Engineering and science for the development of rural India

Applications of micro, nano and bio-engineering for rural India have started to show success in many parts of India recently, particularly in the field of agriculture and enhanced sustainability. DAE Outreach Centre at a remote town of Pandharpur, Maharastra, had developed novel low-cost applications, which are being implemented in groups of villages within their own ecosystems. During an April 2015 meeting, the program leader Dr. Prashant Pawar (second from left in the photo) and visiting colleague Prof. V.K. Srivastava (second from right in the photo) were explaining how various applications have been developed as spin-off from research done at BARC and how certain novel refinement of the designs and processes are being implemented. The centre is now fully functional with a plant tissue culture lab, water purification system assembly facility for rural homes, solar and bio-mass based solutions to help achieving greater sustainability in agri-business. Low-cost monitoring devices for soil, water, food and agri-cultural products would require new thinking and out of the box solutions. (Photo Source: A tour to the facility during a DAE supported workshop, 12 April 2015).