Pharmapedia

Over the past two decades, Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India have quietly transformed from back-office support units into central hubs of innovation and scientific expertise for some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical and life sciences companies. Today, they are not only reducing costs for their parent organizations but also playing a decisive role in how new medicines are discovered, developed, tested, and delivered to patients worldwide.

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the MHRD and launched by Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development on 29th September 2015. This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations broad understanding arrived at by a Core Committee set up by MHRD, to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions. 

Deep within Assam’s vibrant ecosystem, scientists at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science & Technology (IASST), Guwahati, have uncovered a remarkable paradox: some of nature’s most toxic flora may hold potent therapeutic potential. This revelation, emerging from extensive research into poisonous plant species, could herald a paradigm shift in natural product–based medicine.

The very famous quote credited to Paracelsus who expressed the classic toxicology maxim that, "All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison." The principle relies on the finding that all chemicals, even water and oxygen can be toxic if too much is eaten, drunk, or absorbed. The idea simply describes the phenomenon in which poisonous substances can be medicinal in small doses.