Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India

Established	26 September 1942
Chairman	Prime Minister of India
Director General	Dr. Girish Sahni
Staff	16,000[1] contain over 4000 active scientists, over 12000 technical/ support personnel and over 5000 students.
Budget	Rs. 3200 crores (USD 505 million)
Location	Anusandhan Bhawan, Rafi Marg New Delhi-110 001.
Website	www.csir.res.in

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), established in 1942, is an autonomous body and the largest research and development (R&D) organisation in India. It runs 37 laboratories and 39 field stations or extension centres spread across the nation, with a collective staff of over 13,375.^[2][1] Although it is mainly funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, it operates as an autonomous body registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860.^[3]

The research and development activities of CSIR includes aerospace engineering, Structural engineering, ocean sciences, Life sciences, metallurgy, chemicals, mining, food, petroleum, leather, and environment.^[3] In December 2006, Director General Raghunath A. Mashelkar, retired following which M. K. Bhan took over the post, but he was relieved on 7 March 2007. After that T. Ramasami had the additional charge of Director General of CSIR until Samir K. Brahmachari was appointed as the Director General on 13 November 2007.

In late 2007, the Minister of Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal admitted, in a Question Hour session of the Parliament, that CSIR has developed 1,376 technologies/knowledgebase during the last decade of the 20th century.^[4]

History

In the 1930s, the need for establishing research organisations for the development of natural resources and new industries in India began to emerge. Eminent citizens such as C. V. Raman, Lt. Col. Seymour Sewell and J. C. Ghosh had proposed the creation of an advisory board of scientific research. Sir Richard Gregory, then editor of Nature, was among the first people who officially reported to the British Government. After visiting scientific departments and universities in India in 1933, Gregory submitted to Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India, regarding the need of scientific organisation similar to the DSIR in Britain. Indian scientists at Calcutta and Bangalore initiated schemes to launch a National Institute of Sciences and an Indian Academy of Sciences, respectively. At the Fifth Industries Conference in 1933, the Provincial Governments of Bombay, Madras, Bihar and Orissa unanimously reiterated their demand for a co-ordinating forum for industrial research. Hoare advised the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, to support the demand. However, in May 1934, Willingdon replied Hoare saying, "The creation of a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in India to promote the application of research to natural resources does not appear to be necessary." The Indian DSIR was rejected, however, the colonial government provided a small concession. It instead offered to create an Industrial Intelligence and Research Bureau, which came into operation in April 1935 under the Indian Stores Department. The Bureau's limited resources (with a budget of INR 1.0 lakh per annum) made it impossible to initiate major research and industrial activities as had hoped for. It was mainly concerned with testing and quality control.^[5]

At the onset of World War II in 1939, the bureau was proposed to be abolished. Arguably, Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar became the most instrumental in the creation of CSIR in India.^[6] As a member of Viceroy’s executive council, and also of Commerce, he recommended that the Bureau should be terminated, not as a measure of economy, but to make room for a Board of Scientific and Industrial Research, which should be endowed with greater resources and wider objectives. It was by this persistence that the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSIR) was created on 1 April 1940 for a period of two years. Mudaliar became the chair of the board. It was at this point that Bhatnagar was appointed to pilot the board, as the Director. The BSIR was allocated an annual budget of INR 500,000 under the Department of Commerce. By the end of 1940, about 80 researchers were engaged, of whom one-quarter was directly employed. Major achievements of BSIR included development of the techniques for the purification of Baluchistan sulphur anti-gas cloth manufacture, vegetable oil blends as fuel and lubricants, plastic packing cases for army boots and ammunition, dyes for uniforms and the preparation of vitamins, and the invention of a pyrethrum emulsifier and cream. In early 1941 Bhatnagar persuaded the government to set up an Industrial Research Utilisation Committee (IRUC) for translating results into application. The government then agreed to make a separate fund out of the royalties received from industry for further investment into industrial research. Mudaliar recommended that an Industrial Research Fund should be constituted, which would have an annual grant of INR 1,000,000 (one million) for a period of five years. This was accepted by the Central Assembly in Delhi at its session on 14 November 1941.

Then the constitution of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as an autonomous body was prepared under Mudaliar and Bhatnagar. Thus, CSIR came into operation on 28 September 1942. The BSIR and IRUC were incorporated into the advisory bodies to the governing body of the CSIR. In 1943 the governing body of CSIR approved the proposal of Bhatnagar, though the initiative of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to establish five national laboratories — the National Chemical Laboratory, the National Physical Laboratory, the Fuel Research Station, and the Glass and Ceramics Research Institute. In 1944 in addition to its annual budget of INR 1 million, CSIR received a grant of INR 10 million for the establishment of these laboratories. The Tata Industrial House donated INR 2 million for the chemical, metallurgical and fuel research laboratories.^[5] The foundation for the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute at Kolkata was the first to be laid, in December 1945; and that for the National Chemical Laboratory at Pune was the last, on 6 April 1947, four months before India became independent.^[7] All the five establishments were completed by 1950.^[6]

