Chemical weekly
December 24, 2002.

Sami Labs bags DSIR award for in-house R&D


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."