From the Desk of the Director I Wish to Convey My Greetings to All the Readers of IJIRA Newsletter for Very Happy Durga Puja and Diwali
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Vol. 8, Issue No. 3, Sep 2016 From the Desk of the Director I wish to convey my greetings to all the readers of IJIRA Newsletter for very Happy Durga Puja and Diwali. The last trimester has been very exciting and eventful at IJIRA. In this issue Hon’ble Secretary to the Govt. of India, Ministry of Textiles, Smt. Rashmi Verma, IAS has inaugurated IJIRA Soil Testing Visit of Textile Secretary Laboratory in the august presence of Smt. Pushpa Activities of IJIRA as Subrahmanyam, IAS, Additional Secretary, MoT, GoI, Shri A CoE Madhukumar Reddy, IRTS, Jt. Secretary, MoT, GoI, Dr. Subrata Gupta, IAS, Jute Commissioner, MoT, GoI and Shri Alok Kumar, IAS, Workshop on JGT in Development Commissioner of Handloom, MoT, GoI. They have also unveiled a book Assam and Arunachal on, “Abstract of IJIRA Weekly Technical Lectures”. Pradesh Due to commendable efforts of the Scientists and Technologists, IJIRA has developed Status of MoT Approved novel technology for industrial scale manufacturing of jute pulp based sanitary napkin. Projects under COE These napkins meet required BIS standards and also significantly cheaper that other activity – varieties available in the market. Demonstration of this product has been made in few In Manipur schools in jute mills in association with National Jute Board and free samples have been In Meghalaya given to the school girls. Status of SLCC In a remarkable achievement, IJIRA has signed a MoA with M/s Intech Safety Pvt. Ltd. Approved Projects and M/s Birds Jute and Exports Ltd. regarding commercialization of jute based low cost under COE activity – sanitary napkins. M/s. Intech has agreed to pay an amount of rupees fifty lakh as ToT In Assam fees. In Manipur In Mizoram Activities under CoE have also been phenomenal due to the sincere efforts of NERC, Guwahati as IJIRA has identified 103 projects in NER pertaining of application of jute geotextiles. Ongoing R&D Activities Ongoing Studies In parallel to these activities, IJIRA is also conducting sponsored R&D activities maintaining the approved timeline for each project components. Activities of IJIRA - NERC Lastly I will thank the editorial board for its effort to bring out this edition of IJIRA Newsletter. In all humility I hope that the readers will find our newsletter interesting and Services informative. Nonetheless I will welcome any positive suggestions/comments and IJIRA – Industry constructive criticism too which will help us to do better. Interactive Meet Dr. U.S. Sarma Other Activities Director, IJIRA 1 Meetings & Summits Publications VISIT OF SMT. RASHMI VERMA, IAS, TEXTILE SECRETARY Smt. Rashmi Verma, IAS, Textile Secretary, alongwith Shri Madhukumar Reddy, IRTS Joint Secretary (Jute), MoT, Smt. Pushpa Subrahmanyan, Additional Secretary, Dr. Subrata Gupta, IAS, the Jute Commissioner, Shri Dipankar Mahto, IP&TA&FS, Deputy Jute Commissioner visited IJIRA on 6th September, 2016. Council Members, Shri D C Baheti, Ex Chairman, IJIRA, Shri A K Kankaria, Promoter, Bally Jute Co, Shri Sanjay Hada, Director, Reliance Jute Co (I) Ltd, Shri Alok Kumar, Director Handicraft and many other dignitaries were present apart from all S&T and Admin staff of IJIRA. Dr. U. S. Sarma, Director, IJIRA welcomed Smt. Rashmi Verma, IAS, Textile Secretary at the reception and bouquets were offered to the visiting dignitaries. Secretary Textiles visited the IJIRA Exhibition Hall where various exhibits/products pertaining to diversified jute products were shown. She was explained about Jute-LLDE granules, a green initiative with which water tank has been prepared where 20% jute is used. Thereafter she was taken to Bio- Chemistry Division. Dr. S.K. Chakrabarti, Deputy Director and Head Bio-Chemistry Division explained about ecofriendly faster jute retting process and jute based female hygiene product. She appreciated the current activities of IJIRA after visiting the various laboratories. 2 Inauguration of IJIRA Soil Testing Laboratory Secretary, MoT had inaugurated IJIRA Soil Testing Lab. the presence of all the dignitaries. The lab is set up for carrying out activities of IJIRA as CoE under Jute Geotextile project for the NER. It was a very rare moment for IJIRA. In presence of audience Director in his welcoming speech said that this august visit of the Secretary Textile is a remarkable day for IJIRA after a span of almost 11 years. Director briefed the history of IJIRA that it is the oldest among the TRAs which was founded in 1937 subsequently the present building was opened by the Honourable Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 02 January 1952. Director said that almost all the scientists of IJIRA are young and energetic and working with dedication to their assigned duties. Then the Director requested Deputy Directors and scientist to introduce them before the