NBCC conferred with ICC Awards

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August 4, 2016

NBCC, the state-owned Navratna CPSE, bagged three Awards, conferred by Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) during PSE Excellence Awards 2015 event, held recently in New Delhi. The awards in the broad category of Maharatnas and Navratnas include “CEO of the Year 2015” for Dr. Anoop Kumar Mittal, CMD; “Operational Performance Excellence” & “Company of the Year” awards – 2015 for NBCC.

Shri S.K. Chaudhary, Director (Projects) and Shri Hem Raj, Executive Director, seen receiving the awards on behalf of NBCC. This is the 6th edition of ICC’s PSE Excellence Awards since it was introduced in 2016 to recognise contributions by PSEs to Indian Economy.

IndianBureaucracy.com NBCC wishes the best.

NAM Trade Report Between 14th April-23rd July 2016

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Saurabh

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August 4, 2016

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No State has indicated that they are not interested in participation in National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). Proposals from 13 States namely Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, UT of Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have been received for integration of their mandis with e-NAM. 23 mandis of 8 States across the country have already been integrated with e-NAM. The details of participation and performance of States in e-NAM are given below in table. In addition to above mentioned States, many other States/UTs like Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, UT of Puducherry, Administration of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram have expressed their willingness to join the e-NAM.

The Government has taken up with the States through issue of advisories, holding interactive sessions/ meetings, etc. to undertake amendments in their Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) Acts in respect of (i) a single trading license to be valid across the State; (ii) single point levy of market fee across the State; and (iii) provision for electronic auction as a mode for price discovery. So far, 13 States (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh) have amended their Acts to be eligible under the e-NAM scheme.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) organised a Seminar on 12 July 2016 on the theme “National Seminar on Doubling Farmers’ Income by 2022”. The seminar focused on the following themes: (i) Enhancing Farmers’ Income and (ii) Enabling Environment. The suggestions emerging from the seminar were recommendatory in nature.

NAM Trade Report between 14th April-23rd July 2016

S.No

State

No. of mandisapprovedfor e-NAM

No. ofmandis integratedwith e-NAMMandis inwhich trade is carriedoutNo. of tradedcommodities/No. of

commoditiesselected byStates for trade on e-NAMVolume of transactionNo. of Traders registeredNo. of CAregist-eredNo of FarmerQuantityRupees

(INR in Lacs)Within themandi

areaWithinthe stateOutside

state (Quintals)1.HimachalPradesh192201 / 02465.8316 411180G10911862.Haryana544403/0385764.443263.5125700175649273.Ra_jasthan251101/011359.882.11526003144884.Gujarat403303/031293.9234.5187001193365.MadhyaPradesh501101/016041.89357.52300009746.Uttar Pradesh666601/0148888.6788.28337002614167Jharkhand191101/0275929.16210003508Telangana445504/04116789.87226.59170200784110209Chhattisgarh5000/000000010Chandigarh100O/000000011Maharashtra30000/000000012Andhra Pradesh12000/0000000

Total 3652323 261373. 2811798.08317800310820697

Ayurvedic Medicine for Cancer Treatment

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Saurabh

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August 4, 2016

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While the Government has taken many steps to promote research in Ayurveda to develop treatment of cancer and these steps have yielded encouraging results, no guaranteed treatment has so far evolved.

The Government has set-up the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) an autonomous organization, with the mandate to undertake research in ayurvedic system of medicines and practice. The institutes under CCRAS are also engaged in extending healthcare services and research on life-style and non communicable diseases. The Central Ayurveda Research Institute for Cancer (CARIC) in Worli, Mumbai, especially, is carrying out some pioneering work in this area.

The Ministry of AYUSH through its research organizations, including CCRAS has launched a programme to integrate Ayurveda with the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS).

The major objective of the programme is prevention and early diagnosis of these diseases, reducing complications, and reducing drug dependency through these systems. It also aims towards capacity building for human resource development.

An Indo-US workshop on Traditional Medicine with special focus on cancer was organized in New Delhi on 3-4 March, 2016. A US team comprising of experts from National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Health (NIH) took part in the two day exhaustive deliberations that have resulted into significant leads.

The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) has granted 200 patents for medicines/ formulations related to Ayurvedic/herbal/plant based products and processes. 22 patents have been granted to foreign entities for medicines/formulation related to Ayurvedic /herbal /plant based products and processes. At present applications under consideration of CGPDTM is 270.

