Tata Group donates $15.5M to IIT Bombay to develop low-cost solutions for BoP consumers

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Group has donated $15.5 million (Rs 95 crore) to IIT Bombay (IIT-B) to setup a virtual centre, which would focus on developing low-cost technologies for the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) consumers, says a report in The Economic Times, quoting IIT-B director Devang V Khakhar.

Christened Tata Centre for Technology and Design (TCTD), the centre will focus on frugal engineering. The key focus areas will be water, healthcare, affordable housing, energy & environment, food & agriculture, human-powered mobility devices, education, and crafts development. The centre, which has already started functioning, will also develop human resources trained in identification of unmet technological requirements.

Both students and faculties from all the department of IIT-B will be allowed to participate. According to Khakar, the centre will also support research work for Post Graduate and PhD scholars.

Earlier this year, IIT Bombay had announced that it would set up an entrepreneurship centre named ‘Desai Sethi Centre for Entrepreneurship’ to enable technology innovation through new programmes for education and research, multi-disciplinary courses, research laboratories and partnerships. The centre would focus on emerging technology areas like nanotech and biotech, and its activities will cover the entrepreneurship value chain to include mentoring, micro grants and networking with established entrepreneurs and industry leaders.

Source: TechCircle.in (link opens in a new window)

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Education, Health Care
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business development, product design, research