Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) is offering, for sale, some of its technologies that have applications for industry, and is reporting that the same is already getting a good response.

Initially, the NIO -- a Council for Scientific & Industrial Research body -- has offered its tide-gauge and the Autonomous Weather Station (AWS). Both these technologies have long been worked on and developed at this Institute located at the beach-village of Dona Paula, some 8 kms from here.

NIO has a Marine Instrumentation department where instruments for measurements of various oceanographic parameters have been designed, developed, calibrated and field-tested.

This NIO-developed tide gauge is based on an indigenously available pressure transducer. The gauge is computer-compatible and has the capability of data storage in a non-volatile memory bank. It has already been operational in many Indian coastal waters and lakes for the "last many years", the NIO says.

"NIO holds quite a few patents to its credit. This technology is cost-effective, yet efficient. Its sensors are based on ISRO technology. Imported equipment would be far costlier," said NIO scientist Dr K Antony Joseph of the Marine Instrumentation and Computers division.

The Institute is also presently looking for entrepreneurs interested in the production and sale of its Autonomous Weather Station. The AWS is based on a micro-controller and has a suite of sensors to record wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, solar radiation and barometric pressure.

"AWS has been successfully used on board the ship and on land," said the Institute, calling for parties who are familiar with oceanographic measurements and have the capacity for promoting the equipment to quote the quantum of royalty they are prepared to pay for the same.

Joseph said that the NIO had earlier also offered other equipment -- like the current meter, meant to measure currents in the seas, lakes, estuaries or rivers -- and had plans to unveil its other relevant technologies to the market too.

Interest had come in from some firms like the Goa-based Indomer Coastal Hydraulics Pvt Ltd and the R A Enterprises, some of which were connected with scientists who realised the applications of these technologies.

Tide guages, Joseph explained, had important applications in harbours, where tidal variations make the depths vary. Companies taking this technology could also use it to study the likely impact of effluents discharged into the sea-sink.

NIO has been involved in R&D with the aim of "improving our understanding of the seas around us and to translate this knowledge to benefit all". It has regional centers at Mumbai, Kochi and Vishakhapatnam. It now claims to be "the largest marine research institute in the Indian Ocean region".

Like other research institutions, the NIO too is increasingly looking earning from its R&D activities. "The institute programmes are largely field oriented and costly considering the maintenance of the floating platforms for collection and acquisition of information in the form of data on a variety of properties and processes in space and in time," adds the NIO.

"The corporate spread in recent times has clearly indicated that the competence level of our services has good business potential," adds the NIO.

"The present day mushrooming industries along the coast require the services of this institute. These services include addressing and solving problems relating to discharge of waste products form industry and minimize the impact of such releases on the prevailing biota," says the Institute.

Such programmes contribute to the external cash flow (ECF) of this institute. For instance, the institute's earnings grew from Rs 9 crore in 1994-95 to Rs 18 crores in 1998-99. Research results obtained in these and R&D programmes are being published in "high impact" national and international journals.