Establishment of CoPT by DRDO

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August 4, 2016

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Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has established Bi-nodal “Centre of Propulsion Technology” (CoPT) at IIT Bombay and IIT Madras through an agreement signed on 09th July, 2016 at IIT Bombay amongst DRDO, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras.

CoPT, as the main Centre of Propulsion Technology, has been conceptualised to engage with the primary Research Nodes (IIT Bombay and IIT Madras) and other research institutions/centres to undertake advanced collaborative research in the critical defence technology areas. It has been conceptualised to facilitate and undertake multidisciplinary directed basic and applied research in the focused areas of :-

• Futuristic aero- engines.

• Hypersonic propulsion for long duration flight.

• Solid propellant combustion modelling.

• Morphing aircraft including its propulsion and associated technologies addressing the emerging defence and security needs.

For the First Phase of CoPT activities, an amount of Rs. 160 Cr has been sanctioned for:

• Technical programmes pertaining to gas turbine propulsion for small engine, solid propellant combustion modelling, and morphing aircraft technologies.

• Infrastructure development

• CoPT running expenses.

The cost is to be met entirely out of Grants-in –aid funds from DRDO.

‘Make in India’ for Air Force

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August 4, 2016

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Make in India_ Air Force_indianbureaucracy

A seminar on Make in India for was conducted on 19th April, 2016. Main suggestions received during the seminar are as follows:

• Nurture aerospace Research & Development (R&D) in India through full funding and encouraging incentives to private Indian industry. Establishment of an aerospace R&D centre to identify, design and develop equipment required for maintenance and sustenance of combat platforms.

• Programmes may be conducted through leading academic institutions or in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for knowledge and skill development in the identified areas of R&D, Manufacture, Quality Assurance, Maintenance etc. in military aviation.

• Periodic interaction with Indian industry.

The major projects planned to be processed under ‘Make in India’ for Air Force are: Light Combat Aircraft, Light Combat Helicopter, Light Utility Helicopter, Basic Trainer Aircraft, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Medium and Short Range Surface-to-Air Missiles, Air-to-Air Missiles, Radars, other Avionics, aggregates and ammunition etc.

The Government has implemented several policy initiatives to promote ‘Make in India’, such as liberalisation of FDI policy & Industrial Licensing Policy, simplification of export procedures, creating level playing field for Indian private and public sector companies, giving preference to ‘Buy (Indian- Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)’, ‘Buy (Indian)’, ‘Buy and Make (Indian)’ categories of capital acquisition over ‘Buy (Global)’ category in Defence Procurement Procedure.

The various initiatives taken to promote ‘Make In India’ for manufacture of defence equipment are given below:

‘Make’ Procedure: The salient features of ‘Make’ procedure in the Defence Procurement Procedure-2016 (DPP-2016) are as follows:

• There shall be two categories of ‘Make’ projects – first, those funded by the MoD, and the second, that are self-funded by the developers.

• Funding of the projects by the MoD has been increased from 80% to 90%.

• In case the RFP for the product is not issued within two years of successful development of the prototype, the balance 10% shall also be re-imbursed. In case of second category of projects, the entire cost of development shall be re-imbursed.

• The development agencies will also be able to get a mobilisation advance of 20% of the estimated cost of development.

• Projects with an estimated cost of development of upto Rs.10 crore, under MoD funded projects, and upto Rs.3 crore, under self-funded projects, will be earmarked for MSMEs.

Buy (Indian-IDDM): Another notable feature of DPP-2016 is the introduction of a new procurement category Buy [Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured-(IDDM)]. This category refers to procurement from Indian vendors of products that are indigenously designed, developed and manufactured, and have atleast 40% indigenous content. If the product is not designed and developed indigenously, it will have to have 60% indigenous content. The ‘Buy (Indian)’category, in which the product is to be procured from Indian vendors, will now require to have an indigenous content of 40%, instead of the 30% present requirement.

There shall be preference to ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’, ‘Buy (Indian)’. ‘Buy and Make (Indian)’categories of capital acquisition over ‘Buy and Make’ or ‘Buy (Global)’category in Defence Procurement Procedure.

