NEW MILLENNIUM INDIAN TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE (NMITLI)
Preamble
The New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) is the largest
public-private-partnership effort within the R&D domain in the country. It looks beyond
today’s technology and thus seeks to build, capture and retain for India a leadership
position by synergising the best competencies of publicly funded R&D institutions,
academia and private industry. The Government finances and plays a catalytic role. It is
based on the premise of consciously and deliberately identifying, selecting and
supporting potential winners. NMITLI has carved out a unique niche in the innovation
space and enjoys an excellent reputation. In the six years of its existence the
programme has evolved 42 R&D projects covering diverse areas and involving 287
partners (222 in the public sector and 65 in the private sector) with an estimated outlay
of Rs. 300 crores.
Objective
NMITLI seeks to catalyze innovation centered scientific and technological developments
as a vehicle to attain for Indian industry a global leadership position, in selected niche
areas in a true ‘Team India’ spirit, by synergising the best competencies of publicly
funded R&D institutions, academia and private industry.
Distinctive Features of the Programme
NMITLI is a proactive scheme. In the sense that instead of funding a project based on
requests/applications, the scheme identifies the areas/project for development based
on national consultation, disassembles the project into components and invites various
institutions and academia in government as well as private sector to play a role in the
development of individual component. The distinctive features of NMITLI include:
proactive effort; widespread national level consultation to solicit ideas; stringent
screening and filtering; technology and patent mapping; high quality professional inputs
for projectization; disassembling of technology into “viable components”; selection of
best/most competent group/industry for each technology component; invitation to the
“best” to partner in the project; support to all partners; tight monitoring at two levels; and
foreclosure if objectives are not met.
As the success of the project is crucially dependant on the quality of the monitoring/
review mechanism, NMITLI has put in place a two-tier mechanism for evaluation and
monitoring of the projects.
At the first level is an internal appraisal system - the
Steering Committee, comprising the Principal Investigators of each institute/industrial
partners of the project to periodically review the progress against set milestones and
refine the objectives, if so warranted. At the next level is an external Monitoring
Committee of acknowledged experts in the field to ruthlessly review and monitor the
project, at least once in six months. The Monitoring Committee is empowered to:
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i.)
review and examine the progress of the project in conformance with the
milestones, targets and objectives set as contained in the MoU.
ii.)
assess the global developments impacting the domain of the project
iii.)
Based on the foregoing to assess and recommend for:
iv.)
a.
foreclosing or dropping or modification in the components of the
project, within the overall approved objectives, budget and timeframe;
b.
including additional institutional / industrial partners, in the overall
interest of the project; and
c.
revising the funding support to any / or all implementing parties.
advise on issues related to publications and securing of IPR individually or
severally by the implementing parties.
Project Types
There are two broad categories of projects supported under NMITLI viz. (i) nationally
evolved projects; and (ii) industry originated projects.
Nationally Evolved Projects
The Nationally Evolved Projects follow a step-wise procedure. It begins with wide-ranging
consultation to elicit ideas. The short listing of the ideas is done by a “Screening
Committee” followed by selection of broad areas by the domain Expert Groups. The
projectization of the areas is then carried out by “domain champions”. The best players
in the field are then approached and invited to participate in the project. Once the project
is finalized it is reviewed and considered by the High Powered Committee (HPC). The
HPC recommended projects are then considered for support by CSIR Governing Body.
Industry Originated Projects
For this category of projects the process begins by soliciting of proposals through press
advertisement and personal letters from DG, CSIR. The screening of the conceptual
proposals thus received is carried out by a “committee” followed by assessment and
rating of short listed ideas by the domain experts. The development of top rated two
ideas in each domain is undertaken with the assistance of NMITLI designated experts.
The project thus finalized are considered and reviewed by the HPC and the
recommendations of HPC are considered by CSIR Governing Body in order to decide on
the projects to be supported in a given period. Last few years experience indicates that
less than 5% of the projects get qualified for development under NMITLI.
The companies registered in India and having more than 50% of shareholding by
Indians/non-resident Indians are eligible for support under this category. However, at any
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given time not more than two projects of any individual company are supported.
Management
The Scheme is coordinated by the Technology Networking and Business Development
Division (TNBD) at CSIR under the overall the guidance of Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, DG, CSIR
& Secretary, DSIR, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India.
Financial Support
The financial support to all the projects under NMITLI Scheme is in the form of grant-in-aid
to the institutional partners in public domain and as soft loan (@ 3% interest) to the
industrial partners.
Projects supported under the Programme
The programme has developed so far 42 projects, which cover diverse areas. The projects
supported under the programme are listed below and the spread of the projects are shown
graphically.
List of projects:

