Bhubaneswar, December 5: Union Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Saturday inaugurated Common Research and Technology Development Hub (CRTDH) at the CSIR- Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) Bhubaneswar.
The hub has been established by the joint effort of CSIR-IMMT and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India in order to provide, technological solution, to mentor entrepreneurs/startups, alongside facilitating incubation of startups.
Its primary objective is to nurture and promote innovations in MSMEs and provide them R&D or knowledge-based support in the area of new materials and chemical processes.
The aim is three-fold – R&D & Knowledge based Support to MSMEs & Start-ups, mentor, nurture, collaborate, or hand-hold MSMEs to develop innovations and to provide enabling services such as IPR support, Laboratory facilities, testing and analysis support for quality assurance, auditing of existing production processes.
Currently, under the CRTDH programme, many collaborative projects with Metallurgical/Agro/Boiler/Electronic/Minerals- MSMEs/Start-ups, focusing on development of new materials, coatings, agro-waste to wealth (K-enriched fertilizer), electronic waste to wealth (recovery of precious metals) are being undertaken.
It has provided more than 4 technological solutions to agro and metallurgical/minerals industries and 10 know-hows related to fighting against COVID like sanitizers, liquid soap, disinfection kits to around 14 MSMEs since its inception, high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), polymetallic nodules (PMN) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) facilities in the CSIR- Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) Bhubaneswar.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said, “Steps are being taken for close coordination and collaboration between IIMT and NIOT (National Institute of Ocean Technology), Chennai for accelerated progress in developing India’s blue economy and harnessing its ocean resources. He said, efforts are on for development of suitable technologies for effective mining of some of the deep-sea mineral resources and exploitation of gas hydrates resources.”
