ISSN 0409-7467 VOL 59 NO 2 30 JANUARY 2009 NIO's newly acquired RV Sindhu Sankalp irector of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, along with his staff welcomed Dthe newly acquired Research Vessel Sindhu Sankalp, which arrived at the Captain of Ports Jetty, Panaji. She sailed on 14 November 2008 from the port of Dunedin, New Zealand. Besides the regular officers and crew, three members of NIO and Mr Malcolm A Macleod, previous owner, accompanied the vessel. The 56 m long and 9 m wide vessel with a gross tonnage of 709 tonnes, would be used to study the seas around India. 30 JANUARY 2009 17 R&D Highlights Speaking on this occasion, NIO New Processes released by CFTRI Director Dr Satish Shetye observed that the seas around India (the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and Mini Versatile Dhal Mill for Rural Areas the equatorial North Indian Ocean) he Central Food Technological the operation. It has an adjustable are unique in several respects. This TResearch Institute (CFTRI), clearance to suit different size of uniqueness arises from two factors: Mysore, has designed a versatile grains. Also, the byproducts First, the water of the Indian Ocean mini dhal mill to dehusk all kind of generated such as husk and broken is blocked in the north by landmass pulses. Basically the unit consists dhals could be used for animal (Asia) from having access to polar of three principal components, i.e. feeds. The investment required is region; Second, because of the the dehusking, aspiration and quite small and well suited for monsoon, these waters experience grading systems. The unit is cottage and rural industry. one of the strongest seasonal specifically suitable for rural areas variability of atmospheric and has a good market potential conditions anywhere in the world for a large number of these units oceans. This gives rise to large in Maharashtra, Orissa, Madhya variations of wind stress, Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. evaporation, precipitation and It will prove beneficial to the pulse coastal run-off that not only make farming community and will be a the dynamics of this water unique, boon for agro-based economy in but also have a profound influence the rural sector. on biogeochemical cycles. NIO has The salient features of this mini made an impact on the global dhal mill include: 75-77% yield of oceanographic research arena by dhal and dehulling ratio around 97- sustained observations of these 98% with breakage limited to 2-4%. waters. The unit has the capacity to “The acquisition of RV Sindhu process 150 kg dhal per hour. Sankalp is an important milestone All variety of pulses can be in the history of NIO,” Dr Shetye processed and the operation is further added. “It will help the user friendly. Since the unit has scientists advance into the seas in been designed for dry pre-milling, and around Indian waters for minimum dust is generated during research purposes.” Earlier, Dr P. S. Rao, Senior Scientist and Project Leader, Process for Preparation of briefed the gathering on the vessel acquisition process. Dr Rao said Expanded Horse Gram that the vessel would be modified to suit the requirements of NIO by orse gram is generally used getting it fitted with necessary Hafter soaking, germination, scientific equipment. As the vessel cooking and also as extract or soup. is proven to be a stable platform, Papad from horse gram flour are the scientists can plan experiments also prepared in southern region of round the year. India. Pulses like Bengal gram and Mr Sanjeev Afzalpurkar peas are available in puffed / proposed the vote of thanks. expanded form but not horse gram, 18 CSIR NEWS R&D Highlights because raw horse gram does not acceptable expanded ready-to-eat and shelf stable. It can be used as give puffed or expanded product at snack product. The product such or as a snack after salting or normal moisture content and has ‘reduced anti-nutritional spicing. It can also be added as an conventional puffing conditions. A factors’ with improved protein ingredient in cereal bar or chikki. process has been developed for digestibility. The process can be had from the expanded horse gram to give an The product is crisp, crunchy institute for commercialization. Natural Flavourant from Swallow Roots ecalepis hamiltonii is a D. hamiltonii root is 2-hydroxy-4- the extract is crystallized in a low Dmonotypic genus found in the methoxy benzaldehyde (HMB), polar solvent to get the final product. Deccan (South) peninsula, mostly in which is an isomer of vanillin. HMB (2-hydroxy-4-methoxy the forest regions of Eastern and CFTRI has developed a process benzaldehyde) from swallow roots Western Ghats. The swallow root for optimizing extraction and finds application as a natural has a strong aromatic odour and isolation of HMB from swallow flavourant in beverages, dairy sweet taste, and it is used in roots. Swallow roots are grated and products and bakery products. It traditional Indian medicine as an subjected to steam-hydro can also be used as a natural