Chennai: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has collaborated with the Rural Technology Action Groups (RuTAG) of six other IITs to organise a three-day International Conference on ‘Rural Technology Development and Delivery’ with the objective of attracting more mainstream research in rural technologies.
IIT Madras has brought together RuTAG teams, faculty, and students from other IITs in addition to organisations working in related fields to discuss achievements, difficulties and the way forward.
What is RuTAG
RuTAG is an initiative conceptualised and supported by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India as a mechanism to provide high demand-driven Science and Technology interventions for rural areas through IITs and other technical institutions.
RuTAG centres have been established at seven IITs (Madras, Guwahati, Kharagpur, Delhi, Roorkee, Bombay, and Kanpur).
About the Conference
“This conference is an attempt to devise innovative approaches in technology that can yield sustainable solutions to rural problems and contribute to a better quality of living. Rural Technology is a very interesting area. I commend all of you working in this area as you won’t find such interesting problems in conventional areas. A major difference for researchers working in rural technologies is that the problem statements will come from environments that are alien to most researchers.” said Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, at the inauguration of the conference, reports edexlive.com.
“The bulk of the people who take up a problem statement in rural technologies are not from rural India and hence have difficulty in factoring in aspects other than science and technology. That is part of the challenge – understanding the constraints under which the solutions must work in rural India such as financial, infrastructural and others. Yet, in the next few years, the opportunities are going to be higher as awareness has been increasing across India. I want you all to work more with the users in partnership mode to get continuous inputs on what will work and won’t work,” professor Ramamurthi added.
The theme of the Conference
- Innovative Designs for Rural Livelihoods
- Rural Water Resources
- Energy Applications in rural areas
- Rural Landscapes and Rural Environment
- Smart Technologies for Rural Development: Education, Healthcare and ICT mobile apps.
Over 150 participants including researchers, policymakers and industry partners are participating in this conference. The event, through paper presentations and speaker discussions, focuses on ‘Dissemination and Scaling of Rural Innovations’ and will be exploring the possibility of attracting funding through Government schemes and CSR grants, among other options.