Textile Secretary. Accordingly the Scientist and Technical officers of IJIRA briefed their domain of works one by one. Speech by Textile Secretary Textile Secretary in her speech stated that it was her pleasure to visit this Institute which has so much of rich background with multi-dimensional current R&D activities. Smt. Verma informed that she heard about IJIRA but could not make it to come over here on earlier occasion. She said that IJIRA has 3 developed a lot of new products which need to be commercialized so that IJIRA can sustain itself. She also told that intellectual property rights of IJIRA need to be protected. She said that microbial faster retting has benefitted the jute farmers and industry. She desires that it should not be restricted to only four districts rather it should be extended to all jute growing areas from next year. She stated that there will be no dearth of funds from the Ministry for carrying out R&D projects. She emphasized productivity improvement of cost reduction in the existing jute processing unit to make it more sustainable. She concluded her speech by thanking the entire team of IJIRA, Director and all scientists of IJIRA for their dedicated work. Speech by the Jute Commissioner The Jute Commissioner in his speech requested Textile Secretary to pay another visit to IJIRA next time having at least for half a day when she could be explained the entire area of research in more details. He explained the major areas of work in IJIRA are:- (a) Jute Geotextile (b) Development of Machinery (c) New Composites (d) Nano cellulose JC said that value added products as bio-ethanol and lignosulphonate production from jute sticks will also indirectly help the farmers for better jute price. Dr S K Chakrabarti, Deputy Director, IJIRA had given Vote of Thanks to the Secretary Textiles and dignitaries present in the Conference Hall. 4 IJIRA (CoE) Initiatives for Use of Jute Geotextiles in NER A. Workshop at Assam and Arunachal Pradesh One Day Back to back Technical Workshop cum Exhibition on “Applications of Jute Geotextiles” was held on 14th September, 2016 at Radisson Blu Hotel, Guwahati and on 16th September, 2016 at Hotel Donyi Polo Ashok, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. The seminar was organized by Indian Jute Industries’ Research Association in association with Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India and National Jute Board. The workshop which was organized with special focus to create awareness of Jute Geotextiles application in Civil Engineering projects in the state of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh was attended by Engineers and Officials from various organizations like Public Works Department, Forest and Environment Dept., Soil Conservation Dept., Water Resource Dept., Rural Works Dept., Border Road Organization, PHED amongst others. The programme was followed by two technical sessions in which presentations were made on various aspects of application of Jute Geotextiles for different end uses. There was also an exhibition arranged on the venue depicting different products/ models of applied JGT on different types of sites. The Workshop at Guwahati was inaugurated by “Chief Guest” Shri. Parimal Suklabaidya, Honourable Minister of Assam, PWD, Fisheries and Excise in the presence of Smt T Y Das, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, PWD & Irrigation Department, Govt. of Assam, Dr. Subrata Gupta, IAS, Jute Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, Dr. S S Porwal, VSM, Addl Director General , BRO, Dr. U.S. Sarma, Director, IJIRA amongst others. The Second One Day Technical Workshop cum Exhibition on “Applications of Jute Geotextiles” which was held on 16th September, 2016 at Hotel Donyi Polo Ashok, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh was inaugurated by T.H. Tayung, Secretary, Rural Works Dept., Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh, in the presence of Dr. Subrata Gupta, IAS, Jute Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, Shri Kago Tabiyo, Chief Engineer, Rural Works Dept., Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh, Dr. U S Sarma, Director, IJIRA amongst others. 5 Dr. Subrata Gupta, Jute Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, Dr. U.S. Sarma, Director, IJIRA and Shri. Th. Basant Singh, OIC, NERC, Guwahati also had a meeting on the same day with Chief Secretary, Smt. Shakuntala Gamlin, IAS, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh on 16th September 2016 at the Office Chamber of Chief Secretary, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh regarding Applications of Jute Geotextiles in road construction, slope protection etc., where in the team had requested Chief Secretary for identification of projects for use of Jute Geotextiles and convening an early SLCC meeting of Arunachal Pradesh to deliberate new projects for application of Jute Geotextiles. B. Road Projects taken up by IJIRA (CoE) under Scheme for Promoting