Network Projects

NISCAIR is the implementing institute for three major network projects, namely Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, National Science Digital Library and E-Journal Consortium. The progress of these projects during the year is highlighted here.

Traditional Knowledge digital Library(TKDL)

The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) is a collaborative project of NISCAIR, Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) and Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, being implemented at NISCAIR. The main objective of this globally renowned project is to prevent misappropriation of Indias rich heritage of traditional knowledge. Following the completion of TKDL Ayurveda Phase I, which involved 36,000 formulations from 14 authentic Ayurveda texts in five international languages, namely English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese in patent application format, the activities of TKDL project on Indian Systems of Medicine have been diversified to include Unani, Siddha and Yoga Systems of Medicine, besides Ayurveda. Activities undertaken in these areas during the year are summarized below: of Medicine were initiated in June, 2004. An interdisciplinary team of 13 Unani Experts, 18 Junior Unani Experts, one IT Expert, one Patent Examiner and a Scientist is involved in the project. The transcription of targeted 77,000 formulations, from 42 Unani books, which are in Urdu, Arabic and Persian languages is being carried out in the patent application format and in 5 languages, as has been done for TKDL Ayurveda. Approximately 73,000 formulations have been identified, 56,000 formulations transcribed and 14,500 formulations scanned from the original texts. Transcription, scanning and verification and validation of entire 77,000 formulations is likely to be completed by December 2006. Scientist is engaged in the project. The second phase involves identification of 65,000 formulations from 45 Ayurveda texts, checking for duplicates and transcription of 28,000 new formulations. So far, more than 34,000 formulations have been identified from the Ayurveda texts and checked for the duplicates. Transcription of 24,000 formulations has been completed. Work on transcriptions of targeted 28,000 formulations, their verification and validation and scanning covering entire 65,000 formulations is likely to be completed by December 2006.

Unani
Activities under TKDL Unani System

Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC) has been developed for Siddha System of Medicine. Twelve Siddha Experts Ayurveda II the project. Phasehave been recruited for Activities under the second phase The transcription of Siddha of TKDL Ayurveda were initiated in formulations has been done for 800 August 2004. An interdisciplinary formulations and the project is team of 12 Ayurveda Experts, 8 likely to be completed by March Junior Ayurveda Experts, 1 IT 2007. TKDL Siddha targets 10,000 Expert, 1 Patent Examiner and a formulations from 45 Tamil texts.

Siddha

Y o ga
Draft Task Force report and Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification on Yoga have been completed and sent to the Task force members and sixteen other Yoga Experts identified by Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga and Department of AYUSH. So far in the TKDL project, about 13 million pages (A4 size) of information have been created. This

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NISCAIR Annual Report

Table 1 Sl. Indian No. of No. System of Books Medicine (Vols.)

2005-06
No. of Pages(A4) of information (in millions) Current Status 10.0 3.0 13.0

No. of Formulations Target Current Status 60,000 56,000 800 1,16,800

1. 2. 3. 4.

Ayurveda Unani Siddha Yoga Total

64 books (90 Volumes) 19 books (67 Volumes) 45 books (53 Volumes) 10 books (10 Volumes) 138 books (220 Volumes)

64,000 77,000 10,000 1,500 1,52, 500

(ITRC), Lucknow; Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (IHBT), Palampur; Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore; Unit for Research and Development of Information Products (URDIP), Pune; Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), Jammu; Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), Bhubaneswar; and Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee. All the networking Labs/ Institutes are contributing to the TKDL database based on their core competencies. The contributions of NISCAIR to the TKDL Network Project are summarized as follows.

number is likely to increase to 31 million pages, covering a total of approx. 1,50,000 traditional drug formulations by December 2006. The target number of formulations and the progress achieved so far is summarized in Table 1 above.

Books on Indian System of Medicine s

Thirty books on Indian Systems of Medicine, particularly on Ayurveda, will be brought out. The titles of these books have been identified. Work has been initiated for the following four books which are likely to be brought out in 2006, (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Plants Used in Indian Systems of Medicine Preventive and Curative Remedies of Ayurveda Treasury of Ayurveda Herbo-Mineral Preparations in Ayurveda (Rasa-Yogas)

Comprehensive TKDL(CTKDL) Netwo r k Project

The CTKDL Network Project (SMM 09) was approved by the Expenditure and Finance Committee in February 2004. NISCAIR is the Nodal Institute for this project, which has nine other CSIR Labs/Institutes as networking partners. These are : National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow; Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow; Industrial Toxicology Research Centre

Database on Disease: Causes and Symptoms

Work on the database, Disease: Causes and Symptoms is in progress and is likely to be completed by December 2006. Five original Ayurveda texts, namely Ashtanga Hrdya, Caraka Smhita, Kashyapa Samhita, Sushruta Samhita and Madhava Nidana will be used for collecting the data. Of these, the

Doctors and IT Experts at Work at CTKDL

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Network Projects
three books that are being used initially for collecting the data are Ashtanga Hrdya, Caraka Smhita and Kashyapa Samhita. Data have been collected for creating TKRC for 1143 causes (target: about 5000 causes) and 5157 symptoms (target: about 10,000 symptoms) from the books mentioned above and also from 1953 personal health records. by Department of Legal Affairs and Legal and Treaty Division of Ministry of External Affairs. The Agreement has also been vetted by Mr Soli Sorabjee, senior Advocate and M/s Anand & Anand Advocates, a leading IPR firm, who have found the agreement enforceable. The agreement is, at present, being examined by Govt. of India.

ArogyaHealth Mela 2005

NISCAIR participated in the Arogya Health Melas held at : i) ii) iii) Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, 23-27 September 2005 Necklace Ground, Hyderabad, 11-13 November 2005 Convention Centre, Chennai Trade Centre, Nandam-bakkam, Chennai, 26-28 February 2006, organized by Indian Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) and Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Impact andRecognition ofTKDL

Visitors at the Arogya Mela

Access to TKDL Database

Access to TKDL database is to be given only to Patent Offices to prevent the misappropriation of Traditional Knowledge of the country, under non-disclosure agreement. Mr. Gerard Giroud, Principal Director, Tools Documentation, European Patent Office (EPO), has requested for access of TKDL vide his letter dated 15th July 2005, wherein it has been mentioned that EPO examiners will be using unique tool called EPOQUE access search collections which may not allow patents to be unduly granted and avoid expensive post-grant invalidation procedures. He has also assured all guarantees of confidentiality and proper usage control. The TKDL database will be provided to International Patent Offices, particularly to EPO, under non-disclosure agreement. The Access Agreement on TKDL has been vetted

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library is based on Ayurveda which is one of the oldest systems of medicine(2500 B.C.). The Google search results for Ayurveda shows about 4,400,000 references/ citations/documents, whereas references/citations/documents for TKDL (established in 2003), are about 31,400,000, i.e almost eight times than Ayurveda on which TKDL is based. Similarly, Traditional Knowledge Resource Classification (TKRC) recognized in February 2002 is based on International Patent Classification (IPC) System (1971). Google search results show about 10,600,000 references/citations/documents for IPC and 28,400,000 citations for TKRC which is more than two-anda half times to that for IPC. The search results are shown in the table below:

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C overage of
TKDL by National and International Media TKDL and National Media
TKDL has been covered on news channels such as Aaj Tak, Star News, Asianet, India TV and NDTV. Hindustan Times (12 Dec. 2005) covered TKDL in its editorial. Other newspapers, which covered TKDL recently are: The Economic Times, The Business Standard, The Financial Express, The Hindu and The Statesman. In addition, several regional newspapers also had extensive coverage on TKDL.

Nigerian Delegation at NISCAIR

Technology Acquisitions and Promotion, Abuja, Nigeria; Dr. T F Okujagu, Director/Chief Executive, Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency, Victoria Island, Lagos; and Mr. S.O. Etatuvie, Chief Research Officer, Nigeria Natural Medicine

Development Agency, Victoria Island, Lagos, visited NISCAIR on 6th February 2006. Nigerian delegation showed keen desire to collaborate with NISCAIR in replicating TKDL for Nigeria. The Nigerian delegation proposed to work out a plan of action in this regard.

TKDL and International Media

Table below reflects coverage of TKDL in International media in the month of December 2005 alone. Sl. Country No. Covered by Newspapers (No.) (December 2005) 50 8 5 4 2 2 1 1 1 1 1

(III)Japanese Delegation

A three-member delegation comprising Associate Professor Hiroshi Kato, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo; Mr. Hirokazu Nakano, Deputy Director, Japanese Patent Office (JPO), Tokyo; and Mr. Hitoshi Amano, Director, Intellectual Property Department, Japan External Trade Organization, Bangkok, visited NISCAIR on 6th March 2006 to discuss on Traditional Knowledge Digital Library and Intellectual Property. The delegation expressed the keenness of JPO to have access to the TKDL database for the purpose of search and examination. A formal request for accessing the TKDL database would be submitted shortly by them.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

USA India UK Canada Europe Italy South Africa Australia Brazil Dubai Bangladesh

Japanese Delegation at NISCAIR

These are evidenced from the following figures:

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NISCAIR Annual Report

2005-06

to implementation of this project. 2. The post agreement monitoring for all the above 11 publishers is going on. Usage statistics of 11 publishers are being regularly organized and loaded on Search Interface & Monitoring System Gateway so that user labs may see it. The project had organized trainers training workshops at six locations of CSIR labs, viz. Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune, during 28th July to 31st Aug, 2005. In all, one hundred and twenty two participants from all CSIR labs were trained over a period of sixteen days. The participants of these trainers training programmes are organizing training programmes for respective labto-lab based users. 15000 print copies of CSIR News Supplement a Quick Search Reference Guide, printed and distributed among CSIR users and other S&T personnel of the country to enhance usage and awareness.

E-journals consortium has been established by NISCAIR to provide electronic access to 4500 international S&T journals to CSIR scientists and thereby strengthen the facilities for pooling, sharing and electronically accessing the CSIR information resources and also for nucleating the culture of electronic access with a view to catalysing the evolution of digital libraries. Project Allocation: Capital Recurring Total Expenditure up to 31st March 2006 : : : : Rs. 11.69 Crores Rs. 0.10 Crore Rs. 11.79 Crores Rs. 5.28 Crores

3.

4.

Major activities during the year include the following : 1. The project had concluded agreements with 11 international publishers, viz. Elsevier Science, Springer & Kluwer, American Institute of Physics, Blackwell, American Society of Civil Engineering, American Chemical Society, John Wiley, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, American Society of Mechanical Engineering and Royal Society of Chemistry, and CSIR labs are accessing 3300+ journals vis-vis 20 to 200 print journals prior

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Network Projects

Dr R.A. Mashelkar, DG, CSIR, Speaking on the Occasion of CSIR e-journals Consortium Meeting

Dr Mashelkar Releasing the CSIR News Supplement on CSIR e-journals Consortium

5.

6.

A poster designed and 2200 copies of it got printed for display at prominent places in CSIR labs. All the nodal officers/ head (libraries) have been apprised about WALK-IN-USERS facility and accordingly requested to allow the walk-inusers to use the CSIR e-journals Consortium facility from library premises of CSIR labs. The nodal officers/head of libraries have been also requested to

7.

8.

maintain a proper record of these users. The hard copy of Agreements has been sent to the Director, Finance Officer and Nodal Officer of all CSIR labs to deal as per the provisions of the agreements. NISCAIR has developed a Search Interface Gateway and Complaint Monitoring System, intended for user-friendly access to journals available in consortium from various

9.

publishers. The monitoring system also has a built-in system to manage and record the problems of the users while accessing e- journals of various publishers. Revised EFC for seeking additional funds to add remaining three more publishers, viz. M/s IEEE, M/s Taylor & Francis and M/s ACM/Emerald, has been submitted to RDPD.

10. An EFC to add databases like Web Of Science and patent databases is underway for submission.

NationalScienceDigital Library(NSDL)
National Science Digital Library (NSDL), the first of its kind in the country, envisages to provide eaccess to digital resources to students, particularly in the remote areas. The basic aim of the project is to contribute to the national

Director, NISCAIR and Prof. R.S. Sirohi, VC, Barkatullah University, Bhopal at the Monitoring Committee Meeting of the CSIR e-journals Consortium

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NISCAIR Annual Report

2005-06
to content creation and software development.

Content Creation
Twelve Working Groups were constituted for as many subject disciplines as identified based on the UGC Model Curriculum for creation of e-courseware at undergraduate level. Seventeen meetings of the various Working Groups were held to finalize the topics on which e-books are to be written and also to identify the authors to whom the work could be allocated. Consent was sought from the identified authors for writing the chapters and subsequently chapters were allocated to the authors. A total of 484 chapters in 65 books for seven disciplines were allocated during the year. The NSDL team also created sample multimedia learning objects to help in evolving guidelines for the important stake holders in multimedia content creation. The team has also finalized the Guidelines for Multimedia Content Creation to aid the authors,

Dr Shobhit Mahajan with Director, NISCAIR in a Meeting of NSDL

development by reaching the unreached students in the remote areas, by providing them e-learning facilities and access to quality curriculum-based material at a level similar to that available to students in metros. Approved as a core network project under the Tenth Five-Year Plan (TFYP) in April 2004 with a budget outlay of Rs 44.23 crore, NSDL is being implemented with the active participation of University Grants Commission (UGC) and Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). In the first phase of the project, NSDL targets students of undergraduate level and above in Indian universities and colleges. It is proposed to create original and targeted contents by identified panels of experts/authors for about 600 e-books for undergraduate students by the end of 2006-07. Contents will be subject specific, location specific and university specific. A number of activities were undertaken during 2005-06. These included the constitution of the Working Groups in twelve subject

disciplines, identification of e-books and their contents, identification of authors for writing chapters in various e-books, finalization of the technical documents including Software Requirement Specifications (SRS) for NSDL Portal, Detailed Project Report (DPR) of NSDL, Request for Proposal (RFP) for Data Centre, Project Management Plan (PMP) and Quality Assurance Plan for the project. However, the two major activities during the year pertained

From left: Shri Madhukar Sinha, Prof. Arun Nigavekar and Director, NISCAIR at the Working Group Meeting of NSDL Project

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Network Projects
aspects is also a major component of the project. A tender was floated for the software development and the bids received were evaluated. The award of work based on the exercise carried out will be done during 2006-2007. The team also developed a Web-based Content Creation Management System (CCMS) for NSDL. The software is being used at the NISCAIR level and is proposed to be extended to the authors also. The draft Request for Proposals (RFPs) for Data Centre and non-IT Infrastructure and Site Preparation were prepared during the year. It is proposed to finalize and float the RFPs during 2006-2007.

Meeting of NSDL in Progress at NISCAIR

validators and multimedia specialists in content creation. The process of empanelment of retired scientists/academicians was also initiated. The empanelled scientists will be involved in the

verification, validation and other activities of e-book creation.

NSDL Infrastructure
Infrastructure which includes hardware, software and non-IT

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