Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with JK Paper to set up the ‘JK Paper Centre of Excellence (CoE)’ in paper packaging.
AS Mehta, President and Director, JK Paper; Professor V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi and senior functionaries of the institute were present at the MoU signing event.
The CoE will bring synergy and coherence in the activities being carried out at the institute in this domain. Under the CoE umbrella, apart from a multitude of sponsored research projects, there will be executive development programmes, expert lectures, training and knowledge transfer and other projects of mutual interest,” IIT Delhi said in a statement.
“It is a privilege to embark on a collaborative journey with IIT Delhi. The paper and packaging industry is undergoing massive transformation with an ever-increasing need for sustainable and functional products thereby driving new innovations. The proposed CoE would combine the cutting-edge research at IIT Delhi with application know-how of JK Paper to accelerate innovation in Paper and Packaging and develop solutions for a variety of end-use applications of our customers,” said Mr Mehta.
Welcoming the collaboration, Prof Rao said, “We are happy to be associated with JK Papers and look forward to the immense research and development opportunities this CoE will bring and excited to work together on futuristic technologies of mutual interest”.
Collaborations between industry and academia will benefit IIT Delhi in the pursuit of excellence and will further strengthen the public research and innovation ecosystem of India, Prof Rao added.
“The strong brand equity of JK Paper has been built through the use of latest technologies, continuous research and development and innovation and we are happy to embark on the path of collaborations,” said Prof Anurag S Rathore, Dean, Corporate Relations, IIT Delhi.
Prof Ashwini K Agrawal, who will be the CoE’s Coordinator, said the Centre of Excellence aims at developing new technologies for the paper and packaging industry in the country.
The collaboration would bring together the knowledge of IIT Delhi in emerging areas of sciences and engineering and expertise of the industry in manufacturing to create new knowledge, novel products, and train research manpower in the sector, he added.
