Tag: DST

DST Secretary Prof. Abhay Karandikar inaugurates SATHI facility at IIT Kharagpur

Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology (DST) visited Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institute (SATHI) facility, a flagship programme of DST, GOI, hosted at IIT Kharagpur and inaugurated the highly sophisticated R&D infrastructure: Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and High-Resolution Aberration Corrected Transmission Electron Micron (HRTEM), one of its kind, on 12th April, 2024 in the presence of Prof. V K Tewari, Director; Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director; Prof. Rintu Banerjee, Dean, R&D; Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee, Chairman, SATHI of IIT Kharagpur along with the students, faculty and staff members of the institute and other officials of DST.

During his opening remarks, Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, DST emphasized about the strategy entails of SATHI establishment, which sustains with shared equipment within a collaborative framework and networking with near-by MSMEs, start-ups, industries & academic organizations, guided by a self-sustaining roadmap. Spearheading the establishment of the SATHI facility, emphasizing its pivotal role in propelling the development of new materials, innovative products, and cutting-edge technologies in advanced materials characterization. By adopting this approach, DST strives to foster the convergence of diverse expertise, regional vigor, and institutional eminence to lead the vibrant scientific eco-system.

“It is a delight to visit the first and the largest IIT of the country which shares a profound historical significance and laid the foundation for the technical studies in India. IIT Kharagpur has always stood at the helm of transforming technologies and sustainable reforms of technical prowess. This initiative extends a warm invitation for active engagement to various entities within the region, including Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), industries, and start-ups and scientist to hand hold to gain better societal outreach. With such compelling proposition, the SATHI program has the potential to fortify the R&D infrastructure landscape of the nation,” quoted Prof. Karandikar.

Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur elaborated the various initiatives the institute is taking in making its Central Research Facility available to masses. He said that one of the instruments HRTEM, is only of its kind in the country and 14th in the world and added, “SATHI is a flagship programme of DST, GOI to promote the culture of deep technology based cutting-edge research not only within academia but also involving industry particularly MSME & start-ups. As a part of the SATHI Facility at IIT KGP, two world class instruments: High Resolution Aberration Corrected Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM) & a Time of Flight – Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (ToF_SIMS) was inaugurated today. I am grateful to Prof. Karandikar that he came to IIT Kharagpur and inspired us with his presence.”

Prof. Rintu Banerjee, Dean (R&D) highlighted the need for government funded projects for industry interactions. Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director expressed that SATHI like facility will ignite the spark in the young minds.

Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee, Chairman, SATHI stated, “The HRTEM allows clear direct visualization of atom & molecules and will be extremely useful for many factories on advanced material based industries. On the other hand, the ToF_SIMs allows determination of self composition and defects and is vital for the semi-conductor industry.”

Faculties and students of the institute explored the immense possibilities of SATHI facility for extensive usage. Prof. Karandikar announced that three new SATHI centres are coming up in the country. He stated that efforts are being made to simplify the fund utilization and other administrative procedures to support ease of doing scientific & technological research. He also delivered an institute lecture on “Connecting the Unconnected in 5G and a Vision for 6G Architecture, a session on future communication system of 6G and beyond in the Netaji Auditorium of the institute.

About SATHI, IIT Kharagpur:

  • Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institute (SATHI) center at IIT Kharagpur would be offering services such as Characterization, Testing, Fabrication, Scientific analysis/interpretation, generation of data & knowledge dissemination and so on to various external users including start-ups, MSMEs, large scale industry and academia.
  • The National Centre will give access to unique instruments and facilities to various types of users, which are not readily accessible or available in the country, to inculcate the culture of high-end science-based research, product development and innovation
  • The key theme of the SATHI center at IIT Kharagpur, which will be managed by SATHI Foundation at IIT Kharagpur (a section 8 company) is Advanced Materials
  • Currently, SATHI facility at IIT Kharagpur is hosting state of the art High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM) and Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (ToF-SIMS) instruments. Very soon, a high temperature Universal Testing machine will also be installed.

Inputs by: Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee,Chaiman, SATHI & Dr. Avinash Joshi, Chief Operating Officer, SATHI Foundation
Email: rabibrata@che.iitkgp.ac.in; coosathi@iitkgp.ac.in

By: Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
For news visit: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/ 

IIT KGP’s SATHI for Industries and Academia

Jagran Josh      Outlook     Times Now       NDTV       Business Standard      Economic Times     India Today      Money Control

IIT Kharagpur has been selected for the SATHI Centre initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. This facility named as Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institute (SATHI) Centre will be developed as a state of the art shared, professionally managed Science and Technology infrastructure facility. The primary objective of the centre is to extend help to the neighbouring academic Institutes, research establishments and the industries, particularly the start-ups and manufacturing units for using the state of the art sophisticated instruments, which do not exist anywhere else, in a few selected areas.

The SATHI Centre at IIT Kharagpur will comprise 5 strongly interconnected verticals: (1) Nano-Scale Imaging and Spectroscopy Facility; (2) Ultra-High Temperature Structural Material Characterization Facility; (3) Biological and Soft Materials Analysis Facility; (4) Quantum Opto-Electronics Measurement Facility and (5) High-Frequency Electronic Measurement Facility. The equipment and facilities proposed to be acquired for this Centre will cater to the ever-increasing and diverse need of scientists and technologists of the country.

