The Curtain Raiser ceremony of the “One Week, One Lab” programme of CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur, was held on 21 August 2023 at CSIR-NPL, New Delhi, in the august presence of Dr Jitendra Singh, the Hon’ble Minister of Science and Technology & Vice-President of CSIR; Dr N Kalaiselvi, Secretary, DSIR & Director General, CSIR; Dr NC Murmu, Director, CSIR-CMERI; Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta, Director, CSIR-NPL and other dignitaries from various institutes, industries and other organisations.
The Hon’ble Minister launched and witnessed some of the nationally important technologies developed by CSIR-CMERI like E-Tractor, Vehicle Mounted Mechanised Drain Cleaning System (VM-MDCS), Mob Control Vehicles (MCV), Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Disposal System (iMSWDS), etc. CSIR-CMERI also transferred the technology of iMSWDS to three MSMEs from Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal for further commercialisation and deployment. The commercial version of VM-MDCS machine, developed by one of the licensees of CSIR-CMERI, was demonstrated in front of the Hon’ble Minister and other dignitaries present in the event.
The institute inaugurated its “One Week, One Lab” programme on 11 September 2023 to showcase the legacy, exclusive innovations, and technological breakthroughs achieved by the Institute.
The first day was celebrated as the “Farmers Connect event”. More than sixty farmers from the adjoining districts of Durgapur were present in the inaugural event along with officials from the Department of Agriculture, Govt of West Bengal. The officials deliberated on different governmental schemes currently available to the farmers and also urged CSIR-CMERI scientists to work towards solving different technological issues being faced by the farmers and Indian agriculture as a whole. Later, various agricultural machinery developed by CSIR-CMERI were demonstrated to the farmers.
An interactive session on Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana and various schemes/loans available from nationalised banks for the farmers’ community was also organised for the farmers with experts from Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Ministry of MSME and UCO Bank.
Second day on 12 September 2023, the Make in India and MSME Connect event was held in which representatives from MSME, startup companies, and individual innovators, including student innovators participated. The event was graced with the presence of Dr NC Murmu; Dr Sujata Chaklanobis, Scientist G & Head, CRTDH (Common Research & Technology Development Hub), DSIR; Dr NP Sinha, Mentor of Centre for Education & Training, Indian Institute of Foundrymen as the Guest of Honour; and Prof. Indranil Manna, Vice Chancellor, BIT Mesra, Ranchi and Former Director, IIT Kanpur and CSIR-CGCRI as the Chief Guest.
Dr Chaklanobis deliberated on the functioning of the CRTDHs established across the country analogous to the formation of a Golden Triangle between the Government, Industries (including MSME) and Academia (including the R&D organisations). A Chintan Shivir and a Samvad were organised with the DSIR officials on the panel for one-to-one interaction with MSME representatives on the challenges faced by them.
Robotics and Automation event was organised on 13 September 2023 during which Shri Brijendra Pratap Singh, Director-in-Charge, Burnpur and Durgapur Steel Plant was the Chief Guest and Shri Aditya Kumar Sinha, Center Director, Center for Development and Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Kolkata and Patna was the Guest of Honour.
Dr NC Murmu highlighted various R&D achievements of CSIR-CMERI in the recent past specifically focusing on development in the domain of robotics spanning robotic systems for interventions in the power sector, mining, social and strategic sectors, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for oceanic applications and flexible actuation systems for human-friendly applications.
Shri Sinha expressed that CDAC is keenly interested in close work with CSIR-CMERI in potential fields of Agricultural Research, Robotics & Automation.
Subsequently, Shri Singh, the Chief Guest mentioned that the “Robotics & Automation” theme of the programme has great significance in the industry context, especially in Industry 4.0.
During the day-long programme, several startups/Industry/Government Sectors participated and presented their credentials and needs where CSIR-CMERI can cooperate and collaborate. Commodore Amit Ray, Indian Navy, delivered an expert talk on “Time for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles”. Commodore Ray lauded CSIR-CMERI’s contributions to the Underwater Robotics domain.
Day four, on 14 September 2023, the Clean and Green India event was organised. Dr NC Murmu, in his welcome speech, talked about the significance of “Clean and Green India” and the pivotal role that CSIR-CMERI plays in advancing this noble cause. CSIR-CMERI developed the “Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Disposal System”, which is a first-of-its-kind infrastructure located at the CMERI residential colony campus right in the heart of the city, was demonstrated to the dignitaries and representatives from various Municipal Corporations, Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti of West Bengal.
Mr Prabhat Kumar Singh, the Managing Director of the National Safai Karamchari's Finance & Development Corporation (NSKFDC) graced the occasion. CSIR-CMERI has also transferred two modules of the technology for i-MSWDS to M/s Akash Enterprise, North 24 Parganas.
CSIR-CMERI scientists presented their “Strategic Research Approach towards Green India” in a number of ways, like solar photovoltaic generation and installation of a micro-grid at Sundarban area, cutting-edge energy storage technologies, from the remarkable graphene ultra-capacitor to aqueous batteries and compressed hydrogen storage tanks. The third line of research activities is in the domain of Electric Vehicle (EV) technologies tailored for agricultural applications. Their recent achievement, the indigenous E-tractor, stood as a testament to their ingenuity.
The fifth and final day of the programme was celebrated as the Jigyasa and Student Connect event on 15 September 2023. Twenty nine teams consisting of around one hundred students of sixteen schools participated in the Science Model Competition organised on the theme Save Earth.
Dr Debiprosad Duari, Former Director, Research & Academics, MP Birla Institute of Fundamental Research & Institute of Astronomy Space and Earth Science, Kolkata, was the Chief Guest of the event. Dr Duari in his inimitable style mesmerised all present in the auditorium through a popular science lecture on “A Cosmic Voyage”.
A “Jigyasa Rath” displaying the technologies developed by CSIR-CMERI started its journey on the day to reach the school students to make them aware of the latest developments in science & technology and to develop scientific temper in the young minds. The scientists and technical officials of CSIR-CMERI interacted with 3350 students and 112 teachers of the above schools and were overwhelmed by the interest and scientific curiosity expressed by the students, the future hope of the country.
