News Analysis India

Tag: IIT-Jodhpur

  • IIT-Jodhpur launches initiative to conserve, restore Thar desert

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur has launched a unique initiative to conserve and restore the Thar desert, its minerals, medicines, flora and fauna by carrying out ecosystem phenomics through transdisciplinary framework of medical, engineering, environmental and life sciences.

    The initiative called Desert Ecosystem Sciences Guided by Nature and Selection (DESIGNS) was launched under the aegis of the Jodhpur City Knowledge and Innovation Cluster.

    According to officials, Thar is a hot desert, unique to the Indian subcontinent and is characterised by high maximum temperature with large diurnal variations, scanty rainfall, extreme aridity, and intense UV radiations.

    This has been one of the largest natural laboratories for evolving innovative ‘designs’ that ensures adaptation and survival of its constituent species, their interdependencies and the conservation of the entire ecosystem.

    “The impact of loss of natural deserts is immense as these habitats are rich in flora and fauna as well as minerals and medicines that nurture and maintain different life forms on earth.

    Often considered as wastelands, deserts are crucial for stabilisation of climate.

    “Any shift in climate change or anthropogenic activity can lead to mal-adaptations for organisms who live at the ebb of physiological extremes, loss of diversity through extirpations and ultimately an ecosystem collapse.

    This threatens the lives and livelihood of the native inhabitants,” said Mitali Mukerji, professor and head, Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering.

    Under this initiative, the researchers will use IOT enabled devices and Big Data analytics framework to crowd source observations from the local ecosystem to the regional level keeping the cultural context and traditional medicine knowledge in perspective.

    Researchers would also integrate computer vision and machine learning along with domain knowledge to infer links between environment, phenotype and genotype at geo-spatio temporal scales and identify signatures of Thar DESIGNS for early actionable intervention strategies.

    “This knowledge generation will result in providing a ‘Desert Ecosystem Knowledge Grid’ that could foster the cycle of engineering- research-development-commercialisation.

    “This data grid will be helpful in finding solutions for management of diseases common and endemic to desert regions, novel bioprospecting opportunities and innovative bio-inspired engineering designs.

    It could also help evolve unique strategies for ecological conservation and restoration that ensures sustained livelihood for its inhabitants,” Mukerji said.

  • 269 IIT-Jodhpur students test COVID positive since February as institute turns into COVID hotspot

    By PTI
    JODHPUR: A total of 269 IIT-Jodhpur students returning to the campus have tested COVID-19 positive since February 2, university officials said on Wednesday.

    With students arriving at the campus for their practical sessions, 3,000 RT-PCR tests were conducted till May 10 to curb the spread of the infection.

    Of the 269 students who have tested COVID positive, 240 have fully recovered while the remaining 29 are in the process of recovery and are in isolation, Deputy Registrar Amardeep Sharma said.

    “In view of the surging second wave and arrival of the students for their laboratory exercises, we had drawn an aggressive plan for screening and testing these students in order to keep them safe and the campus free from the infection,” he said.

    Upon arrival, students were directly sent to designated isolation wards where COVID tests were conducted on the fifth day, Sharma said.

    ALSO READ | Students, professors urge IIT Madras to stop construction work as active COVID cases rise to 63

    “Only after obtaining a negative RT-PCR report, they are allotted rooms in regular hostels after the seventh day, provided they had no symptoms.

    If found positive, students are being shifted to a super-isolation facility for the next 14 days,” he added.

    The institute is currently hosting 25 per cent of its total strength of students who have been waiting for the lockdown to lift to return to their homes.

    As part of community service, the institute has extended COVID testing facilities to people around the campus who are engaged in various jobs and services at the institute.

    On Monday, 29 students and staff members at the institute were reported to be COVID-19 positive.

  • 29 new Covid-19 cases at IIT Jodhpur; total tally in campus reaches 225

    By PTI
    JODHPUR: As many as 29, including 25 students, were tested positive for COVID-19 at IIT Jodhpur, taking the total number of coronavirus cases reported at the campus to 225, authorities said.

    The report for the new 29 cases at the institute came out on Monday after a massive campaign was put in place to test every campus resident, said Amardeep Sharma, Spokesperson and Deputy Registrar of the institute.

