Eight glorious decades of CSIR-IIIM Jammu
In pursuit of Science for Society through multi-pronged strategy
Oct 13, 2022
CSIR - Indian Institute of integrative Medicine, Jammu, a constituent unit of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, under Union Ministry of Science & Technology, a premier Institute engaged in two major areas of research namely, Drug, Design and Development and Microbial Biotechnology celebrates glory of eight decades of excellence in doing science for society.
The Institute was established in 1941, one year earlier than the establishment of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, as a low-key research and production centre known as Drug Research Laboratory of erstwhile J&K State and was later taken over by CSIR on 1st December 1957.
The Institute was lucky to have the son of Jammu soil, Col. Sir Ram Nath Chopra, Professor of Pharmacology as its Founder Director. He was an outstanding luminary in the field of Medical Education and Research and has been widely acclaimed as the Father of Indian Pharmacology.
The basic aim of setting up this Institute was to gainfully exploit the biodiversity of the Himalayas and put the state on the scientific map of India and the world. Immediately after inception, the objectives of the Institute widened and research programmes related to utilization of all the natural resources were taken up, may these be of biological or mineral origin.
Thus, the Drug Research Laboratory evolved into Regional Research Laboratory in December 1957 when it was taken over by the CSIR. In view of its core strength in natural products-based drug discovery, the mandate of the Institute was redefined in 2005 and its name changed to Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM).
With the growth of technology and demands of society too, besides the core R&D mandate of IIIM, to discover new drugs and therapeutic approaches from Natural Products including plant and microbial origin for the national and international markets, the institute during past couple of decades, has notably contributed towards implementation of various mission projects of high societal impact.
Further, in its endeavour to achieve the vision & goals of Atmanirbhar Bharat, the institute has also immensely contributed to promote the incubation of innovations & newer ideas and entrepreneur development in the region and north India. Pertinently, in addition to its strong industry connection, remarkable S&T support to the Governments of Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, the institute has gained feats to it in implementation of various societal programmes.
Focused and translation Research:
CSIR-IIIM is focused on drug discovery programmes in different therapeutic areas like cancer, diabetes & obesity, inflammation & rheumatoid arthritis, drug resistant infections and neurodegenerative disorders. The institute is actively collaborating/ partnering with the pharmaceutical industries to translate and commercialize the preclinical discoveries.
To cite a few of its successes in drug development, the institute in collaboration with Cadila Pharmaceuticals has launched the drug ‘risorine' (combination of rifampicin with piperine as a safer version of rifampicin) for treatment of tuberculosis. Under the phytopharmaceutical drug development under CDSCO guidelines. From the efforts put in this domain, the robust preclinical pipeline has been created. The key preclinical leads under this pipeline are Cannbis sativa (for pain management in cancer), Boswellia serrata, Bergenia ciliata (IIIM-160), and Dysosylum binecteriferum (rheumatoid arthritis), and Crocus sativus (IIIM-141; Alzheimer's disease).
From this pipeline, the institute has already partnered with the industries, M/S Pharmanza Herbals Pvt Ltd Gujarat and M/S Viridis Biopharma Pvt Ltd Mumbai for joint development of selected phytopharmaceutical leads of IIIM. The leads, IIIM-141 (for Alzheimer's disease) and IIIM-160 (for pain management in rheumatoid arthritis) have already been licensed to these two industries, respectively for launching them in the market as a nutraceutical product.
Institute is also developing Piper betle and Sorghum bicolor as nutraceuticals for Sickle cell anemia in partnership with industry partner, Ravenbhel Biotech Jammu. Besides, the institute is also contributing in the area of API synthesis; and in the recent past, two processes have been transferred to the M/S Anphar Organics Pvt Ltd Jammu.
CSIR-IIIM is providing scientific rationale and validity to integrate the Indian systems of medicine i.e. Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and other indigenous systems of medicine and pre-clinical development to position the same for global regulatory requirements after benchmarking with Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in line with the ongoing programmes.
CSIR-IIIM houses a completely digitized and internationally recognized Janaki Ammal Herbarium, a national referral facility. A legacy from the Drug Research Laboratory, Jammu. The acronym RRLH has been assigned to it and has been registered in Index herbarium at New York, U.S.A.
Industry Connect and Startup Support:
CSIR-IIIM is the only public funded institute having a Current Good Manufacturing Plant (cGMP) facility. Through cGMP, Technology Business Incubator, Bio-NEST Bio-Incubation Centre and Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), IIIM is providing efficient services to the startups & agri-entrepreneurs and progressive farmers.
The Technology Business Incubator (TBI) has emerged at CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine as a novel and a very pro-active approach to support new entrepreneur and start-ups in Jammu & Kashmir region. IIIM Incubator is an organisational setup that nurtures ideas, juvenile technologies of the companies by hand holding them survives during the startup period. Aim of IIIM-TBI is to create an environment to inspire Start ups and entrepreneurial minds of the J&K state to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship.
