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CMFRI scientist Kajal Chakraborty wins national recognition for developing products from seaweeds to combat lifestyle diseases

CMFRI bags 4 national awards on 93^rd Foundation Day of ICAR

Dr Kajal Chakraborty, Principal Scientist at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has won national recognition for his research efforts to develop a series of nutraceutical products from seaweeds to treat  various lifestyle diseases including diabetes. He bagged the prestigious Norman Borlaug National Award for Excellence in Agricultural Research instituted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) functioning under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. The award, which is announced once in every 5 years, carries a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh. Besides this, the scientist will be given a research grant of Rs. 1.5cr for carrying out a challenging research project for five years.

The award is in recognition of his outstanding achievement in agricultural research by creating high potential value for the future transformation of the sector in the country. Dr Chakraborty’s research achievements involve in developing and commercializing nutraceutical products from selected seaweeds to combat rheumatic arthritic pains, type-2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension and hypothyroidism. The latest efforts in this line of research include antiosteoporotic and immune-boost nutraceuticals, and the latter received wider attention in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. His research group developed an antimicrobial therapeutic product of heterotrophic bacterium for use against multi-resistant Gram-negative pathogens.

The award was announced and presented marking the 93^rd Foundation Day of ICAR. In total, CMFRI bagged 4 ICAR awards on the occasion. Dr Fasina Makkar, a Ph D scholar at CMFRI received Jawaharlal Nehru Award for PG Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Agricultural and Allied Sciences. She won the award for her doctoral thesis on the topic ‘Isolation and characterization of bioactive compounds from marine macroalgae Kappaphycus alvarezii and Gracilaria opuntia.’

In addition, CMFRI won Rajarshi Tandon Rajbhasha Award for the excellent implementation of Official Language Policy among the ICAR institutes situated in ‘C’ region. CMFRI is bagging this award for the 11^th time. CMFRI also received ICAR Best Hindi Magazine Award-Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Puraskar- for in-house Hindi magazine ‘Matsyagandha’.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar presented the awards on a virtual platform. While addressing the gathering after presenting all other ICAR awards,  Tomar said that strengthening agriculture and its strong foundation through relevant research programmes could help achieve the targets of rural development of the country. The ‘Kisan Sarathi’, an ITC-based interface solution for supporting agriculture at a local niche with national perspective was released on the occasion.

Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shobha Karanadlaje, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and other senior officials from various ministries and ICAR were present at the award presentation ceremony. 

Dr. Fasina Makkar has been conferred with ICAR Jawaharlal Nehru Award 2020 for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Agricultural and Allied Sciences.