Page 147 - CW E-Magazine (10-10-2023)

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POSITIVE TREND

Trade pacts send Indian engineering exports to

Australia, UAE soaring

The Engineering Export Promotion $44.62-bn, compared to $46.74-bn in
Council (EEPC) of India has attributed the April-August period of 2022-23.
the 9 percent rise in engineering exports Engineering exports to Russia have
and shipments to Australia and the also surged 178 percent year-on-year
United Arab Emirates (UAE) between to $568.41-mn in the April-August
April-August 2023 to FTAs (Free Trade period of FY24, compared to $204.17-mn
Agreements) signed with both these last year.
countries.
Stating that 19 out of 34 engineering
Noting that engineering exports April-August period of FY24 increased panels recorded positive YoY growth on
to Australia and UAE rose during the 9 percent year-on-year to $2.24-bn. In cumulative terms during the period of
period which was otherwise marked the same period, engineering exports April-August in FY24, the engineering
as a period of decline for export of to Australia also jumped 9 percent exporters body pointed out that a growth
engineering goods, EEPC India has year-on-year and stood at $596.14-mn in exports was observed in copper and
urged the government to sign FTAs compared to $548.62-mn in the April- products, lead and tin, industrial ma-
with non-traditional markets like South August period of FY23. chinery, pumps, machine tools, aircraft
America and Africa to boost export and spacecraft, electrical machinery
prospects. However, overall engineering ex- and equipment, auto components/parts,
ports in the April-August period of medical devices, instruments and con-
Engineering exports to UAE in the FY 2023-24 dropped 4.55 percent to struction machinery.

Symposium on biochemistry organised at

M. S. University in Vadodara

The Department of Biochemistry, diseases associated with mis-folding
Faculty of Science at the Maharaja and refolding of proteins.
Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vado-
dara, Gujarat, recently organised a Prof. Nanda Kishore from IIT Bom-
‘National Symposium on Facets of bay, an eminent biophysicist and struc-
Biochemistry’. tural biologist, known for his contribu-
tions to protein thermodynamics, spoke
In his inaugural address, Prof. Vijay on “Molecular functionalities in pre-
Kumar Srivastava, Vice-Chancellor of venting protein fi brillation-quantitative
the University encouraged students to biophysical approach”. Dr. Rajesh Patkar,
come up with innovative solutions and from IIT Bombay a specialist in the
also emphasised on reducing carbon Pune, delivered a lecture on the topic of area of host pathogen interactions, gave
emissions and making use of plastics “How does a prion protein misfold?”. an interesting talk on “Small secretory
in novel ways. Dr. N.K. Prasanna from CSIR-National proteins with big tailoring functions
Institute of Science Communication during fungal pathogenesis’. Prof. Kru-
The inaugural session was followed and Policy Research (CSIR-NIScPR), tika Sawat, Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy
by the plenary sessions. Prof. Jayant New Delhi, discussed about protein spoke on ‘Lymphatic delivery: A new
Udgaonkar, a distinguished structural folding and structure function relation- paradigm for systemic and site-specifi c
biologist and former Director of IISER, ship of proteins and also stressed about drug delivery’.

Chemical Weekly October 10, 2023 147

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