Month: February 2019

Green Horns to offer Industrial Solutions at SIH2019

Times of India     India Today   Business Standard   Zee Business

IIT Kharagpur is hosting the Grand Finale of the Smart India Hackathon 2019, Software Edition on March 2-3, 2019. This year 186 students from various colleges including 6 from IIT Kharagpur will be participating in the event. Another 36 students from the Institute will be participating at other editions of SIH2019 hosted by ISRO, Adani group etc.

Shri Prakash Javadekar, Hon’ble Minister of Human Resources Development will announce the start of the Smart India Hackathon 2019 on March 2. A live interaction session with the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi has been scheduled later in the day.

SIH is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resources Development to provide students with a platform to solve some of pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving. The last edition of the hackathon saw over 5 million+ students from various engineering colleges compete for the top prize at 35+ locations.

SIH 2019 includes themes such as Smart Communication, Smart Vehicles, Agriculture & Rural Development, Food Technology, Healthcare & Biomedical Devices, Clean Water, Waste Management, Renewable Energy, Robotics and Drones, Security & Surveillance, technology ideas in tertiary sectors like Hospitality, Financial Services, Entertainment, Tourism and Retail.

While the students will compete for a marathon coding event to develop unique solutions in the thematic areas, they will be mentored by professionals from the Ministry.

The participating students would have the opportunity to work on challenges faced within the private sector organisations and create world-class solutions for some of the top companies in the world, thus helping the industries hire the best minds from across the nation.

Student participants can further apply for research internship opportunities at IIT Kharagpur confirmed the program coordinator.

“Smart India Hackathon with its massive scale, reach, mentorship and follow up are building a new culture of innovation in our higher education system which will have far-reaching effects on the future generations. IIT Kharagpur is extremely happy and privileged to be involved in this new paradigm of at all levels from Coordinating the programme in the last two years and hosting the Grand Finale events,” said Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Kharagpur and Chairman of the event.

Incubation facility could be offered to form startups based on the technological and economic feasibility and market acceptance.

Home furnishing

Feel like going to the nearest city? You can take a flight from the mini airport of IIT Kharagpur.

In a hurry to go to class? You can either hop onto the toy train going around the campus or the driverless cars zipping across.

How would it feel to work in a nuclear power plant? Just go to class, put on the VR headset and find out.

It’s raining cats and dogs and you still need to train for the inter-IIT sports meet? No worries. You have a dome over the Jnan Ghosh stadium.

You could say if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, just as any disparaging parent would tell a child whose mind is careening out of control. But no. These are actual scenarios that can play out in the IIT Kharagpur campus.

A few days ago, second year civil engineering students were asked to give free rein to their imagination and come up with something “wow” for the 2,100 acre campus and its residents. Related to the campus infrastructure, these ideas had to be feasible and workable. They would have to carefully work out the cost estimates but not to regard the cost as a constraining factor for an idea that was really good.  As the professor in charge put it, “I wanted them to give me an idea that could be engineered.” The catch? This was to be a semester project and would carry half the marks of the final exam.

Students learnt in class how IIT KGP managed its affairs independently – whether it came to water supply, civil works, electricity distribution or managing the telecommunications network. Formed into nine teams, the 74 students got to work. They burnt midnight oil for two months at a stretch before they were finally ready with their presentation. They were told that they would be graded on the basis of boldness and impact, sound engineering analysis, plan of execution, budgeting and finance. Each project was also going to be peer reviewed by the whole class.

Some of their ideas presented were truly fantastical – a “Wow” dome over the Jnan Ghosh stadium, an air strip in IIT Kharagpur, deployment of light rail throughout the campus  – but all of them were implementable engineering solutions to many of the problems faced by the residents of IIT Kharagpur.  They had not only worked out the cost of the projects but had thought through the likely problems that could arise, and even found solutions to them.

For example, while detailing their proposed Biogas plant, Group 7 not only set out at the micro-level the amount of cement, sand, PVC pipes, stone chips and nails that would be required, but also clearly stipulated that the metal digesters and gas storage tanks for the biogas plant needed to be properly earthed so as to avoid struck by lightning. Team 9, which suggested a dome over the Jnan Ghosh stadium, had even considered the fact that since the dome would get sun rays from the southern side only, half the solar panels fitted on the dome (that would power the movement of the dome) would not be getting any sun light. As solution, they suggested moveable solar panels and Heliotex technology for their cleaning.

