Important Facts For Prelims
SUTRA-PIC
- 18 Feb 2020
- 2 min read
Why in News
Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology has launched the “Scientific Utilization through Research Augmentation-Prime Products from Indigenous Cows” (SUTRA-PIC India).
- It is one of the research programmes into indigenous cattle announced during the 2019-20 Union Budget, which aims to develop products as well as improve the genetic quality of indigenous cattle breeds.
Key Points
- It is a collaborative effort of the Department of Biotechnology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Ministry for AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy) and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
- The department of the Science for Equity, Empowerment and Development (SEED), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, is in charge of the programme.
- It can be noted that SEED had also constituted a National Steering Committee to initiate a National Programme on “Scientific Validation and Research on Panchagavya” (SVAROP) in 2017.
- The programme consists of five themes:
- Uniqueness of Indigenous Cows,
- Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Medicine and Health,
- Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Agricultural Applications,
- Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Food and Nutrition,
- Prime-products from indigenous cows-based utility items.
- The above themes aim to perform:
- Scientific research on the complete characterisation of milk and milk products derived from Indian indigenous cows.
- Scientific research on nutritional and therapeutic properties of curd and ghee prepared from indigenous breeds of cows by traditional methods.
- Development of standards for traditionally processed dairy products of Indian-origin cows, etc.
Panchagavya
- Panchagavya is an Ayurvedic panacea and is a mixture of five (pancha) products of the cow (gavya) — milk, curd, ghee, dung and urine. Its proponents believe it can cure, or treat a wide range of ailments.
