March 2020 – Page 2 – The KGP Chronicle

COVID Preventive Care @IITKgp

Stakeholders at IIT KGP promote hygiene and preventive care amidst COVID-19 scare

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A team of researchers from IIT Kharagpur’s School of Medical Science and Technology has successfully developed an alcohol based hand rub following the present scenario of scarcity of hand sanitizers/ hand wash preparations in the market due to their heavy demand. The team created the formulation based on guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization.

The hand rub essentially consists of isopropyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, glycerol and water. This formulation is based on WHO guidelines of local in house production that is effective against bacteria and viruses.

The team consisted mostly of research scholars Atul Kumar Ojha, Ayan Gope, Anurup Mukhopadhyay, Lopamudra Das, Akashlina Basu, a few of whom are from pharmaceutical technology background.

The Transport Section of the Institute led by Prof. Mihir Sarangi from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering has also developed another formulation based on 70% Isopropyl or Rubbing alcohol, or Ethanol + 30% Aloe vera gel + 10 drops of Essential oil.

Both groups are making their sanitizer available to the select segments of the staff to help them adhere to hygiene protocols as advised by WHO while they continue providing essential services to the students and campus community.

“The formulation has been prepared only on non-commercial basis and undertaking for its use has been taken from different labs,” confirmed researcher Atul Kumar Ojha.

The Institute has also ordered for masks designed by the healthcare authorities of the campus and made locally as has been confirmed by Director Prof. V K Tewari.

Further to this, to limit social connection at official premises, The Institute on March 22, 2020 following a communication received from the Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, permitted working from home or hostel to Faculty members / Researchers including those working in projects / other Scholars & Fellows who are carrying out research / Non-Teaching staff (except employees attached to emergency services) till 31st March 2020 or until further order.

The academic staff and research scholars are being encouraged to develop on-line content, on-line teaching and on-line evaluation, prepare lesson plan and develop instructional material for the courses to be offered during next academic year / next semester, carry on research and project related works, write articles, papers, prepare innovative questions for question banks and even strategize innovative projects on ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ program and other topics.

Combating COVID

IIT Kharagpur’s Combat against COVID19

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As the world is battling CoronaVirus, universities suspending their academic and select other activities, in one corner of Eastern India, the world renowned institute is giving fillip to the combat against COVID-19. The oldest and largest IIT and its stakeholders on the campus are contributing through a wide range of initiatives to continue helping students with their course work, increase public awareness about CoronaVirus pandemic and create resources to boost health and hygiene. Whether they be at the laboratories creating much needed solutions or socially distanced students seeking meaningful engagement or faculty and staff exploring alternate mode of teaching and learning, IIT Kharagpur is exhibiting its unique creative energy and cautious optimism at this crucial time demanding our endurance and responsible behaviour.

Health Outreach Projects

Recently Vision Prabaho, a twenty-member student group from IIT Kharagpur, found special mention in the social media post by Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology. The group had translated the precautionary advisory issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in eleven Indian languages.

Biswaroop Mondal, one of the students from the group said, “An astounding billion plus people are conversing in regional languages. We thought it would be imperative to help increase the reach through messages in vernacular languages. We have translated the advisory issued by WHO in Assamese, Bengali, Odiya, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kashmiri and Hindi. We are trying to incorporate more editions of the video in other regional languages.”

In another initiative, four researchers are carrying out a study titled ‘Travel During COVID-19 Outbreak: Behaviour, Impact, and Interventions’ to increase public awareness and perceptions about travel and social distancing. They are collecting public inputs to understand diverse insights and create a sense of preparedness. The researchers include Dr. Saurabh Dandapat, Dr. Kinjal Bhattacharyya, Annam Sai Kiran and Kaustubh Saysardar.

Hygiene Facilitation

Further to this, a research group is also working towards developing a hand sanitizing solution independently following WHO guidelines. The Transport section of the Institute has also prepared a hand sanitizer for internal use and hygiene. Read More

“The campus hospital is also exploring the procurement of washable masks designed and manufactured locally to ensure safety during unavoidable social and limited professional interactions. The administrators have been practicing social distancing themselves and encouraging the practice among the staff and students,” said Director Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari.

Alternative Academics

It may be mentioned in this regard that restricted travel and social distancing have been repeatedly advised by healthcare practitioners and has been a key component in the address by the Prime Minister on March 19. But the social distancing goes beyond health and hygiene.

“While academic activities remain suspended until March 31, students are being facilitated through existing and newly acquired e-learning platforms,” added Prof. Tewari.

The Institute already offers a wide range of course lectures on digital platforms such as MOOCs, Swayam, and DTH platform Swayam Prabha. Students can access these with a high-speed internet connection from anywhere in the world.

“Since the pronouncement of the suspension of classes, the Center for Education Technology has acquired a large number of WebEx licenses from CISCO for conducting classes from 2nd-year undergraduate courses upto postgraduate level. First-year classes are being conducted through YouTube Live. More than 40 faculty members are already taking classes using these e-learning facilities. We are further discussing with Zoom to facilitate interactive online teaching,” said Shib Sankar Das from the Centre.

Prof. Jeevanjyoti Chakraborty who recently conducted a lecture on Mechanics reported more than 1500 viewers for his lecture on YouTube of which 450 were live viewers.