Team 1 dealt with improving classroom infrastructure. They argued that incorporating augmented virtual reality in classroom teaching could revolutionize learning by changing the way students experience subjects. For example, students could actually experience being inside a nuclear power plant. In fact, they argued, the concept of VR lab could be extended to schools. According to the team’s estimate, it could cost a little more than Rs 1 crore to set up a fully functional VR Lab.

There were three ideas on improving the transport network. Team 6 suggested deployment of light rail throughout the campus to serve the purposes of connectivity and amusement. Battery-operated toy trains with two passenger coaches could ply for 10 hours a day on tracks laid in the free space available alongside the roads. Team 8 suggested autonomously controlled carrier shuttles to ply 24×7. The 8 shuttles would be operated by a centralized swarm model and would cost the Institute approximately Rs 56 lakhs. Team 5 suggested an exclusive airstrip for IIT Kharagpur in order to provide easy access and also to provide for air ambulance for residents. They suggested the Institute bought two Cessna aircraft, hired two pilots, two maintenance engineers, and crew on contract basis. According to their calculation, the average cost for a person to travel from KGP to Kolkata airport would be less than than Rs 1,500. The one-time cost for the air strip would Rs 23 crore and the annual cost of running the air service would be Rs 60 lakh.

Two projects talked about betterment of the existent infrastructure. Team 3 suggested revamping the Gymkhana Lakeside and modifying the park in order to promote pisciculture and recreational activities. Team 2 suggested converting the Tech market into a Hi-tech Market by installing a self-sustainable solar power system that would power the Tech market completely. They also suggested the setting up of a cafeteria, a bar, a clothing section and a central canteen with a giant TV screen at a total cost of close to Rs 4 crore.

There were two green projects – Team 4 suggested building a lake that would take care of the run-off and help IIT Kharagpur become self-sufficient in water. The geo-thermal pipes under the water would trigger geo-thermal cooling of the entire campus, bring down the temperature. Team 7 proposed setting up of a Bio-gas plant in order to produce bio-gas from the leftover food from the Halls of Residence. In their calculation, the total food wastage produced by the Halls was about two tons per day, which would produce 345 kg bio-gas worth Rs 11,000 approximately per day.

Team 9 proposed a ‘Wow’ dome over the Jnan Ghosh stadium that will provide an optimum solution to the problem of suspension of sports practices and stadium getting muddy during the monsoon. The retractable multipurpose dome would also use the rainwater for harvesting. The total cost of the dome would come to Rs 135 crore, but the campus could save around 42 million litres of water. Truly ‘wow’ isn’t it?

Despite the wow factor though, most of the students concurred that they ought to immediately have a Bio-gas plant. Somehow, even while letting their imagination soar, the students had kept their feet firmly grounded.

Asked what the project had achieved, the said professor stated, “I wanted them to come up with something imaginative but I also wanted them to connect with the IIT KGP campus…think of it as their home.”

The project had undoubtedly hit home. When asked how they felt about the project, Eknoor Malhotra of Team 9 said, “Initially, it was about marks. But once we started working for it, we realized that if this (idea) gets implemented, then we would have been the first to propose it. In the end, however, the effort became something much more than obtaining the marks. In the end we were so connected to it that we could visualize Jnan Ghosh actually having a dome.”

Now that the project was over and done with, would they keep thinking about IIT KGP? Eknoor declared, “Yes, of course. The domino effect has started. Everywhere I go, I try to see what can be changed.” Raman Shaw of Team 5 agreed, “The mind has started functioning differently… we are oriented differently now.”

IITKgp Full Scholarship for SAARC Nationals

Economic Times    Times of India (TNN)  Times of India (PTI)   India Today  The Week    Business Standard   Times Now    Jagran Josh   Telengana Today  Swarajya

IIT Kharagpur is launching a full scholarship program for SAARC nationals. The program will be open for full-time students across all levels of study undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies in SAARC countries outside India regardless of whether their home institution has an MoU with IIT Kharagpur. The Institute is focusing on students from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The Institute will be reaching out to universities and embassies of these countries as well as through the Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India, this month opening up the enrolment for 2019 including summer and winter terms.

The first batch of the program will be open for 10 students with funding from US-based alumnus and petrochemical industrialist Dr. Asoke Dey Sarkar. The first edition named the Asoke Dey Sarkar International Program or ADSIP will provide funding for their airfare, tuition fee, living expenses, local transport as well as medical insurance. Download program information.

India is keen to promote cooperation in research and education with South Asian nations. As a premier technological university of the country, IIT Kharagpur intends to carry that mandate forward. Engaging with SAARC universities is a declared priority of IIT Kharagpur.

