21-Dec-2022: Stellar discoveries of the 40-inch telescope at the Vainu Bappu Observatory in Kavalur highlighted at 50-year celebration

The several stellar discoveries of the 40-inch telescope at the Vainu Bappu Observatory in Kavalur, Tamil Nadu, were highlighted at the celebration of its 50 years of operation on 15-16 December.

The telescope set up by Professor Vainu Bappu has played a significant role in astronomy with major discoveries like the presence of rings around the planet Uranus, a new satellite of Uranus, the presence of an atmosphere around Ganymede which is a satellite of Jupiter. Other important research conducted with this telescope includes the discovery and study of many 'Be stars',  Lithium depletion in giant stars, optical variability in Blazars, the dynamics of the famous supernova SN 1987A and so on.

The telescope in the observatory under the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), continues to be relevant because of the backend instruments that engineers and astronomers built over the last 50 years to keep the telescope competitive among its peers. Starting from the Cassegrain photometer and Echelle spectrograph in 1976, the new grating spectrograph in 1978, the fast-chopping polarimeter in 1988 with its replacement in 2016, and the latest NIR photometer in 2021, the observatory has constantly been upgrading its facilities.

“This telescope stands witness to the technology changes in astronomical observations, from photographic plates to modern CCDs,” said Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam, Director IIA. “I am confident that the facility continues to be productive and be used by scientists for years to come,” she added

By the 1960s, it was clear that India needed a high-quality optical observatory to conduct research in modern astronomy, and after an extensive search, Professor Vainu Bappu chose Kavalur as the site for such an observatory. The skies above Kavalur were excellent, and its southern location would allow it to see most of the northern and southern skies. A few years after the observatory started operation, Prof. Bappu placed an order for a 40-inch telescope with Carl Zeiss of Jena (then East Germany), which was subsequently installed in 1972.

The telescope, whose mirror has a diameter of 40 inches (or 102 cm), was installed in 1972 and started producing important astronomical discoveries soon after. More than a generation of astronomers were trained at this telescope as well. The expertise gained by the engineers also enabled IIA to build the fully indigenous 90-inch (2.34 metre) telescope in the 1980s.

To celebrate the golden jubilee of this extraordinary telescope, IIA organised a 1-day meeting on 15 December at its Bengaluru campus, followed by a function at Kavalur on the 16th. Many of the retired IIA astronomers, engineers, and telescope assistants were invited to the event and were felicitated by the Director IIA. There were a number of talks about important science discoveries from the 40-inch as well as personal reminiscences by the staff from that time. The 7th issue of “DOOT”, an astronomy magazine published by the students of IIA, was also released at this event.

A contest to paint the 40-inch telescope was organised for students in the primary schools in the villages surrounding Kavalur. The winners were awarded prizes on the 16th at the observatory during the function.

20-Dec-2022: Innovation and New Technologies in Farm Sector

During the last three years and the current year Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)/ National Agricultural Research System (NARS) has taken initiatives  for innovation/ development of new technologies in the farm sector across the country like Genetic enhancement of plants/ animals/ fish for higher productivity under increased intensity of biotic and abiotic stresses, productivity enhancement through sustainable intensification, productivity enhancement through mechanization of agriculture and food system, enhancing value, safety and income through food processing, development of energy efficient technologies, farming practices, and promoting technology transfer to the farmers and stake holders. During the last nine years (2014-2022), a total of 2122 varieties have been released of food crops, oil seeds, pulses, commercial crops, horticultural crops, potential crops and fodder crops which has not only stabilized the production but also increased the productivity and production of food grains in India besides other production and protection technologies.

NARS coordinated at the apex level by the ICAR/ Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), comprises of 98 Agricultural Research Institutes, 5 Deemed Universities and 3 Central Agricultural Universities besides 63 State Agricultural Universities, 4 Universities with Agriculture Faculties mandated for developing, testing and refining new technologies in agriculture sector. To provide information about these developed technologies to the farmers, Government has established a network of 731 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) at district level which are coordinated by 11 Agricultural Technology Application and Research Institute (ATARI). The KVKs are mandated to provide information about new technologies developed in agriculture sector to the farmers. The major activities undertaken by the KVKs include on-farm testing of location-specificity of technologies under various farming systems; frontline demonstrations to establish the production potential of improved agricultural technologies on the farmers’ field; capacity development of farmers for knowledge and skill upgradation; providing farm advisories on varied subjects of interest to farmers using ICT and other tools; production and distribution of quality seeds, planting materials and other technological inputs to farmers. Besides, Government is also implementing a centrally sponsored scheme namely Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) which aims at making available the latest agricultural technologies in different thematic areas to increase agricultural production through extension activities viz. Farmers Training, Demonstrations, Exposure Visits, Kisan Mela, Mobilization of Farmers Groups and Setting up of Farm Schools. During the last three years and the current year training of 62.99 lakhs farmers, 1.49 lakhs On-farm trials and 10.29 lakhs field level demonstrations were conducted by the KVKs and ICAR Institutes.

A dedicated portal of PM-KISAN was launched on 06.02.2019 and has been hosted as www.pmkisan.gov.in. The PM-KISAN Portal provide verified and single source of truth on farmers’ details; Timely assistance to the farmers in farm operation; A unified e-platform for transferring of cash benefits into farmer’s bank account through PFMS integration; Location wise availability of benefited farmers list; and Ease of monitoring across the country on fund transaction details and many other facilities are available in the portal.  The total farmers benefited by this portal is more than 12.0 crores. Another portal i.e. mKishan has unique features like database to shift farmers down to Block level & to select specific agricultural commodities/ animal/ poultry/ fish, rating/ correction of messages by the supervisory officers, searchable database of previous advisories.  Since inception, total 5,13,76,458 farmers were benefitted.

The available technologies are disseminated through training programmes, Front Line Demonstrations (FLD), On-field Demonstrations (OFD), skill development programs, supplying literatures and handouts to the farmers and farm women, rural youth and in-service extension personnel.  These activities are carried out by different agencies and schemes of the Government like Krishi Vigyan Kendra, ATMA (Agricultural Technology Management Agency), National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), Sub-Mission of Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP), Seed Hubs (Pulses, Oilseeds, Millets), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and are implemented by State Governments, ICAR Institutes and Central/State Agricultural Universities.  The KVKs and the ICAR Institutes in last three years trained more than 62.99 lakhs farmers.

5-Aug-2022: Development of Agricultural Work by Research Centres

India has one of the largest National Agricultural Research System (NARS) in the world, comprising 102 Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Institutes, 11 Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes, 82 All India Coordinated Projects/ Networks, 4 deemed to be Universities, 3 Central Agricultural Universities and 63 State Agricultural/ Veterinary/ Horticultural/ Fishery Universities located in different States.  Besides this, ICAR has a network of 731 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) established across the country which are engaged in refining the technologies developed and undertake frontline demonstrations of these technologies in farmers’ fields. The requisite infrastructure and expertise available with ICAR Institutions, State Agricultural Universities and KVKs cater to various technological interventions in various fields of agriculture and allied sectors to meet the demand of agricultural sector.

The research activities carried out by ICAR during last three years include (i) Release of 946 field crop varieties comprising of 379 of cereals, 146 of Oilseeds, 168 of Pulses, 55 of Forage Crops, 158 of Fibre Crops, 26 of Sugarcane and 14 of other crops (potential/ minor crops) and 171 varieties of horticultural crops; (ii) Development of 25 vaccines and 40 diagnostics for diagnosis and their containment; (iii) Development of breeding and seed production technologies for 161 food and ornamental fishes, 48 indigenous fish feed and 70 improved aquaculture systems; (iv) Development of 90 resource specific gears & fuel-efficient fishing vessels for efficient fishing; and (v) Development of approximately 168 technologies/ machines. These improved varieties/ technologies/ machines/ vaccines etc. are aimed at augmenting the production and productivity in Agriculture in the country.

