IIT-Gandhinagar to launch centre for sustainable development

The Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn) is set to launch a centre for sustainable development (CSD) soon. The plan was result of a recently held workshop by the premier institute to explore strategies, identify pressing needs and opportunities, as well as potential partner institutions, organizations and individuals involved in sustainable development work.

"We wanted to draw from the expertise of participants to enable us to develop an enduring path for the future growth of the centre and to identify both its short term and long-term agenda," said Achal Mehta, dean of strategic planning and special initiatives at IIT-Gn while offering a rationale behind the centre.

The workshop had brought together a select group of thought, policy and practice leaders from government, academia, civil society and practitioners to help IIT-Gn operationalise its proposed CSD.

Based on suggestions, CSD will be able to work on various areas such as distributed generation of hydrogen for local transportation and for domestic use, creating an online portal for sustainable development, linking traditional knowledge to pure science to achieve sustainable technology and practices, flood mapping, study of agriculture and climate change impact, water management and food security and so on.

The workshop had a structured conversation around various themes and issues such as key challenges to promote sustainable development; ways to integrate research with sustainable development; fundamental societal challenges in sustainability; neglected research and project areas; sustainability in the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum and so on, to help the CSD develop impactful and sustainable programs.