IIT Kharagpur Partners with Jindal Stainless to Execute R&D Projects in Metallurgical Research & Development

India’s premier educational institution IIT Kharagpur signed an MoU with Jindal Stainless, the country’s largest stainless steel manufacturer, marking a pivotal moment in the advancement of metallurgical research and development. In a bid to foster industry-academy collaboration, Jindal Stainless and IIT Kharagpur will work together on metallurgical projects, such as process optimization, materials characterization, and primary alloy production. This strategic alliance signifies a significant step forward in metallurgy, promising ground- breaking advancements and fostering a culture of innovation, as both organisations leverage their strengths to drive meaningful progress and contribute to the industry’s growth.

Prof. Virendra K Tewari, Director, IIT, Kharagpur, said, “This MoU with Jindal Stainless adds another milestone to industry-academia collaboration. By combining the academic expertise of IIT Kharagpur with Jindal Stainless, India’s largest stainless manufacturer, we aim to address pressing challenges and unlock new opportunities in the field of metallurgy. IIT KGP is suitably poised to offer technical and operational solutions. Together, we envision pushing the boundaries of innovation, fostering transformative solutions, and nurturing a new era of excellence in stainless steel technology promoting Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) under Vikshit Bharat 2047. This MoU with industry expert will affirm India’s position in global manufacturing industry and contribute to the vision and mission of IIT Kharagpur & the country at large.”

Prof. Virendra K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. Rintu Banerjee, Dean, R&D; Prof. Shiv Brat Singh, Dean BTBS & HOD, Dept. of Metallurgy and Prof. Manas Paliwal, Dept. of Metallurgy at IIT Kharagpur were in attendance at the signing ceremony that took place at the IIT Kharagpur campus. Jindal Stainless’ Jajpur Unit Head, Mr. Deepak Agrawal; Business Head (Phase-I) & Chief Metallurgist, Mr. Awanindra K Singh; and Head, R&D, Mr. Daitari Kamila were also present on the occasion. The meeting was virtually attended by CEO, Jindal Stainless, Mr. Tarun Khulbe; COO, Jindal Stainless, Mr. Jagmohan Sood; and CHRO, Jindal Stainless, Mr. Sushil Baveja.

Commenting on the collaboration, Managing Director, Jindal Stainless, Mr. Abhyuday Jindal said, “We are thrilled to embark on this collaborative journey with one of India’s oldest and leading education institutes, IIT Kharagpur. This partnership will enable us to harness cutting-edge research in metallurgy and translate it into tangible solutions that benefit the industry and society at large. The MoU is a testament to our commitment to shaping the trajectory of stainless steel technology and making substantial strides in the industry, contributing to our collective pursuit of an Atmanirbhar India.”

Under the terms of the MoU, IIT Kharagpur will provide technical consultancy and engage in academic and industrial research to enhance productivity and process improvement at Jindal Stainless Limited. They will conduct lab-scale experiments, facilitate material characterization techniques, and support modelling and simulation studies, emphasizing the importance of waste reduction, recycling, and water conservation for sustainable metallurgical practices.

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

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IIT Kharagpur develops cutting-edge technology to reduce Red Mud by Alumina refining

IIT Kharagpur and Vedanta Aluminium have developed a process to significantly reduce the generation of bauxite residue, commonly known as red mud, in the alumina refining process. The patented process reduces bauxite residue by a remarkable 30 per cent by eliminating iron values while simultaneously recovering a higher alumina yield, reducing the total organic content of bauxite during the alumina refining. The process significantly enhances resource efficiency and curbs energy consumption during refining. The project was led by the Research and Development Department of Vedanta, the country’s leading aluminium producer, in collaboration with the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

Red Mud is produced as a result of the bauxite-to-alumina processing through the Bayer process. The production of every 1 tonne of aluminium results in the generation of 3.3 tonnes of red mud, the sustainable management of which has been a long-standing challenge for the industry. Vedanta Aluminium is actively engaged in various initiatives aimed at minimizing bauxite residue, while also exploring avenues to extract value from the same. The company’s newly developed process represents a significant and revolutionary advancement in tackling the challenges associated with the utilization of red mud in the future. The pioneering development has undergone successful validation in laboratory settings and has completed the patent process. Currently, the company is forced to establish a pilot plant to implement and access the process, along with determining the potential advantages.

