Month: January 2021

Agri-food startups to play a key role in developing self-reliant India: Shiksha Mantri

Agri-food startups to play a key role in developing self-reliant India: Shiksha Mantri

Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ flagged off the Agri-Food Techathon at IIT Kharagpur and also laid the foundation for Agri-Business Incubation Centre, which will incubate innovative ideas in the agriculture and food technology domain for creating Agri-preneures. Addressing the first Agri-Food Techathon organized by NABARD and IIT Kharagpur, Union Education Minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said that the country's agricultural sector, including our farmers, our villages, are the pillars of self-reliant India. "If they remain strong then the foundation of self-reliant India will be strong and I believe that the role of agri-food startups will be very important in developing a…
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IIT Kharagpur to Incubate Agri-Food Startups to support Food Security

IIT Kharagpur to Incubate Agri-Food Startups to support Food Security

Shiksha Mantri to Flag-off Agri-Food Techathon at IIT Kharagpur to promote Agri and Food Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship IIT Kharagpur in association with NABARD is organizing the first of its kind Agri-Food Techathon (AFT 2021), to promote the participation of India’s youth in innovation and entrepreneurship in different domains of the Agri-Food sector. AFT-2021 will be inaugurated by Hon’ble Shiksha Mantri Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on January 25, 2021. The foundation of the Agri-Business Incubation Centre will also be laid at the inaugural event, which will carry out the mandate to incubate innovative ideas in agriculture and food technology domain…
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Industry 4.0 to create new job opportunities through digitization of industrial operations

Industry 4.0 to create new job opportunities through digitization of industrial operations

By Prof. Surjya K Pal Overview of Industry 4.0 The fourth industrial revolution, popularly referred to as Industry 4.0 constitutes a plethora of technological concepts aiming towards the adoption of cyber-physical systems. Essentially, it involves connecting the segments of a manufacturing system with digital technologies for gaining critical and real-time insights. The technologies include the use of intelligent robots, real-time monitoring and control of manufacturing systems, cloud, edge, and fog computing, all of which will lead to the development of the Industrial Internet of Things.  At present, Industry 4.0 is at a very nascent stage, and a large number of…
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Promotion of Micro-irrigation installation for improving horticultural production

Promotion of Micro-irrigation installation for improving horticultural production

By Prof. K N Tiwari, Dept. of Agricultural and Food Engineering, IIT Kharagpur Adoption of micro-irrigation system in the country rose from a meagre 1500 hectares in the 1980s to nearly 86.21 lakh hectares in 2016, yet the technology adoption is confined only to 18 States and the area is negligibly small in most of the eastern and North Eastern States. Presently, this technology is in vogue only for very few crops. Among the horticultural crops, drip technology is adopted mostly, in fruits with a penetration of 34%. This is followed by vegetables (14%), plantation crops (13%), coconut (12%). citrus…
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Groundwater Insights from Hydrogeoscience Expert Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee

Groundwater Insights from Hydrogeoscience Expert Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee

Dr. Abhijit Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Dept. of Geology & Geophysics and School of Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur and globally renowned expert in groundwater shares insights on his decadal work exploring suitable and sustainable drinking water sources in different parts of India and other parts of the world. Prof. Mukherjee has recently been awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and named in a special publication of 50 under 50 by the Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. 1. Please share your observations about changes in the groundwater scenario in India…
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IIT Kharagpur to conduct JEE Advanced 2021 on July 03, 2021

IIT Kharagpur to conduct JEE Advanced 2021 on July 03, 2021

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur will organize the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE-Advanced) in 2021 for admissions in 23 IITs all over the country.  In a meeting of the IIT Joint Admission Board (JAB) several key decisions have been taken regarding the JEE (Advanced) to be held in 2021. In the JAB meeting, which was held on Thursday (31st December 2020), it has been decided to conduct the JEE (Advanced) 2021 on July 3rd 2021 (Saturday).  Speaking on the decisions taken by the IIT JAB, Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur and Chairman, JAB said, “July 03, 2021 has been approved…
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Automating sugarcane plantation to boost profitability

Automating sugarcane plantation to boost profitability

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed devices for automating a range of functions for planting sugarcane buds, fitted with an autonomous fungicide application with the aim to reduce labour hours and raw material wastage.  Sugarcane is a global industrial crop popular for the production of sugar, bioenergy, paper, ethanol, electricity etc. The economic importance of the crop in India is paramount with the country registering 17% of global sugarcane production, second only to Brazil. But each year the farmers are losing excess cane stalk as seed material due to conventional cultivation practice which is also labour and time-intensive thus increasing…
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IIT Kharagpur Researchers Develop UAV-assisted 5G Infrastructure

IIT Kharagpur Researchers Develop UAV-assisted 5G Infrastructure

IIT Kharagpur’s 5G Drone Fleet to provide Fast Deployable, Portable, Air-borne Communication Network Researchers from G S Sanyal School of Telecommunication at IIT Kharagpur have developed a UAV assisted communication infrastructure for 5G that can serve as an air-borne mobile telecom tower during emergency situations. The system includes an Android-based application fitted to a fleet of drones which are programmed to create emergency communication networks by extending cellular network coverage from the closest available mobile towers. While 4G is still making inroads in deeper reaches of India, the transition to 5G is eagerly awaited, especially with the popularity of the…
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