New Delhi: ITC Limited, one of India’s leading multi-business conglomerates and a sustainability exemplar, has signed an MoU with IIT Delhi to support research in identified STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) areas for accelerating India’s journey towards achieving its Sustainable Development Goals.

Currently, the areas identified for research are energy storage, low carbon cold transportation, and plastic bio degradation to name a few and will further pave wave for more research in the areas of mutual interest.

Speaking  of the partnership, Mr. Prabhakar Lingareddy, Executive Vice President and Head - Social Investments, ITC Limited stated, “ITC has over the years pursued a mission of environmental stewardship through a wide spectrum of large-scale interventions together with a mosaic of programmes for societal development. The company has embarked on the next horizon of sustainable excellence with a comprehensive Sustainability 2.0 vision, which resolves to ‘Build Back Better’. The redefined Sustainability 2.0 Vision with ambitious targets calls for inclusive strategies that can support even more livelihoods, pursue newer pathways to fight climate change, support circular economy and enable transition to a net zero ecosystem, thus contributing meaningfully to the nation’s NDC commitments and SDG Goals.”

Mr. Lingareddy further stated, “Over the years, while rapid strides have been taken towards achieving these goals, there are several areas that still require development of viable technology solutions to enable scale up and a transformational impact. It is ITC’s objective to leverage the technical expertise of institutions such as IITs and support R&D activities in identified areas, which will accelerate India’s journey towards achieving its SDGs.”

Prof. Sunil Kumar Khare, Dean, Research & Development, IIT Delhi, said, “The industry is undergoing massive transformation with ever-increasing need for sustainable and functional products that are driving new innovations. The collaboration will combine the cutting-edge research at IIT Delhi with application know-how of ITC to accelerate innovation and develop solutions for a variety of end-use applications of our customers and society at large”.

Commenting on the agreement, Prof Anurag Rathore, Dean, Corporate Relations, IIT Delhi, said, “We are happy to be associated with ITC. Sustainability is the DNA of ITC’s corporate philosophy and we look forward to exploring more collaboration channels of mutual interest that will fuel innovation and ideation of novel technologies and products.”

Prof Rathore added that IIT Delhi had made significant contributions in many areas including academic activities, research, innovation and technology development. Collaboration between the industry and academia will help us in our pursuit of excellence and also further strengthen the public research and innovation ecosystem of India.

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