New targets, drug delivery systems, bio-enhancer and therapeutics for Latent M.
Tuberculosis;

Stationary fuel cell-based power packs using agro-alcohol LPG and natural gas
(since closed);

Defunctionalisation of carbohydrates as a feedstock to manufacture well-identified
industrial chemicals (since closed);

Gene-based new targets and markers for cancer of head and neck, gall bladder and
brain (Glioma);

Pathway engineering in tea, mentha, ashwagandha plants for desired secondary
metabolites;

Liquid crystals for flat panel display devices with unparalleled performance
parameters;

Stimuli-sensitive polymeric nano-particle based advanced drug delivery systems for
liver cancer, diabetes and anti-bacterials (since closed);

Meso-scale modeling for monsoon predictions;

Nano-material-based catalysis and associated process technology for
alkylation/acylation/nitration of well-identified industrial chemicals, pre-reforming of
hydrocarbons and sulphur removal (<50ppm) from petroleum fuels;
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
Versatile portable PC-based software for bioinformatics;

Biotechnology for replacing chemical processes in leather;

Biodegradable plastics from agriculture wastes: cellulose esters based on bagasse;

Novel herbal therapeutics for degenerative disorders 
Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis especially for pain management,

Diabetes mellitus type II (NIDDM) with insulin sensitization,

Hepatic disorders with emphasis on hepatocellular protection;

Enhanced productivity in cement manufacture through improved granular processing
and resource conservation;

Development of novel biotech therapeutic molecule – Lysostaphin,

Development of an oral herbal formulation for treatment of psoriasis: a clinical and
scientific challenge;

Recombinant approach to produce – linolenic acid and docosahexanoic acid (DHA)
in sunflower and yeast;

A cost effective Simple Office Computing (SofComp) platform to replace PC;

A PC based high-end 3D visualization platform for computational biology –
‘Darshee’;

Microbiological conversion of Erythromycin to Clarithromycin and other novel
biologically active molecules (since closed);

Nano-material coatings and advanced composites for tribological applications in
automotive industry;

Environmentally secure rare earth based colorants for surface coatings;

Functionalization of alkanes;

Novel molecular diagnostics for eye diseases and low vision enhancement devices;

Value added polymeric materials from renewable resources: Lactic acid and lactic
acid based polymers;

Biotechnological Approaches for Improvement of Plant Species with Special
Reference to Pulp and Paper;

Development of Novel Fungicides;

Improved Genome Annotation Through a Combination of Machine Learning and
Experimental Methods: Plasmodium falciparum As a Case Study;

Development of next generation peripheral interface technologies: USB 2.0 PHY
and 1394B PHY;
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
Development of Biodegradable Micro-Particles Containing Anti-Tubercular Drug for
Delivery of Dry Powder Inhalation (DPI);

Oral Delivery of Insulin;

Pharmacological and Genomic Investigations on Withania somnifera - An Indian
Medicinal Plant;

Development of a Linux Cluster Version of Bio-Suite;

Development of fuel cells based on Hydrogen;

Development of a 500 kW low cost horizontal-axis Wind Turbine;

Novel expression system;

Development of selected Medical Implants;

Genetic improvement of Jatropha curcas for adaptability and oil yield; and

Development of a globally competitive ‘Triple-Play’ broadband technology.

Novel formulation for treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis – clinical studies

Process for Tamiflu – a Blockbuster drug to combat the menace of avian flu

A prospective study to correlate gene signatures with clinical outcome of
astrocytomas and identification of potential therapeutic target(s)
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0
Area
6
Miscellenous
Energy
IT and
Communication
Materials
Chemcials
Drug &
Pharmaceuticals
Bioinfroamtics
Biotechnology
Agriculture &
Plant
Biotechnology
Number
.SPREAD OF NMITLI PROJECTS
Number
7
6
5
4
3
2
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Selected Achievements

