'IndiGau', India's first cattle genomic chip for the conservation of pure varieties of indigenous cattle breeds such as Gir, Kankrej, Sahiwal, Ongole etc., was launched here on Friday.

This indigenous chip has been developed by the concerted efforts of scientists at the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NAIB), Hyderabad, an autonomous institution under the aegis of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology.

"IndiGau is purely indigenous and the largest cattle chip in the world. It has 11,496 markers (SNPs), more than that placed on 777K Illumina chip of US and UK breeds. This chip for our own indigenous cows is a great example of Aatmanirbhar Bharat," said Union Minister of State for Science & Technology, Jitendra Singh.

This chip will have practical utility in the government schemes to achieve the goal of conservation of the indegenous breeds with better characters and help towards doubling the farmers' income by 2022, Singh added.

Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, informed that the department is looking forward to implement this technology in the field with the help of other agencies like NDDB, DAHDF, ICAR etc.

To further the use of this chip in generating phenotypic and genotypic correlations, the NIAB has entered into a collaborative agreement with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).