    “These 29 students and staff members have been reported positive after the fresh sample tests conducted on May 7,” he added.

    He said the last semester of the trimester ended on May 7 and the activities were now taking place online as the courses have been completed.

    With the arrival of students on campus for practical sessions in April, the infection started to spread in the campus, Sharma said.

    “Since practical sessions were essential, we started calling students, with adherence to the guidelines by Human Resource (and Development) ministry,” he said.

    “Fortunately, none of these infected cases bordered serious condition and all those who had tested positive earlier, have recovered,” he added.

    Generally, students start leaving for their homes after the semester examinations are over but given the lockdown in different states, it would not be possible for them to leave now, Sharma said.

    The IIT administration, however, has put in place adequate arrangements given the spike in positive cases, wherein isolation and super-isolation centres have been set up.

    “We take samples of every student or staff coming to the college and keep him or her in the isolation centre until the report is obtained. If tested positive, they are shifted to the super isolation centre for recovery,” said Sharma.

  • Around 70 students test positive for COVID-19 at Rajasthan’s IIT-Jodhpur

    By ANI
    JODHPUR: Around 65-70 people including students, teachers and staffs at Rajasthan’s IIT Jodhpur have tested positive for COVID-19 so far and 60 of them are currently infected with the coronavirus, the authorities said on Sunday.

    P Singh Deputy Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) said, “Around March 11, some persons infected with COVID-19 had come here. They were from tribal villages Chandigarh, Gujarat and Jaipur. Then the cases started increasing.”

    “Now almost 65-70 people have tested positive so far at Rajasthan’s IIT Jodhpur. Of which 55-60 cases are active. There is no serious case. Block G3 on campus declared a micro-containment zone. Most of the positive students came from their houses in Chandigarh, Gujarat and Jaipur,” he said.

    “We have increased the sampling, so contact tracing can be done. Teachers are very less, Most of the infected patients are students,” he further said.

    “Cases are increasing in Jodhpur. The police and medical department are on alert. Sampling has been increased, anyone coming from outside Jodhpur, be it airport, bus stand or railway station, RTCPR tests are mandatory for them,” he added.

    Rajasthan has 11,738 active COVID-19 cases, including 1,254 cases reported in the last 24 hours. The total number of coronavirus fatalities in the Union Territory has reached 2,827 with 3 deaths on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Family and Health Welfare.

  • 52 IIT-Jodhpur students test COVID positive after insititute resumes physical classes

    By PTI
    JODHPUR: A total of 52 IIT-Jodhpur students have tested positive for coronavirus infection over the last week following their return to the institute to attend practical classes, an official said on Saturday.

    The students, most of them from Gujarat and Odisha, had returned to the institute to attend their mandatory laboratory sessions after undergoing online classes in their home towns, he added.

    All these Covid-positive students have been quarantined and made to stay in one of the hostels on the IIT campus, an IIT spokesperson said, adding all anti-Covid precautions are being taken.

    Two hostel buildings have been reserved for keeping the students and staff, both academic and non-academic, after the contact-tracing of the positive students, spokesperson Amardeep Sharma said.

    He said with the coronavirus infection again on the rise, the IIT administration started taking utmost precaution to keep the campus free from the infection amid the students returning to the campus.

    “We ensured that every student coming from home went to a designated isolation ward directly from the main gate, where the swab samples of students with symptoms were taken and sent to AIIMS for the tests,” said Sharma.

    “If the samples tested positive, we sent the student directly to the super-isolation ward from the isolation ward for the next 14 days,” he added.

    Considering the seriousness of the situation, Jodhpur Divisional Commissioner Rajesh Sharma and Deputy Director (Medical & Health) Sunil Kumar Bisht visited the campus on Saturday afternoon and reviewed the situation and arrangements undertaken by the IIT administration.

    “We have asked for a mandatory 10-day quarantine for every student coming from home and have also given directions for random sampling of the staff,” said Sharma.

    He said as the students from hostels have been reported positive, directions of contact tracing have also been issued to the IIT administration.

    IIT, Jodhpur has 11 hostel buildings on its campus and with students coming in hoards for practical sessions, the administration has been taking every possible measure to keep the situation under control, he added.