The Hindu Business Line : CSIR-New Millennium project to develop novel fungicides

A consortium of industry, national laboratories and university has taken up the project of developing novel fungicides with potential applications in the agrochemical sector.

While Rallis India represents the industry, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, and the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMT), Chandigarh, all part of the Council for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) represent the national labs, and the M.S. University, Vadodhara, the academic.

The three-year project, being undertaken under the CSIR-New Millennium India Leadership Technology Initiatives (NMILTI), will look for new chemical entities (NCEs) in the pursuit of developing promising fungicides, according to Dr J.S. Yadav, Director, IICT, lead partner in the consortia.

The project will get a funding to the extent of Rs 5.5 crore, from NMILTI, which was constituted with a corpus of Rs 50 crore a couple of years ago and requisite funds are added to identified new projects.

Another consortia project signed by IICT recently was with Indigene, the New-Delhi-based company, and the Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), Jammu, for developing NCEs from natural products which have potential anti-cancer properties, Dr Yadav told Business Line.

Interestingly, the CSIR programme on new drug discovery and development from natural products, which has the participation of 19-national laboratories, has identified potential anti-cancer compounds, which the consortia will further develop.

Indigene, an R&D company, has also parked itself in the ICICI Knowledge Park on the outskirts of Hyderabad to do frontline research.

With the strength built up in the lab and the renewed interest, the institute is able to attract Indian industry to do joint research work in the area of natural products. However, in the drugs and pharma sector, not many Indian companies are coming forward in recent times.

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