Necessity is the mother of all inventions and innovations
Nitte University Technology Enabling Centre (DST NU-TEC) is one among the 10 centres established at the national level. DST has provided the support for setting up state-of-art networking equipment and infrastructural facilities to the centre.
The national technology day is celebrated on May 11 every year to commemorate the successful Pokhran nuclear test conducted in 1998. The DST Technology Enabling Center, in association with Nitte University Center for Science Education and Research (NUCSER), Atal Incubation Center (AIC) Nitte and Institution Innovation Council (IIC) and the ICAR Directorate of Cashew Research (DCR), jointly organized an exposition technologies and panel discussion on May 11, 2024, in the University auditorium at Paneer Campus. Dr Dinakara Adiga, Director ICAR, DCR, was the chief guest, and Prof M S Moodithaya, the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Nitte (DU), presided over the event. 90 participants including representatives of Farmer producing organisations, entreprenuers in agri-food sector, Mr. Giridhar Prabhu, ex-President, Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industries, scientists from DCR, Puttur, faculty and students of NUCSER were present on the occasion. Dr Indrani Karunasagar welcomed the gathering and Dr Iddya Karunasagar emphasized the day's significance and highlighted the importance of bringing together the stakeholders in Agri-Food technology. Dr A P Achar, CEO, AIC Nitte (DU), addressed the gathering regarding the importance and market value of cash crops in this region and stressed the need to improve market potential of locally cultivable agri-food products to contribute towards the economy. The Hon’ble VC Prof M S Moodithaya mentioned how the Nitte (DU) is developing an entrepreneurship culture with active collaboration of partner institutions to develop and promote technology. Dr Dinakara Adiga, a visionary leader, addressed critical challenges in improving agronomic practices to tackle pest and disease management. In his talk, he detailed on the present growth in the Indian economy in various sectors. He highlighted that production and consumption of cashews has drastically increased in recent years, adding to the country's rising economy. He advised that technological advancement would be needed on product development and automatization, which can resolve the problem of labor scarcity. He also emphasised that more value-added organic products need to be produced to ensure complete utilisation of the organic agri products. Ms Gabriella D’Cruz, a scientist and entrepreneur, The Good Ocean- seaweed-producing firm in Goa, was the invited speaker. She narrated her journey of becoming an entrepreneur and developing a seaweed processing firm. She explained the nutritional value of seaweed and how it can be used to address the deficiency of vitamins and minerals. She also discussed the challenges associated with seaweed culture and consumption, like sustainable biomass supply, crustacean allergies, and the requirement of cold chains for maintaining freshness and overcoming fishy smell and taste to improve product palatability. A panel discussion session was held with the panelists that included Mr Giridhar Prabhu, CEO Achal Cashews, Ms Gabriella D’Cruz, Dr Mamatha B S, Assistant Professor, NUCSER, Dr Balasubramanian, Principal Scientist, ICAR, DCR, Mr Ravish Kumar, Entrepreneur- Sharanya Enterprises. The entire session was moderated by Dr Iddya Karunasagar. During the discussion, the panelist briefed about various agri-food products in their sector, like seaweed, cashews, ice-creams with natural flavours, and value addition to whey, a dairy waste. They also discussed on the gaps, practical problems faced by the sector and potential research areas that needs to be focused, for instance, effective extraction of pro-anthocyanin, a component of anacardic acid that has anticancer properties, development of higher-yielding varieties of cashew, etc. The vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Anirban Chakraborty. The participants visited the technological exposition of technologies and products developed at NUCSER and at DCR Puttur and discussed the technologies with scientists.
