INTRODUCTION

Industrial visit is a part of an educational course, during which students visit companies and get insight of the internal working environment of the company. With an aim to go beyond academics, these visits are arranged to develop the insights of the students attaining practical knowledge and their theoretical applications thereof. Industrial visit is considered as one of the most tactical methods of teaching. The main reason behind this it lets students to know things practically through interaction, working methods and employment practices. Moreover, it gives exposure from academic point of view. A group of students is taken for a guided tour into the premises of various industries, providing them information about the background of the companies and their current position in the global business scenario. The aim of such visits is to: Exposure to Actual Working Conditions Make Students Aware with Industry Practice Increase Practical Awareness of various Industrial Sectors Acquaint Students with Interesting Facts and Breath-Taking Technologies The concept of Industrial visits has been woven into the academic practices of many institutes keeping in mind that experiential learning is very important. The motive is to provide the students with a right blend of theoretical learning and an opportunity to witness how those concepts are utilized in the practical environment. The visits provide an excellent opportunity for the students to comprehend the complexities faced by the organizations in various stages and the implications that decisions have. Students also get to know about the intra and inter-department linkages within the organization and understand behavioral aspects within an organization. The industrial visit also provides an insight on how companies work and also useful information related to the practical aspects of the course which cannot be visualized in lectures.

REACHING THE VENUE

In the 2011-2012 session, which was our second year as an undergraduate, we went for an industrial trip to Mysore and Ooty located in the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively which was organized by our department. We were accompanied by two of our professors from the department, Dr. Madhumita Maitra and Dr. Sudeshna Shyam Chowdhury and also by our seniors from first year of our postgraduate department. We boarded the Coromandal Express at 02:50p.m. from the Howrah station on February 18, 2012, Saturday. We reached Chennai the next day around 05:00p.m. and again from there on the same night boarded the Mysore Express at 09:30p.m. We reached Mysore on the next day i.e. on the 20th by 8oclock in the morning. We went to visit the first industry, Labland Biotech in Mysore, on the same day of reaching there by availing a bus from the hotel we stayed. On the 21st we travelled to Ooty from Mysore. We went for our second visit to the Aavin Milk Factory on the 22nd and for our third visit to the Pasteur Institute of India on the 23rd located in Ooty. We returned to Kolkata on February 25, Saturday by the Shalimar-Trivandum Express which we had boarded from Coimbatore on the eve of 24th.

1) LABLAND BIOTECH
Labland, a Private Limited Company floated in the year 1994, is a global player in the field of plant biotechnology and plant science with a fully equipped plant tissue culture facility and sophisticated R & D laboratory at Mysore, South India. Labland Biotech, the parent company, specializes in plant tissue culture of a wide range of economically important plant varieties. The Company has amalgamated the traditional skills of mass propagating the plants with modern scientific tools. Labland Biodiesel is committed to finding solutions to the global needs of improved planting material of Jatropha curcas by adopting advanced tools of plant science and biotechnology. We were first shown the research facilities and equipments needed for propagation of banana plants on a large scale through tissue culture method. High yielding banana plantlets are produced through tissue culture from high yielding, elite mother plants. The field officers carefully choose the quality suckers for tissue culture production of banana plants. The equipments showed to us in the tissue culture laboratory were: Horizontal autoclave: - It is utilized for sterilizing 400 media bottles along with the media. This autoclave has more capacity than the general ones. Vertical autoclave: - It is used for sterilizing forceps, pour plates etc. used for dissection. Hot air Oven: - It is used for drying. The bottles after being autoclaved are being kept here to remove the moisture.