CSIR achievements

• Developed first Indian tractor Swaraj in 1967 completely based on indigenous know-how.^[8]
• Achieved the first breakthrough of flowering of Bamboo within weeks as against twenty years in nature.^[9][10]
• First to analyse genetic diversity of the indigenous Andamanese tribes and to establish their origin out of Africa 60,000 years ago.
• Developed the first transgenic Drosophila model for drug screening for cancer in humans.
• First to introduce DNA fingerprinting in India.
• Helped India to be the first pioneer investor under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
• Invented, once a week non-steroidal family planning pill Saheli and non-steroidal herbal pill for asthma called Asmon.^[11]
• Designed India's first ever parallel processing computer Flosolver.^[12]
• Partnered more than 50,000 companies with turnover ranging from Rs 5 lakhs to Rs 500,000 crores.
• Rejuvenated India's one-hundred-year-old refinery at Digboi using the most modern molecular distillation technology.^[13]
• Provided the critical technology for the NMP Lube Extraction Plant of capacity of 2,50,000 tonnes per year.
• With TCS, developed a versatile portable PC-based software 'Bio-Suite' for bioinformatics.^[14]
• Design of 14 seater plane 'SARAS'.^[15]
• Established first ever in the world 'Traditional Knowledge Digital Library' accessible in five international languages, English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish.^[16]
• Remained in top 3 in the list of PCT patent applications amongst all developing countries.
• Topped list of holders of U.S. patents.
• Successfully challenged the grant of patent in the USA for use of haldi (turmeric) for wound healing and neem as insecticide.^[17]
• In 2009, completed the sequencing of the Human Genome.^[18]
• In 2011, successfully tested India's 1st indigenous civilian aircraft, NAL NM5 made in association with National Aerospace Laboratories and Mahindra Aerospace.
• Bhopal Disaster December 1985 Report. https://bhopalgasdisaster.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/csir-report-on-scientific-studies-december-1985.pdf

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology

The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prizes are awarded annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biological, chemical, earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary, engineering, mathematical, medical and physical sciences. The prize comprises a citation, a plaque, and a cash award of Rs. 500,000. In addition recipients also get Rs. 15,000 per month up to the age of 65 years.

Research laboratories under CSIR

Journals

18 journals and 3 popular science magazines (Science Reporter and its Hindi,Urdu editions) are available under open access from NOPR website.^[19]

Controversies

CSIR has been flagged in ongoing efforts to root out corruption in India.^[20] Despite being established with the directive to do translational research and create real technologies, CSIR has been accused of devolving into an ritualistic, overly-bureaucratic organization that does little more than churn out papers.^[21][22]

There are many issues facing Indian scientists, with some - such as MIT systems scientist V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai - calling for transparency, a meritocratic system, and an overhaul of the bureaucratic agencies that oversee science and technology. K. S. Jayaraman, in the eminent journal, Nature, reported that Ayyadurai was sacked for sending senior CSIR scientists a report published on October 19, 2009 which was authored by Ayyadurai and colleague Deepak Sardana. The report was critical of the agency's leadership and organization.^[23] On November 27, 2009, Heather Timmons of The New York Times reported on the problems that Ayyadurai faced at CSIR under Samir Brahmachari. In that article, she also reported that in the interview, Brahmachari asked why she was interested in Ayyadurai's case and went to the extent of threatening Timmons that he would complain to her bosses in New York if she continued to report on the issue.^[24] The Hindu and The Hindustan Times reported on how Ayyadurai, having been appointed by CSIR as the first “Outstanding Scientist /Technologist of Indian Origin” and given the task of building a structure to commercialize CSIR technologies was issued a gag order and then sacked and asked to vacate his official residence in three days.^[25][26] On September 3, 2015, Arnab Goswami, on Indian news-channel, Times Now, revisited the issue of corruption at CSIR and reported how Ayyadurai, after his appointment as the first Outstanding Scientist of Indian Origin (STIO)/H by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was hounded out of India in 2009 for writing a report which exposed the details of corruption, sycophancy and nepotism within the leadership of CSIR.^[27][28][29] Sumit Bhaduri stated, “[t]he challenges of turning Indian science into part of an innovation process are many. … Many competent Indian scientists aspire to be ineffectual administrators [due to administrative power and political patronage], rather than do the kind of science that makes a difference.”^[30] Prime minister Manmohan Singh spoke at the 99th Indian Science Congress and commented on the state of the sciences in India, after an advisory council informed him there were problems with “the overall environment for innovation and creative work” and a ‘warlike’ approach was needed.^[31]

See also

References

External links

• CSIR Facebook Page
• CSIR News Page
• Innovation Demands freedom
• System defeats scientist return
• CSIR-TECH PATH FORWARD by V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai & Deepak Sardana