Industrial Licensing: The Defence Products List for the purpose of issuing Industrial Licenses (ILs) under Industries (Development & Regulation) (IDR) Act, 1951 has been revised and most of the components, parts, sub-systems, testing equipment and production equipment have been removed from the List, so as to reduce the entry barriers for the industry, particularly small & medium segment. The initial validity of the Industrial Licence granted under the IDR Act has been increased from 03 years to 15 years with a provision to further extend it by 03 years on a case-to-case basis.

Defence Exports: The list of military stores has been finalized and put in the public domain so as to make the process transparent and unambiguous. The process of receiving applications for No Objection Certificate (NOC) for export of military stores and for issuing NOC has been made online to reduce the delay and to remove human interface in the process. The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the issue of NOC for export of military stores has been revised. Under the revised SOP, the requirement of End User Certificate (EUC) to be countersigned/stamped by the Government authorities has been done away with for the export of parts, components, sub-systems etc. Recognizing the need for promotion of defence exports to make the Indian defence industry economically sustainable, Defence Exports Strategy outlining the various steps to be taken, has been formulated and put up in public domain.

Defence Offsets: Offset implementation process has been made flexible by allowing change of Indian Offset Partners (IOPs) and offset components, even in signed contracts. Foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are now not required to indicate the details of IOPs and products at the time of signing of contracts. Services as an avenue of offset have been re-instated with certain conditionalities.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): Under the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy, foreign investment upto 49% through automatic route and beyond 49% through Government route has been allowed in defence sector wherever it is likely to result in access to modern technology or for other reasons to be recorded. The foreign investment in defence sector is further subject to Industrial license under the Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951; and Manufacturing of small arms and ammunition under the Arms Act, 1959. Level-Playing Field: Issues related to level playing field between Indian vs. foreign manufacturers and public sector vs private sector have also been addressed. These include the following:-

• Exchange Rate Variation protection has been made applicable for Indian private sector at par with Public Sector Undertakings for all categories of capital acquisitions.

• The preferential treatment given to Defence Public Sector Undertakings in excise duty/custom duty has been discontinued. As per the revised policy, all Indian industries (public and private) are subject to the same kind of excise and custom duty levies.

Outsourcing and Vendor Development Guidelines: To promote the participation of private sector, particularly SMEs for defence manufacturing, Outsourcing and Vendor Development Guidelines for DPSUs and OFB have been formulated. The guidelines mandate each DPSU and OFB to have a short-term and long-term outsourcing and vendor development plan to gradually increase the outsourcing from private sector.

Make in India Portal: Make in India portal for Defence Production has been launched. The portal provides information related to all policy and procedural issues relevant for defence manufacturing industry. It provides link to industrial promotion polices and program of various states and UTs. Another highlight of the portal is that the Test facilities of DPSUs/OFB/DGQA/DGAQA/DRDO/ Forces which can be utilized by the private sector, have been displayed. The portal also gives an opportunity to an individual company to seek clarifications or ask questions related to Defence Production.

Smart city is a ‘wholesome’ concept: Dr Jitendra Singh

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Saurabh

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August 4, 2016

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Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, has said the Smart City is a “wholesome” concept and cannot be practised in piecemeal or in parts.

Addressing the Smart City Summit as Chief Guest here , Dr Jitendra Singh said the Smart City initiative is one of the flagship programmes of the Central Government, for which, the Urban Development Ministry has developed a very objective and scientific qualifying criteria for a town or city to be included in this programme. Considering the typical topographic and developmental status of the eight States in the North-Eastern Region, Dr Jitendra Singh assured he will take up with the Ministry of Urban Development the possibility of having a little more liberal criteria for inclusion of the North-Eastern cities in this programme,.

At the same time, Dr Jitendra Singh said, a progressive approach in the Smart City initiative is not confined only to the construction of buildings and roads, but also to providing of optimum infrastructure for various facets of life, particularly health and education sectors. Besides, a “Smart City” is not smart only on the basis of its physical appearance, but also on the basis of its people who are smart enough to live up to the requirements and expectations of contemporary times, he added.

In order to make the programme more wholesome, Dr Jitendra Singh called upon the private stakeholders participating in the conference to come forward in partnership with the government and encourage entrepreneurship in the North-East to take advantage of its vast unexplored potential. He said, for any new Startup initiative in Northeast, in addition to the provisions and facilities provided by the Government of India, the Ministry of DoNER has also announced the additional incentive of providing a Venture Capital Fund.