appetizer and blood purifier. The distillation. The organic fraction of preservative in many preparations. sliced root is pickled as such or along the distillate contains HMB as the The principal plant and with lime fruit where it acts as a major volatile compound along with machinery required include: wet flavourant as well as a preservative. other flavour compounds. The comminuting mill, steam-hydro The chemical compound responsible distillate is then subjected to solvent distillation still, extraction unit, for the aroma and taste of extraction. After desolventization, mixing tank, refrigerated tanks and chilled water plant. The other auxiliary requirements are boiler, generators, quality control laboratory and effluent treatment systems. The process know- how is available from the institute for commer- cial exploita- tion. Decalepis hamiltonii plant Swallow roots 30 JANUARY 2009 19 S.S.Bhatnagar Prize-winning Work Nanoscale Textures and Metal-Insulator Transitions in Correlated Electron Systems Dr Pinaki Majumdar’s Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize-winning Work r Pinaki Majumdar of the and multiferroics, there is a common D Harish-Chandra Research feature that all these materials Institute (HRI), Allahabad, has been involve multiple competing phases. awarded the Bhatnagar Prize in Small changes in doping, pressure, Physical Sciences for the year 2007. strain, etc. could, for example, His area of research is materials convert an insulator into a theory with focus on topics like superconductor (in the cuprates) or magnetism and superconductivity. an antiferromagnet to a ferromagnet To set his work in context it would (in the manganites). The proximity help to quickly review the link of competing phases and their tiny between solid state theory and energy difference amplify the effect materials science. of small perturbations. In particular, The modern theory of solids dilute impurities that would be came into being in 1930’s, after the uncertainties in our understanding. ‘irrelevant’ in a traditional metal advent of quantum mechanics. The The last couple of decades have (copper or gold, say) could now have first triumph was in explaining the seen a shift of focus to more complex a dramatic effect. Compared to our different electrical properties of materials, many of them oxides of early example of silicon, the new solids in terms of electronic bands transition metals, where a variety of materials necessarily involve strong in a crystal. A partially filled band phenomena emerge due to strong interactions and often require an ‘ab led to a metal, a fully filled band to interactions between the electrons. initio’ understanding of impurity an insulator, and a full band with a The most famous in this category are effects. Interactions and disorder are ‘narrow gap’ led to a semiconductor. the copper oxide based high Tc no longer afterthoughts, they are the The 1940’s saw the development of superconductors. Close at their starting point of the theory. semiconductor-based transistors, heels came the ‘colossal magneto Unfortunately there are no using the microscopic resistance’ (CMR) manganites. readymade tools to approach a understanding gained from the There have been many others, e.g., problem of this kind. theory. Silicon based cobaltates with unusual Dr Majumdar’s major effort at semiconductors have dominated thermopower, and ‘multiferroics’— HRI has been in developing technology for the last six decades. capable of huge electric or magnetic methods for studying correlated While the silicon story is well response. They all involve unusual electron systems in the presence of known, there are two properties of collective states arising from disorder, and understanding spatial silicon as a ‘device material’ that interactions among electrons, textures in such systems. This is deserve highlighting: (i) Si needs to phonons, magnetic moments, etc. motivated by recent experiments be ‘ultra pure’ to function in a and the 1930’s approach to solids is (see Fig.1 for manganites) which device, and (ii) the effects of woefully inadequate. A new branch suggest that in many materials electron-electron interactions, etc., of solid state physics - the theory of matter at the nanoscale is very in Si are negligible. For a theorist, ‘correlated electrons’ came into inhomogeneous. An understanding Si is a ‘clean’ non-interacting being. of the spatial character of such a system. The physics is simple, While there is no single theory state is key to controlling its almost boring! There are no that describes cuprates, manganites transport properties, and possible 20 CSIR NEWS S.S.Bhatnagar Prize-winning Work Figure 1: A pattern of coexisting insulating and ferromagnetic metallic regions in a manganite, measured using tunneling spectroscopy. The dark regions are metallic. The image is for a sample roughly 1 µm wide. The panels, left to right, are for increasing magnetic field Figure 2: Result of a simulation exploring coexistence effects in the presence of dilute impurities.