Media store room: After autoclaving the media bottles are kept in this room in large racks for one week to check for any contamination in the media. Contaminated media are discarded. Different codes are put on the bottles according to date and media content. Media used: Media used for tissue culture is Murashige and Skoogs medium along with growth hormones auxin and cytokinin added in specific ratio according to need. There were two types of media- White media (which was without charcoal) and Black media (which contained charcoal added in the media for better root growth and increases porosity). Media can be used for 2 to 3 months. Media Kitchen: Media is prepared here. Production Laboratory: Fumigation of the room is done once a week by either KMnO4 or formaldehyde for sterilizing the room. Four horizontal laminar air flows are present. Glass bead sterilizers are used for sterilizing dissection equipments like blades, holders, etc. Polypropylene sheets are used for dissection of tissues. Fluoroscent light lamps are used for growth of the plants. Temperature is maintained by air conditioners. Growth and development: It comprises of 4 stages initiation, multiplication, rooting and shooting. Each stage takes 4 weeks. For the last two stages black media is used. Ex agar banana is given for hardening which is of two types- Primary and

Secondary. Primary hardening of the small plants is done in cocopeat for one month. Then sent to green house kept in polybags with soil and choir pith in walk in polytunnel for secondary hardening. Hardened plants are transferred to fields. The mother plant is never sold. G-9 and Robusta are the two kinds of banana grown here. Ornamental plants grown here are Spath gold, Antherium, Syngonium etc. Biodiesel Production: It comprises of oil expeller and biodiesel refinery. Seeds are collected from Jatropha curcas plant (Euphorbiaceae family). The plant needs semi arid condition to grow and can survive upto 40 years. The fruit has 3 seeds inside. The plant was introduced in India by the Portuguese. The seed is non edible. It contains oleic acid. Extraction and Refinery of oil: The seed coat having carbohydrates and amino acids is removed using seed huller. Then the seed is completely crushed in oil expeller. The oil goes to a tank and filtered. The seed cakes are for manure or biogas formation. The filtered oil is converted to biodiesel by adding methanol or ethanol to it and boiled for one hour at 60C. KOH is added as catalyst. Then it is transferred to settling tank. The glycerol will come up and removed. The crude methyl or ethyl ester which is the biodiesel is collected from below. Washing with water is done to remove the catalyst and saponification is done and boiled at 100C for half an hour. Thus the biodiesel is obtained. 10lts oil gives 9lts of biodiesel. Biodiesel is used in generators and cars. 10% biodiesel is mixed with cars fuel. This decreases pollution and increases mileage. Introducing improvement in this technique is under research. One of them is using microbes for esterification.

2) AAVIN MILK FACTORY

The factory was started at Udhagamandalam on 29.03.1973 under the direct control of the erstwhile Tamil Nadu Dairy Development Corporation now Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers Federation Limited. A variety of milk products other than milk are produced here. Four types of packaged milk are produced here. The milk varies in their fat and SNF content. Every product is made following the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Microbiological quality of the milk and its protein, fat and vitamin content is maintained according to this act. Tests for coliforms especially for Escherichia coli and Shigella sp. are carried before dispatching the milk in packets. Milk Production: Raw milk collected from rural areas in Raw Milk Reception Dock has a shelf life of 5 hours because of its high microbial content. Microbes need time, temperature and nutrients for growth. To prevent their growth in milk only the temperature of the milk can be controlled. 90% of the bacteria in milk are mesophilic. So, milk is pasteurized at 72C for 15secs and kept at 4C at pre chillers to prevent microbial growth. Before pasteurization acidity and alkalinity of the milk is checked. Pasteurized milk is given in Can Washer Trough having caustic soda, detergents, chlorinating agents and ultra heating of the vessels are done. Then the milk fat content is tested by Bulk Fat test and Gerber method. Approximately there is 3.6% fat in cows milk. Four varieties of milk are produced by varying the fat and SNF (solid Non Fat) content. The standardization of the four milk varieties done are as follows: -

