The Hindu : New Delhi News : A brand new experience

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Thursday, Aug 02, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

A brand new experience

Studying science at the prestigious Sri Venkateswara College of Delhi University will be an altogether different experience now with the setting up of a bioinformatics laboratory, making it the first institution of the University to be equipped with such a facility. The centre has been set up with a grant of Rs.20 lakh from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Union Science and Technology Ministry under its Biotechnology Information System Network programme.

An emerging interdisciplinary area of science and technology, bioinformatics deals with systematic development and application of information technology solutions to handle biological information by addressing biological data collection and warehousing, data mining, database searches, analyses and interpretation, modelling and product design.

“The purpose of this facility is to introduce the emerging area of bioinformatics that has become an integral part of research and development in modern biology,” said Dr. N. Latha, coordinator for Bioinformatics Centre at the college.

Established with technical support from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, the lab was inaugurated last week by the Executive Officer of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams Trust, K. V. Ramanachary, and DBT Adviser T. Madhan Mohan.

“With an objective to promote biology through bioinformatics, the centre would support the training of students in a short-term course in bioinformatics. It would also organise workshops and training activities for familiarising applications of bioinformatics in biology teaching,” said Dr. Latha.

The facility boasts of high-end computer servers, web servers, work stations with Windows/Solaris/Linux-based platform, molecular modelling software and a library well stocked with books and literature on bioinformatics.

A new Internet facility has been provided to the girl students of Sarojini Naidu Hall at Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh. The Federation of Aligarh Alumni Association, United States, has donated five computers with high-speed Internet service to this hall of residence.

Inaugurating the facility, called “cyber express highway”, Vice-Chancellor P. K. Abdul Azis said modernisation and up-gradation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was the top priority of the administration.

He also informed that Rs.1.5 crore had already been allocated for providing computing and Internet facilities on the entire campus. Each hall of residence and laboratories would soon be equipped with ICT.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is considering a special request from Jamia Millia Islamia to serve the university through special “feeder buses” as and when the Central Secretariat-Badarpur link of the Metro railway gets completed.

Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan had sent a special request in this regard to the Delhi Chief Minister’s Office.

The new metro line will be at a short distance from Jamia and Jasola and Kalkaji Temple will be the two stations closest to the university.

The Indian National Students’ Organisation (INSO) has demanded evening shifts in all colleges affiliated to Delhi University.

“Every year thousands of students from different parts of the country come to the University for admission, but only a lucky few get admission. If evening shifts are ensured in every college, then the number of seats could be doubled. If the Uni versity is not in a position to introduce evening shifts in every college now, then it can be done in a phased manner,” said INSO spokesperson Amit Sahni.

-- Parul Sharma

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