“SAARC nations share a common heritage. We also share a common future and a common vision of prosperity. There are some excellent educational institutions in our neighbouring countries with students who are comparable to the best in the world. We would like to know how they are gearing up to face the new challenges, what new things they are learning, what solutions they are coming up with. In the process, if we can present to them what is best in us, and create a lifelong bond of friendship, it will be a win-win for all,”

– remarked Prof. Baidurya Bhattacharya, Dean, International Relations at IIT Kharagpur.

The students will be required to explore the courses and research areas and identify the experts at IIT Kharagpur as mentors. In addition to a formal application, the students will be required to appear for a video interview. IIT Kharagpur will provide a transcript of the academic work to every visiting student along with the syllabus and pedagogical details. Based on these the home institutions may accept those credits.

The courses would encompass all areas of engineering and technology, biosciences, social sciences, economics, management, law. Students can also work on research projects including collaborative research with international partners of IIT Kharagpur. It will include trending areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, rewater research, climate change, quality and reliability, high-speed and intelligent transportation, smart infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, affordable healthcare, clean energy, the science of happiness etc.

“The strongest and most durable academic cooperation gets built when students visit each other and lay the foundation of a lasting partnership. ADSIP is the first serious attempt by an IIT to promote an all-around student-centric partnership with Institutions in our neighbouring countries,”

added Prof. Bhattacharya. The Institute will encourage other alumni to follow the lead of Dr. Deysarkar in addition to seeking funding from the government.

Honda Y-E-S award for three students of IIT Kharagpur

India Today

Three students from IIT Kharagpur have won the Young Engineer and Scientist’s (Y-E-S) Award for 2018-19. They are Lakshmi Vasanta Majety (3rd year, Chemical Engineering), Nirmalya Panigrahi (3rd year, Mechanical Engineering) and Sabyasachi Sen (3rd year, Mechanical Engineering). The Y-E-S Award, instituted by the Honda Foundation in India in 2007 and facilitated by Honda Cars India, is awarded each year to young students from premier institutes across India who have proven their academic brilliance in the area of science and technology and show the promise of leading society towards an eco-technological orientation.

Each student will receive a scholarship of cash equivalent of $ 3,000. The evaluation took into consideration their CGPA and individual essays. This was followed by two rounds of personal interviews with the selection committee of senior Honda Executives and prominent Indian scientists.

Lakshmi Vasanta Majety, who is currently General Secretary of Alumni Cell of IIT Kharagpur, and is a brilliant student, said, “This award is a big boost to my confidence and gives a positive thrust to my career prospects. I am eagerly looking forward to availing the Y-E-S plus award for pursuing a summer internship in Japan.”

Y-E-S award recipients become eligible for the Y-E-S Award Plus, a credit-granting internship program offered by a Japanese company or research institute’s summer program for two-and-half months. Internship participants will receive $ 7,000 for internship in Japan and$ 3,000 preparation fees for further study in Japan (for 10 weeks) or $ 10,000 for post-graduation studies in Japan (1-2 years).

Sabyasachi Sen, who has done an internship with Rakuten Inc, Tokyo, in 2017, and has been selected for an internship at the Dynamics, Imaging and Modelling of Environmental Systems (DIMENV) research group at CNRS Geosciences Rennes, France, for summer this year, said, “I truly enjoyed the work culture and social life [in Japan], so I will definitely use the second stage of the Honda Y-E-S award to go back to Japan for the summer of 2020.” Sabyasachi wishes to pursue studies in the broad field of transport phenomena.

Nirmalya Panigrahi is a bronze medallist in the Campus Sustainability Challenge at the Inter IIT Tech Meet 2018-19 and second rank holder in the Product Design contest held by Prakriti, the Agricultural and Food Engineering Annual Fest in 2018. An avid debater and blogger, he says, “This process was the most educative, humbling and honouring.… While I was waiting in a line, to witness one of the most memorable events of my life, I realised how a little bit of motivation is all you need to give a nitro boost to your dreams.”

Mr Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Japan, who presented the award to the students, said on the occasion, “India and Japan enjoy a fulfilling bilateral relationship and I hope that through this opportunity you will experience Japan’s advanced technological system and enjoy research which is aimed at contributing to social causes.” One of the objectives of the Honda Y-E-S award is to “promote dissemination of eco technology among the young generations and at the same time to strengthen interaction and exchange between Japanese youths and young people expect to lead science, technology and industry in their respective countries.”