“The reduction of bauxite residue has been one of the key challenges for the aluminium industry, requiring significant technological advancements. The process, developed through the collaborative efforts, will not only significantly improve bauxite residue management but also contribute to reducing the carbon footprint in the process,” said Prof. Chenna Rao Borra, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering of IIT Kharagpur.

Bauxite is the primary ore for aluminium, and it undergoes an intermediate refining stage, known as the Bayer process, to produce alumina which is then subjected to electrolysis to produce aluminium. This refining process generates bauxite residue as a by-product. To produce 1 kg of aluminium, it requires 2 kg of alumina, which consumes 6 kg of bauxite, leaving behind 4 kg of bauxite residue. Managing this voluminous by-product sustainably has been a long-standing industry challenge.

“We look forward to implementing our groundbreaking process in bauxite residue management in our refinery operations. This is a significant milestone that will offer a pathway to enhanced resource efficiency and energy conservation and contribute towards reshaping the global aluminium industry,” said Amit Chatterjee, Chief Research and Development Officer, Aluminium Business, Vedanta Ltd.

Vendanta Aluminium, the largest aluminium producer in India, has announced developing process to reduce generation of bauxite residue, commonly known as red mud by a remarkable 30%by eliminating iron values while simultaneously recovering higher alumina yield from bauxite during the alumina refining. The process significantly enhances resources efficiency and curbs energy consumption during refining. The research project was led by the company’s Research & Development (R&D) department in collaboration with the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Kharagpur with support of a financial grant from Lanjigarh. Odisha Unit, home to Vedanta’s world-class alumina refinery. The cutting-edge technology will not only enhance the operational excellence of the company, but will also have a sustainable impact on the global aluminium industry.

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Inputs by: Prof. Chenna Rao Borra, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Kharagpur
Email: chenna.borra@metal.iitkgp.ac.in

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

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Dr. Samir V. Kamat, an Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur named the next DRDO Chief

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Growth is a very profound experience. We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. Well, this has been rather avouched by our Alumnus Dr. Samir V Kamat, whose sense of purpose evoked metamorphism in Defence applications for our country and led to the advanced development towards the service of the nation.

Dr. Samir V. Kamat, an Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur has been appointed the Secretary of Department of Defence Research and Development (R&D) and Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) by the Appointments Committee of the cabinet on August 25, 2022. Dr. Kamat has been conducting cutting-edge research and development on materials for various defence applications for the past three decades and has been bestowed the Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Kharagpur for the year 2018. As a Distinguished Scientist and Director General, Naval Systems and Materials, Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), he is posted at Visakhapatnam.

Dr. Kamat completed his B.Tech in Metallurgical Engineering in 1985 from IIT Kharagpur and was a recipient of the Institute Silver Medal as department topper. A Ph.D from Ohio State University, USA in Materials Science and Engineering in 1988, he did his Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Washington State University, Pullman, USA. and joined the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), DRDO in 1989 as a Research Scientist. He was appointed the Outstanding Scientist & Director, DMRL, DRDO, Hyderabad in 2015 before taking up his current position at Visakhapatnam.

In his role, first as Director, DMRL, and now as Director General, Naval Systems and Materials, DRDO, Dr. Kamat has provided leadership and direction to several critical materials and naval systems programmes and has played a key role in enhancing the interaction of cluster laboratories with academic institutions as well as industry. He has taken steps to align the programmes of the cluster laboratories with the long-term integrated perspective plans of the Services.