TB Therapeutics
 New Molecule: Worldwide two billion people approximately are infected with M.
tuberculosis. Nearly, 8 million new cases are added annually and the biggest
burden is in South East Asia. Around 3 million deaths due to tuberculosis are
reported every year and India accounts for a substantial percentage. With the
rampant Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), TB disease is acquiring the
severity of epidemic proportions and kills one in three people co-infected with
HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, TB is a major barrier to economic development, costing
India over Rs. 12,000 crore a year. Under the NMITLI programme, the expertise
of 12 institutional partners and an industry were synergized for the development
of new targets, drug delivery systems, enhancers and therapeutics. Significant
success has been achieved. An IND for a new pharmacophore for the
treatment of tuberculosis has been filed. This is the first success achieved in
developing a new tuberculosis therapeutic in the last 40 years globally. The
molecule works through combination therapy (compatible with the present
drugs), is less toxic, clears the total infection within two months and no
recurrence has been observed. It fits well into the present four-drug therapy by
replacing one or two drugs from the (present) cocktail. In addition, some new
drug targets have also been developed.
 Drug Delivery System: A novel drug delivery system based on dry powder
inhalation of microparticles containing rifampicin / rifabutin and isoniazid has
been developed. Inhalation of these microparticles containing anti-TB drugs can
clear M. tuberculosis from the lungs in a shorter period of time as compared to
oral administration alone. IND directed studies are in progress.

Oral herbal formulation for the treatment of psoriasis
Psoriasis is one of the most common dermatological diseases affecting around 2%
of the world population. It is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder with most common
areas of involvement being the joints like elbows, knees, gluteal cleft and scalp. Its
cause and pathogenesis are not clearly understood. Most importantly no
preventive/curative therapy exists for psoriasis except the symptomatic
management.
Based on the traditional knowledge, the development of a single plant based oral
herbal formulation was initiated under NMITLI for making it globally acceptable. The
project was led by Lupin Laboratories as the industry partner, with CDRI and NIPER
as institutional partners. Extensive studies comprising fingerprinting, activity guided
fractionation, efficacy studies, toxicology, safety pharmacology, pharmacokinetics
and toxicokinetics enabled the filing of an Investigational New Drug (IND)
application for the first time in the country for a herbal based compound. Currently
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the formulation is in phase II clinical studies.
The estimated market for psoriasis therapeutics is around US$ 4 billion and the
development once completed, will enable India to capture a significant part of the
market.

Lysostaphin - a novel biotherapeutic molecule for Staphylococcus infections
With the rise in resistance to current antibiotic treatment, standard treatment for
Staphylococcus aureus infection has become less reliable. Lysostaphin, a 27-kDaglycylglycine endopeptidase produced by Staphylococcus simulans, with its rapid
and unique mechanism of action of cleaving the penta-glycine bridges linking the
peptidoglycans in their cell wall, has the potential to substitute and /or augment
antibiotics as the first line of treatment for S. aureus infections. The development of
pure recombinant lysostaphin, free from pre-pro lysostaphin, by Institute of
Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi and Bharat Biotech
International Limited (BBIL), Hyderabad has provided an opportunity to assess its
efficacy against drug resistant Staphylococcus aureas infections. BBIL holds a
product patent for pure recombinant lysostaphin in 126 countries. The only other
product patent is for pre-pro lysostaphin held by AMBI, USA. BBIL in concert with
CDRI, Lucknow and RRL, Jammu has completed IND directed studies viz
chemistry, manufacturing, control, efficacy, stability, safety pharmacology and
toxicology and have established its efficacy and safety. An IND application has been
submitted.
Globally there is demand for effective drug for hospital acquired infection and
Lysostaphin will be positioning itself in the top of the brand in the global market. This
provides an excellent opportunity for BBIL to be placed as global player in
developing recombinant Lysostaphin formulation for treatment of Staphylococcal
infection.

