Tiruchy, April 17, 2006 (NewInd Press)

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) would soon send a team of experts to study and identify the prospects of setting up a Centre for Life Sciences in Bharathidasan University in Tiruchy, in the lines of a similar centre in Bharathiar University, Coimbatore.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Space - Tech’ DRDO Chief Controller Dr A Sivathanu Pillai said that once the team submits report, DRDO would contemplate on funding for the proposed centre in Bhartahidasan University and would offer some projects, he said. While the University would provide land and building DRDO would offer its infrastructure for researches to be carried out in the Centre.

DRDO had forged a MoU with Bharathiar University for developing a Centre for Excellence in Life Sciences in its premises, apart from four more including Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata. Work is on to identify the location for the remaining centre.

Pillai said DRDO considers the capability of the institutions before choosing them for locating the centres. To begin with they will be given small research projects. He said that the annual allocation of DRDO to research carried out through academicia was Rs 25 crore. As many as 32 institutions were working for DRDO in research activities concerned with nano-materials, Pillai added.

It had recently established a research centre for nano-technology at Kanpur and this institution will produce carbon nano-tubes in future, he said.

Pillai said DRDO had outsourced the production of ‘special electronic components’ for various applications in aerospace, to as many as 20 small industries spread across the country.

This apart, medium and big industries including the PSUs in India were also assigned the job of manufacturing and supplying certain components, he said.

Earliar delivering the lecture on ‘Next revolution in Space,’ Pillai said that soon there would be solar farms in India to meet the increasing demand for electricity. “Nano-based solar energy is being researched,” he said and added that it would make a ‘revolution’ in future.

Bharathidasan University vice chancellor C Thangamuthu expressed keenness to revive the ‘defence specific’ MBA, earlier offered by the Varsity, in some other form.

Admitting that ‘procedural difficulties’ on the part of the varsity was also a reason for suspension of the course, he assured that all support would be provided this time if it was redesigned.Head of Centre for Remote Sensing, Bharathidasan University, S M R Ramasamy Lecturer C J Kumanan were present.