In News:

• N Kalaiselvi, an electrochemical scientist, has become the first woman director general of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), breaking yet another glass ceiling in the country's scientific bodies.
• The CSIR is India's premier public sector R&D organisation, controlling a number of state-run institutions across the country. 

What’s in today’s article:

• About the CSIR
• News Summary

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR):

• About:
  • It was set up in 1942as an autonomous body (under the Societies Registration Act, 1860).
  • CSIR is now the largest government funded multi-disciplinary industrial research and development (R&D) organisation in India.
  • It comes under the administrative supervision of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.
  • The R&D activities of CSIR include aerospace engineering, structural engineering, ocean sciences, life sciences, metallurgy, chemicals, mining, food, petroleum, leather and environmental science.
  • CSIR is headquartered in New Delhi.
  • CSIR@80: Vision and Strategy 2022 - New CSIR for New India: Under this, the CSIR’s vision is to pursue -
    • Science which strives for global impact,
    • The technology that enables innovation-driven industry,
    • The technology that fosters multidisciplinary leadership, catalysing inclusive economic development for the people of India.
• Some major achievements of CSIR:
  • Designed India's first ever parallel processing computer, Flosolver.
  • Developed a versatile portable PC-based software 'Bio-Suite' for bioinformatics.
  • Design of 14-seater plane 'SARAS'.
  • Established first ever in the world 'Traditional Knowledge Digital Library' accessible in five international languages, English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish.
  • In 2009, completed the sequencing of the Human Genome.
  • In 2011, successfully tested India's 1st indigenous civilian aircraft, NAL NM5 made in association with National Aerospace Laboratories and Mahindra Aerospace.
  • In 2020, initiated clinical trials to evaluate Sepsivac's efficacy to reduce mortality rate in COVID-19 patients. 

News Summary:

• About N Kalaiselvi:
  • Hailing from a small town in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, Kalaiselvi has risen through the ranks in the CSIR and also became the first woman scientist to head the CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CSIR-CECRI) in 2019.
  • She will also hold charge as Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
  • Kalaiselvi’s research interests include lithium and beyond lithium batteries, supercapacitors and waste-to-wealth driven electrodes and electrolytes for energy storage and electrocatalytic applications.
  • Kalaiselvi also made key contributions to the National Mission for Electric Mobility.
• Other notable women scientists of India:
  • Earlier, woman scientist Renu Swarup served as secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology.
  • Muthayya Vanitha and RituKaridhal headed ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission as its project director and mission director, respectively.
  • Another scientist,V R Lalithambika was in 2018 picked as the director of the directorate of human space programme to oversee the Gaganyaan project (India’s maiden human spaceflight mission).
  • Besides, Mangala Mani, known as the ‘polar woman of ISRO’, was the space agency’s first woman scientist to spend more than a year in Antarctica in 2016.