Talking about his experience Prof. Chakraborty said, “the teaching community is new to managing technicalities while recording lectures. The e-learning which we have been using until now was done at studios and there is technical staff to work through the logistics. The Institute’s stepping up the YouTube Live facility has enabled the faculty to concentrate on the teaching part instead of being concerned with the technical aspects of recording and streaming.”

He also mulled over the flipped classroom and active learning strategies wherein students can listen to recording course lectures prior to the scheduled online class and interact more regarding their queries on the topic.

Virtual Campus Outreach

In a novel initiative to give the mind rest from the flow of news and discussions regarding COVID19, the students of IIT Kharagpur and those studying in schools on the campus are being encouraged to engage creatively especially the occasion of Earth Day which is scheduled on April 22. The Govt. of India has been actively promoting it for the past few years. The Branding and Communications Cell under the aegis of the Dean International Relations, IIT Kharagpur has launched an online competition and exhibition (Drawing/Painting, Poster, Photo Story and Video) in electronic mode, extensively using social media platforms to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Earth Day. While the themes would primarily include Climate Change, Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Pollution, Biodiversity, it would also include themes such as Disaster Management, Hygiene & Cleanliness. (Click Here to Know More)

“The Institute is gearing up for a digitized celebration of Earth Day which is scheduled on April 22 with the optimism of a better tomorrow,” remarked Director Tewari.

“We are among the first in India to strategize an online celebration of Earth Day which is otherwise marked with large public gatherings, environmental events and activism,” stated a staff member.

Gearing Up for March 22

The Institute is also gearing up for the moment of gratitude and solidarity with those sections of the community who have been serving the campus diligently during the COVID pandemic.

Following the message of PM Narendra Modi, Director Tewari confirmed that the community will take part in the solidarity clap with the staff engaged in essential services such as healthcare, security, hostel mess, sanitation, electricity etc. along with the defenders of the nation on these fronts.

Conserving Energy in Cell Research

IIT Kharagpur Researchers Develop Energy Efficient Technological Process for Biological Cell Research

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IIT Kharagpur researchers have developed a novel energy-efficient method for patterning biological cells by using the heat generated in closed electrical fields. The innovation and the work which could be carried out by using this technology will support a wide range of applications in clinical and biological research.

Cell patterning is crucial for fundamental R&D in cellular biology and also for developing applications related to tissue engineering, neuron network formation, protein patterning, designing of a cell-based biosensor, bio-printing, drug development and many more. The current technologies employed by scientists to pattern a group of biological cells in laboratories remain energy-intensive, even while using miniaturized systems for the same.

The Microfluidics research group of IIT Kharagpur, led by Prof. Suman Chakraborty, has now made a breakthrough in this area. “We have effectively innovated a unique patterning of electrodes on a glass plate. In this way, induced heating due to current flow on the chip, by itself, generates fluid motion. The process, thus, eliminates any external energy source,” remarked Prof. Chakraborty.

Prof. Chakraborty collaborated with fellow researchers Prof. Ananadaroop Bhattacharya, an expert in Thermal Engineering and Prof. Tapas Kumar Maiti, an expert in Biotechnology, along with doctoral students Golak Kunti and Tarun Agarwal.

“We have exploited the inter-connection of the electric field and temperature. The chip design creates a localized variation in electrical properties which in turn, triggers a favourable electrical force. This guides cell patterning and concentration,” said Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya.

Explaining the process further Prof. Suman Chakraborty added, “We have achieved this feat in a rather simple way, by attaching a thin insulating layer with a drilled narrow hole on a bottom electrode of the chip. A non-uniform electric field develops when the electric field penetrates through the hole. As a consequence, electrically induced heating generates a sharp temperature variation. This, in turn, induces designed variations in electric properties for setting induced charges to fluid motion.”

This pioneering work, which is now available to scientists working in the field of cell patterning, has recently been published in Analytical Chemistry, a flagship Journal of the American Chemical Society. Download Paper

Talking about the probable uses of the technology first author of the paper Golak Kunti said, “Patterning of biological objects is the fundamental premise of probing cell-to-cell interactions, bio-printing, drug development, image-based cell selection etc. In particular, patterning of cells is widely used to design biosensors for cellular cultivation, and for scaffolds to pattern proteins. On-chip arrangements of cell concentration and patterning have recently gained prominence in portable and miniaturized devices, in lieu of traditionally deployed elaborate and laboratory-intensive arrangements. Our new technology offers suitable environments for cell enrichment, screening of the cells, perfused 3D cell culturing, biosensors, cell washing, and exchange of its suspending medium.”

As a demonstration of their strategy, these researchers further characterized the efficacy of the cell trapping process for two different biological entities, namely, Escherichia coli bacteria and yeast cell.

“These results may turn out to be of profound importance towards developing new medical devices for drug discovery, antibiotic resistance assessment and medical diagnostics,” opined Prof. Tapas Kumar Maiti who is further working on biological cell culture related applications.

