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Joint ventures with other countries? • Bio Medical Waste: These are highly
toxic wastes that need to be handled
We have bilateral understanding with carefully.
44 countries for international scientific • Plastic: plastic waste pose a major bio
programmes. Programmes with USA, UK, hazard problem and DST is exploring
France, Germany, Russia and Japan are very possibilities of handling it.
active. With other countries there is exchange
of scientists and students that adds a lot of 2. Advanced Manufacturing: Material,
value in different ways. mechanics and manufacturing the
three M’s form the basis of this project.
Exposure, collaboration and cooperation… Inspired by the – “Make in India” motto
advanced manufacturing research will
When our students go out for the first time they be in multidisciplinary fields including So we have to find our own solutions. seeds from which the waste goes back
realize that the competition is extremely stiff automation etc. Some solutions have been demonstrated into the system so that the whole system
and global and they have to work very hard in successfully in limited edition in about is self-sustaining. This plant produces
bringing new ideas to the table independent of 3. Clean Energy: 100 villages but it has not been scaled up. 200 Kilo watts of power which serves
Clean energy derived from coal is another
their advisors. Thus it is necessary to have an area of thrust. There are many places where there is no a cluster of villages, 2000 liters/hour
exposure to the wider world. Besides this they quality water left or maybe no water like in of distilled water, 100 tonnes of air
learn about the latest systems, the problems 4. Swasth Bharat: DST is looking at the desert. Another idea is to produce water conditioning and processes about 50
they have to look at and they also become scientific foundation of yoga & meditation. from the air which is an interesting concept tonnes of oil seeds every day. It has been
culturally enriched, learning a lot of new A group of highly qualified scientists are but it needs a lot of research. set up near Jodhpur, Rajasthan and has
things. They also collaborate and cooperate involved in this project and papers will a payback period of 2.5 years. The whole
in writing papers with foreign scientists thus be published in international journals for 7. Rural Technology : Sustained growth system is sufficiently simple so that
adding value to the scientific community. global reach. at the rate of 10% in agricultural sector local people can be trained to operate it
for the next 30 years might solve poverty and will also generate jobs. For this local
Thrust areas 5. Water Technology: Supported by DST but agriculture by itself cannot do it. entrepreneurs need to come forward to
for the last 10 years, IIT Chennai has Urban technology cannot work in a rural set up such plants.
This is a dynamic arena where priorities been working on water related problems setting. Rural technology which uses
are need based. The basic areas of thrust using nanotechnology besides others. rural resources and satisfies local needs 8. Nano Science & Technology Mission
which is handled by Science and Engineering Basic research has led to startups which have to be explored. These technologies Nano Particle: When an element is
Research Board remain the same namely – has received global funding of 18 million have to be commercially viable. There is broken down to Nano dimension it
Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics & dollars to come up with innovations that an urgent need to develop these Micro starts to exhibit properties that was
other countries might buy as water related
Life sciences. These basic areas within them issues are a major concern worldwide. Industrial Complexes for rural areas. not present when it was in its original
contain thrust areas which are looked into by One example is the usage of locally size. These properties can be used in
various committees. Priorities of projects and 6. Potable Water: Is and will be a huge produced bio waste that comes from oil conjunction with other Nano particles
research keep changing. problem in the future and the RO seeds once oil has been extracted. This and tailored and doctored in any way to
technology available at present may not plant produces – electricity, distilled give rise to functions that would
Some of the projects DST is focusing on are: be viable in an area where water is scarce water, air conditioning for cold storage otherwise not be possible. It opens
because: and processing of crops like de-oiling a whole new domain of knowledge and
1. Solid Waste Management • RO systems waste the same amount application.
of water that it purifies. This rejected
• Electronic waste: Domestic and water is going into the sewage system
imported electronic add up to a sizable in most cases and is lost.
waste issue that needs to be sorted • It needs continuous power supply
out. These wastes contain gold and which is not possible in many of our
lithium (batteries) and other valuable villages.
rare earth elements that need to be • It filters out salt and minerals from
the purified water so that the waste
scientifically processed and recycled to water has more concentration of these
convert waste into wealth. which is put back into the well from
where it came. This is a short term
solution as the well water is becoming
progressively saline and will become
unusable eventually.
• It is very expensive.

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