Sami
Labs Ltd. has bagged this year's national award for in-house R&D
efforts from the Department of science & Industrial Research (DSIR)
in the category of Chemicals and Allied Industries. The award was presented
by Mr. B.S. Rawat, Minister of state in the
Department of Science & Technology, in New Delhi at the
16th National Conference on in-house R&D in industry. The award
to Sami Labs is for development of five new products and processes,
the company said in a statement. This year's National Award is one of
the Seventeen National and All-India Awards won by since its inception.
Sami Lab's efforts were earlier recognised by the Government with a
'National Award for Basic Drugs' in 1994 and by the State Government
with the 'Outstanding export Performance Award' for its EoU unit at
Kunigal.
The
company also won three awards form the Central Government for development
of value-added spice products and export performance this year. Founded
in1991, Sami Labs operates the largest and most efficient herbal extraction
facility in India. The company has developed numerous standardised extracts
that serve companies in the health, food, sport, nutraceutical and cosmetic
sectors. Sami Labs state-of-the-art R&D facility is located in Peenya,
Bangalore and is focussed on the development of quality products through
innovative research and standardisation of product. The areas of activity
include manufacture of herbal extracts, fine and specialilty chemicals,
cosmeceuticals and new drug discovery. Other companies that received
awards in recognition of their R&D efforts in their sectors included:
- Patel's
Analog &Digital Measurement Co, Pune for their R&D efforts
in electrical industries;
- MIC
Electronics LTd,Hyderabad for their pioneering work in electronic
industries;
- Digital
Utilities(I) P. Ltd, New Delhi for outstanding work in mechanical
engineering industries;
- Indian
Aluminium Co Ltd, in recognition of its R&D efforts in processing
industries sector;
- Nuziveedu
Seeds Ltd., in recognition of its R&D efforts in agro and food
processing industries sectors;
- Saba
Powderdex P. Ltd. for R&D efforts in the area of technology absorption.
Industry, university synergy urged
Inaugurating
the 16th National Conference on In-house R&D in Industry, jointly
organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI) and DSIR, Mr Rawat urged universities and other organisations
of higher education and research to acquire a higher degree of financial
self-sufficiency, adding that "it was not possible to run universities
on fees collected from the student community alone.""Funding
must come as result of universities and industry working for each other",
he noted, while urging industry to fund universities, "not as charity,
but by making them partners in research and upgradation of skills of
the existing manpower already employed by industry"
The
Minister said that there was a need to develop a synergy between industry
and universities so that the output of universities was direct relevance
to industry.
The
output did not mean educated manpower alone, he clarified. "but
also the research carried out by the faculty and student community."
|