Public health concerns

‘Herd immunity’, a much discussed issue now the world over, and ‘R-naught’ (R0) – both the terms came up during a discussion on public health by Prof. Sangeeta Bhattacharya of the School of Medical Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur. Prof. Bhattacharya, a double board certified physician in the US and Associate Faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, was talking on the importance of the coverage of public health during the recent Science Communication Conclave organized at IIT Kharagpur (Feb 28-29). The conclave sought to facilitate better communication between the scientific community and journalists.

During her talk at the Science Communication Conclave, Prof. Bhattacharya talked about the threat to public health from nCovid-19 and drew attention to the ‘herd immunity’ and ‘R-naught’ numbers for nCovid-19. Herd immunity is the number that describes how many people in a population need to be immune to that particular pathogen to prevent transmission. R-naught is the basic reproductive number of the pathogen and describes how contagious it can be.

The R-naught for measles, for example, is 18. For varicella zoster, or the virus that causes chicken pox, it is 16 and for mumps, it is 12. Compared to these, the R-naught number for nCovid-19, as understood now, is 2.7,.

Yet, the threat from nCovid-19 was far more than any of these. “ ‘How do you deal with a novel pathogen when there is no immunity in your population?’ That is the question that we are grappling with now,” said Prof. Bhattacharya while talking to KGP Chronicle recently.

The concept of herd immunity, said Prof. Bhattacharya, is used really in association with vaccines, specifically for vaccines for infections that one can catch from other people. “Vaccines are agents that are used to improve the herd immunity to a pathogen so that you stop spread. The number of people that need to be immune depends on the contagiousness of the pathogen or its R-naught value. For measles, which is highly contagious, 95% of the people need to be immune to prevent transmission. That is a near perfect immunization rate. Unfortunately, in our young adult population in colleges we do not see that number, so there is continued transmission of measles even though there is an excellent vaccine. We need strategies to implement these vaccines,” she pointed out.

She added, “Of course, you cannot have herd immunity for something like Tetanus which you catch from the environment and not from other people.”

The Oxford Vaccine Group of the University of Oxford writes in its website on ‘Vaccine Knowledge Project: Authoritative Information for All’ that “When a high percentage of the population is vaccinated, it is difficult for infectious diseases to spread, because there are not many people who can be infected. For example, if someone with measles is surrounded by people who are vaccinated against measles, the disease cannot easily be passed on to anyone, and it will quickly disappear again. This is called ‘herd immunity’, ‘community immunity’ or ‘herd protection’, and it gives protection to vulnerable people such as newborn babies, elderly people and those who are too sick to be vaccinated.”

This could happen in the case of Ebola, the other test case discussed by Prof. Bhattacharya at the Science Communication Conclave. The discovery, and the eventual use of rVSV-vectored vaccine, is likely to reduce the threat from this deadly virus in large parts of Africa. The vaccine was tried during Ebola outbreak in Guinea and it was found through the ring vaccine trial – where contacts, and contacts of contacts of the infected were vaccinated – that vaccination, even for those infected, reduced chances of death.

Such a thing is not yet possible to combat nCovid-19, which does not have a vaccine yet. So susceptibility of the human population to the disease was 100 per cent, said Prof. Bhattacharya.

“Covering public health as a journalist is enormously exciting, and probably very frightening as well because you have to get the information right as it impacts so many people,” said Prof. Bhattacharya to journalists at the Science Communication Conclave. For reliable information on the rapidly evolving scenario concerning nCovid-19, Prof. Bhattacharya referred WHO Situational Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Health Security.

For journalists covering public health, she advised, “If you are trying to understand what a particular research paper in public health is all about, then frame it the way researchers ask questions, which is PICO – the abbreviation for ‘Population’, ‘Intervention or Exposure’, ‘Comparison’ and ‘Outcome’.”

For example, while gauging the severity of air pollution, a journalist could ask if ‘In populations exposed to increased particulate matter such as PM2.5 or PM10 compared to populations not exposed, is there increased mortality?’

While defining the concept of ‘public health’, Prof. Bhattacharya cited the 1920s definition by Charles Edward Amory Winslow, Founder of the Department of Public Health at Yale, “The science and arts of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through organized efforts and informed choices of society, and organization, public and private communities, and individuals.”

To unitedly combat the threat from nCovid-19, we perhaps need to reiterate the importance of Dr Winslow’s emphasis on “organized efforts and informed choices of society, and organization, public and private communities, and individuals.”

Earth Day 2020 e-Celebration

IIT Kharagpur is organizing the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Earth Day through an online visual exhibition and competition.

About Earth Day

Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Earth Day 1970 gave a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state of our planet. Today, Earth Day is observed across the globe by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and lead to policy changes. Earth Day aims to channelize the energy, excitement, and youth initiatives towards climate change. It also empowers individuals with the information, the tools, the messaging and the communities needed to make an impact and drive change.

The Unique Celebration of Digitized Earth Day 2020 at IIT Kharagpur

The year 2020 has started its journey not in the usual manner. While February – April are the months signified with financial year-end, new business, school terms, annual examination, new class, this year we are homebound. With the approaching Earth Day, this may be an opportunity to introspect our actions and engage our time effectively in developing ideas that can inspire a better present and future.

IIT Kharagpur brings the opportunity to celebrate Earth Day 2020 in a digital mode with an art and creatives exhibition-cum-competition (Drawing/Painting, Poster, Photo Story and Video) in electronic mode, extensively using social media platforms. The Institute invites participation from all its current students and also students who are studying in various schools with establishment on the campus.