This incubator supports entrepreneurs, new start ups, researchers, students, institutes / universities, scientists, small or medium companies who plan to incubate their ideas or budding technologies into commercially successful ventures. The main objective of the IIIM-TBI is to produce successful business ventures that create jobs and wealth in the J&K region, along with encouraging an attitude of innovation in the country as a whole.
Till now, 64 Start-Ups have already registered with CSIR- IIIM, Jammu and a fresh impetus has been given to promote Start-Up as an alternative source of livelihood, with financial, technical and logistic support being provided by different scientific agencies and departments including NIDHI-TBI, from DST, BioNEST Incubation Centre from, BIRAC-DBT at CSIR-IIIM, Jammu.
CSIR-IIIM is also going to open the Atal Incubator Centre from NITI Aayog at CSIR-IIIM (Br.) Srinagar shortly that will cater to ignite the
entrepreneurship ecosystem and to nurture start-up culture among youth, local farmers and agri- entrepreneurs of Kashmir region.
Knowledge support to Government:
CSIR-IIIM Jammu is actively extending the knowledge support for implementation of governmental S&T policy and the projects for J&K and Ladakh Union Territories. IIIM is implementing the Project of Establishment of two Industrial Biotech Parks in J&K (Ghatti, Jammu and Handwara, Kashmir), beside providing the support to J&K S&T department in framing the J&K Science Policy,, a road map for exploration of medicinal and aromatic plants and providing quality planting material (QPM) of medicinal & aromatic plants to agri-entrepreneurs, Industrialists and other line departments of UTs governments.
Societal linkage:
The institute is involved in various programmes like J&K Aroma Arogya Gram project for J&K, K-5000 of J&K, Phytopharmaceutical mission, Aroma mission Phase-II, Sickle cell anemia mission and Floriculture mission. A follow up to bring the societal benefits to the end users/clients of CSIR - the farmers, the industry and the society, leading to business opportunities, rural development, life-quality enhancement, has its endeavour to achieve the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
The Institute has been in vigorous pursuit for development of production, processing and post harvest value addition technologies for introduction of high value temperate aromatic and medicinal crops like Rose, Lavender, Mints, Lemongrass, Rosemary, Cannabis etc on commercial scale in the existing cropping systems for sustainable development of the Aroma, Phyto-pharmaceutical Industry, agro-entrepreneurship and enhanced livelihood generation.
The Institute has done pioneering work in the development of Aroma sector through large scale extension of region specific aromatic crops over marginal land tracts across J&K and other hilly temperate regions of the country, setting up of the network of post harvest processing infrastructure, training and capacity building of the resource poor farmers, incubation of agri-entrepreneurs and start-ups for development of the value added products from the natural essences and their value chain management.
The untiring efforts of the Institute in the sector have positioned the country to be self-reliant and the global leader in the production of high value essential oils and other raw material for aroma and phyto pharmaceutical industry. The significant contributions of the Institute in popularization of different high value medicinal and aromatic crops in the region has brought a paradigm shift in the cropping pattern in the region as a result of enhanced income generation and livelihood.
Birth of Purple revolution in Jammu & Kashmir
Under CSIR-Aroma Mission, CSIR-IIIM Jammu introduced Lavender to the farmers of different districts of J&K like Doda, Ramban, Kishtwar, Kathua, Udhampur, Rajouri, Pulwama, Anantnag, Kupwara, and Bandipora. The institute has provided free Quality planting material (QPM) and an end-to-end technology package for cultivation, processing, value addition, and marketing of the Lavender crop to the farmers and also installed fifty distillation units both fixed and mobile at different locations across J&K to support farmers in processing their produce.
Lavender cultivation has employed large numbers of farmers and young entrepreneurs in the geographically remote regions of J&K. Due to the intervention of CSIR-IIIM, a new industry around Lavender cultivation has developed in the region. More than 1000 farming families in the J&K are currently cultivating Lavender on more than 300 acres in different parts of J&K.
Each Lavender farmer has employed at least five other people to cultivate Lavender. This has given employment to more than 5000 farming families in the region. Women are primarily employed in the Lavender fields for harvesting and processing the flower. This has increased the income of women in the region. Nursery of > 20 Lakh Lavender plants worth more than one crore developed by women in different villages of Doda district during 2022 itself. Many young entrepreneurs have started small-scale businesses through the value addition of Lavender oil, hydrosol, and flowers. Lavender oil produced in J&K has a market price of around Rs 10,000/- per kg in the Indian market.
Dry Lavender flowers fetch a price between Rs. 1000/- to Rs 1500/- in the Indian market. By Lavender cultivation, the net annual income of Lavender farmers has increased many folds from around Rs. 40,000/- to Rs. 60,000/- per hectare to between Rs. 3,50,000/- to Rs. 6,00,000/- per hectare. Hitherto un-cultivated and barren areas now became the fertile beds for lavender cultivation impacting the local economy tremendously and gave birth to the Purple revolution.