Humans of KGP

I have spent 38 years on this campus and the one thing that I can tell you as a result is this: I shall die a happier and more contented man than many others on this planet.

The lure of KGP is its people – all these bright, young minds as much as their brilliant teachers and mentors. And all these books that you see around me. These books are my passion – they are like my children.

Today, as a part time librarian in this Hall Library post retirement, I handle the entire process – from the acquisition of books to their cataloguing and arrangements, keeping track of them and ensuring the right library ambience. Ask me about any title, any author – and if it is here, I shall tell you. The trust, the appreciation and the respect that I enjoy from the students, the Library Secretary, the Hall warden – that is the highest reward I have for my work.

I joined IIT Kharagpur as an employee at the Central Library and some years later, I was approached by then warden of Nehru Hall to handle some responsibilities at the Hall library for a few hours in the evenings, after my regular work hours or whenever time permitted. I said I’d be delighted – that’s how it all started and here I am, in that journey still. Even after retirement. I could have just spent my retired life like any other – lazing at home, doing domestic tasks, playing with my grandson. But there’s a magic in this campus – you’d never leave if you had a chance to be here. I was fortunate to have had that chance.

I come here for a bit in the mornings and then again for the entire evening. I don’t keep track of hours. Sometimes, I’d just be locking up for the day and someone would come rushing with a request: “Please, Dulal-da, I really need that book.” I cannot say No, can I? We are here to facilitate their studies, how do a few extra minutes of duty make a difference?

I remember the early days in the Central Library, Midnight used to be closing hour. We would keep going around the heads pored over the books five minutes before closing, and they would keep saying, “Just a minute.” Especially right before exams. ‘Just one minute’ stretched into quite a few, but I don’t think any of us ever minded that. It is a strange sense of satisfaction that you get when you are helping such brilliant minds in their pursuit of knowledge.

It is a fact that library usage has gone down a lot in the age of the Internet. But I still feel nothing can replace a book. And the continuing footfalls, though less than earlier, tell me that a good many others even in this current generation also feel the same way. Every semester we keep getting requests for more books, more editions. We really need a larger space now for this library.

And then there are the memories. 38 years is a long time. There are so many, I don’t know how to filter them. Some years back, a student came rushing just as I was closing the Hall library. I thought it would be the usual last minute request for a book. So I opened the doors, and led him in. But no! It turned out he just wanted to sit and sing a song for me that he had just learnt! Such childish claims on you fill you with a warmth difficult to express in words.

There are the shared confidences, too. One of the brightest boys of his batch once came to me with a fallen face and shared how his mother refused to allow him to apply abroad. She did not want the only son to leave the country and home. I asked him to go slow, explained things to him from his mother’s perspective. He stayed on for a few more years, convinced his parents and then went abroad. Years later, when he came back to visit KGP, he made it a point to come meet me and we reminisced those conversations all over again.

Whenever older students come back, visit the library and congratulate me on my work, I feel flushed with pride. They are all so dear to me. Around two years back, one such alumnus visited the Hall. He had a lot of people around him, and everyone in the hostel was so eager to meet him. But he still took out time to visit the library. After going around carefully, just before leaving, he placed a hand on my shoulders, and said, “Very well maintained.” I felt a little bit taller at that moment. The name of the alumnus: Sundar Pichai.

(As told to Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya)

The future of medicine

In May 2018, IIT Kharagpur set up India’s pioneering Bioelectronics Innovation Laboratory to develop futuristic battery-free implantable medical devices for the treatment of brain, nerve, muscle or spinal cord disorders that are untreatable by using standard medical practices. These medical devices will go a long way in providing affordable and reliable medical solutions. The laboratory will facilitate energy-efficient electronic system development, biocompatible packaging, bio-reliability assessment and animal testing rooms as a unified platform for an end-to-end intelligent medical system development.

Prof. Sudip Nag of the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering of IIT Kharagpur is heading the initiative. The present line of research targets subjects with blindness, limb paralysis, sensory-motor dysfunction, cognition-loss, Parkinson’s tremor, epileptic seizures, and even memory loss. The lab is also in the process of setting up collaborations with several hospitals and institutes in India and abroad. Recently, a Common Research and Technology Development Hub (CRTDH) on technologies for affordable healthcare has been set up at IIT Kharagpur that will be supporting the growth of precision manufacturing of innovative technologies through MSMEs. The bioelectronics lab will also be contributing to this venture. Here is Prof. Nag on bioelectronics and its future prospects:

 What is bioelectronics?

