In-Depth

Feb
03
2021
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By Poulami Mondal
Book Review: Blue Infrastructures by Dr. Jenia Mukherjee

Book Review: Blue Infrastructures by Dr. Jenia Mukherjee

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Dr. Jenia Mukherjee, Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur, has published a pioneering volume on Kolkata’s ecological history - Blue Infrastructures: Natural History, Political Ecology and Urban Development in Kolkata. Sponsored by ISIRD, SRIC, IIT Kharagpur, this book is a strong manifestation of interdisciplinary research on the urban environment. The author focuses on Kolkata, formerly the colonial capital of and currently a major megacity in India, in terms of its extensive blue infrastructures, i.e., its rivers, canals and wetlands as an integrated composite whole. "I have tried to unfold ways in which this reclaimed…
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Jan
06
2021
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
Automating sugarcane plantation to boost profitability

Automating sugarcane plantation to boost profitability

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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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Dec
17
2020
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
Answering the Water Call

Answering the Water Call

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IIT Kharagpur and Cardiff University to Jointly Develop Waste Water Treatment Solutions Researchers from IIT Kharagpur and Cardiff University have jointly bagged the Global Challenges Research Fund – Impact Acceleration Account (GCRF-IAA) Project 2020 towards the development of a photo-electro-catalytic (PEC) reactor for wastewater treatment.  Wastewater is increasingly becoming a global ‘health and livelihood challenge’, especially in developing countries. According to UN-Water globally, 80% of wastewater re-enters the ecosystem without any treatment affecting the health and livelihood of around 1.8 billion people. However, this wastewater can play a significant role in addressing urban water challenges, production of bioenergy, and even…
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Dec
11
2020
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
New Algorithm to Augment Industrial Profitability

New Algorithm to Augment Industrial Profitability

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IIT Kharagpur - Tata Metaliks Jointly Develop Industry 4.0 Algorithm to Change Profitability Scenario of India’s Manufacturing Sector Researchers at the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, IIT Kharagpur have developed a predictive maintenance algorithm to improve the profitability of production jobs through substantial savings in Productivity, Downtime, Cost and Manpower. The data-driven predictive maintenance module has been successfully tested by Tata Metaliks for user-level acceptance.  The algorithm has been developed at the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, by a team led by Prof Akhilesh Kumar, Associate Professor, Dept. of Industrial Systems Engineering. Deployed on a gearbox…
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Dec
03
2020
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
Ammonia Hotspot Trends in India – First-time observations from India

Ammonia Hotspot Trends in India – First-time observations from India

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Indo-Gangetic Plain an atmospheric ammonia hotspot but India’s overall trends look promising Agro fertilizers containing high levels of ammonia have long been designated as a hazardous material for human health. For the first time in India, the seasonal and inter-annual variability of atmospheric ammonia emitted by the agricultural sector has been analyzed by researchers from IIT Kharagpur in collaboration with IITM Pune and European researchers. And the results are in agreement with the long-held apprehension of global environmentalists - the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) is indeed the global hot-spot of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) due to intense agricultural activities and fertilizer production…
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Dec
02
2020
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
Higher Risk in Concentrated Business Control – VGSOM Researchers

Higher Risk in Concentrated Business Control – VGSOM Researchers

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Award-Winning Research from IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management Indicate Higher Risks with Family-controlled Firms In an award-winning research study conducted by faculty and alumni at IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management, the researchers have found that family and family control ownership is negatively related to firms’ profitability due to lags in management.  The study is based on decadal data from 2007 to 2017 of 421 listed firms in emerging markets which have at least 5%-20% of the equity capital is owned by a family group including concert promoters. The results show that family-owned firms dominant with concentrated…
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Nov
30
2020
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
Low-cost Solution for Advanced Manufacturing

Low-cost Solution for Advanced Manufacturing

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IIT Kharagpur researchers develop a low-cost AI-based Industry 4.0 solution for real-time metrological inspection In an initiative undertaken by the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur, researchers are on a mission to make AI & ML applications affordable for India’s industrial sector including MSMEs. They have developed an innovative system consisting of a low-cost imaging device and an  AI-enabled software for real-time metrological inspection. The developed system can be utilized in the production line to check the quality of the jobs and get instant results. Explaining the benefit that MSMEs will draw from such an innovation,…
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Nov
28
2020
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
Language Hubs for Assisted Learning

Language Hubs for Assisted Learning

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Can regional languages help students understand classroom lectures better? Prof. Virendra K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur shares his views on setting up language hubs at technical institutes to assist students especially those from vernacular medium or facing difficulty in English communication. In a recent briefing, the Union Education Ministry made an announcement to start technical education, especially for engineering courses, in mother tongue from the next academic year including shortlisting of a few IITs and NITs. Since the announcement of NEP 2020 with a thrust on regional languages, , speculations and debates were up for embracing regional languages in the…
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Nov
24
2020
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
AI4ICPS Setting Pace for India’s Transition to Smart Industry Hub

AI4ICPS Setting Pace for India’s Transition to Smart Industry Hub

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IIT Kharagpur is all set to transform the nation’s industrial sector with scalable application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS). The Institute has recently set up a special purpose vehicle, the IIT Kharagpur AI4ICPS I Hub Foundation for translation of academic research at the proof of concept level to industrially scalable products and processes, focused on AI interventions to CPS.  “While research has been happening in AI&ML for decades, mostly limited to software with limited inclusion in consumer goods and daily used gadgets; graduating innovation…
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Nov
16
2020
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By Shreyoshi Ghosh
Cucumber Peels for Ecofriendly Food Packaging

Cucumber Peels for Ecofriendly Food Packaging

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Are you throwing away the cucumber peels after preparing your salad? You may soon have them back in your kitchen as the eco-friendly packaging material for food items. IIT Kharagpur researchers have developed cellulose nanocrystals from cucumber peels with high cellulose content, compared to other peel wastes, which can be used to create food packaging materials. While single-use plastic is consciously being avoided by consumers, they still remain largely in circulation as food packaging items. Natural biopolymers are unable to make way in this industry as they lack strength, elongation, barrier property, optical property, and in some cases even biological…
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