Earth Day 2020 Theme: Climate Action

The enormous challenge — but also the vast opportunities — of action on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary. Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.

Sub Themes:

Biosphere
Impact of Climate change
Sustainable use of natural resources
Water Management and Conservation
Soil Conservation
Ocean resources (Living & Non-living resources)
Solar Energy
Conservation of rivers and water
Organic Farming / Drip Irrigation
Sustenance of various ecosystems
Deforestation & Afforestation and their significance
Conservation of Endangered Species
Biodiversity
Atmospheric Ocean
Polar Science
Air and Vehicular Pollution
Impact of Environment on Agriculture
Disaster Management
Hygiene & Cleanliness

Who can participate?

The Institute invites participation from all its current students and also students who are studying in various schools on the campus.

Group I: Students of IIT Kharagpur – all levels
Group II: Students from VIII – XI
Group III: Students from IV-VII
Group IV: Students from I – III

Submission Information:

All submissions to be made to media.iitkgp@gmail.com.

In case you are unable to submit due to file size, please upload the creative on a cloud server and share a link of the downloadable file with us.

Submissions Formats:

Drawing / Painting / Sketching (JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP, PDF)
Poster (High-resolution JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP, PDF)
Photo Story (PPT)
Video, VLog (MOV, MP4)

Submission Deadline: April 7, 2020

Selected creatives will be displayed on social media platforms of IIT Kharagpur. All participants will receive participation certificates. The creatives judged among the top three (group and category wise) would be awarded prize money.

Please note all creative compositions should be original. Entries will be disqualified if found plagiarized. For more information write to shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in.

Student Collaborators: Vision Prabaho

IDBI Trusteeship CSR Funding for IIT KGP’s Electric Vehicle

IIT Kharagpur gets CSR Funding from IDBI Trusteeship for Developing Light-Weight Parts for Indigenous Three-Wheeler Electric Vehicles

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IDBI Trusteeship Services Ltd. has given a fillip to IIT Kharagpur’s Deshla electric vehicle project through its Corporate Social Responsibility programme. This funding will be used towards the design and development of aerodynamic body panels and light-weight structures for next-generation electric three-wheelers.

Electric vehicles need to match internal combustion (petrol/diesel/CNG/LPG) engine counterparts in initial cost, performance, reliability, etc. and better them in lower running costs and ease of use if they are to replace conventional vehicles. Revolutionary design changes, such as a drastic reduction in vehicle weight, aerodynamic body panels and indigenous development of relevant technologies e.g. motors, battery management systems, motor controller, battery pack design, etc. are essential to this end.

“Using the CSR contribution of IDBI Trusteeship, our key focus would be on aerodynamic body panel design for three-wheeler vehicles with peak speeds around50 kmph vehicle. We will also experiment on new materials and chassis designs to develop lightweight structures. The combination of these should make the vehicle much more efficient and provide a higher range from the battery pack with better pick-up and peak speeds. We have outlined a two-year proposal for this of which we have received funding for the first phase” said Prof. Vikranth Racherla, project leader and faculty at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur.

“We try to cover the geography of the country strategically for green projects to support India’s goals in reducing its carbon footprint among other CSR projects,” said Swapan Kumar Bagchi, MD & CEO, IDBI Trusteeship Services Ltd. who is also an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. Bagchi had visited IIT Kharagpur in February 2020 to finalize the phase I funding for the project.

The project is expected to involve a large number of students from various departments of the Institute and also interns from other colleges working on various subsystems of electric vehicles. The innovations are expected to be ready in around two years. Participating students over a period of time would develop expertise in various subsystems of electric vehicles. These students are expected to lead electric vehicle development work in industries or become entrepreneurs in this segment once they graduate.

“The Deshla electric vehicle is one of the most successful and timely innovations from IIT Kharagpur, further it is totally based on indigenous technology. Last year the Govt. of India expanded the scope of CSR funding to IITs and other national institutions to promote industry-academia engagements in research and academics. The scope is immense and IIT Kharagpur is reaching out to several PSUs, MNCs and private corporations to support end-to-end research,” said Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Associate Dean, International Relations who is heading the CSR initiative at IIT Kharagpur.

The Institute through its R&D projects has reached out to large sections of population solving challenges related to malnutrition, health and sanitation, power generation, clean drinking water, environmental sustainability, education, rural development and livelihood, gender equality and women’s empowerment and even national heritage, arts and culture among the others. The Institute’s CSR oriented projects have been conferred national awards and honours as well.

Digging Deeper: Parama’s Story

Parama Mukhopadhyay tries to answer why women lagging behind in the mining sector in India

“What is your department?”

“Mining Engineering”

“Mining? Are girls even allowed in Mining Engineering? Will you get any job in mining after you finish your study? Why mining? Is it suitable for girls?”

These questions – that come with raised eyebrows – are common for us while discussing our subject area with others. Us – the WOMEN in Mining in India! The above-mentioned questions are well-justified if we consider the number of women and job opportunities for them in the mining sector, not only in India, but worldwide.