Bioelectronics is a new and emerging field in engineering where we are using novel and state-of-the-art electronic technology, medical science, and fusing them together to bring out innovative solutions in health care. Such solutions will help in the futuristic treatment of diseases that are otherwise not possible through standard medical practices or surgery.

Why is bioelectronics such an important field today?

It is very essential and important because we don’t have medical treatments available for certain critical diseases and conditions, such as brain damage, stroke-induced paralysis, and spinal cord injury to name a few. These do not have a direct solution in terms of standard medicine and surgery. In bioelectronics, we can use electronic solutions to bypass or restore certain functions in the body. We cannot cure blindness unless it is in the early stage. There can be no way to restore vision. There is no medicine for it. But bioelectronics can bring in electronic (or artificial) ways to substitute the function of natural organs at a coarse level.

Can you tell us about some actual uses of bioelectronics in restoring vision?

Of course. For example, we can put little mobile phone cameras outside the body, and those cameras can acquire external image signals; and then through the electronic antenna or coils, we can transfer the information to a chip that has been surgically implanted in the eyeball. This chip decodes the information and activates the remaining part of the eye. Remember, a blind person typically experiences a loss of vision due to partial damage to critical portions in the visual pathway to the brain. In other words, blindness can occur due to damage to specific portions in the eye, and not the entire eye. For example, there could be a corneal problem, a retinal tissue degeneration, or optic nerve damage, but hardly more than one are affected simultaneously in a majority of the cases. Using Bioelectronics we can target the diseased portion and replicate or bypass the damaged portion by using electronic waves. In corneal blindness, the eye is functional except for one layer of tissue, which blocks the light to enter into the eye. We are trying to bypass the cornea, put a chip inside that will project the light inside.

How can bioelectronics help in cases of paralysis?

Bioelectronics can also be used in the case of stroke-induced paralysis. The brain has several blood vessels and sometimes they rupture due to high blood pressure or degeneration of biological membranes. Stroke is caused due to the spillage of blood in the brain. The toxic chemicals carried by the blood affect neurons in the brain and possibly kill them in mass. However, despite a ruptured blood vessel, neural connectivity is present at a macro scale. The magnitude of the paralysis depends on the size of the clot or spillage of blood. Sometimes a paralysis is irreversible. And this is where bioelectronics comes into the picture.

For example, in the case of paralysis in the leg. When we walk, there is a certain rhythm of movement. One leg is advanced, the other is lifted up and gradually comes down. There is a synchronization of the limb movements of which we are not even conscious. This pattern gets distorted or dysfunctional after a stroke in the brain. However, the limbs do not become non-functional because of a stroke. Only the communication to the limbs from the brain is hampered.

Suppose one leg is affected by paralysis. In this case, we put sensors in the good leg and embed actuators in the damaged leg. The leg with which the brain can communicate is the sensor leg. The one that is paralysed is called the actuator leg. When we inject controlled electrical pulses with minute electrical shocks into concerned muscles, and this injection occurs in a certain sequence, it can mimic the actual walking pattern.

How far have these projects progressed?

So far as the Bionic Eye project is concerned, we have already started the chip development and we have a collaboration with Shankara Nethralaya in Chennai. The doctors are very enthusiastic about the solution.

So far as the other project is concerned, we have developed electrical stimulator devices that can go inside the body and we are now working on making them power-efficient. We target to reduce the dependence on batteries. Batteries, even those in pacemakers, have to be recharged or replaced along with the entire device. Therefore, instead of the battery, we thought of using modern wireless power transfer and super-capacitors or ultra-capacitors, which can charge and discharge for an infinite number of times virtually. But here there is a problem. The capacitors charged and discharged fast. This means we had to create devices that require very little power to operate and do not allow quick discharge.

We are thus trying to develop a system whereby we can put a power band on top the body, whereas the implant is located inside the body and, in a matter of minutes, we can completely charge the implantable super-capacitor. We have to make sure that the circuit or the electronics that is performing its task inside the body should consume very little power – in the range of nano-Watts to micro-Watts. In our lab, we are using electromagnetic and electrostatic energy transfer strategies to charge up the super-capacitors. There is no battery in our devices and all of our solutions for implantables are battery free. Even if there is a requirement of battery, we want to put it outside the body.

So resolving the problem of batteries is very important to bioelectronics, right?

Absolutely yes. We are working on energy transfer and harvesting schemes, and not just batteries. We are eliminating the use of batteries from an implant, which will possibly create a new wave in future. It is a combination of energy transfer, energy harvesting, and minimizing power consumption. These are our main focuses and prime targets to advance the field. In terms of biology, the choice of materials, parameters, bio-compatible coating strategies, and animal trials are very important. That is why we call it bioelectronics.