Pasteurized Toned Milk Standardized milk Full cream milk Double toned Milk

FAT 3.0% SNF 8.5% FAT 4.5% SNF 8.5% FAT 6 % SNF 9.0%

FAT 1.5 % SNF 9.0 %

According to surplus fat content removed from milk, it is converted to butter, ghee, cheese or paneer. Methylene blue reduction test and alkaline phosphatase tests are done for the pasteurized milk before packing. Microbiological laboratory tests the quality and sets the standard. Flavoured milks are also produced here by adding excess sugar and essence. The packets used are low density polythene. Then they are sent to cold storage at 4C. Butter making room: Cow milk has carotene as pigment so butter is yellowish in colour. Buffalo milk does not contain carotene so butter is white in colour. Low density fat is separated from milk according to centrifugal force of churner and butter is made from there. Table butter has 2.5% added salt in it. Cooking butter does not contain any salt. Moisture content in butter is not more than 16%. Butter contains about 80% fat. According to standards, Butter should not contain more than 5 c.f.u. coliforms and Yeasts and molds not more than 20 c.f.u. after the microbiological tests are done butter is packed and dispatched. Curd Production: After the cream separator removes the excess fat from milk, starter culture of Lactobacillus sp. obtained from previous days curd is added in the milk and the temperature is maintained in the mesophilic range. The

inoculums of starter culture used here was actually imported from Denmark. In milk lactic acid is produced by the Lactobacillus sp. which brings down the pH of the milk and converts it to curd. Curd has less than 1.5% fat. Paneer Production: From the milk microbes are removed by heating it at 80C for 25mins. Then to the milk 0.2% citric acid is added. The milk coagulates and the whey is removed. The paneer produced is cut into cubes and is vacuum packed. Effluent Treatment Plant: It is set according to the State Pollution Control Board under Government of India. The main objective is to recycle the water used by the industry and obtaining 0% discharge. Water is collected in a pit and sent through an inlet to grease tarp where water is stagnated and the fat (whey contains 6% fat) is removed. Then water is sent to equalization tank where the wastes are removed and pH is checked. Next water is kept in aeration tank where microbial growth is promoted to convert large, complex molecules to simpler ones and sludge is created. Microbes are reused. Then water is kept at settling tank to remove the sludge. After treatment water should have B.O.D. less than or equal to 30mg/l, total dissolved solids 150mg/l and C.O.D. 240mg/l.

3) Pasteur Institute of India

Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor is one of the leading Institutes in the production of Antirabies Vaccine and DPT group of Vaccines for the Expanded Programme of Immunization of Govt. of India. This Institute started functioning as Pasteur Institute of Southern India, on 6th April 1907 and the Institute took a new birth as The Pasteur Institute of India (registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act 1860) and started functioning as an autonomous body under the ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi from the 10th of February, 1977. The affairs of the institute are managed by a governing body. We were shown presentations related to rabies and diphtheria treatment and control by Dr. Shivani Burman. Human Rabies Problem: Rabies is a 100% fatal disease but preventable. The virus causing the disease is Rhabdo or Lisa virus. The virus is bullet shaped, RNA virus, neurotropic virus. In Africa, 55,000 people are affected by this virus per year. In Asia, 30,000 people suffer from this disease out of which 20,000 are from India. It is caused by dog bite in 96% cases. 50% of the patients suffering are children below 15 years of age. Aggressive Form: In this case patients develop Hydrophobia (fear of water), Spasms of pharyngeal muscles, Aerophobia (fear of air), Photophobia (fear of light), Terminal respiratory paralysis, Cardiac arrest leading to death in 1 to 5 days. No cure can be imparted once brain is affected. Dumb or Paralytic rabies (caused by a different strain of the virus): In this case there is gradual ascending paralysis, constipation, urine retention, stupor, coma and death in 1 to 14 days. Hydrophobia is absent in this case.