Let’s focus on the Indian scenario. Our country has different types of mineral reserves, and the mining industry contributes a sizeable amount to the country’s economy and generates a good number of employment opportunities every year. Unfortunately, since historical times, this sector is highly male-dominated and even hostile towards women. Though mineral production and overall employment generated by the sector have gone up exponentially, involvement of women has fallen further. In FY18, the country produced minerals worth Rs 1.13 lakh crore, registering an increase of 13 per cent over the previous fiscal. Compare this with the other figure. Women are said to account for only 4.4% (24,294 females) of the total mining workforce, which is considerably less compared to women labor force participation rate (22.5%) in India.Not only the numbers, but the job quality and salary amount is significantly poor for women compared to their male co-workers. Women labourers are paid less than males and this is because jobs that require technical skills are never offered to women with an assumption that they are not suitable for this.

Where are we going wrong??

What could be the possible reasons of such tragic situation of women in mining sector? Discriminating laws, historical patriarchal myths, issues with clothing suitable for mine works, so-called masculine- not-suitable-for women-job, lack of proper safety and security, lack of basic facilities including toilets, lack of technical skills are the primary reasons prohibiting females to join this industry. Laws in our country had always prohibited girls to take up jobs in mining sector. According to Mines Act, 1952, women were restricted to be employed in opencast mines during night shifts (7 pm to 6 am) and totally barred from working in underground mines. Later females were permitted to work in mines only in day shifts (6 am to 7 pm).

In February 2019, the labour ministry of Central Government allowed female workers to work in open cast mines round the clock and also in underground mines even in night shifts. The implementation of this rule has to strictly follow few rules for underground mines that include safety and security of female workers. According to this new law, the deployment of female workers in night shift (7 pm to 6 am) can only be done for technical, supervisory and managerial work that does not need continuous presence. She should be in a group of not less than three. Owner of the mine should have a written consent from that woman and adequate occupational safety, security and health benefits has to be provided. Also this deployment will be subject to the framing and implantation of Standard Operating Procedures that will follow the guidelines issued by Chief Inspector of Mines at regular intervals.

Execution of this new rule will undoubtedly bring more gender equality and more job opportunities for females in mining sector. But, still women are restricted to choose their favourite job type in underground mines, as they can only participate in “technical, supervisory and managerial work”. We still have the Coal Mines Regulations, 1957 that states no adolescent or woman will descend or ascend a shaft in a cage or other means of conveyance unless accompanied by one or more adult males. It clearly implies that working in underground mines for women will depend on the availability of male workers. This surely make women less favourable as a candidate for underground mine jobs and they have to restrict themselves to choose option in office jobs above ground or be involved in opencast mines.

But, at least changes have begun!

Why are women lacking skills to work for mining industry? This is because, not many courses or workshops are being offered to girls/women that can help develop required skills to work in mine exploration areas. Currently, three IIT’s – IIT KGP, IIT BHU and IIT(ISM) Dhanbad are offering admissions to girl students in Mining Engineering in B.Tech. M.Tech. and PhD. [Lucky to be part of IIT Kharagpur!]. Also, in 2015, Anna University allowed the same. But, even after offering courses, due to the lack of awareness among girls about job prospects for mining and about recent changes in laws in favour of women, mining is still not on the preferred list of courses for girls.

What to do now? Changes in laws that create more jobs, assurance on safety and security, suitable courses to develop skills and spreading awareness among girls to encourage them to consider mining as a prospective industry for career. Changing process will take time, but surely will succeed.

I would like to end my article by narrating the inspiring story of Dr. Chandrani Prasad Verma, India’s first female mining engineer and currently holding the position of Principal Scientist at the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel research at Nagpur. Dr. Chandrani Verma qualified her B.Tech. as a mining engineer at 1999. Her qualifying year clearly indicates that she started her journey at this field years before the amendment of laws were implemented and institutes started opening their doors for female students in mining courses.

Being passionate about pursuing a career in this field, she had to fight a case in court for one year just to be enrolled in a college to study Bachelor’s degree in Mining. In 1996, she was admitted in Mining Engineering as ‘special case’ in Ramdeobaba Engineering College in Nagpur and in 1999, she graduated and became India’s first female mining engineer. Even after graduating successfully, doors for jobs in mines did not open for her, but her determination helped her to continue her work in this field. Besides working as a lecturer in college, she completed her M.Tech. in 2006 and completed Ph.D. on Web Pillar design in Highwall Mining from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur in 2015. She was the only woman candidate during her interview at CSIR – Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research. Her interviews were hesitating to select her, as her job will require regular visit to underground mines, but her passion for mining impressed them and she was selected as a scientist. We are proud of her. She opened the doors for many other girls to choose the dream of pursuing a career in mining.

Finally, we, the women in mining, are hopeful that the administrations, lawmakers, educationists, professors and our society will come forward together to end the long-prevailing gender discrimination in this particular field and support us to become more and more successful in this field.

Parama Mukhopadhyay (16MI91R05)

Research Scholar, Mining Engineering Department,

IIT, Kharagpur

Digging Deep

Changes like that occurring at the Mining Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur could lead to momentous changes for women in mining in India

Could the historically male-dominated mining industry be inching towards greater gender parity? The answer from IIT Kharagpur’s Department of Mining Engineering is yes. The department has seen a sharp rise in the number of female students in the undergraduate studies – from a trickle of one or two in a year to 18 in the year 2019.