On the occasion, officer bearers and officials from both government and private sector, were presented awards for their distinguished performance in the Smart City programme.

Flower Production in India at 2.158 Million Tonnes during 2015-16

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Saurabh

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August 4, 2016

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Due to favourable agro-climatic conditions prevailing in the country, India produces 2.158 million tones of flowers during 2015-16. Flower crops are grown in almost all the States. The major flower growing States are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Haryana, Assam, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra. Flowers are being exported from India to about 150 countries in the world and India’s share in the world floriculture trade and exports is less than 1%.

The Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) provides assistance for development of horticultural crops including flowers. Floriculture farmers are provided assistance @ 40% of the cost ranging from Rs.40,000 per ha. to Rs.1.50 lakh per ha. limited to 2 ha per beneficiary. Besides, the technological support is provided by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, which has established a full-fledged Directorate of Floricultural Research at Pune to address the issues specific to floriculture research.

Talks with Pakistan over withdrawal from Siachen

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August 4, 2016

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Thirteen rounds of talks to resolve the Siachen issue have already taken place between Government of India and Pakistan, led by the respective Defence Secretaries. Indian Government has made it clear to Pakistan that the solution to Siachen Glacier is a part of the larger issue to include Pakistan’s support to terrorism in India.

On December 9, 2015 External Affairs Minister met the Pakistani leadership on the side-lines of the Heart of Asia process for regional cooperation on Afghanistan. These discussions directed the Foreign Secretaries of both countries to work out the modalities and schedule of the meetings under the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue on various issues including Siachen.

Indian Army soldiers deployed in extremely harsh terrain and weather conditions are suitably equipped and properly trained to undertake the operational challenges and carry out their mandated tasks. The soldiers deployed at Siachen Glacier are provided with quality winter clothing including ‘Extreme Cold Climate’ clothing. Besides, they are provided with prefabricated insulated shelters and wherever it is not possible to construct such shelters due to technical difficulties, insulated tents are provided which can withstand low temperatures upto – 500 Celsius.

The Units are self-sufficient for a period of 240 days of supplies.

During winters / cut off season, daily maintenance of troops is carried out by rotary / fixed wing assets.

Protein found to bolster growth of damaged Muscle Tissue

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August 4, 2016

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Summary:Biologists have found that a protein that plays a key role in the lives of stem cells can bolster the growth of damaged muscle tissue, a step that could contribute to treatments for muscle degeneration caused by old age or muscular dystrophy.

Johns Hopkins University biologists have found that a protein that plays a key role in the lives of stem cells can bolster the growth of damaged muscle tissue, a step that could potentially contribute to treatments for muscle degeneration caused by old age and diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

The results, published online by the journal Nature Medicine, show that a particular type of protein called integrin is present on the stem cell surface and used by stem cells to interact with, or “sense” their surroundings. How stem cells sense their surroundings, also known as the stem cell “niche,” affects how they live and last for regeneration. The presence of the protein β1-integrin was shown to help promote the transformation of those undifferentiated stem cells into muscle after the tissue has degraded, and improve regenerated muscle fiber growth as much as 50 percent.

While the presence of β1-integrin in adult stem cells is apparent, “its role in these cells has not been examined,” especially its influence on the biochemical signals promoting stem cell growth, wrote the three authors, Chen-Ming Fan, an adjunct biology professor; Michelle Rozo, who completed her doctorate in biology at Johns Hopkins this year; and doctoral student Liangji Li.

The experiment shows that β1-integrin — one of 28 types of integrin — maintains a link between the stem cell and its environment, and interacts biochemically with a growth factor called fibroblast growth factor [FGF] to promote stem cell growth and restoration after muscle tissue injury. Aged stem cells do not respond to FGF, and the results also show that β1-integrin restores aged stem cell’s ability to respond to FGF to grow and improve muscle regeneration.

By tracking an array of proteins inside the stem cells, the researchers tested the effects of removing β1-integrin from the stem cell. This is based on the understanding that the activities of stem cells — undifferentiated cells that can become specialized — are dependent on their environment and supported by the proteins found there.

“If we take out β1-integrin, all these other (proteins) are gone,” said Fan, the study’s senior author and a staff member at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington and Baltimore.

Why that is the case is not clear, but the experiment showed that without β1-integrin, stem cells could not sustain growth after muscle tissue injury.

By examining β1-integrin molecules and the array of proteins that they used to track stem cell activity in aged muscles, the authors found that all of these proteins looked like they had been removed from aged stem cells. They injected an antibody to boost β1-integrin function into aged muscles to test whether this treatment would enhance muscle regeneration. Measurements of muscle fiber growth with and without boosting the function of β1-integrin showed that the protein led to as much as 50-percent more regeneration in cases of injury in aged mice.

When the same β1-integrin function-boosting strategy was applied to mice with muscular dystrophy, the muscle was able to increase strength by about 35 percent.

Fan said the team’s research will next try to determine what is happening inside the stem cells as they react with their immediate environment, as a step to understanding more about the interaction of the two. That, in turn, could help refine the application of integrin as a therapy for muscular dystrophy and other diseases, and for age-related muscle degeneration.

“We provide here a proof-of-principle study that may be broadly applicable to muscle diseases that involve SC (stem cell) niche dysfunction,” the authors wrote. “But further refinement is needed for this method to become a viable treatment.”

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Delay in Defence Procurement

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August 4, 2016

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The Defence Procurement Procedure stipulates a time schedule for completion of the procurement cycle. However, the time taken to undertake capital procurement of defence equipment depends on the nature and complexity of the equipment being procured. The procurement of defence equipment involves rigorous trials, after which detailed bid evaluations and comprehensive commercial negotiations have to be undertaken. Nonetheless, under the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)-2016 Government has laid down further provisions for ensuring swift decision making in defence procurements.

The details of the Revised Estimates and actual expenditure incurred in capital acquisition during the last three years are as follows:

(Rs. in crores)

Year	RE	Actual Expenditure
2013-14	66406.41	66850.30
2014-15	66151.73	65582.34
2015-16	65400.00	61761.80

Scientists create new thin material that mimics cell membranes

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August 3, 2016

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Summary:Materials scientists have created a new material that performs like a cell membrane found in nature. Such a material has long been sought for applications as varied as water purification and drug delivery. The material can assemble itself into a sheet thinner but stabler than a soap bubble, the researchers report.

Materials scientists have created a new material that performs like a cell membrane found in nature. Such a material has long been sought for applications as varied as water purification and drug delivery.

Referred to as a lipid-like peptoid (we’ll unpack that in a second), the material can assemble itself into a sheet thinner, but more stable, than a soap bubble, the researchers report July 12 in Nature Communications. The assembled sheet can withstand being submerged in a variety of liquids and can even repair itself after damage.

“Nature is very smart. Researchers are trying to make biomimetic membranes that are stable and have certain desired properties of cell membranes,” said chemist Chun-Long Chen at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “We believe these materials have potential in water filters, sensors, drug delivery and especially fuel cells or other energy applications.”

The amazing membrane

Cell membranes are amazing materials. Made from thin sheets of fatty molecules called lipids, they are at least ten times thinner than an iridescent soap bubble and yet allow cells to collectively form organisms as diverse at bacteria, trees and people.

Cell membranes are very selective about what they let pass through, using tiny embedded proteins as gatekeepers. Membranes repair dings to their structure automatically and change thickness to pass signals from the outside environment to the cell’s interior, where most of the action is.

Scientists would like to take advantage of membrane properties such as gatekeeping to make filters or signaling to make sensors. A cell-membrane-like material would have advantages over other thin materials such as graphene. For example, mimicking a cell membrane’s efficient gatekeeping could result in water purifying membranes that don’t require a lot of pressure or energy to push the water through.

Synthetic molecules called peptoids have caught the interest of researchers because they are cheap, versatile and customizable. They are like natural proteins, including those that embed themselves in cell membranes, and can be designed to have very specific forms and functions. So Chen and colleagues decided to see if they could design peptoids to make them more lipid-like.

Designing membranes

Lipid molecules are long and mostly straight: They have a fatty end that prefers to hang out with other fats, and a water-like end that prefers the comfort of water. Because of this chemistry, lipid molecules arrange themselves with the fatty ends pointed toward each other, sandwiched between the water-loving ends pointed out. Scientists call this a lipid bilayer, essentially a sheet that envelops the contents of a cell. Proteins or carbohydrate molecules embed themselves in the membranous sheet.