“Appointment of Dr. Samir V. Kamat, Distinguished Scientist and Director General, Naval Systems & Materials as Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO from the date of his assumption of charge till he attains the age of 60 years or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” said a statement from the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

Dr. Kamat’s contributions in the area of microstructure-mechanical property correlations in advanced materials, such as particulate reinforced metal matrix composites, ceramic matrix composites, aluminium-lithium alloys, high strength aluminium alloys and titanium alloys, have led to their development for various defence applications. These include development of Samarium-Cobalt magnets for gyros used in guidance systems of missiles and BLDC motors used in torpedoes, DMR-1700 ultrahigh strength steel for rocket motor casings, titanium alloys for aeronautical applications and advanced functional materials such as piezoelectric, magnetoelectric and magnetic materials for sensor, actuator and energy harvesting devices.

Dr. Kamat has also been responsible for setting-up state-of-the-art experimental facilities at DMRL such as Thin Film Lab, Small Length Scale Mechanical Testing Lab and Stress Corrosion Cracking test facility. His work on stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behaviour of ultrahigh strength 250 grade maraging and DMR 1700 steels has resulted in the development of a three-layer coating system for protection of these steels against SCC failure in marine environment. After generating significant contributions to the development of Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) Technology in DMRL, a MoU was initiated by him between DMRL, BARC, IREL and ARCI to launch a Mineral-to-Magnet programme that aims to make the country totally self-reliant in this critical REPM technology.

Dr. Kamat has been part of several committees of national importance and has contributed to the drafting of the National Strategic Materials Policy. Recipient of the DRDO Young Scientist of the Year award twice, he was awarded the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Smarak Award for Science in 2016.

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Inputs from : Office of the Alumni, IIT Kharagpur
Email : anamika.das@adm.iitkgp.ac.in

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

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MoU with Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs for setting up an Accelerator Centre for R&D at IIT Kharagpur

Highlights:

The MoU will identify the proven, innovative, emerging set up of Accelerator Centre for Research & Development at IIT Kharagpur.

April 22, 2021, Kharagpur, India, IIT Kharagpur and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) have signed an MoU to set up an Accelerator Centre for Research & Development at the Institute. Under this MoU will provide innovation & incubation assistance to carry out activities like technology & product development. The Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators-India (ASHA-India) initiatives under Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) is one of its kind innovations.

“This collaboration is aimed to support potential future technologies relevant for built-in environments developed in India through incubation and acceleration which will identify the proven, innovative, emerging, disaster-resilient, environment-friendly, cost-effective and speedy construction technologies for housing construction in India,” remarked Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay. “We will be involved in education and research works, to produce global leaders in science, technology and management,” he added.

Through the ASHA-India initiative, the Centre shall receive support towards developing design guidelines, construction manuals and other necessary documents relevant for an effective transfer, use and implementation of new technology from the lab to land. On similar lines, IIT Kharagpur through its centres of excellence in education and research has been contributing to various facets of public welfare research & outreach.

Talking about this collaboration, Director, Professor Virendra Kumar Tewari remarked, “Our work in various frontier areas of research has led us to contribute to various domains not only through affordable technology development but providing holistic and smart solutions. This Centre at IIT Kharagpur will be one of the hubs of knowledge creation and technology development.

Media Contact: Professor Subrata Chattopadhyay, Professor & Former Dean (Alumni Affairs), Architectural & Regional Planning Department, schat@arp.iitkgp.ac.in

For more queries write to media@iitkgp.ac.in

About IIT Kharagpur: Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is a higher educational institute known globally for its graduate output and affordable technology innovations. Set up in 1951 in a detention camp as an Institute of National Importance, the Institute is ranked among the top five in India and has been awarded Institute of Eminence by the Govt. of India in 2019. The key areas of research of IIT Kharagpur are Affordable Healthcare Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Transportation, Precision Agriculture and Food Technology, Cyber physical Systems, Ecology & Environment, Mining, Water Resources and Architecture. The Institute is engaged in several international and national mission projects and ranks significantly in research output including 50-100 IPR filed annually and about 2000 research publications in top journals and conferences. At present, the Institute has about 750 full-time equivalent faculty members, more than 14000 students and over 70,000 Alumni. For more information visit: www.iitkgp.ac.in

STEP towards Innovation Drive

IIT Kharagpur has been among the firsts to build industrial parks within an academic setup, in the country. While the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park (STEP) was set up within and in the vicinity of the IIT Kharagpur campus, a Research Park has also been built in Kolkata to set up industrial laboratories involving researchers from IIT Kharagpur. STEP is aimed at encouraging and nurturing students to launch their startups through incubation facilities.

