such as to give a fillip to the rural economy.

STINER project (supported by MDoNER, Govt. of India) has empowered the farmers and entrepreneurs of the NEI by being a one-stop solution to the relevant technologies and knowledge base for critical applications by the farmers’ community and by the prospective young entrepreneurs. Another feather in the cap of CSIR-NEIST is the promotion of Mushroom Cultivation in the NEI region, which generates employment for over 5000 people in the region with an average income to a beneficiary ranging from Rs 10,000-1,50,000/month.

Another facet of the institute’s societal outreach program is empowering and uplifting the stature of common women through its Rural Women Technology Park (RWTP) operating from the institute’s premises.

NURTURING THE BUDDING TALENTS OF TOMORROW

BioNEST, a technology incubation centre of CSIR-NEIST, is aimed towards capacity-building among the prospective young entrepreneurs of NEI, particularly agro-technology, nutrition, health, and biomedical solutions for commercialisation and self-sustainability. A part of the Skill Mission of Govt. of India, the institute has started the CSIR Integrated Skill Initiative, through which unemployed youths of the NEI are imparted training on courses of assistant electricians, welding and fitting, plumbing, AutoCAD, weaving, and computer and numerical control (CNC), among others. Thirty students have been selected through campus placement at CSIR-NEIST by M/s Genus Power Infrastructure Limited. Similarly, under DSIR-PRISM Scheme: TePP Outreach cum Cluster Innovation Centre (TOCIC), grass-root innovators, including students and women, potential individual innovators, and MSME clusters are being promoted and supported.

Under the Jigyasa scheme, 70 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) compliant schools from all over the state of Assam have been adopted for better guidance to trigger scientific temperament amongst the students.

THE RICH LEGACY CONTINUES

CSIR-NEIST is embarking on an eventful, innovative and highly ambitious odyssey to forge NEI into the realm of new growth and success story of India. The institute is also expanding in a big way in the area of AI/ML research, and its application in the conventional R&Ds of the institute is being examined, tried, and tested, and the results are encouraging, especially in the development of open-source software for drug discovery, databases for the conservation of bioresources, and predictive models in areas of cheminformatics, bioinformatics, geological sciences, materials, petroleum research, etc.

CSIR-NEIST covers the whole gamut of fundamental and applied sciences under its futuristic and ambitious R&D programme and may be branded as a ‘clone’ of the whole CSIR R&D system. It has not been easy so far, but the institute has successfully negotiated an arduous journey of uphill and herculean tasks. That was never a deterrence for the CSIR-NEIST fraternity in putting their best foot forward, and they will continue to do so in the years to come. CSIR-NEIST has vindicated its vibrant and innovative presence in NEI and stands tall today as a classic global model for innovative S&T intervention for prosperous societal transformations. The pen stops here with the quote of Roy T. Bennett, “Turn your obstacles into opportunities and your problems into possibilities.”

*Dr Virendra Mani Tiwari is CSIR-Outstanding Scientist and JC Bose National Fellow, and Director of CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat. Dr Bijit Kumar Choudhury is Senior Scientist, Geo Sciences and Technology Division (GSTD), CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat.