11-Apr-2020: Telemedicine Guidelines Approved for Homoeopathic Practitioners
An international webinar was organised by the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH) under the Ministry of AYUSH on 10th April 2020 on World Homoeopathy Day, commemorating the 265th birth anniversary of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homoeopathy. Thousands of participants attended the webinar on a digital platform which was also live streamed. Minister of State (I/C) Sh. Shripad Yesso Naik in his inaugural address, announced the approval of the Telemedicine guidelines for homoeopathic practitioners and also emphasised on the need to mobilise the AYUSH workforce to align with the COVID taskforce if the need arises. Secretary Ministry of AYUSH Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, extended his greetings. Prof.(Dr) George Vithoulkas, Director, International Academy of Classical Homeopathy, Greece, Dr. Anil Khurana, DG(I/C), CCRH, Dr. R K Manchanda, Director Homoeopathy, Department of AYUSH, Delhi Government, Dr. Subash Singh, Director , NIH, Kolkata, Dr. S R K Vidyarthi, Director, Ministry of AYUSH, Dr. V K. Gupta, India, Dr. Robbert van Haselen, UK, Prof. Aaron To, Hong Kong were the lead speakers. Most of the speakers spoke about potentials of Homoeopathy which can be harnessed in the containment of COVID 19 and presented facts about use of adjuvant homoeopathy along with standard care for COVID patients.
8-Apr-2019: International Convention on World Homoeopathy Day to deliberate on linking Education & Clinical Practice with Research
A two day convention is being organised on 9-10th April 2019 by the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), an autonomous research organisation, Ministry of AYUSH on the occasion of the World Homoeopathy Day at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi. The World Homoeopathy Day is observed to commemorate the birth anniversary of the founder of Homoeopathy, Dr. Christian Fredrich Samuel Hahnemann.
With an aim to recognise exemplary work in Homoeopathy, AYUSH awards relating to Homoeopathy for Life Time Achievement, Best Teacher, Young Scientist and Best Research paper will be conferred on this occasion. This WHD, 24 students will be awarded scholarships under the Short Term Studentship in Homoeopathy (STSH) and four students for ‘Quality MD Dissertation in Homoeopathy’. MOU’s will be signed with two more PG Homoeopathic Colleges with an effort to link education with research. The vision behind the agreement would be to provide impetus to research infrastructure, which, in turn further orient the students towards research.
A wide range of topics will be covered in the convention like Linking education and clinical practice with research, Homoeopathic Education: Research component, Utilisation of existing research by clinicians , Drug Development & Validation, Research initiatives by students under Studentship & MD Scholarship schemes, Documented clinical experiences, Homoeopathy in public health, Fortifying theories and clinical practice with research, Road ahead for Homoeopathy, Skill development in scientific writing, Strengthening research infrastructure in educational organisations, Drug Provings and Guidelines for Publishing Research. Round table discussions are also planned on the topics ‘Drug Regulations in Homoeopathy: Current scenario and Way ahead; Homoeopathy Industry: Challenges and Opportunities for the Manufacturers/Traders; Homoeopathic Pharmacopeias: Standards and Harmonisation’ and ‘Promotion of Homoeopathy at state level: Government of India schemes as a facilitating tool; Homoeopathy doctors in public service: Roles & Responsibilities’.
The Council is taking this as an opportunity to review the path trodden so far, taking stock of the challenges faced and to formulate future strategies for development of Homoeopathy. There is an imminent need to focus on improving the quality of education and enhancing the success rate of an average practitioner. There is also a need to ensure the production and availability of high quality homeopathic drugs in the market.
11-Mar-2020: Juice aplenty from the Grape variety from ARI, Pune
As the country prepares for the summer months, Pune’s Department of Science and Technology(DST) institute brings news of grapes with increased juice production capacity. Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the DST, have developed a hybrid variety of grapes which is resistant to fungal diseases, high yielding and has excellent juice quality. It is also suitable for preparation of juice, raisin, jam and red wine and farmers are enthusiastically adopting the variety.
The hybrid variety ARI-516 has been developed by interbreeding of two species from the same genus -- Catawba variety of Vitis labrusca and Beauty seedless variety of Vitis vinifera. The work which has been published in the in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Grape Production and Processing is a result of a collaboration between Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science (MACS) and ARCI and can benefit farmers, the processing industry and consumers.
Dr Sujata Tetali, Scientist, Genetics & Plant Breeding Group from MACS-ARI, has developed this inter-specific variety by working on necessary properties. The fungal resistance of ARI-516 has been derived from Catawba, which is an American grape variety. It has superior quality fruits and higher yield per unit area. An early ripening hybrid, it matures in 110 - 120 days after pruning. The variety has elongated bunches and bears pleasant musky flavoured berries and performs well in Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and West Bengal.
MACS-ARI is involved in The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ICAR's grape improvement programme through All India Coordinated Research Project on Fruits. MACS-ARI has developed many inter-specific and intra-specific grape hybrids under the hybridization programme. The hybrids are evaluated for their disease resistance, fruit quality, and whether they are seedless or not.
India ranks twelfth in the world in terms of grape production. About 78% of grape production in India is utilized for consumption, 17-20 % for raisin production, 1.5 % for wine and 0.5 % for juice. Maharashtra leads in the production of grapes in India with a share of 81.22 %. A negligible share of grapes is used for juice production. A majority of farmers in Maharashtra cultivate 'Thompson seedless' and its clones for table purpose or raisin making. These varieties are highly susceptible to fungal diseases which increase plant protection cost. Grapes suffer 8.23-16 per cent of post-harvest losses. Juice making is an excellent option to reduce post-harvest losses.
ARI-516 grape variety has been recently identified for release by the Varietal Identification Committee of ICAR-All India Co-Ordinated Research Project on Fruit, for cultivation in Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
The salient features of ARI-516 include evenly maturing character with long cylindrical medium-sized fruit bunches making this variety superior over other varieties. It has small to medium bluish blackberries with one rudimentary seed in each berry, which is sweet in taste having the value of TSS (Total Soluble Solids) as 20-22 0B with musky flavor having about 65-70% juice content. The berry yield is about 15-20 ton/acre, and it is tolerant to downy & powdery mildew diseases as well as resistant to anthracnose disease -- a group of fungal diseases that affect a variety of plants in warm, humid areas.
The consumers prefer ARI-516 for its unique flavour. Being moderately resistant to a majority of fungal diseases, its cost of production is lower. The area under cultivation of ARI-516 is steadily growing and has grown up to 100 acres.
3-Feb-2020: IVRI releases Live attenuated Classical Swine Fever (CSF) cell culture vaccine (Indigenous strain)
Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra and Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), Shri Atul Chaturvedi released the Live attenuated Classical Swine Fever Vaccine (IVRI-CSF-BS) Technology developed by ICAR -Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar.
CSF is one of the most important diseases of pigs causing high mortality with annual loss of approx. Rs.4.299 billion. A lapinized CSF vaccine (Weybridge strain, UK) is being used in India since 1964 for controlling the disease. The vaccine is produced by sacrificing large numbers of rabbits for each batch.
Shri Chaturvedi said the country’s total requirements is 22 million doses per year and hardly 1.2 million doses are produced per year by the lapinized vaccine, as only 50 doses are produced from a single rabbit spleen.
In order to do away sacrificing of rabbits and increase the productivity, IVRI had earlier developed a cell culture CSF vaccine by adapting the lapinized vaccine virus in cell culture. The technology has been transferred to M/s Indian Immunologicals, Hyderabad and Government of Punjab during 2016 and 2018, respectively.
Director, IVRI, Dr RK Singh said since the cell culture vaccine is from a foreign strain (Weybridge Strain, UK), IVRI has further developed a new CSF Cell Culture Vaccine by attenuating an indigenous virulent CSF virus in cell culture. The vaccine virus has very high titre and lakhs of doses can be produced very easily in cell culture and country’s requirement can be easily fulfilled using this new vaccine.
The new vaccine is ready for release and commercial production will be completed in less than a year. The vaccine would be the best choice for use in the CSF Control Programme (CSF-CP) already launched by DAHD (CSF-CP). Shri Chaturvedi said the new vaccine will be part of the Government’s One Health Initiative and result in huge savings as it will nip the spread of the virus at animal stage so that it does not pass on to the human population.
Dr Mohapatra said there is a huge demand for transfer of this vaccine technology from various State Governments and Private manufacturers and the vaccine has huge export potential, especially Nepal. Due to very high titre of vaccine virus, this vaccine would be the most economical CSF vaccine costing around less than Rs 2/- per dose as against Rs 15-25/- of lapinized CSF vaccine and Rs.30/dose (approx.) for an imported Korean vaccine being used in the country. Besides, the new vaccine gives immunity for two years as compared to 3 to 6 months protection under the vaccines currently being used, he added.
The vaccine is safe, potent, does not revert to virulence and provide protective immunity from day 14 of the vaccination till 24 months studied so far. The vaccine has been tested on around 500 pigs at multiple locations.
The new vaccine has been developed by a team of IVRI scientists consisting of Dr Pronab Dhar, Dr Ashok Kumar Tiwari, Dr M Manu, Dr Vikramaditya Upmanyu, Dr Richa Pachauri and Dr Raj Kumar Singh and a patent application has already been submitted for the new invention.