By Dr. Arun Kumar
New Delhi, 22 May 2019: Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) recently signed two separate Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Harcourt Butler Technical University (HBTU), Kanpur and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur on 13th of May 2019.
The MoU with HBTU involves cooperation and development of international level Standards in the field of paints, soaps, detergents, oils, plastics, fragrance and food technology. The MoU was signed by Ms. Surina Rajan, Director General, BIS and Prof NB Singh, Vice Chancellor, HBTU in Kanpur.
Smt. Surina Rajan, Director General, BIS in her address stated that creating synergy among premier educational institutions with the involvement of young minds in the area of standardization process would highly benefit the country. Prof Manoj Shukla, Registrar, Deans and various faculty members along with Dr R K Bajaj, Deputy Director General, BIS were also present during the programme.
The MoU with the prestigious IIT, Kanpur was signed by Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Director of IIT, Kanpur, and Smt. Surina Rajan, DG, BIS. Prof. S. Ganesh, Dean, Research & Development, IIT Kanpur and other senior faculty members of IIT Kanpur attended the programme.
The partnership with IIT Kanpur will help in concurrently establishing standards on important subjects like Blockchain applications of e-governance developed by the IIT. It will also provide support of their technical expertise for the formulation of standards in the field of Cybersecurity, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and flexible electronics. As per the MoU between the two bodies, a joint initiative is underway for Standardization to find a place in education curriculum and for offering short-term courses to businesses as well.
The BIS team led by DG, BIS interacted with several startups incubated by Small Industries Development Bank of India, (SIDBI) Center of IITK, responding to their needs of early standardization for the technological solutions developed by them.
Both organizations, HBTU and IIT, Kanpur have agreed for taking up R&D projects wherever required along with the exchange of information on research and educational programmes.
BIS will provide inputs on a topic such as Standardization & Conformity Assessment that will be incorporated in the academics. The institutions will jointly organize training, seminar, and conferences along with exploring the possibility of using laboratory facilities available at these institutions.