India largest exporter of lemongrass, says expert
Prof Trivendu said about 1,000 tons of lemongrass is produced every year in the country, of which 400 tons are exported in line with the prime minister’s ambitious plan of “Atamnirbhar Bharat”.
From being its largest importer till only a few years ago, India now has become the largest exporter of lemongrass, a plant that is not only used as flavour in food but also has multiple medicinal properties, said Prof Prabodh Kumar Trivedi, director of Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, on Monday.
Inaugurating a two-week-long faculty development programme (FDP) on “computational biology in therapeutics and theranostics” organised by Applied Science Department of Indian Institute of Information Technology-Allahabad (IIIT-A) at its Jhalwa campus, Prof Trivendu said about 1,000 tons of lemongrass is produced every year in the country, of which 400 tons are exported in line with the prime minister’s ambitious plan of “Atamnirbhar Bharat”.
Prof RS Verma, director of IIIT-A, threw light on the phenomenal growth of genetic engineering. He said that computational biology and bioinformatics are interdisciplinary fields that develop and apply computational methods to analyse large collections of biological data, such as genetic sequences, cell populations or protein samples for new discoveries.
He hoped that such faculty development programmes would provide new avenues to researchers.
IIIT-A dean (Academics) Prof Neetesh Purohit said the institute was successfully working on flexible academic programme as part of execution of new National Education Policy-2020.
Dr Ratan Saha, Head of Applied Science Department of IIIT-A said that IT is used in a wide variety of applications in bioscience. Prof Krishna Mishra of the institute also delivered a lecture after the inaugural ceremony.