Development of softwares for bioinformatics: With its strengths in both
Information Technology (IT) and Biotechnology (BT), India was set to play a leading
role in the biological revolution through Bio-informatics. However, its growth in the
country was hampered by the high cost of imported software. Thus a need was felt
for the development of indigenous, affordable and at the same time globally
competitive software packages. NMITLI has catalyzed the development of such
softwares to be commercially available globally in consonance with its philosophy of
positioning India as leader in the Bioinformatics area. Some of the softwares already
launched include:
 BioSuite: Distinctive knowledge segments from both academia and industry
were brought together as ‘Team India’ to develop the versatile, portable software
package that is unparalleled anywhere. The industry partner, TCS has
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spearheaded the development with the assistance and support of 18 institutional
partners.
The developed software package works as a multipurpose tool for carrying out
diverse bioanalyses. It comprises eight modules viz. genome analysis,
comparative genomics, sequence analysis, structural analysis, 3-D modeling,
simulations, structural manipulation and drug design. The software conforms to
the CMM5 level and has several unique features, which are not present in similar
other packages that are available in the market at exorbitant cost. Unlike the
other available softwares, which are confined to specific machines, BioSuite is
portable in the sense of being able to run on a variety of platforms, ranging from
very high-end servers to clusters of low-end machines, including clusters of
heterogeneous computers. This software is globally competitive, and affordable
to the Indian community.
In the second phase, the industry partner has developed BioSuite C, the cluster
version of the BioSuite.
 GenoCluster: The development of the software package was synergised by
IGIB and Jalaja technologies. It includes a number of stand-alone software tools
namely, Gene ‘D’cfer, Proteome calkulator and Seapath. Brief details of these
tools are as follows:
-
Gene ‘D’ cfer: gene prediction software to determine gene candidates
among all possible ORF’s of a given DNA sequence by using a peptide
library and an artificial neural network.
-
Proteome calculator: a powerful computational application developed for
complete genome sequence analysis of model organism. It allows
simultaneous study of several genomes by performing set theory
operations like union, intersection, difference and inverse. The
characteristic feature of the tool is that it carries out multiple analyses on a
wide range of bacterial strains.
-
Seapath: a unique software tool specially designed for the prediction of
virulent proteins. It focuses on identifying adhesins or adhesin like proteins
from newly sequenced genomes. It is capable of identifying potential
targets (bacterial and viral surface antigens/adhesin) for new vaccine
formulations and developing therapeutics against drug-resistant pathogens.
 A PC based high-end 3d visualization platform for computational biology –
‘Darshee’: A 3D-visualization platform has been developed for visualization of
complex bioprocesses by Strand Genomics. The back end has been coded in
C++, the user interface in JAVA and the scripting engine in Python. This
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architecture has the feature that it is multi platform and runs on Linux, Mac and
Windows platforms. In addition, visualization modules have been developed
along with an extensible framework BIML (Bioinformatics Mark-up Language) for
representing biological data, to be validated by Darshee.
Strand Genomics has packaged the final structure of Darshee within its family of
Avadis products. The company has made available the Avadis technology as
part of the Array Assist suite of tools marketed by Stratagene, one of the world's
leading distributors of life science products.

Developments in Information Technology
 SofComp and Mobilis: NMITLI has catalyzed development of a low cost
embedded computing platform to replace conventional PCs for day-to-day office
work. Three variants of SofComp devices have been developed and were
launched by Hon’ble Minister of State for Science and Technology. SofComp is
designed to be deployed in multiple applications in small offices and businesses
and help proliferate the deployment of IT solutions in India. The device has a
small set of canned applications for easy use and maintenance. It has low power
consumption and is operable with poor quality mains power supply and during
extended periods of power failure. With a battery back up of 7-8 hours, it is well
suited for rural Indian conditions where power breakdown is a frequent feature. It
can also be customized for deployment in field areas.
These are unique products and no competitive products exist in similar
categories. In addition, these are targeted at competitive prices ranging from
Rs.7, 500/- for the basic model to Rs. 10,000/- to 18,000/- for the Mobilis variants
depending on the sales volume.

Refining and strengthening monsoon and weather prediction based on
mesoscale modeling
Modelling and forecasting of rains and extreme weather events, particularly in the
tropics are extremely important and equally difficult. For a country like India, their
success is of paramount importance because of their overbearing impact on the
social and economic effects on large population. Further, monsoon events are
extremely critical for Indian economy. The science of monsoons is complex and
requires multidisciplinary approach to tackle the problem. The current Indian
practice and capability in monsoon prediction involves either the use of empirical
models to make macro-level predictions, or the use of synoptic general circulation
models, or using imported regional codes (software) - which are often optimized to
work best only in the mid latitude regions. In order to come over this deficiency, a
project on Mesoscale modelling of monsoon related predictions was initiated under
the NMITLI programme. With the development of an integrated hardware/software
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system (named the NMITLI Platform) for accurate weather prediction over the
tropical regions, the concept of more reliable weather forecasting at mesoscale
level for tropics has been demonstrated. A powerful 128-Processor supercomputer
has been developed based on dual Pentium boards and using the in-house
developed communication devices customized for meteorological applications. It
has been tested and is presently operational National Aerospace Laboratories
(NAL), Bangalore with scale up close to linear for the NMITLI code developed.
Further, a new software model named, Varsha 1.0 code (the new GCM code) has
also been developed. A near linear speedup (97 on 128 processors) was obtained
for the new code, which is creditable for a spectral GCM.

