Some Readings

Some thoughts

Title: Sustainable Development Laboratory

Brief description: The lab has infrastructure to carry out analysis of air, water, wastewater, soils and microbial samples. The lab is also the research lab where development of soil moisture and conductivity meter, monitoring of honey bee box and fecal sludge sampler have been development and have been taken for patenting. Currently, the lab is supporting for 2 phD students, one working on soil health and another working on development of rapid water sampler for surface water.

Location: Amat Nano building

Title: PRAYOG

Brief description:PRAYOG is an initiative launched in June 2021, by CTARA, IIT Bombay to bring solution seekers and solution providers together to address societal problems. Prof. Bakul Rao is the Principal Investigator of this initiative. PRAYOG enables citizens, government bodies, PRIs and NGOs to pose their questions to a platform where the solution providers are on board with relevant expertise. PRAYOG connects with society and addresses development problems through the technological lens. It would enable the government to streamline processes and policies through the active participation of academic institutions. It is expected to enhance applied research at IIT Bombay and would contribute towards achieving the SDGs.

Location: Amat Nano building

Website: PRAYOG

My research at CTARA stems from three focal points namely,
1. Interrelationship between environmental degradation, over exploitation of natural resources, poverty & underdevelopment.
2. Inadequate governmental measures to integrate environmental concerns in development processes.
3. Need to institutionalize mechanisms to address environmental concerns at all levels of government including local self government while developing the capacity to plan and execute.
Most of my research work has been in these focal area. A lot of work in the first research foci was carried out at EMPRI and KSPCB, More indepth understanding of the research areas has been carried out through the M.Tech, B.Tech and PhD students at CTARA. Interactions /associations with many governmental agencies as well as private players / industries have also added to the research