Different stages of infection: Stage 1: Incubation phase 20 to 90 days, no symptoms are observed, window period. Stage 2: Prodormal phase 2 to 10 days, non specific symptoms are observed. Stage 3: Neurologic phase2 to 7 days, Hydrophobia is seen in the patient. Stage 4: Coma phaseIt can last from few hours to 7 days. Modes of Transmission of the virus: Multiplication of the virus locally in muscle fibres --> Peripheral nerves --> Dorsal root ganglia --> Spinal cord --> Brain. The virus travels through nerve at 3mm per hour and affect the brain stem. The virus is found in saliva, urine, tears, milk of rabid animals, etc. 95% of the virus spreads from dogs and cats. 4% is caused by monkeys, donkeys, horse, cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep and pigs. 1% is caused by mongoose, foxes, jackals, camels and elephants. The virus is not reported in rodents. Degree of risk depends on the severity of bite, position of bite, species of biting animal, and intervention of clotting. Touching and feeding animals, licking by animals provides no exposure to the virus. Nibbling of uncovered skin and minor scratches by animals causes minor exposure to the virus, vaccine should be taken. Single or multiple transdermal bites and licks on broken skin by animals causes exposure to severe rabies virus and hence immunoglobulin vaccine should be taken.

Action taken after the bite: Washing the bite with tap water, soap, alcohol, dettol. Immunoglobulins are given in the depth and around the tissue. Equan Rabies Immunoglobulins (ERIG40/u/kg) and Human Rabies Immunoglobulins (HRIG 20/u/kg) are the immunoglobulins used. Intra molecular regimen: 1) Cell culture vaccines: - Human Diploid cell vaccine (HDV), Purified Chick embryo cell vaccine (PCEC), Purified Vero Cell Rabies Vaccine (PVRV). 2) Purified Duck Embryo Vaccine RegimenFive doses IM (2.5 IV) on 0, 3, 7, 14 and 28 days on deltoid (adults) and antero, lateral part of thigh (infants and children). Control: - Controlling dog population and vaccination of dogs by Government support and spreading awareness.

Diphtheria: The disease is caused by Corynebacterium diptheriae. It is an aerobic, non sporulating, gram positive, rod shaped bacteria and 1to 8 long, 0.3 to 0.8 wide. Coryne phage has the toxic gene of 1942 base pairs integrated into the genome of the bacteria. The toxin produced is a single polypeptide of molecular weight 58350D. The toxin on being treated with trypsin, two fragments A and B are obtained. The toxin is released in the blood from where it spreads to nasopharyngeal tissues and throat. The toxin binds to NAD+ and causes ADP ribosylation leading to inhibition of protein synthesis.

In the laboratory, the toxin is produced from the seed strain Park William No. 8 CN 2000. pH, sugar, temperature is maintained for the growth of the bacteria and for production of the toxin. The toxin is purified by 0.45 filter. It is detoxifies by treating with formaldehyde and toxoid vaccine is prepared from it. Control: Inactivation of the virus and the bacteria causing the disease. Animal Farm: We were shown the animal farm where rats and guinea pigs are grown which is used for testing the vaccines produced. The farm is maintained clean and disease free.

CONCLUSION
We had a great learning experience and exposure on this industrial trip. The three industries we visited gave us a wide scope of knowledge and experience on a number of topics related to our subject. The Labland Biotech we visited showed us the techniques and equipments of mass scale production of plants by tissue culture method and plants produced are harvested in fields for good quality production of banana. We also had the opportunity of observing biodiesel formation from Jatropha seeds which will be a potential car fuel in the nearby future as it causes less pollution than petrol or diesel. In the Aavin Milk Factory we came to know a lot about milk collection, production and packaging. Production units of various milk products like butter, curd, paneer were showed to us. Each milk product is microbiologically tested and then packaged. Proper hygiene and cleanliness is maintained in relation to the food products. We also saw the water treatment plant associated with the industry where the water used is recycled. The Pasteur Institute of India taught us a lot on the two diseasesrabies and diphtheria. We learned about the microorganisms causing the diseases, their mode of action, the vaccines produced against them and their control. We also had a glimpse of the animal farm used for experimenting the vaccines produced. We gained immense practical knowledge in this industrial trip. It was very educative and an interesting one. We certainly look forward to more such industrial trips in our course of study which will guide us to know more about our subject and its related topics and also help in getting us employed to various industries.