TECHIN's Global Sanitation Center of Excellence to be launched at IIT Palakkad

Palakkad/ Kochi (Kerala) [India], February 7 (ANI/NewsVoir): The Global Sanitation Center of Excellence (GSCOE), a Center at the Technology Innovation Foundation of IIT Palakkad (TECHIN) and IIT Palakkad is scheduled to be launched at 11 AM on 10th February 2022 by Prof. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Government of India.
Those interested can join at 11 AM, 10th February 2022 using this link: techin-iitpkd.org/gscoe.
GSCOE is a Center for collaborative and sustainable innovation, incubation, scaling and manufacturing, skill development, training, showcase and deployment of Sanitation solutions.
GSCOE's online workshop cum pitch event - "SAMASTHA", is now open for applicants from start-ups and incubate teams in the domain of Sanitation. Applications are already open and will close on 23rd February 2022.
SAMASTHA will host a technical workshop on 7th Feb and a business workshop on 12th Feb, followed by the mentoring and pitch from 5th March to 16th March 2022.
Teams can find details of problem statements and apply here: techin-iitpkd.org/samastha-incubation-funding.
SAMASTHA requires the teams to demonstrate their design, drawings, and simulations, post which the selected teams will be incubated. The selected teams will get the opportunity to build their prototype, field test, get mentored, assess the business viability, and eventually deploy the products in a short span of time. They can also get an incubation grant up to Rs. 10L from GSCOE.
GSCOE is a brainchild of Prof. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India. The scope for making sanitation a circular economy by extracting energy & nutrients and making products like recycled water, bio-fertilizer is now possible.
"At this centre, we are inviting creative minds and entrepreneurs from all over India to incubate their ideas and develop world class solutions that address challenges in sanitation, pollution of water by sewage, and contribute to eliminating manual scavenging. Under the aegis of GSCOE, our goal is to skill over 10,000 individuals in the next 5 years, scale technologies that contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, harness nutrient and energy resources trapped in sanitation value chain and improve efficiency of energy and water utilization. Technologies developed here will meet world-class standards and will be sought after in global markets," said Dr Nimish Shah, MD, IAPMO.
"We are a collaborative entity and encourage various Institutions and Industry to join hands with us. A one-of-its-kind Center, GSCOE will address the entire life cycle from ideation to product deployment. Sanitation was chosen as it has a huge impact on healthcare, hygiene, environmental impact, livelihood impact, water availability among other things. It can become a livelihood generation mechanism for micro-entrepreneurs, skilled & trained service and for the maintenance personnel," said Prof. Sunil Kumar P. B., Director, IIT Palakkad.
GSCOE established in January 2022, aims to increase the possibility of incubating potential entrepreneurs to find technological solutions to the various sanitation issues plaguing India such as reducing pollutants, pathogens, vital resources, and energy. The Center aims to improve and increase the recovery of nutrients, energy, creation of products and by-products that can benefit the society and provide livelihood, safe and clean sanitation.
The Principal Scientific Advisor's Office (PSA office) initiated this concept and facilitated the various entities to come together. International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) and Toilet Board Coalition (TBC) are the Knowledge and Guidance partners in association with ERAM Scientific (ERAM), the Industry collaborator for Scale testing and manufacturing and various NGOs. GSCOE is funded by the CSR arm of HDFC Bank and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
GSCOE intends to provide simplified access to Angel and Venture Capitalists who are interested in the specific domain while providing technical mentoring, a state-of-the-art wet lab and access to legal, financial and IP consultants apart from a host of other benefits to entrepreneurs.
To know more, please visit techin-iitpkd.org.
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