Recently Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur in the context of mobile application development by Indian companies, has been vocal about start-up ecosystem in technical institutions. While keeping his faith on STEP IIT Kharagpur he can lead the initiative through seed funding and incubation facility.

Prof. Siddhartha Das, the newly appointed Managing Director of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park, shares his insights regarding STEP towards this end.

How STEP has been providing incubation support to startups?

The Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park at IIT Kharagpur sprawls over 20,000 sq.ft. of incubation space which is made available to startups for incubation. While fully constructed laboratory facilities are available, mobile laboratories for conducting experiments have been developed too. Further the Park is equipped with conference space for brainstorming and collaboration.

Apart from space for R&D and operations, STEP performs few critical functions which are essential for startups:

i) Seed Funding

ii) Intellectual Property and other techno-legal requirements

iii) Business operations Advisory

i) Seed Funding – Seed funding is one of the most important aspects of a start-up and for a company incubated at STEP, the following seed loans are provided: (a) Technology Business Incubator (TBI) Seed Loan, (b) Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Training Society (TIETS) Seed Loan, (c) Technology Development Board (TDB) Seed Loan and (d) Technology Incubation & Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) Seed Loan.

The seed loan amount ranges from ₹ 2 – 25 Lakh per start-up depending on the budget for the technology commercialization and business operations.

ii) Intellectual Property and Techno-legal requirements – Offering support in acquiring intellectual property rights is another important function of STEP. The unit collaborates with the law school of IIT Kharagpur, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, towards conducting seminars and workshops round the year and educating entrepreneurs in techno-legal matters. Further, the IPR office of the Institute facilitates filing of IP and registration.

iii) Marketing and Business Operations – Now, probably the most important part of a business is marketing because that is what introduces the product to the world. STEP has been seeking expertise from one of the top most business schools in India as ranked by MHRD’s NIRF – Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM). Not only its presence on the campus, but VGSOM is known for its innovative practices, focus on research and industrial consultancy, educational outreach, which make it just the right partner for STEP to enrich the marketing experience of the startups incubated at the Park. The faculty experts from VGSOM conduct lectures, seminars and discussion forums to train startups towards managing business operations efficiently and marketing of the products developed by them.

Who can apply for incubating their startup ideas under STEP?

A key factor for STEP is its inclusiveness. The unit is open to any technology-based start-up with the legal status to register and operate in India irrespective of whether they are associated with the Institute or not. It enables STEP to not only invite the 750+ faculty or 60000+ alumni worldwide or the current students, but also any Indian with the ambition to innovate new technologies. Furthermore, STEP is in the process of starting collaboration with MSMEs across the eastern region for entrepreneurship development. To promote technical advisory and networking it is also collaborating with various chambers of commerce and capital rich industries.

Will there be any special drive for developing mobile applications?

Our Director Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari has affirmed that the incubation facilities at various technical institutions in India are capable of leading such drives. STEP IIT Kharagpur, indeed can emerge as a beacon because of our existing system of incubation through infrastructure, operational support and seed funding. STEP can boast of a decent record in terms of incubation. The total no. of companies incubated till date are 200 out of which 183 companies have graduated and 17 are being mentored.

In the current situation, it is quite important that useful mobile applications and services are designed and operated in India. The Director has already mentioned planning for a drive to call for submission of proposals for mobile application development which can be sponsored by the Institute. If the technologies developed are market worthy or for the B2B industry, then STEP would certainly step into the process to incubate them into startups for future use by India.