New varieties of plants
 ESTs for quality improvement in Mentha: New genotypes of Mentha
piperita and M. arvensis having desired quality traits have been developed.
Two cultivars of M. piperita namely ‘Indus’ (with the characteristic of high
menthofuran and pulegone) and ‘Madhuras’ (with the characteristic of sweet
smell) have been released to the farmers. Five selections of M. arvensis are
under field trials. Further trichome specific cDNA libraries of M. arvensis
have been constructed. Seven genes involved in the menthol biosynthetic
pathway including genes for menthofuran synthatase, isopiperitone
reductase, pulegone reductase have been identified.
 Ashwagandha – gene expression modulation through functional
genomics Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) is a popular plant in
Ayurvedic traditional literature. It is used in more than 200 ayurvedic, siddha,
unani and other herbal formulations in India, indicated as antiarthritic,
anticancer, immunomodulatory, aphrodisiac, diuretic, restorative and
rejuvenative. Therapeutic value of Withania roots has been reported as
comparable to Panax ginseng and thus it is popularly referred to as Indian
ginseng. However, in India systematic collection of the germplasm had never
been attempted in consonance with systematic studies. Thus, under a
NMITLI project involving 3 laboratories, an effort was made to collect the
Ashwagandha germplasm, which resulted into collection of 150 independent
accessions with many of them having contrasting chemotypes from the
various geographical locations. The occurrence of C20 -OH containing
molecules, including withanolide A, withanolide E and withanolide D has
been established from these accessions. Efforts are on to explore the
pharmacological activities of selected chemotypes and individual molecule to
identify the best chemotype, which could then be passed on to the farmers
for cultivation.
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
Biotechnology for Leather: Towards a Cleaner Processing
The making of leather is an age-old process. World over leather is made employing
technologies which involve processing of skin or hide using large amounts of
industrial chemicals and a wide variety of specialty chemical formulations. A large
number of the processes involve ‘do-undo’ operations resulting in severe
environmental pollution. The world is compelled to follow this highly polluting
‘Chemical Route’ in absence of any alternative. This was a great challenge before
the scientific community.
Under the NMITLI programme, a paradigm shift has been brought about in
beamhouse operations in leather manufacture through bioprocessing as opposed to
the currently used chemical processes. World-class leads have been obtained for
an environmentally friendly bioprocessing route for ambient preservation of
skin/hide, enzyme only dehairing and defleshing. Specific technology packages for
the above are being developed with the user industry for commercialization. The
development is poised to change globally, the face of a highly polluting industry
forever.

Semi-commercial Plants
 Lactic acid from Sugarcane: A laboratory scale process has been
developed for the production of highly pure lactic acid from sugarcane juice.
The impurity profile of the lactic acid produced matches with the Purac H-90
grade lactic acid, which has been used for preparation of PLA. The process
development involved developing a mutant strain of Lactobacillus delbrueckii
MAC 168701, use of sugarcane juice as raw material, selection of a
hydrolysable nitrogen source, optimization for fermentation conditions at 10L
and 100L scale, evolving a suitable downstream processing route,
purification using HPLC and conditions established for polylactic acid (PLA)
preparation from a standardized polymer grade lactic acid produced through
above process. A 300 TPA pilot plant is being established at a commercial
location for the production of lactic acid, based on laboratory scale data
generated in the project.
 Cellulose ester from baggase: The feasibility of fractionating bagasse into
cellulose (93  2%  - cellulose content, 67% yield), hemicellulose (80%
yield), and lignin (80% yield) has been established by steam-explosion
technique. Cellulose triacetate synthesis was established from cellulose so
fractionated. This would be used to develop biodegradable polymer. Further,
the process for sodium lignosulfonate synthesis was developed and tested
for its suitability in cement applications in comparison with the imported
sample of lignosulfonate. The synthesized lignosulfonate was found to be
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suitable for application as cement additive. The process is being up-scaled
and validated at pilot plant (100 kg) scale.
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