Supercomputing is the key for Computational Biology, Molecular Dynamics, National Security, Computational Chemistry, Cyber-Physical Systems, Big Data Analytics, Government Information Systems, and so on, India-Mexico Bilateral High Level Group on Trade, RRDR for ASU&H Medicine launched
Supercomputing is the key to so many areas like Computational Biology, Molecular Dynamics, National Security, Computational Chemistry, Cyber-Physical Systems, Big Data Analytics, Government Information Systems, and so on
- Centre for Development of Advanced Computing(C-DAC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MeITY) signed a total of 13 MoUs with the premier academic and R&D institutions of India for establishing Supercomputing Infrastructure with Assembly and Manufacturing in India and Critical Components of National Supercomputing Mission.
- Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, stressed that the MoU signing with the premier institutes marks the being of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and expressed his satisfaction over the progress made in the National Supercomputing Mission initiated by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) through Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
- In the last 5 years, major changes took place in the mission where the emphasis was given on design and fabrication of hardware and software of the supercomputers in India. It is indeed on the lines of the clarion call of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ given by Prime Minister.
- Supercomputing is the key to so many areas like Computational Biology, Molecular Dynamics, National Security, Computational Chemistry, Cyber-Physical Systems, Big Data Analytics, Government Information Systems, and so on. Armed with artificial intelligence and machine learning makes it a formidable tool. Progress in this mission will break silos to empower people and make India future-ready and tackle future challenge.
- Our goal is to develop own indigenous hardware encompassing exascale chip design, design and manufacture of exascale server boards, exascale interconnects and storage including silicon-photonics at C-DAC to achieve complete self-reliance.
- The mission envisages empowering our national academic and R&D institutions to spread over the country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70 high-performance computing facilities.
- The mission also includes the development of highly professional High-Performance Computing (HPC) aware human resource for meeting the challenges of development of these applications.
- The mission implementation would bring supercomputing within the reach of the large scientific & technology community in the country and enable the country with a capacity to solve multi-disciplinary grand challenge problems.
- The mission is implemented and steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) at an estimated cost of Rs.4500 crore over a period of seven years to make India one of the world leaders in Supercomputing.
India-Mexico Bilateral High Level Group on Trade, Investment and Cooperation meeting
- The fifth meeting of the India-Mexico Bilateral High Level Group on Trade, Investment and Cooperation (BHLG) was held on 9 October 2020.
- The meeting was co-chaired by the Commerce Secretary of the Government of India, Dr. Anup Wadhawan and the Vice Minister for Foreign Trade of the Government of Mexico, Ms. Luz María de la Mora. Several Ministries, Departments and Business Chambers from both countries participated in the meeting.
- The two sides appreciated the progress made in the bilateral trade and commercial relations between India and Mexico in the recent years. Both sides discussed a number of bilateral ongoing and outstanding issues, ranging from Audio-visual Co-production, Bilateral Investment Treaty, market access for agricultural products, a cooperation framework on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) & Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) measures between the two countries, co-operation in the Intellectual Property Rights, and exploring ways to promote tourism and people-to-people contact between India and Mexico.
- In the meeting, two business to business MoUs were signed, to foster the cooperation in the respective domains.
- A Memorandum of Understanding between the Electronics & Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) of India and the Mexican Chamber of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CANIETI) was signed.
- A Memorandum of Understanding between the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Mexican Business Council of Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology (COMCE) for promoting the development of business relations between India and Mexico was also signed.
- They also agreed to expand and diversify the bilateral trade relationship to tap the potential of the complementarities between India and Mexico through enhanced cooperation in pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, healthcare, agro-products, fisheries, food processing and aerospace industry etc.
- A ‘Joint Statement’ after the successful conclusion of the meeting was issued.
Regional Raw Drug Repository (RRDR) for ASU&H Medicine launched
- Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, Union Minister for AYUSH and Minister of State for Defence inaugurated the Regional Raw Drug Repository (RRDR) for ASU&H Medicine (Southern Plateau Region) at National Institute of Siddha.
- RRDRs are important components of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission, which plays an important role in medicinal plants cultivation.
- As a step in this direction, Ministry of AYUSH, through the National Medicinal Plants Board, initiated establishment of National Raw Drug Repository and Regional Raw Drug Repositories.
- NMPB have identified National Institute of Siddha as the lead Institute with the Regional Research Institute of Unani Medicine, Chennai and the Siddha Central Research Institute, Chennai as the Collaborating Institutes.
- This RRDR would play a stellar role in collection, documentation, and authentication of raw drugs collected from the agro-climatic region, that is, the Southern Plateau Region.
- There is a global resurgence in the traditional and alternative health care system.
- We in India are fortunate to have systems of medicine which date back to more than 3000 years and have deep rooted societal acceptance.
- Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and systems of medicine are accessible to large segment of our population including those living in remote and interior areas.
- Medicinal Plants form the major resource base of our indigenous health care traditions.
- Their relevance has grown substantially in the current pandemic scenario, thanks to their disease preventive effects.
- The outreach and acceptability of AYUSH systems, both nationally as well as globally, are dependent on uninterrupted availability of quality medicinal plants based raw material.
- Though most of our raw drugs are commonly available, there is a lack of scientific documentation which makes research on these medicines very difficult.
- This also reduces the chances of commercial exploitation of these medicines.
- Easy availability of authentic scientific date of the raw drugs will promote the research on the medicines belonging to AYUSH system which will lead to further propagation of these systems.
- The growth and acceptability of traditional systems require robust infrastructure of hospitals, dispensaries, pharmacies and manufacturing units so as to manufacture and dispense quality medicine.
- The country has more than 9000 manufacturing units for Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy medicine.
- However, the quality of medicines produced by these units critically depend upon the manufacturing process followed as well as the quality of raw material.
- The Government has made it mandatory for all manufacturing units to adhere to the Good Manufacturing Practices as notified under Schedule T of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940.
- However, since more than 90% of the formulations under these systems of medicine are plant based, what is critical is to ensure sustained availability of quality raw material.
- This RRDR will not only act as collection centers of raw drugs available and used in southern region but also as an accredited reference library for authentication of raw drugs and establish standard protocols and keys for authentication of raw drug used in the herbal industries.
