Time to take industry-academia collaboration to new high

Higher educational institutions should go beyond curriculum and take up result-oriented and time-bound research programmes. It is the right time to take the industry- academia collaboration to a new high, said V.Thangapandian, Director-Power, Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) India Limited.

Speaking at a workshop on ‘Technical Education in National Context: Challenges and Strategies,’ at the National Institute of Technology recently, Mr.Thangapandian observed that developing efficient solar panels, indigenous materials to withstand high temperature, alternative to river sand, disposal of e-waste, smart grids and process automation were some of the areas that offered big scope for research. “We need to align and gear up to the changing business and societal environment,” he said.

Focussing on power sector and the current trends in the industry, he said India was one of the very few growing economies. With a predicted annual growth rate of 7%, the country would require an installed power generation capacity of 680 GW by the end of 2032. The Paris Climate Accord had mandated India to enforce stringent environmental norms. Thermal plants commissioned after first January 2017 would have to adopt de-sulphurisation, de-Nitrification and clean coal technologies. They also would have to go in for higher sized ultra-supercritical and advanced ultra-supercritical units to achieve the station efficiency of 47-50%.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/time-to-take-industry-academia-collaboration-to-new-high/article19836567.ece