** Dr. Reddy’s, Prestige BioPharma ink pact on cancer drug

DRL gets rights to commercialise proposed trastuzumab biosimilar in select LatAm, S-E Asia markets.

Pharma major Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories has entered into a partnership with Prestige BioPharma under which it will get exclusive rights to supply and commercialise the Singapore firm’s proposed trastuzumab biosimilar in select Latin America and Southeast Asian countries.

** AK-203 rifles: India and Russia finalise deal

India and Russia have inked agreements for the procurement of nearly six lakh AK-203 assault rifles and also to extend military technology cooperation for the next decade from 2021 to 2031 as the two countries began their first 2+2 ministerial dialogue on Monday morning.

Another agreement for protocol on an amending agreement on cooperation in the field of Kalashnikov series small arms manufacturing was also signed. Defence minister Rajnath Singh met his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu and the two sides signed contracts for the manufacture of nearly six lakh AK-203 rifles under a joint venture in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.

The deal is worth over Rs 5,000 crore and the project will be implemented by a special purpose joint venture called Indo-Russia Rifles Private Ltd.

** Successful flight test of VL-SRSAM paves way for integration onboard Indian Naval Ships

Resuming pending tests of its key missile systems, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Tuesday successfully flight-tested Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) from a defence test facility off Odisha coast.

The indigenously developed missile was test-fired from a static vertical launcher positioned at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) on Tuesday afternoon. Launched from a canister, the missile, which is yet to get a formal name, intercepted an electronic target at a very low altitude.

** Uttar Pradesh: Plastic surgeon performs 37,000 free surgeries to make kids smile

Plastic surgeon Dr Subodh Kumar Singh struggled in his childhood days to become a doctor; he now offers free corrective surgeries to kids born with cleft lip/palate.

He was a meritorious student, who along with his studies also sold goggles and washed soaps to support his family in Varanasi in 1979. Today, Dr Subodh Singh has earned fame as a plastic surgeon by performing free corrective surgeries (under the worldwide initiative Smile Train) on kids born with cleft lip/palate. Till date, he has brought back smiles in the lives of 25,000 families through 37,000 free cleft-palate surgeries.

** Three Indian companies in Top 100 defence manufacturers grew by 1.7%, says report

Global arms sales increased even as the world economy contracted in 2020, according to a report by Swedish think tank Stockholm Institute Peace Research Institute.

Combined arms sales by the three Indian companies in the Top 100 defence manufacturers worldwide grew by 1.7%, according to the latest report by Swedish think tank Stockholm Institute Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which also said that international arms sales increased even as the global economy contracted by 3.1% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. companies accounted for 54% of the Top 100’s total arms sales in 2020 followed by Chinese firms which accounted for 13%.

The three Indian companies in the SIPRI Top 100 for 2020 rankings are Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Ordnance Factory Board and Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL). “Their aggregated arms sales of $6.5 billion were 1.7% higher in 2020 than in 2019 and accounted for 1.2% of the Top 100 total,” according to the report ‘The SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies, 2020’ released on Monday.

** Fellowship conferred on K.S.Rangappa

K.S.Rangappa, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore, has been elected as Fellow of the Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI) for 2021, according to a release.

The fellowship is given to Indian scientists in recognition of their significant research contributions in the field of sciene and Prof. Rangappa was recognised for his work in the areas of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, the release added.

** Susanta Kumar Dash: Geneticist on a mission to register Odisha’s native livestock breeds

A professor of OUAT and animal geneticist, Susanta Kumar Dash has helped govt in registering 4 native breeds of cattle, 3 breeds of buffalo and one breed of sheep, writes Sudarsan Maharana.

In the last two decades, animal geneticist Susanta Kumar Dash has helped Odisha register eight of its native livestock breeds and secure their Intellectual Property (IP) rights. Working in the field of native livestock breed conservation since 2004, Dash – a professor in the department of animal breeding and genetics in OUAT, Bhubaneswar – has registered four breeds of cattle, three breeds of buffalo and one breed of sheep, all having their own unique features, from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources. 

** Indian-American mathematician Nikhil Srivastava among 3 selected for inaugural Ciprian Foias Prize

Along with Prof. Srivastava, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, the two other awardees are Adam Marcus and Daniel Spielman

Eminent Indian-American mathematician Nikhil Srivastava, has been jointly selected for the inaugural $5,000 Ciprian Foias Prize for the “highly original work” in Operator Theory by the American Mathematical Society (AMS).