Srinagar : The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with IIT Ropar and DST TIH – AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub) to explore collaborative, academic research activities, joint supervision of Ph.D. students, workshops and seminars.
The MoU was signed by Director, NIT Srinagar Prof. (Dr.) Rakesh Sehgal, Prof. MF Wani in presence of Prof. Rajeev Ahuja, Director, IIT Ropar to collaborate on different academic activities.
The MoU is a part of IIT Ropar’s initiative to welcome meritorious students from NITs to spend their final semester(s) at IIT Ropar, pursue courses, and do a project.
The students will go through a rigorous selection process, and subject to their continued excellence, will be considered for early admission to PhD programs at IIT Ropar.
The scope of collaboration on academic and research activities in the MoU includes academic and research collaboration in the areas of mutual interest, exchange of students and faculty, exchange of academic information, scholarly information, materials and publications, and admission of NIT Srinagar students for Ph.D. at IIT Ropar.
As per the MoU, each institution will nominate one of its members as its representative in charge of the cooperative program. Individual program of work under this MoU will be jointly planned and conducted by the nominees of both parties, it said.
On the occasion, Director IIT Ropar, Prof. Rajeev Ahuja said he is confident that this MoU between IIT Ropar and NIT Srinagar will lead to major research works that will benefit the general public and residents of Jammu and Kashmir in particular.
“Meritorious students of NIT Srinagar can now come to IIT Ropar in their final year and continue for their Ph.D. after their graduation,” he said.
On the occasion, Director NIT Srinagar Professor (Dr.) Rakesh Sehgal said this collaboration will bring technological solutions for the basic problems the industry is facing at J&K.
“The MoU will also help our PG students, research scholars, and faculty. This collaborative move will bring synergy in finding novel and innovative solutions to the problems faced by the industry in the region,” he said.
Prof. Sehgal said it is indeed of matter of great pleasure as two technological institutions are coming together to sign the historic MoU. It will help our students in longer way, he said.
“We will take it forward for the benefit of students, faculty members, and other staff members of both respective intuitions. It will help us to serve humanity through technological dimensions”, he said.
Director NIT Srinagar said the MoU also provides an opportunity to the faculty of NIT Srinagar to apply for postdoc positions or other opportunities available at IIT Ropar.
In his message, Registrar NIT Srinagar, Prof. Kaiser Bukhari said the signing of this MoU will bring two intuitions closer to serving the society.
“In future, NIT Srinagar will exchange of faculty, students, and moreover the exchange of ideas for the benefit of students, faculty in general,” he said.
While the second MoU was signed between NIT Srinagar and the IIT Ropar – Technology and Innovation Foundation for iHub AWaDH(Agriculture & Water Technology Development Hub. It will explore areas of research, education, policy inputs, and outreach for the development and dissemination of efficient technologies for sustainable use.
Dr. Vijay Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics was the coordinator of the AWaDH’s MoU. The MoU was signed by Pushpendra P. Singh, Project Director, DST TIH – AwaDH.
iHub – AWaDH was established in 2020 at IIT Ropar by the DST – Government of India in the framework of National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM – ICPS) to improve the overall ecosystem of agriculture and water domain in line with the developed countries by deploying the CPS Technologies.
The Hub’s first sanctioned budget is Rs. 110 crores from the government for five years with time-bound pre-defined deliverables.
The objective of the MoU said is to facilitate a wide range of interactions between iHub–AWaDH, and NIT Srinagar.
The areas of the collaboration between iHub – AWaDH, and NIT – Srinagar will be in the domain of Agriculture and Water to deploy cyber-physical systems for Water/industry discharge assessment, treatment, and management.
It also includes advancement of land resources and farm preparation, Agriculture automation and precision farming, Harvesting, and post-harvesting, Agribusiness marketplace, the application of the Internet of Things (IoT) systems in the domain of Agriculture & Water bio-energy and biomaterials.
The MoU states that the bilateral collaboration would capitalize on the complementary strengths of IIT Ropar and NIT – Srinagar in engineering, agriculture, and regulatory matters, respectively, for achieving the goal of technology innovation in the domain of Agriculture and Water.