An amount of ₹ 125 crore is earmarked for the centre for coming three financial years starting from 2019-20.

“The Institute is geared up to take this activity forward. We have already identified the requisite physical infrastructure for setting up this facility and we expect to start the activities for this Centre soon,” confirmed Officiating Director Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya.

As per DST mandate, the SATHI Centre will run 24×7 round the year. At least 70% of instrument time will be reserved for external users from other academic institutes, national laboratories, start-ups, entrepreneurs and the industry. Along with IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and IIT BHU have also been considered for similar centres by DST.

“IIT Kharagpur will treat the SATHI Centre as its Social Scientific Responsibility (SSR) programme to promote the culture of science-based Entrepreneurship and Startups in the country, by helping the users analyzing the results obtained from the instruments to achieve meaningful and scientific understanding,” opined Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee.

The Centre would involve the highest level of expertise of IIT Kharagpur in several key convergence domains of Science & Technology such as Medical Sciences, Soft Materials, Structural & Safety Engineering, Quantum Photonics, Advanced Communication and Nano Technology. This will be added with excellent on-campus infrastructure, outreach centres in several metro cities, availability of trained faculty, student, postdoctoral and technical staff, ERP based research management system, Central Research Facility for internal and external users.

“With several of our existing industrial-scale infrastructure and the further up-gradation to the new infrastructure we are aiming for the SATHI Centre at IIT Kharagpur towards becoming a national centre of excellence, catering to the scientific need of the country,” added Prof. Mukherjee.

State of the art equipment to highlight a few will be installed as part of the SATHI unit:

  • Aberration Corrected High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope,
  • Kelvin Probe Force Microscope, Cryo-FESEM with Micro Raman and environmental imaging,
  • High-Temperature Furnace Mounted Universal testing Machine,
  • Stimulated Emission Depletion Microscopy (STED)
  • Super-Resolution Microscope, Color X-Ray,
  • Time-resolved fluorescence,
  • Raman and transient absorption spectroscopy,
  • Integrated Cryo-Electronic Testbed and more

Going with the flow

Indian Express,  India Today, Down to Earth

As the lead Indian partner, IIT Kharagpur will be steering the multi-institutional, multi-crore Saraswati 2.0 project for the rejuvenation and treatment of water funded by the European Union and the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Biotechnology. The overall objective of Saraswati 2.0 is to identify the best available as well as affordable technologies for wastewater treatment and provide solutions to the challenges of water use in both rural and urban areas.

Saraswati 2.0 builds on the Saraswati project of 2012-17, which was jointly funded by the European Commission and DST, Government of India. The Saraswati project aimed at supporting consolidation, replication and upscaling of sustainable waste water treatment and reuse technologies for India.

Untreated domestic and municipal wastewater is a major source of water and environmental pollution. At the same time, water pollution reduces the available unpolluted freshwater resources and therefore causes increased costs for safe water supply. Treatment of wastewater not only avoids pollution of the water sources, such as rivers, lakes and ponds, but also provides a valuable additional source for water supply. Treated wastewater can be used for agricultural irrigation or for non-potable purposes such as toilet flushing.

Climate change, floods and droughts, increasing demand of water, water pollution, environment and food security are the common concerns of both the regions. For some time now, India and Europe have been collaborating intensively on water, enriching each other’s technological and scientific knowledge and management capacities to cope with stress on water resources.

Three plants –an anaerobic digester with bio-electro chemical filter, another with photoheterotropic bioreactor and a plant for ultrasonic treatment of sludge – will be set up at IIT Kharagpur to not only produce re-usable quality treated water, but also to see whether treated water can be further exploited and treated so that the compost or value added products that is produced is free of pathogens and farmers can use it.

Prof. Makarand Madhao Ghangrekar, professor in charge of IIT Kharagpur’s Aditya Choubey Center for Re-water Research, said, “IIT Kharagpur is the principal investigator and partner for three pilot projects. We will be using different technologies, the success of which will be evaluated based on the performance of the pilot plants”.  Construction of these pilots is expected to start soon and the plants will be commissioned by January 2020.

Seven other pilot plants will be set-up in the partnering Indian institutes. Saraswati 2.-0 will lead to the transfer of European technologies to India, which would require them to be tested, demonstrated, and customized to suit Indian needs at an affordable cost. The target is to not only facilitate exchange of technology but also deploy the technology, once they are tested and tried, for the entire Indian population.

Saraswati 2.0, with an overlay of INR 15 crore, – has been selected under the EU-India Joint Call on Research and Innovation for Water. The EU, through its research and innovation programme ‘Horizon 2020’, and the Government of India (DST and DBT), will invest a total of upto EUR 40 million (INR 323 crore) on various water related projects, which have an average duration of 4 years.

IIT Kharagpur will be managing the project together with its lead European partner, BOKU (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna). Among the other Indian partners in the project are IIT Madras, IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Roorkee, NITIE, Mumbai, MNIT Jaipur, TERI School of Advanced Studies. They will be executing the project in collaboration with leading universities and institutes from Europe. European and Indian businesses and SMEs are also participating to test the manufacturing of wastewater treatment technologies and systems.