The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) organised a two-day exhibition on DAE spin-off technologies for non-power applications in New Delhi, earlier this week.
According to a press release, the exhibition covered technologies developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Raja Ramanna Centre for Advance Technology-Indore, and other units under the DAE.
The exhibition explored technologies developed specifically for “the common man in day-to-day life”. For example, tech for the health, agriculture, water, and food security sectors.
According to the release, the details of the exhibits were:
Health
In the health sector there were three segments:
- The development of radiopharmaceuticals,
- its production and distribution, and
- its implementation for diagnosis and therapeutic application.
Agriculture
The DAE developed 44 high-yielding seed varieties by inducing mutations to suit local weather conditions across the country. The disease-resistant, low-maturity period and high yielding crops have been well accepted by the farmers.
Rural technologies are also being made available to the youth through the government’s AKRUTI programme.
Water
The DAE developed technologies for clean water to fulfil departmental requirements and, as a spin-off, developed many techniques that find applications in ultrafiltration membrane, RO membrane, multistage flash evaporation, and water hydrology-based on radiotracers.
Low-cost water filters for the removal of all contamination from drinking water were displayed at the event.
Environment
DAE technologies are useful for the Clean India Mission (Swatch Bharat). Bio-methanisation and urban sludge hygienisation technologies are being deployed across the country.
The nisargruna plant is a bio-methanisation plant for digesting kitchen food waste and green vegetable wastes from agriculture markets to methane gas. This can be used for cooking, generating electricity, and even for running biogas vehicles.
OpenGov reported earlier that a government-launched tech exhibition was held last week at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi.
The event was organised to demonstrate the products and prototypes developed under the two flagship schemes of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). Namely, IMPacting Research, Innovation, and Technology (IMPRINT) and the Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY).
The HHRD Minister released a TechEx Volume containing abstracts of all the IMPRINT and UAY projects.
The most memorable exhibits included non-invasive and low-cost rapid TB diagnostics, an artificial pancreas for closed-loop blood glucose control of type-I diabetic patients, an electric vehicle charger, a remote healthcare delivery system for non-communicable diseases, low-cost environment-friendly fire detection and suppression system, and an air quality monitoring network system.
Launched in 2015, the IMPRINT scheme’s mission was to provide solutions to the most relevant engineering challenges by translating knowledge into viable technology (products or processes) in ten selected technology domains.
These are healthcare, energy, sustainable habitat, nano-technology hardware, water resources and river systems, advanced materials, ICT, manufacturing, security and defence, and environmental science and climate change.
The Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY) was also launched in 2015. The programme promotes the innovation of a higher order that directly impacts the needs of the Industry and thereby improves the competitive edge of Indian manufacturing.