Guwahati: Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship on Sunday inaugurated the state-of-the-art Centre for Nanotechnology (CNT) and Centre for Indian Knowledge System (CIKS) as well as two hostels at IIT-Guwahati Centre for Nanotechnology (CNT) aims at meeting future challenges and augment academic partnerships with industry in Nanotechnology.
The initiative is partly funded by the central government with an amount of Rs 37 crore. The new facility will host 25 advanced laboratories that will focus on advancements in multi-disciplinary, scientific and translational research and is equipped with Class-100 cleanroom facilities integrated with state-of-the-art fabrication, characterization and testing laboratories.
The CNT presently hosts two Centres-for-Excellence sponsored by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) along with an Incubator BioNEST sponsored by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Indian Knowledge System (CIKS) will focus on preserving, documenting and sustaining the knowledge that is unique to India. The top priorities include Indian classical music, Yoga, Sanskrit, traditional medicines, temple architecture, ceramic tradition and special agricultural practices of North-East India, herbal plants of north-east as health food and metalwork of Assam.
Speaking on the occasion Pradhan said in this era of the interconnected world, the centre for nanotechnology at IIT Guwahati will contribute not only to the knowledge and development of India but the whole world.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, established in 1994, has completed 25 years of its existence in 2019. It occupied a place among the top 100 world universities – under 50 years of age – ranked by the London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in the year 2014.