Inspired by this, Chen and colleagues designed peptoids in which each base peptoid was a long molecule with one end water-loving and the other end fat-loving. They chose chemical features that they hoped would encourage the individual molecules to pack together. They examined the resulting structures using a variety of analysis methods, including some at the Advanced Light Source and the Molecular Foundry, two DOE Office of Science User Facilities at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The team found that after putting the lipid-like peptoids into a liquid solution, the molecules spontaneously crystallized and formed what the scientists call nanomembranes — straight-edged sheets as thin as cell membranes — floating in the beaker. These nanomembranes maintained their structure in water or alcohol, at different temperatures, in solutions with high or low pH, or high concentrations of salts, a feat that few cell membranes could accomplish.

A view from the middle

To better understand the nanomembranes, the team simulated how single peptoid molecules interacted with each other using molecular dynamics software. The simulated peptoids formed a membrane reminiscent of a lipid bilayer: The fat-loving ends lined up in the middle, and their water-loving ends pointed outward either above or below.

To test whether their synthetic membranes had the signaling ability of cell membranes, the researchers added a touch of sodium chloride salt. Salt is involved in the last step in many signaling sequences and causes real cell membranes to thicken up. And thicken up the peptoids did. The more salt the researchers added, the thicker the nanomembranes became, reaching about 125 percent of their original thickness in the range of salt concentrations they tested.

Real membranes also hold proteins that have specific functions, such as ones that let water, and only water, through. Chen’s group tested the ability of peptoids to do so by introducing a variety of side chains. Side chains are essentially small molecules of different shapes, sizes and chemical natures attached to the longer lipid-like peptoids. They tried 10 different designs. In each case, the peptoids assembled into the nanomembranes with the core structure remaining intact. The team could also build a carbohydrate into nanomembranes, showing the material can be designed to have versatile functions.

The team then tested the nanomembranes to see if they could repair themselves, a useful feature for membranes that could get scratched during use. After cutting slits in a membrane, they added more of the lipid-like peptoid. Viewed under a microscope over the course of a few hours, the scratches filled up with more peptoid and the nanomembrane became complete again. (Compare this to cuts in paper, which don’t spontaneously repair themselves even after being taped up.)

Taken together, the results showed the researchers that they are on the right path to making synthetic cell membrane-like materials. However, there are still some challenges to be addressed for applications. For example, the researchers would like to better understand how the membranes form so they can make many desirable sizes.

The next step, Chen said, is to build biomimetic membranes by incorporating natural membrane proteins or other synthetic water channels such as carbon nanotubes into these sheet matrices. The team is also looking into ways to make the peptoid membranes conductive for energy uses.

This work was supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science and PNNL.

More: Science

Purchasing of Fighter Aircraft from France

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August 3, 2016

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As per the India-France Joint Statement issued by the two countries during the Prime Minister’s visit to France, Government of India conveyed to the Government of France that in view of the critical operational necessity for Multirole Combat Aircraft for Indian Air Force (IAF), Government of India would like to acquire 36 Rafale jets in flyaway condition. Both the sides also agreed to conclude an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for supply of the aircraft.

A Negotiating Team has been constituted to negotiate the terms and conditions of the procurement of 36 Rafale jets and recommend a draft agreement. On 25th January, 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for procurement of 36 Rafale was signed by the Governments of India and France. The details like cost of procurement, training of fighter pilots of Indian Air Force, etc. would emerge after the conclusion of IGA.

IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.

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Indian Bureaucracy

NBCC conferred with ICC Awards

NAM Trade Report Between 14th April-23rd July 2016

Ayurvedic Medicine for Cancer Treatment

Establishment of CoPT by DRDO

‘Make in India’ for Air Force

Smart city is a ‘wholesome’ concept: Dr Jitendra Singh

Flower Production in India at 2.158 Million Tonnes during 2015-16

Talks with Pakistan over withdrawal from Siachen

Protein found to bolster growth of damaged Muscle Tissue

Delay in Defence Procurement

Scientists create new thin material that mimics cell membranes

Purchasing of Fighter Aircraft from France

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