Last updated: 2024-05-25 07:12:15
The Nitte University DST Technology Enabling Centre, Institution Innovation Council and NUCSER jointly organized an expert lecture on “Startup and funding ecosystem in agri-food sector” on 06 February 2024 at the University Auditorium, Paneer campus. Mr Arvind Modi, Partner Sathguru Catalysers, Hyderabad was the resource person. He has over 12 years of experience in Venture Capital (VC) & Private Equity (PE) Investments. His area of expertise includes VC/PE investment management, capital structuring, valuations, consulting and has excellent business acumen with proven abilities in investment decisions. Dr Anirban Chakraborty welcomed the gathering and Dr Indrani Karunasagar introduced the resource person. In his expert lecture, Mr Modi detailed about grants, equity and debt and the difference between them. He also gave an insight about the Venture capitalists, their functions and consideration, market scalability and defensibility. He explained the valley of death of startups importance of angel investors. He elaborated on what startup founders need to know when preparing to pitch their business plan to the venture capitalists. He gave a glimpse of startup funding statistics along with valuation of Indian Start-up Economy. He also noted that startups may not have all expertise and they could use outsourcing to save time, cost & energy. He urged the young entrepreneurs to be conscious about cost and see that each cash burn adds to growth of the company and not to spend on corporate gifts for coworkers or clients. Until the idea is executed or the company takes off he advised the statrups not to waste time and money on brand name, logo and similar issues. He shared certain tips with the startups from his experience that bigger market size does not guarantee success and can mislead everyone. He also said hiring more number of task performers (doers) than managers will help in more productivity. The lecture was followed by an active participation of audience in question answer session and concluded with a vote of thanks proposed by the Director R&D Dr Praveen Kumar Shetty. The program was attended by 85 students and 17 faculties of constituent colleges of Nitte (DU)
Last updated: 2024-02-19 10:37:57
Dr. Iddya Karunasagar and Dr. Indrani Karunasagar were invited for a FAO Expert Meeting on Fish - Vet + Dialogue II: One Health and Biosecurity and International Conference on “Aquatic organism health - to vaccinate or not to vaccinate” organized by FAO at Rome, Italy, June 18-20. Dr. Iddya Karunasagar delivered a talk on “Foodborne AMR – optimizing genomic resources for mitigation of AMR” and Dr. Indrani Karunasagar moderated Session 1: One health, AMR, zoonosis, fish safety and fish welfare. She delivered a talk on “Oral nanovaccines Nanovaccines: Emerging technology against Aeromoniasis”. These meetings were attended by Dr. J.K. Jena, Deputy Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and two Technical Officers from Ministry of Fisheries, Government of India.
Last updated: 2024-07-09 06:37:55
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Committee Members
"I am happy to note that DST-Technology Enabling Center of Nitte University is launching a website to communicate with stakeholders. I hope the website will be useful to academia, industry, startups, entrepreneurs and others interested in technologies. I also hope that the website will facilitate academic and industry networking leading to the development of technologies that are useful for the society."
"It is gratifying to know that the DST-Technology Enabling Centre at NUCSER, in spite of COVID-19, is carrying out noteworthy research bringing together technologists, medical and engineering scientists to develop biomedical devices and food processing ventures which is the need of the hour. Congratulations. May God bless you and your team in all your endeavors."
"Institutional networking is the key to create an enabling environment for translational research and technology development. I wish the DST Technology Enabling Centre at the Nitte (Deemed to be University), Paneer campus all the best in their endeavours to bring educational institutions and industries together to facilitate development of innovative solutions that can benefit society at large."
"Nitte (Deemed to be University) is proud to host the DST-Technology Enabling Center that is intended to network with institutions and industries to facilitate translation of research findings to viable technologies. I am confident that the DST NU-TEC at Nitte will strive hard to go beyond the set targets in the activities and communicate effectively with all partners"
"The DST- Technology Enabling Centre has a place of pride among the many innovative centres of excellence established in our university. The DST NU-TEC will be a translational innovation centre for providing solutions that address market requirements. I wish that NU-TEC emerges as a one-stop centre for providing business solutions for the Indian industry by stimulating innovation and effective technology enablement."
"DST NU-TEC facilitates our stride towards Atmanirbhar Bharat. Academia is the prime source for the generation of new knowledge and its conversion to wealth and NU-TEC envisages an effective institutional mechanism for translation of the R&D output of the region into technological wealth. I wish all the very best to the dynamic and enterprising staff members who are taking forward this exciting new venture."