How is the Bioelectronics Innovation lab thinking of contributing to the Common Research and Technology Hub (CRTDH) recently set up at IIT Kharagpur?

CRTDH is a unique program that is getting realized at IIT Kharagpur through the supports received from DSIR, Government of India, and B.C. Roy Super-speciality Hospital. The program will particularly benefit Micro Small Medium Scale (MSME) industries in West Bengal and India, which are interested to commercialize affordable health-care related prototypes and technologies that are available at IIT Kharagpur. Bioelectronics Innovation Lab is going to contribute directly and immensely to this program through supports related to technology transfer, product validation, certification assistance process, and market placement under the aegis of the Institute.

 

 

Photograph and Video: Arnab Moitra

Banner design: Suman Sutradhar

Netting a windfall

The Economic Times     India Today     Business Standard   NDTV

A bioactive product invented by a start-up incubated at IIT Kharagpur’s STEP (Science and Technology Entrepreneurs’ Park) is silently changing the face of aquaculture in Eastern Midnapore. ‘Mr Fish’, produced with the latest technology, is one-of-a-kind of product that not only increases the size of the fish produced in the least possible time but, and more importantly, enhances its taste and nutritional quality. Produced by Zelence Industries Pvt. Ltd. (www.myzelence.com), the start-up from IIT Kharagpur, the product has come as a boon to fish farmers in Bengal and neighbouring Orissa.

Both the states have seen a phenomenal increase in the demand of carp and shrimp in the past few years. In the riverine lowland areas of eastern Midnapore, where the product is being tried, farmers once felt helpless as large tracts of their land remained flooded for a sizeable part of the year. They now either use the water to undertake fish farming themselves for a few months or give their submerged lands on a contract-basis to farmers who carry out aquaculture. The result has been a booming business in fish.

However, unscientific farming practices along with high stocking density have led to a culture of fish farming where the quality of the product is mostly neglected. There are complaints from the consumers about the deteriorating taste of the cultivated fishes. The fishes also suffer from early decomposition. “So far, there has been no product available in the market that deals with these problems, enhances fish quality or stops the deterioration in taste. Most of the products deal with disease control in farming but no product till date ensures fish taste and quality. That is why Mr Fish is such a novelty,” says Prof. Jayanta Bhattacharya of the Department of Mining Engineering and School of Environmental Science and Engineering. Prof. Bhattacharya is one of the directors of Zelence.

Mr Fish is produced from natural bioactive molecules and some isolated and innovated probiotics. The listed components are Kelp extract, medicinal plant extract, Lactobaccillus plantatum, Lactobacillus acidophilus,etc. Of high liquid consistency, Mr Fish improves the feed conversion ratio, enhances particular amino acids, and regulates the control of uniform distribution of fats and proteins in fish cells that results in improved shine, storability and taste of fish.

“When used in the right quantity, within the same time and with the use of the same amount of food as before, the rate of growth and shine of the fish and shrimp are comparatively much better than that produced by fish farms that do not use our product. Mr Fish increases resistance power in fish, and enhances the quality and texture of fish by evenly distributing the fatty acid content and right amount of taste active components such as TMAO, glycins, alanine, monophosphates and so on, plus increasing the feed conversion ratio,” says Dr Bidus Kanti Das, Biotechnologist, who holds a PhD from IIT Kharagpur, and is a Director of Zelence. The prescribed quantity for carp is 60-100 ml per metric ton of feed and 120-200 ml for shrimp. Mr Fish has to be mixed well with the fish feed.

Mr. Biswajit Das, a fish farmer from Bhemua, Sabang, who is in this profession since 2002, and is currently cultivating in a 97 acre jheel/lake observed, “The taste is far better than in previous occasions, and this has been repeatedly reported by traders and consumers. The growth is now at an expected level. I would recommend Mr Fish to other farmers also”.

Pijush Kanti Bhanja, a fish farmer in Moyna, who used Mr Fish for a month and saw dramatic improvements said, “All the varieties of carp, particularly the Roopchand, in my farm have undergone a healthy increase in size. In fact, my neighbours, who have asked me for fish have told me that my fish tastes much better than those available in the market.”

Subhasish Bera, a farmer in Kishorepur who used Mr Fish for three months, reports, “I have needed comparatively less food this time for my fish. Besides, the taste of the fish is much better. There is a lot of oil in the fish as well.”

