food technology

“India is a land of IITs, especially IIT Kharagpur which is the mother of all IITs,” said Mahamohopadhyay Bhadreshdas Swami

“India is a land of IITs, especially IIT Kharagpur which is the mother of all IITs,” said Mahamohopadhyay Bhadreshdas Swami

The Foundation of a Family, that’s where it all began for IIT Kharagpur in 1951. The history of the IIT system dates back to 1946 when a committee was set up by Hon'ble Sir Jogendra Singh, Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, Department of Education, Health and Agriculture to consider the setting up of Higher Technical Institutions for post war industrial development in India. The 22 member committee headed by Sri N.R. Sarkar recommended the establishment of four Higher Technical Institutions on the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. With the above recommendations the first Indian Institute of…
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IIT Kharagpur Students Startup InfinityBox Awarded Hult Prize Seed Funding

IIT Kharagpur Students Startup InfinityBox Awarded Hult Prize Seed Funding

InfinityBox, an IIT Kharagpur students startup, has received the seed capital award of $100K by the Hult Prize Foundation. It is the only Indian company that is the recipient of the seed capital award of USD 100,000 by the Hult Prize Foundation and alumni of Nexus Incubator by the US Embassy and Singapore Government-funded Young Social Entrepreneurs 2020. InfinityBox is working towards reducing the use of less single-use plastics in the food delivery industry. The startup has partnered with two of India’s most prominent food delivery companies, Swiggy in the B2C domain, and HungerBox in the B2B domain, to support them…
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IIT Kharagpur’s Essential Oil Extractor to Economize Betel Leaf Oil Production in India

IIT Kharagpur’s Essential Oil Extractor to Economize Betel Leaf Oil Production in India

Antimicrobial and antioxidant rich betel leaf essential oil finds wide use in industrial applications including medicines, cosmetics and chewable mouth fresher The essential oil extractor reduces betel leaf wastage making essential oil production economically viable The process increases yield by 16%, reduces process time by 44% and energy input by 30%   There have been many tales of Paan - in songs, history and literature, religion and culture for many millennia, across hierarchies of society, in South and South-East Asia. While the use of Paan as a mouth freshener is under the radar of health agencies for carcinogenic effects, however,…
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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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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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Cucumber Peels for Ecofriendly Food Packaging

Cucumber Peels for Ecofriendly Food Packaging

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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Healthy Vegetable Oil – award winning innovation by IIT KGP researchers

Healthy Vegetable Oil – award winning innovation by IIT KGP researchers

IIT Kharagpur researchers have developed a low-cost polyunsaturated, antioxidant-rich vegetable oil powder for a healthy heart India Today           NDTV        EiSamay        Careers 360 Researchers from IIT Kharagpur have developed a novel formula for a vegetable oil powder to keep your heart healthy.  The innovation, led by Prof. Hari Niwas Mishra from the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering involved tailoring vegetable oils through the preparation of oil blends which are inherently endowed with natural antioxidants as well as well-balanced fatty acids. Oils vary significantly in their fat saturation. The healthiest are…
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