All the centrally funded technical institutes in India are mandated to increase the number of women graduating from these institutes. The number of female students admitted at IIT Kharagpur stood at 15% (with supernumerary seats created to make up the shortfall through JEE) in the year 2018, and 20% presently, even including the Mining Engineering departments. In a matter of three years, these female students will be knocking on the doors of the mining companies for opportunities to work and to contribute to the safety, profitability and productivity of the industries.

In India, women were not permitted to work underground and even in surface mines, they were not allowed to work at night. Interestingly, coinciding with the change of decision in the female participation in undergraduate studies in mining engineering, the Ministry of Labour and Directorate General of Mines Safety which is a constituent body of the Ministry opened up through Gazette notification in 2019, hitherto unimaginable opportunities for underground employment for women. These opportunities cut across not only supervisory work but all types of activities of the mining profession.

According to the Directorate General of Mines Safety, the average daily employment of women in mines in 2011-12 accounted for 4.4% (24,294 females) of the total mining workforce which is considerably less compared to women labour force participation rate (22.5%) in India. The key occupations of engagement in the mining sector for women were reported as miners (mainly in the extraction of Iron, Gypsum, Magnesite and limestone), loaders and clerical and supervisory (Deloitte study on Human Resource & Skill Requirement Study for Indian Mining Sector, 2016).

Given that mining relies heavily on engineering talent, and women have proved that they can be capable engineers, the industry could gain a lot from greater diversity in its workforce and by having women in leadership roles. But the perception that mining is a ‘man’s job’, given the demanding nature of mining activity, has been a major contributing factor to the poor gender ratio.

In modern day mining, where automation is the key, physical capabilities should not be a determining factor. Besides, there can be little doubts about the correlation between business growth and diversity. Companies with more women, specifically with women on their boards, have shown overall better performance: more efficiency, greater sustainability and higher profit margins.

Quite obviously, perceptions need to change, and at every level. At IIT Kharagpur, things changed in 2002-03, when the Department of Mining Engineering opened its doors to women at the undergraduate level.

Prof. Ashis Bhattacharjee, Professor at the Department of Mining Engineering, who was then Vice-Chairman of JEE, recalls the move. “We convinced the Joint Implementation Committee, the Senate approved the move and IIT Kharagpur, together with IIT BHU, began to offer Mining Engineering program to women.”

Things did not change overnight. The inflow of students at the undergraduate level remained a trickle.

“There were some exceptionally committed students though. One, B. Niharika of the 2012 batch worked in a top Australian mining company, before relocating to Hyderabad,” says Prof. Bhattacharjee.

Perceptions also needed to change at a more fundamental level. And that seems to be happening now with more girls taking up mining.

“Before taking up Mining Engineering, I hardly knew what it was. But now I feel quite interested. There are so many facets to it,” says Samiksha Sharma, a 2nd year BTech Mining Engineering student, who has taken up Oil and Gas belt Testing and Enhanced Oil Recovery as her additional subjects. “Dual degree students can also specialize in Petroleum Engineering,” she reminds.

Like Samiksha, Niveditha Adari, a fourth year student, is also interested in the many opportunities that the Mining Engineering course at IIT Kharagpur leads to. She is interested in finance and management and as a Dual Degree student, she has ‘Financial Engineering’ as her specialization.

“I could go into operations research, which is an important part of mine planning. Or be part of finance planning for mining companies, where I could use my mining engineering knowledge.”

Given the focus of the Mining Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur, which is into interdisciplinary fields such as environment, health and safety, and so on, and the advantage of the varied specializations (Safety Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Financial Engineering) women graduating from the Department will be open to varied roles both within the Mining sector and elsewhere. But what has also changed substantially for them is the government opening up to what is believed to be the “new realities” of society. Taking these realities into account, the Union government in 2019 lifted the restrictions of the Mines Act of 1952 and allowed women to work in underground mines and also in opencast or above ground workings of the mine during night hours.

“Somehow we need to prove ourselves,” says Samiksha, “About 20-30 years ago, when women were not common in Mechanical Engineering, if some of the women had not proved themselves, then others would not have followed in their path.”

Some, like Parama Mukhopadhyay, a PhD scholar at the Department of Mining Engineering, believe that the regulation is not enough and there are still enough restrictions in place to stall women’s full participation in hands-on mining (Read her story here).

“It is not about where women have greater scope. The idea should be that they can work everywhere,” says Prof. Sunita Mishra, who joined the Department in February 2020 and is the first lady to join the Mining Engineering faculty at IIT Kharagpur and probably in the country as well. A Mechanical Engineer, Prof. Mishra did her Masters in Tunnel Engineering from Mining Engineering from ISM Dhanbad and PhD in the area of Rock Dynamics from the Department of Civil Engineering at the IIT Delhi. Prof. Mishra, who is teaching Rock dynamics and mining machinery in the lab, is already a role model for students in the Department.

As she exemplifies, and the girls of the Department are beginning to understand, proven skill and expertise will take them places. Samiksha’s worry is that if the industry will come around and change itself as fast as the changes are taking place with women and mining. “Rest assured,” say her professors, “This is just a transition, and things will fall in place.”

