Latest news with #IIT-Gn
Time of India
4 days ago
- Climate
- Time of India
After early deluge, AMC hires IIT-Gn to survey city, tackle urban flooding
Ahmedabad: Thursday's early morning showers and the ensuing inconvenience to citizens from waterlogging may have been a wake up call for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). After over a 100 locations were inundated, some for over 10 hours, the civic body roped in IIT Gandhinagar for Rs 12 lakh to conduct a survey to identify problem areas. The decision was taken at the meeting of AMC's water and sewerage committee on Friday. IIT-Gn will prepare detailed designs, presentations, and a DPR to prevent urban flooding. Dilip Bagaria, chairman of the water and sewerage committee, said, "Centre's National Disaster Management Authority has chosen seven cities, including Ahmedabad, to reduce and prevent urban flooding. Ahmedabad's current stormwater network is limited, and implementing a systematic new network could reduce the problem. Hence, we are going to conduct a detailed survey." He added, "Waterlogging spots in the city will be identified, and a systematic stormwater network design will be determined to reduce the number of such spots. IIT-Gn has been tasked with the survey and preparing a DPR." Thursday's rain showed Amdavadis what to expect when the monsoon sets in. Over 100 locations were affected and life was thrown out of gear. Commuters were stranded in streets filled with knee-deep water. Last year, an average 10 inches of rain from Aug 25 to 27, resulted in waterlogging at more than 300 locations. While water receded from most spots within an hour, 157 remained inundated for over an hour, and at 10 spots, the problem persisted for one to four days.
Time of India
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
ABVP alleges ‘ideological bias' at IIT-Gn, institute denies it
Ahmedabad: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Sunday issued a statement alleging "ideological bias and cultural insensitivity" at IIT Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn) and demanded "appropriate steps" be taken against the "responsible faculty members". Tired of too many ads? go ad free now It was referring to a controversy that erupted online after some social media accounts shared screenshots of four academic projects on the theme of Islamic studies by the students of humanities and social sciences at the premier institute. IIT-Gn officials, however, refuted the allegations and said that the details circulated online were taken out of context. The ABVP media release said, "The incident is a clear indication of prejudice, discrimination and insult to the cultural and national sentiments of students from the Hindu community". "It is alarming that it focuses on theses, projects and subjects related to Islam in a disproportionate manner, which raises questions of academic impartiality," read the release. "We call for an immediate restoration of transparency in the communication process, protection of students from threats and retribution and impartial investigation into the actions and biases of faculty members," read the release. IIT-Gn officials said that there are 40 student theses, out of which four are being targeted and that too without considering proper context. "The issues could have been raised when students were defending their thesis, but no such academic discussion was initiated at that time. More importantly, no complaint was made to the authorities concerned, and the issue was directly taken to the social media platforms. It raises safety issues for students and faculty members whose names are being circulated online," said a senior official. Some members of the student community expressed their solidarity with the students and said that it has caused duress for all.
Time of India
04-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
IIT-Gn repurposes diuretic drug to fight resistant bacteria
Ahmedabad: Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. With more and more bacteria turning resistant against the limited arsenal of antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a serious challenge nationally as well as globally – some estimates put the number of deaths attributed to ' superbugs ' with no cure in sight at about 10 lakh annually. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In such a scenario, IIT-Gn researchers have reported a breakthrough where they have turned a diuretic and anti-seizure medicine into a potent 'antibiotic'. This chemical design potentially kills resistant E-coli , one of the most common bacterial infections worldwide. Researchers from IIT-Gn chemically married acetazolamide – a diuretic which helps flush extra fluid and salts out of the body, which is also used to treat altitude sickness and certain seizures – with octa-arginine (R8) peptides to successfully target resistant E. Coli. When merged, this combination had the ability to breach the bacterial wall and kill the E-Coli. The findings were recently published in the journal ACS Omega. The study 'Coassembly of Cell-Penetrating Peptide Octaarginine with Acetazolamide: Emergent Interactions with E. coli' is authored by Rinku Choubey, Moumita Chatterjee, Pramina Kumari Pandey, Abhijit Mishra, and Bhaskar Datta from IIT-Gn. "This research is a breakthrough in the fight against AMR. We will now undertake further trials using this novel drug delivery system to test it against clinical strains with AMR," said Bhaskar Datta, associate professor of chemistry and biological sciences at IIT-Gn. Professor Datta said that the trigger point of this research was the known ability of certain peptides called cell-penetrating peptides to create channels in human cells, through which other cargo molecules could be introduced inside the cell. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "The research has proved the development of emergent antibacterial agents that combine an active pharmaceutical but non-antibacterial agent – acetazolamide – with a drug delivery strategy of using R8 peptide cell penetrating complex," Prof Datta said. "This learning is helpful as it suggests that bacterial cells could be tricked into submission by use of such entities that are more than the sum of their individual parts," he added. The researchers said that conventional drug development relies on the exploration of chemical agents to target biological substances such as specific proteins, enzymes and nucleic acids, that are directly associated with disease conditions. But they took a different approach where they created novel chemical structures not known to AMR bacteria. In simpler terms, the drug-peptide complex successfully penetrates the bacteria membrane as the bacteria does not identify it as a potential threat. The researchers said that it took them about three years to define various components of the method – physical complexes of molecules, cell-penetrating peptides, and optimal dose of pharmaceutical agents. 'Treatment of Escherichia coli with the complexes results in a distinctive pattern of membrane disruption and pore formation. The R8:AZM co-assemblies inhibit carbonic anhydrase and E. coli growth with greater efficiency compared to bare AZM. The 1:5 w/w complex leads to pronounced outer and inner membrane rupture and significantly restricts glucose uptake by E. Coli,' read the findings of the study.
