Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday inaugurated the Stakeholder Empowerment Centre of the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) here. The centre is aimed at providing a platform for engaging research and scientific communities for identifying priority areas of research focus of local relevance.
ILS Director Dr Ajay Parida said this centre would carry out capacity and skill development in the areas of biotechnology and health sciences for students as well as college teachers for inculcating scientific temper among the younger generation. The centre would also try to suggest to policymakers on thematic priority areas of research and development. The centre would work in partnerships with other research and development organisations and institutions, policymakers and farming and tribal communities.
The Chief Minister was briefed about the progress made by the ILS in the area of cancer biology, infectious disease research and plant and environmental biotechnology.
Dr Parida said the ILS in the coming years has identified a few priority areas of relevance to the region. It plans to take up genetic profiling studies of the tribal groups of Odisha to identify disease susceptibility as well as their hotspots. Besides, the ILS would work on improving productivity of minor pulses such a green gram, black gram and horse gram, which are of specific importance to the dry land and rain-fed areas.