Tech4Bharat

Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur shares his vision on technology development for common man at the strategic conclave Tech4Bharat organised by PAN IIT Alumni India

PAN IIT Alumni India (PIAI) recently organised Tech4Bharat, a strategic conclave aimed at synergy between policy and technology and review and realignment of the current initiatives and launch fresh ones. The event featured panel discussions bringing Academia, Policy makers and the Industry leaders. The expert panel moderators from PanIIT led the discussions to gather the diverse views and galvanize them into a common pursuit of excellence for the fine institutions of technical education.

The key feature of Tech4Bharat was the launch of a IIT Directors Forum attended by the Directors of majority of the 23 IITs. The forum deliberated the collaboration between the Forum, PanIIT Alumni and the industry to render feedback to the policy makers and provide execution support. It had three breakout groups – Global excellence in research, pedagogy, industry, collaboration; Sustaining momentum in funding, infrastructure, faculty, policy; Need for speed in challenges, status, expertise, handholding. The panel discussions covered areas such as artificial intelligence, IIT & industry effective collaboration, global excellence – creating world class educational institutions.

Talking at the Conclave, Director Prof. V K Tewari reminded of the success of the older IITs and the contribution of the alumni which has led to 23 IITs. The Director spoke about revisiting the teaching-learning domain at IITs to evaluate the contributions and their impact – whether in agriculture and food engineering, in the area of manufacturing, cyber security, architecture and regional planning, naval architecture, mining. The focus for every academic and research units would be now on innovating hardware and software or the system which are result oriented and solution oriented for the common man. The Director confirmed taking initiatives levering the expertise at IIT Kharagpur to develop such products, processes and systems and hoped to deliver by the end of coming three years.

“We have so much infrastructure in different domains, for instance, in Agriculture and Food Engineering, Mining, Naval Architecture, Architecture and Regional Planning, and so many schools such as the School of Medical Science and Technology, the Intellectual Property Law School, the Business Management School and now the upcoming Superspecialty Hospital – with this we can compete with the best in the world based on the world-class work undertaken in each of these units,” he said.

The other IIT Directors who participated in the Forum were Prof. Abhay Karandikar, IIT Kanpur, Prof. T G Sitharam, IIT Guwahati, Prof. Rajat Moona, IIT Bhilai, Prof. Anurag Kumar, IISc, Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar, ICTS-TFR, Prof. Anil Sahasrabuddhe, AICTE. IIT Madras was represented by Prof. Mahesh Panchagulla, Dean, International & Alumni Relations.

The other key speakers and panelists included C. N. Ashwath Narayan, Deputy Chief Minister, Karnataka, Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka, Dr. K Raghavan Chief PM/Biometric Architect, UIDAI, Arnab Kumar, Niti Ayog, Shashi Bhushan, CTO (Bus & Tech services) at TCS, Dr Venkat Padmanabhan, Dy. Managing Director, Microsoft Research, Kallappa Pattada, Head R&D, Boeing India, Dr Manish Kumar, MD, National Skill Development Corporation.

The Conclave also held Solve4Bharat, a 24-hour hackathon to provide an opportunity to talented teams from all across the country to showcase their skills in applying technology to solve the day-to-day public issues in Healthcare, Education and Mass Transportation.

A review session was held for the PanIIT AI Forum (PAIF) launched at the PIA conclave in Jan 2019 to develop and build the Indian ecosystem to absorb and utilise AI effectively for national, individual and social benefit. The forum aims to develop the Indian ecosystem for absorption of AI in industry, governance, and other domains, and promote interaction with the industry representatives, government, and IIT Alumni.

Tech4Bharat brought together all the stakeholders at one location and to create opportunity for interaction, participation and collaboration – facilitated by IIT Alumni Meet academia, researchers, practitioners, start-ups, industry, and policy makers and also involve other stakeholders in the journey of fulfilling its charter and broad base the Forum. The conclave explored creating a strategy for developing the Indian ecosystem for inducting new technologies for the country’s all-round improvement and collaborating with Industry, Academia and other stakeholders to set objectives and roadmap for fulfilment of its charter.

Prof. Tewari congratulated the PIAI for organising such an initiative such as Tech4Bharat keeping in mind the greater good of the society. Referring to PIAI President and IIT Kharagpur alumnus Mr. Ramnath Mani, the Director remarked, “there is a huge role to be played by all the IITs and realise the dream for which they were originally established. PAN IIT has a great role to play in the IIT ecosystem. IIT Kharagpur happens to have the largest alumni base among IITs close to 70000. The alumni can contribute significantly by bridging the existing gaps in branding and outreach.”

BES is the best

An Indo-Belgium SPARC workshop at IIT Kharagpur brought to the fore world-wide efforts to improve bioelectrochemical systems for wastewater treatment and bioenergy recovery

In a remote boarding school in Kisoro, Uganda – the Seseme Girls’ School – lighted toilets had changed the way the girls lived. Around 86% of the girls felt safer using the toilet at night, given that they now felt protected from male attackers and insects in the lighted enclosures. Many, in fact, were now more interested in science and enjoyed learning about technology.

