India’s Home-grown Raman Spectrometer Hits Commercial Markets
The Raman Effect was discovered in 1928. While traveling in the east Mediterranean Sea, Sir C.V. Raman wondered what made the sea look blue? He discovered the science behind the scattering of light in materials and this is how Raman spectroscopy was established to study Raman Effect. He got the prestigious Nobel Prize (Physics) in 1930 and made India proud.
Over the century, Raman spectroscopy has advanced and transformed into a valuable tool for materials characterisation in research, academia, and industries. In this regard, Indian scientists and academicians have contributed immensely to develop Laser Raman, Resonance Raman spectroscopy, Femtosecond Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy (FSRS), Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS), etc. However, till now commercial-grade confocal micro Raman spectrometers are mostly imported in India. International brands are leading the market due to their high spectral resolution, reproducibility, aesthe-tics, compactness, customisations, integrated data acquisition, and powerful post-processing software. The need has arisen for developing Raman spectrometers in the country with all the aspects of commercial grade Raman spectrometry, fully integrated with good database management and post-processing software, etc.
Need for Indigenous Raman Spectrometer
It is an irony that the remarkable discovery of the Raman Effect was made by an Indian scientist but India is largely dependent on imports of this equipment. Availability of High-end Raman spectrometers in India under Class-1 or Class-2 from the local manufacturers did not exist until recent times. Since the discovery of the Raman Effect occurred in 1928, there have been several developments in Raman spectrometers in India and abroad. In the early 1990s, the first commercial confocal micro Raman spectrometers by LabRAM (the first true confocal single-stage Raman Microscope) were launched. That also took another decade (2000s) to gain momentum for wide use in research and academia.
In India, there have been several developments of Raman spectrometers in academia and R&D institutes. Despite this, the equipment could not be fully commercialised due to various reasons.
The Remarkable Break-through
In a collaborative effort, CSIR-Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (AMPRI), Bhopal, has developed a high-end Raman Spectrometer with a true Indian spirit. The team consists of several experienced scientists.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed and commercialised the Raman spectrometers in a public-private partnership under the CSIR-New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) programme, in a joint collaboration between CSIR-Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (CSIR-AMPRI), Bhopal and M/s TechnoS Instruments, Jaipur. The product was approved after several rounds and levels of expert scrutiny and evaluation, from the high-powered committees, viz. Steering Committee chaired by Director CSIR-AMPRI, and Monitoring Committee chaired by Director DBT-RGCB Thiruvananthapuram. Two models of high-end commercial grade Raman Spectrmeters, CTR-300 and CTR-150 are approved by the committees for marketing by the industry partner, M/s TechnoS Instruments in January 2022. Here, CTR stands for CSIR, TechnoS, and Raman respectively. The industry M/s TechnoS has already received six purchase orders, the first order in March 2022 from CSIR-IICB, Kolkata, and the second order in June 2022 from MANIT, Bhopal, the third order in Sept 2022 from IISER, Pune and in March 2023 from NCL, Pune and recently from CIPET, Chennai & IIST, Thiruvananthapuram. In a very short time, the product was accepted in the market and six orders were received. The company is participating in many other open and global tenders.
A 'Make In India' Raman Spectrometer
The Raman Spectrometer designed and developed by CSIR-AMPRI represents 'Make in India'. The concept of the Raman Effect is 100% Indian. In addition to this, system configuration design optimi-sation is also 100% Indian make; software design and development (both acquisition software and post-processing software) is 100% Indian; local assembly of components, enclosure design, manufacture and finally full system testing - all of which was done 100% in India. The software has been made in a way that it can work with multiple hardware configurations with components sourced from various global OEM vendors. After-sales service and support of this equipment is available locally which makes the functioning smooth with less downtime.
M/s TechnoS Instruments, in collaboration with CSIR-AMPRI, under the CSIR-NMITLI driven project, successfully designed, developed, manufactured, and commercialised the "Make in India" IndiRam CTR Series Raman Spectrometer in the year 2021-22. With this project achieved about 20%-30% of Indian value in terms of hardware content/component in developing a "Make in India" high-end research grade Raman Spectrometer system. While executing the above project and successfully delivering it in a short period, the strength of local Indian content such as deep expertise and knowledge in both the spectrometry and spectroscopy were combined with the standard components available globally. For example, designing, software development, and fabricated parts were done locally whereas other standard components such as spectrometer, Peltier cooled detector, and laser sources were imported from abroad.
As the development of a high-end research grade Raman Spectrometer has not only been delivered success-fully but orders have also been booked, there is a logical step forward to develop components for backward integration to increase the Indian value content. Besides, there is a dire need to develop sophisticated components indigenously. This would enable to increase the Indian value content from the current 20%-30% level to above 50% in standalone components to achieve Make in India Make-I category Raman Spectrometer, for use in various scientific and technological applications.
Contributed by: Science Media Communication Cell (SMCC), CSIR-NIScPR, New Delhi.
INTERVIEW
Q: How is the Raman Spectrometer beneficial to the common man?
A: First of all, we are all common men. All the medicines, their level of purity, what are the impurities in them that you can detect, even viral detection, even COVID viral detection is all beneficial for the common man. Our research materials that are developed be it from the field of agro research, food products, their analysis, ultimately, the output of research goes to the common man.
One of the other ways it is beneficial to the common man, when we buy this instrument from outside, other countries, so this is costly and if once it does not function properly, who will go to the other nation and get it repaired, that too will cost high. If it is an Indian make, then we can purchase it. The colleges and industries in India can easily purchase. Higher R&D labs and higher education centres, everywhere, the common man is the one who is ultimately benefitted. Whatever research we do and if it is in the form of product, it is for common man. Whether it is in the field of drug discovery, detecting purity of milk or ghee, you are doing it for common man.
Q: How does Raman Spectrometer boost self-reliant India?
A: At CSIR-AMPRI, we have expertise in spectroscopy and characterisation. So, we decided to go for instrumentation, building something which is useful for the country and which supports the Aatmanirbhar Bharat plan. The purpose of Atmanirbhar Bharat is that we become self-reliant or self-dependent. Raman Spectroscopy was discovered in 1928 and the instruments are still being purchased from abroad in millions of dollars. One Raman spectrometer costs around 50 lakhs to 3 crore rupees. If we calculate, a huge money we give in Foreign exchange.
Class-2 Raman spectrometers that we have developed here, can be purchased in Indian Rupees. This way, it is contributing to employment generation, skill and development in instrumentation. Young researchers associated can learn this instrument and this is going to set an example that India can also build high-end analytical characterisation tools in the country, which is globally acceptable.
On January 2022, this product was launched in the market and by now six institutions have already purchased which include IICB Kolkata, NCL Pune, IISER Pune, MANIT Bhopal, CIPET Chennai and IIST Trivandrum. Our instrument is on a global platform and is competing with the global companies who are manufacturing Raman spectrometers and are already established in the market.