Prof. Bhattacharya says, “Traders who transport the fish are now more interested in selling the fish developed with Mr Fish because of better price and quantity. The quality improvement has increased the price of fish as well. During dull season, the produce that fetched Rs 50 a kilogram now fetch Rs 80 per kilogram. In a saturated market of fishes, distinctiveness attracts more buyers, steady market and better price. Zelence has made a difference for over the past one-and-a-half years.”

The firm first started testing the product in small ponds from 2015. “The product was matured in June 2018, when we released Mr Fish in the market. Now the product is used in Simlapal in Bankura, Moyna, Sabang, Narayangarh and some areas of Midnapore and the reports are exciting,” says Dr Das. The fish from East Midnapore go to north Bengal, Ranchi and even Bhubaneswar.

At a time when there is talk of rural distress across India, the increased prosperity from aquaculture is reflected in the growing number of schools and other amenities in the Eastern Midnapore region. There is growing interest and enquiry about Mr Fish from farmers of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring Bangladesh.

Zelence has several other innovations to its credit. All of these have been commercialized successfully in the area of nanotechnology, bioactive molecules, microbial consortium for application in agriculture, animal husbandry and environmental engineering. Zelence is being incubated at STEP since 2017. It is one of the many successful start-ups incubated at IIT Kharagpur. One among these successes is Capillary Technologies, which is a software product company providing cloud-based Omnichannel Customer Engagement, eCommerce platform and related services for retailers and brands.

(For more information on Zelence: +91-7001564058)

Banner design: Suman Sutradhar

IIT KGP signs MoU with ZHAW

IIT Kharagpur and the School of Applied Psychology of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), one of the leading universities of applied sciences in Europe, signed an MoU on February 7, 2019, to explore opportunities for academic exchange and collaboration in research efforts.

The academic exchange between the two institutions will not only encompass the exchange of faculty members, researchers and students but also lead to the organization of joint research projects, workshops, conferences and symposia.

The two institutions will also work towards the offering of joint or dual programs or projects that allow for joint supervision and credit transfer facilities.
The School of Applied Psychology, established in 19232, is the leading centre of expertise for the teaching and practice of scientifically-based applied psychology in Switzerland. It operates with 8 schools and has close to 13,000 students enrolled in 46 programs. Though research is one of the main pillars of the institution, it also accords emphasis on social and practical impact and offers a wide range of consulting services.

Dr. Michael Zirkler, head of the section, organization development and consulting, School of Applied Psychology, “We are deeply happy with the discussions and the initiatives that are being planned.”

Prof. Prasanta K. Das, Dean, PG Studies and Research, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, said, “We look forward to building on the relationship whose foundations have just been laid and hope to strengthen it further through intellectual exchanges between faculty members and students of the two institutions.”

Young and honoured

Keshav Kishor Jain (2013/B Tech/AG/HJB) has received the much coveted Economic Times Young Leaders 2018 award. The EYTL identifies and rewards India’s most promising young managers in the age group of 26 to 32 years and is widely recognized by the corporate world as a gold standard to identify future leaders of India Inc.

Keshav is currently Assistant Vice President at Barclays. As a finance professional, he has worked with various investment banks and financial institutions in the areas of financial modelling, M&A, risk management, risk advisory, derivatives research and financial analysis. He has experience in leading teams for multiple consulting projects in analytics & risk management. Keshav started his career in the Bank of America and has worked with Credit Suisse as Market Risk Manager. His last appointment was with Crisil as Global Research & Analytics Manager.

Committed to sustainable development, Keshav has been President of the IIT Kharagpur chapter of Engineers Without Borders, where he took steps to increase the participation of students in activities related to rural development and environment protection. He continues to contribute and mentor as a professional member of the organisation.

ETYL evaluated around 26,000 contestants before a distinguished panel of CEOs from different companies picked the final Young Leaders list of 46. The panel looked for candidates with a wholesome personality, out-of-the-box thinking and zest to innovate. The felicitation ceremony for the winners was held on January 30, at Trident, Nariman Point, Mumbai.

The Institute’s Eleven

Forbes India has just published its sixth edition of ‘30 Under 30 list’. The 2019 list features young achievers who are on the top of their game in their chosen fields. Of that list of 30, close to 40 per cent of the winners come from a single institution – IIT Kharagpur – and 50 per cent of them are Economics majors from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Institute.

