SUTRA PIC Programme

News:The Government of India has unveiled a programme named SUTRA PIC to research ‘indigenous’ cows.

Facts:

About the programme:

• SUTRA PIC stands for Scientific Utilisation Through Research Augmentation-Prime Products from Indigenous Cows.

Themes of the programme:

• Uniqueness of Indigenous Cows,
• Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Medicine & Health,
• Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Agricultural Applications,
• Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Food & Nutrition and
• Prime-products from indigenous cows-based utility items.

Objectives of the programme:

• Scientific research on the complete characterisation of milk and milk products derived from Indian indigenous cows.
• Scientific research on nutritional and therapeutic properties of curd and ghee prepared from indigenous breeds of cows by traditional methods.
• Development of standards for traditionally processed dairy products of Indian-origin cows among others,

Implementation:

• The department of the Science for Equity,Empowerment and Development (SEED) under the Ministry of Science and Technology is in charge of the programme.
• It has the Department of Biotechnology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Ministry for AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy) among others and the Indian Council of Medical Research as partners.