IIT-K transfers air sampling device tech to industry partner
Besides gauging indoor and outdoor air quality, the invention can help measure bio-aerosols
LUCKNOW : An air sampling device that has been developed at IIT-Kanpur for measuring indoor and outdoor air quality has been licensed to Airshed Planning Professionals Pvt Ltd, which is an incubated company of the institute for manufacturing and sales.
Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) director Prof Abhay Karandikar tweeted, “Air Sampling Device, a low-cost technology for efficient air sampling, for bio-aerosol and particulate matter has been transferred to Airshed Pvt Ltd for commercialisation.”
He said, “The technology has been developed by Prof Tarun Gupta of civil engineering department and his PhD student Amit Singh Chauhan. It was with pleasure that I exchanged MoU (memorandum of understanding) for technology transfer with Dhirendra Singh, director, Airshed Pvt Ltd, an incubated company of IIT-K.”
During the agreement exchange ceremony, the IITKanpur director said such technologies were developed at the institute to promote the MSME (micro small and medium enterprises) sector for boosting the indigenous technological ecosystem, and more of such technologies would be transferred to industry partners in the near future from IIT-Kanpur.
Prof Tarun Gupta said, “The traditional parameters of particulate matter measurement lack measurement of bio-aerosols. The current device eliminates the need for two different sampling devices to be bought for bio-aerosol and particulate matter sampling separately.”
(A bio-aerosol is an airborne collection of biological material. Bio-aerosols can comprise bacterial cells and cellular fragments, fungal spores and fungal hyphae, viruses, and by-products of microbial metabolism. Pollen grains and other biological material can also be airborne as a bio-aerosol).
Considering the pollution levels of north India, particularly Kanpur, the current technology (air sampling device) can collect samples for the assessment of different parameters of air, including quality of respirable air, monitoring and sampling of ambient air and quantitative evaluations of substances present in the air, along with providing quantitative estimate of different microbial colonies load in the ambient air, he said.
Prof Gupta added, “The device is a low-cost technology for efficient air sampling. The device has a simple design as compared to conventional real time optical instruments. The above invention has also been protected through an Indian Patent Application No.- 1474/ DEL/2014.”
THE DEVICE HAS A SIMPLE DESIGN AS COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL REAL TIME OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS.
CSIR-CDRI transferred technology of “Fluorescent Dyes and Quenchers for the development of RT-PCR based diagnostic kits and their uses in life sciences research” to Biotech Desk Pvt Ltd (BDPL), Hyderabad on the occasion. Director, professor Tapas Kumar Kundu said, “CDRI has signed an agreement with BDPL for the technology of fluorescent dyes and quenchers for the development of indigenous qRT-PCR diagnostic kit for testing COVID-19.”
LUCKNOW: Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has flayed the Centre for issuing an order seeking to levy penalty for not putting FASTag on passenger and goods vehicles demanding the government to withdraw the order.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, party national spokesman Anupam Mishra said the government had made FASTag compulsory for all new vehicles when for those who don’t travel beyond city limits it is useless.
“Why should anyone who does not travel beyond city limits be forced to put a FASTag on his vehicle,” he questioned.
Mandatory for each vehicle, the minimum price for Fastag is Rs 200. All this, he claimed was organised loot.
He said the decision to do away with cash-lanes on toll-plazas would also be a reason of harassment of vehicles owners crossing the highways.
In a different statement, another party leader Anil Dubey criticised government for increase in the prices of LPG and diesel/petrol. “Centre’s wrong policies are responsible for the price rise of essential commodities.