The Institute’s 11 are all successful entrepreneurs. Keshav Prawasi (2011/BTech/CS), Nitin Babel (2013/MSc/HS) and Shishir Modi (2012/DD/EE) together run Niki.ai, an artificial intelligence company headquartered in Bangalore that was co-founded by another IIT Kharagpur alumnus, Sachin Jaiswal. Niki is an AI-powered chatbot which works as an intelligent personal assistant, providing a one-stop solution for customers. The clincher for niki.ai is its launch of Hindi voice-command recently.

Kamath Vasanth (2013/MSc/HS), Anugrah Shrivastava (2012/MSc/HS) and Rohan Gupta (2013/DD/CS) are founders of ‘smallcase’, a platform that offers investors the option of creating, or investing in, theme-based portfolios of stocks or exchange-traded funds.

Pushkar Singh (2013/DD/ME), Sudarshan Ravi (2013/MSc/HS) and Ankit Parasher (2012/BTech/EC) run LetsTransport, a Bangalore-based intra-city logistics company that they founded in 2015. Apart from providing round-the-clock service and real-time tracking, its Uber-like app allows customers direct access to drivers.

Pranav Goel (2012/MSc/HS) and Uttam Digga (2012/MSc/HS), both MSc students of Economics of the 2012 Batch, are founders of Resfeber Labs & Porter that provides mini truck services for intra-city pickups and deliveries in India and also provides a platform for logistics support solutions that help clients with relocation, construction supplies, perishable supplies, event management supplies, and e-commerce supplies.

IIT Kharagpur Alumni’s complete dominance of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list has been quite a surprise to the winners themselves. With the sombre level-headedness that follows soon after the elation of success passes, Pushkar Singh of LetsTransport desists from the expected backslapping. He calls it a “proud moment”, but also points out that the fact that so many on the list are from IIT Kharagpur may perhaps be just a coincidence. However, he does not forget to give credit where it is due. He says, “We are all into entrepreneurship and this is also in large part because of the training we received in IIT Kharagpur, its extra-curricular activities and the network we developed in college”.

To be among the like-minded, to be able to tap into a network that would reach deep into its well of experience to come up with the answers is undoubtedly a privilege. Forbes’ account of the inception of ‘smallcase’ in fact talks about how Vasant Kamath, restless after quitting research firm Tracxn in 2015, got things going when he contacted his friend from IIT Kharagpur, Anugrah Shrivastava, who was then creating thematic products for institutional investors at Nomura.

The birth of the other companies would have followed a similar sequence of events – people with similar or diverse skill sets, comfortable in each other’s company, well-acquainted with each other’s strengths given their prior associations, coming together once again to give a shape to an idea or what has been a long-held dream. Not too long ago, another success story from IIT Kharagpur had unfurled in a similar way. While recalling the inception of Capillary Technologies, Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and CEO of India’s largest provider of end-to-end customer engagement solutions for retailers, had said in an interview how he and his co-founders, Krishna Mehra and Ajay Modani, friends since college at IIT Kharagpur and always passionate about starting up a company, had finally taken the plunge two years after college, quitting their jobs that had taken them on different paths.

Ravi Sudarshan, also of LetsTransport, too harks back to his college days, “its diverse mind set and the various programmes to encourage entrepreneurship”. He says, “The college network too was important given that a lot of the seniors were already into Venture Capital start-ups and having advice on how a start-up worked and how to go about things helped us a lot.” Rohan Gupta of ‘smallcase’ also points out that the network serves as a ready reckoner when any entrepreneur decides to take the plunge.

Although upbeat at breaking into the Forbes list, Ravi, like his friend Pushkar, is willing to distance himself from the euphoria and consider things from the wide angle. “We have been lucky,” he says. The timing, according to him, has been right for all of them. As Ravi points out, “When we passed out, Flipkart had been making its presence felt. There was growing investor confidence. The market was booming. Even in college, we were keenly watching what was happening in the corporate world.”

What Sudarshan hints at is what Forbes puts into words. While celebrating the audacity and enterprise of the achievers, Forbes notes that “Entrepreneurs are seeing the impact of India’s growing internet boom and smartphone connectivity in sustainable B2B models.” It goes without saying that the revolution in the virtual world has tremendously helped IIT Kharagpur’s entrepreneurs on the Forbes list to live their dreams. Be it in retail, finance, logistics, or any of their chosen fields, the internet and smartphone connectivity has been a boon. They have given wings to dreams that sometimes began in college.

As Ravi points out, yes, the timing has been right for many of them. But one still needed to be both brave, if not brash, and smart enough to judge the timing and then grab the opportunities that it elicited with both hands. IIT Kharagpur’s Eleven have done precisely that. Congratulations to them!

 

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