COIMBATORE: The University Grants Commission and Department of Science and Technologoy (DST) have awarded  a grant of Rs. 3.63 crore for research activities to Bharathiar University.

Four departments – Bioinformatics, Zoology, Microbial Biotechnology and Botany –  had  submitted proposals under DST-FIST programme – 2017, which have been accepted and a grant of Rs. 2.33 crore was sanctioned. Accordingly, Rs.50 lakh, Rs.55 lakh, Rs.45 lakh and Rs.83 lakh were granted to departments respectively, a university release said on Tuesday.

DST also sanctioned projects submitted by the Department of Computer Applications – Rs. 40 lakh for Design and Development of Algorithms for Banana crop monitoring and fruit quality analysis using internet of things (IOT) and Rs.10 lakh for Design and development of continuous speech based text conversion.

Similarly the UGC has granted a START UP GRANT of Rs.10 lakh each to seven newly recruited assistant professors who have been appointed during November 2016 to establish basic Scientific Research Laboratories, it said.

The grant was sanctioned based on the academic excellence in terms of quality publications of the faculty members and they should apply within a period of on year from the date of joining the post in the University/Department. Yet another major achievement is Dr. J. Angayarkanni, Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Microbial Biotechnolog, who has been sanctioned by the UGC for Mid-Career Award and a grant of  Rs.10 lakh, which can be utilised towards minor equipment and, chemicals.