| M.S SWAMINATHAN
RESEARCH FOUNDATION, CHENNAI
The research carried out by the Foundation, especially in relation to mangroves and endangered plants, has been widely acknowledge. Applications of modern biological methods to the study of coastal forests, carried out here, is considered to be unique. Similar is the significance attached to the development of protocols and procedures for clonal propagation of medicinal and endangered plants. The Foundation publishes every year a number of per-reviewed and conference papers to communicate the results to the scientific community. The Foundation's field biotechnology results are significant and have led to the establishment of a Women's Biotechnology Park in Chennai, inaugurated in July 1998 by the President of India. The Bioinformatics Centre set up at the Foundation will serve as an information resource centre for this unique and nationally significant programme. The Bioinformatics Centre would also serve as a vehicle for dissemination and access to several multimedia databases designed and developed by the Foundation. These include Ecological Farm Families of India. Agrobiodiversity and Farmer's IPR, FAO/FARM database on farm level technologies and a multimedia training module on diseases of the groundnut. The Mangrove Ecosystems Information Service designed and developed by the Foundation has been widely noted for its depth and quality of coverage. The centre would also render services from the CD-ROM collection on agricultural sciences and applied biology. Present interests of the centre include use of RAPD and RFLP techniques in the identification of intraspecific variations in mangroves and in underutilised food crops; and use of environmentally sound biotechnologies to promote employment amongst the rural poor. CONTACT FOR DETAILS Dr.
V. Balaji
|