The above technological developments coupled with Government policies and programmes have resulted in significant increase in food production in the recent years. Agriculture and the allied sector registered a growth of 3.6 per cent in 2020-21 and 3.9 per cent in 2021-22. The overall food production has increased from 265.05 million tonnes (MT) in 2013-14 to 314.51MT in 2021-22. The production of pulses increased from 19.26 MT in 2013-14 to 27.75 MT in 2021-22 and the horticultural production from 280.70 MT in 2013-14 to 341.63 MT in 2021-22.

26-Jul-2022: ICAR released over 6100 improved varieties of field and horticultural crops since Independence

ICAR has contributed significantly in varietal improvement programmes. Since Independence, more than 6100 varieties of field and horticultural crops have been released in India. During past eight years National Agricultural Research System (NARS), under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has released 1956 high yielding stress tolerant varieties/ hybrids of field crops of which 1622 are climate resilient. The details are as follows:

Field crop varieties released since 2014 to 2022

During past three years and current year total 946 varieties of seeds including cereals (379), oilseeds (146), pulses (168), forage crops (55), fibre crops (158), sugarcane (26) and potential crops (14) have been developed of which more than 86% varieties have been developed by ICAR.  In horticultural crops, also 317 varieties/ hybrids have been released.

India, with respect to the global productivity, is lower in certain crops, while higher in others. The comparative statement is given in the Table below. In addition to productivity per se, per day productivity is also important component for determining the genetic potential of crops. Per day productivity of major crops in India is better or at par with any of the high productivity countries. India has multiple cropping system with high cropping intensity, whereas, in high productivity countries, the crops are taking longer maturity duration due to which only one crop can be taken and cropping intensity is low in comparison to India.

A comparative data on productivity of certain crops in India and the world

Source: FAOSTAT; https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL cited on 21.07.2022

India has made a commendable progress in genetic enhancement of different crops and the productivity levels have increased to more than three times (2373 kg/ha during 2020-21 from 710 kg/ha during 1960-61). The present total food grain production of more than 316 million tonnes has been achieved mainly due to enhancement in productivity. The varieties developed by ICAR have revolutionized the Indian agriculture, as a result there is 6.19 times enhancement in production of food grains, 3.30 times in pulses, 7.46 times in oilseeds, 10.31 times in cotton and 7.55 times in sugarcane since 1950; and 3.42 times in horticulture crops since 1992-93.

In addition to the network of 731 KVKs for disseminating the latest developments made in Agriculture sector in our country, ICAR has adopted 4055 villages by 1154 groups of 4417 scientists for direct interface with the farmers to expedite the lab to land process. During 2021-22, 41402 field activities including field days, trainings, demonstrations, technology awareness programmes were conducted and 662916 farmers were contacted across the country.

Since 2014, 286 varieties have been bred specially for flood/ water submergence/ water logging tolerance (43), drought/moisture stress/ water stress tolerance (175), salinity/ alkalinity/ sodic soils tolerance (36), heat stress/ high temperature tolerance (25), cold/ frost/ winter chilling tolerance (7) using the precision phenotyping tools. Modern molecular tools like genomic selection using molecular markers and genome editing techniques are also being deployed in crop improvement, as a result 74 varieties in seven crops namely, rice, wheat, maize, pearl millet, chickpea, soybean and groundnut developed through precision breeding tools, have been released for commercial cultivation. Further, ICAR has developed 87 nutrition-rich crop varieties in important crops like rice, wheat, maize, pearl millet, finger millet, small millet, lentil, groundnut, linseed, mustard, soybean, cauliflower, potato, sweet potato, greater yam and pomegranate.