Why? This is because their toilets were now powered by microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that ran on “Pee Power”, that is human urine, and they were much enthused by this fact, even to the extent of wanting the technology to be extended to their villages.

This boarding school is not the only one where such urinals are being used. In the Mathare Valley slums in Nairobi and in the Thandanani area of Durban, South Africa, where shipping containers had been modified to house settlers, these “pee-powered” urinals have become a part of life. Such urinals had also been used, and progressively improved upon, to handle the rush of the Glastonbury festival from 2015, said Prof. Ioannis A. Ieropoulos of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre of the University of the West England, who has patented the technology that was also being extended to some of the refugee settlements in parts of Europe.

Like several speakers at the recently-held (Feb 26-27, 2020) Indo-Belgium SPARC workshop organized by the School of Environmental Science and Engineering and the P.K. Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables at IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Ieropoulous argued the case for MFCs – which used waste as its feedstock to produce bioenergy and other valuable products – as a platform technology for multiple uses, including sanitation, renewable energy generation, production of value-added products via elemental recycling and wastewater treatment.

Prof. Ludo Diels of the Antwerpen University, Belgium, IIT Kharagpur’s international partner for the workshop, in fact insisted that in order to meet the goals laid down by the Paris Agreement, bio-electrochemical systems (BES) for wastewater treatment and bioenergy recovery from waste were indispensable.

MFCs are one popularly adopted configuration of BES and perhaps the most promising. However, like other BES technologies that are electrode-based systems, there are problems to its upscaling. The workshop held at IIT Kharagpur titled “Upscaling and field scale application of bio-electrochemical systems for wastewater treatment and bioenergy recovery” focused particularly on these problems.

For BES to be relevant and sustainable, the scientific community had to work on several of its facets. As Prof. Makarand M. Ghangrekar, convenor of the workshop and Head of both the School of Environmental Science and Engineering and the P.K. Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables at IIT Kharagpur, pointed out, to make BES competitive with existing technologies, “the yield of electricity/valuables recovery need to be increased with emphasis on decreasing the fabrication cost of this device.” Dr. Deepak Pant from the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Belgium, summed up the other challenges – the development of electrodes without precious metals, direct recovery systems of produced molecules, membrane systems for direct gas diffusion, catalyst development and upscaling of the electrochemical systems.

Research groups at IIT Kharagpur under Prof. Ghangrekar’s supervision are looking at several of these problems. And these were highlighted at the workshop. For example, the research efforts undertaken at IIT Kharagpur on the development of low-cost ceramic membrane separator and non-platinum based electrode catalysts for application in MFC.

Also, the efforts undertaken to develop efficient electrode material for further enhancing the power production of MFCs and to develop understanding on upscaling the device. Using the outcome, Prof. Ghangrekar’s group had installed a pilot-scale MFC based onsite sewage treatment system inside the IIT Kharagpur campus and at NTPC, Netra, New Delhi. Efforts were also being taken at IIT Kharagpur to develop microbial carbon-capture cell (MCC) for effective wastewater treatment in anodic chamber and further post-treatment in cathodic chamber for harvesting algae to be used as feed stock for bioenergy production.

Demonstration of Bioelectric toilet at IIT Kharagpur

In addition, research is being undertaken to develop microbial electro-synthesis (MES) cell for CO₂ reduction and synthesis of various high value organic compounds. Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) are being developed for simultaneous organic matter removal from wastewater and desalination to produce reusable quality treated water. Prof. Amreesh Chandra, Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur, also highlighted how his research team had created hollow nanoparticles as catalysts for the treatment of industrial waste water and the detection of volatile gases.

The Indo-Belgium workshop in fact brought to the fore new technologies and processes being developed by the scientific community throughout India and many parts of the world to improve the capabilities of BES. Like Prof. Ieropoulos, Dr Harold Leverenz of the University of California Davis, Ms Jeanne Sabin, also from the University of California Davis, and Dr S Gajalakshmi from the Centre for Pollution Control & Environmental Engineering, Pondicherry University, were working with human urine. Some of them were trying to see if pre-treatment of urine waste streams could optimize MFCs and maximize nutrient recovery from urine, which is high in nutrients. Others were looking to see if hybrid, self-powered super capacitive air cathode MFCs could be used for human urine treatment.

Gas diffusion electrodes (VITO), more efficient cathode catalysts, polyvinyl alcohol-based ion exchange membranes for microbial desalination cells, novel MFCs like sediment MFCs or auto-dripping MFCs or flat plate MFCs or clay-pot coupled MFCs, bamboo biochar as low-cost electrode material, forward osmosis technology, study of the bacterial isolates from MFCs or electrogenic bacteria growing in BES, the treatment of water from distilleries or dairy farm or secondary effluent water or pharmaceutical waste water, various reactor technologies, different kinds of catalysts, everything was considered at the workshop.

The most attractive feature of the workshop was the number of research scholars who talked about their ongoing work on different aspects of BES. As Prof. Ghangrekar pointed out, “more scientifically organized cross-discipline research efforts are required further to scale-up these [BES] systems to gain benefit of recovering useful energy/valuables from waste materials.” The Indo-Belgium workshop that showcased the ongoing work from different corners of the world, seemed to boost this effort.