Latest news with #NationalInstituteofTechnology
Time of India
3 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
NIT Rourkela team secures patent for biofilm tech
Rourkela: A research team from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, has secured a patent from the central govt's patent office for developing a bacterial biofilm technology that offers a low-cost, eco-friendly solution to one of industrial pollution's most stubborn challenges—phenanthrene degradation. Phenanthrene, a toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), is a common contaminant in industrial wastewater, stemming from fossil fuel combustion, chemical manufacturing, and oil spills. Traditional methods to tackle PAHs, such as chemical oxidation and soil excavation, are both costly and risk causing secondary pollution. "Our biofilm is compatible with existing biofilm reactors used in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities, particularly those targeting hydrocarbon-based pollutants. This patented technology also opens up opportunities for collaboration with the petrochemical industry to promote sustainable pollution control practices," aid professor Surajit Das of the department of life science at NIT Rourkela. Kumari Uma Mahto, a research graduate at NIT Rourkela, highlighted the broader impact of this technology, stating, "Our development can significantly mitigate the impact of industrial oil spills, where phenanthrene and other PAHs pose serious threats to marine ecosystems. It will also benefit regions with high industrial activity and inadequate pollution control infrastructure." Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Raksha Bandhan wishes , messages and quotes !
Time of India
3 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Rourkela mourns the loss of NIT alumnus in London accident
1 2 Rourkela: A 30-year-old alumna of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, lost her life in a road accident in London four days ago. The deceased, Ankita Nayak, a resident of Sector-18 in Rourkela, was a gold medalist in her batch, having completed her in food process engineering from NIT-Rourkela in 2017. The devastating news reached her family on Thursday, leaving them heartbroken as they await the return of her body to India. Ankita had been working as a frontend web developer in a reputed company in London. Her father, Srustidhar Nayak, a former general manager at Rourkela Steel Plant, died three months earlier. After her father's death, Ankita spent an extended period in Rourkela with her mother and younger brother, Sampat Nayak, before returning to London on Aug 1. She maintained regular contact with her family until Monday, when communication abruptly ceased. Concerned, her family attempted to reach her, only to learn about her untimely demise through the Indian Embassy. The circumstances surrounding the accident remain unclear, but reports suggest that Ankita was involved in a two-wheeler accident and died on the spot. The process of repatriating her body from London to Bhubaneswar is currently underway, after which it will be transported to Rourkela by road. Sampat Nayak, Ankita's younger brother, expressed his profound grief, stating, "We came to know that she died in an accident either on Monday or Tuesday, but we do not know the exact date or how the accident took place." Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Raksha Bandhan wishes , messages and quotes !
Hindustan Times
04-08-2025
- Hindustan Times
Urban India turns to Artificial Intelligence to manage civic woes
As India is poised to be the third-largest global economy, its cities, too, have undergone a steady makeover from their colonial aesthetics to a more modern avatar dotted with taller buildings, metro rails, and flyovers. However, one thing that has remained from the bygone era is the occasional appearance of stray cattle in the hustle and bustle of busy streets, and slowing down traffic movement. Worse, they cause deadly accidents. Urban India turns to Artificial Intelligence to manage civic woes While the problem is ancient, the city administration in Surat has deployed a modern solution of artificial intelligence (AI) to counter this menace. The civic body uses an AI algorithm developed by National Institute of Technology (NIT) Surat to analyse the live video feed from cameras installed at major junctions in the city to detect stray cattle, said Jigan Patel, director of information technology at Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC). 'The alert is not issued when cattle are accompanied by a herder. But, whenever stray cattle are spotted, an alert is generated with a timestamp and location,' he said, adding that control room officials inform the on-ground dedicated municipal staff for catching stray cattle, who impound them. Based on the directives of the Gujarat high court, SMC, in 2023, rolled out a free RFID tagging programme containing details of their owners for bovines before implementing a strict anti-stray cattle policy since November that year. The fine amounts increase progressively for repeat offenders, as part of a state law passed in the assembly in 2022 following the same high court directions. So far, 1,545 incidents of stray cattle have been detected, with ₹18.4 lakh recovered as penalties. The same system is used by the city to detect incidents of littering and spitting. SMC commissioner Shalini Agarwal said that this technology-enabled monitoring has helped the city to achieve a high ranking in the central government's Swachh Survekshan programme. Patel explained that offenders of spitting are often identified using their vehicle numbers detected through the ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) systems. He said so far, 12,120 challans for spitting and 35,382 incidents of garbage throwing were detected through this system, leading to the collection of ₹7.19 lakh and ₹18.4 lakh as penalties, respectively. Just like the age-old problem of stray cattle and encroachments, another issue that plagues Indian cities is that of unaccounted loss of water or non-revenue water (NRW), primarily due to leaks in the water supply network. While globally, NRW stands at 30%, in India, many Indian cities report NRW as high as 50%. The Economic Survey of Delhi 2023-24 found that about 58% of the water produced by the Delhi Jal Board is classified as NRW. However, in Pune, over the last two years, several AI-enabled digital twin solutions have been applied to improve the situation. An official with a major industrial conglomerate tasked with the revamp of the city's water supply said, as part of a trial, the company's solution was deployed in the Panchawati zone with a piped water network of around 10km. 'By using the system, we could find leakages in our network and illegal users, which have now brought our NRW to 25% currently. We are aiming for further efficiency and bringing it down to 20%,' the official said on anonymity. Based on the success in Panchawati, the system will be deployed in 15 other zones. The digital twin works on data from sensors in the water supply network to create a virtual replication of the water supply network. The AI/ML models process the live data of the sensors, pumping stations, and analyse the household water consumption information to detect leakages and unauthorised usage. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is also working on expanding an AI-based system to detect unregistered or illegal constructions by using a GIS (Geographic Information Systems)-based system and comparing it with property tax data, an official said. Another city in Maharashtra, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad), has developed an AI-based chatbot –– which works in Marathi and English –– for its official website to cater to queries raised by residents. Faiz Ali, project manager at Aurangabad Smart City, said the chatbot, unlike FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) based bots, is based on various e-governance modules covering the issuance of birth and death certificates, department-related grievance redressal systems, and making property tax and water bill payment systems user-friendly. He said any complaint addressed to the chatbot or the city's 155304 helpline is automatically sent an SMS acknowledgement stating a timeline. On the backend, the complaint is tagged to the line department official. If the complaint is left unaddressed within two weeks, then the AI-based system flags it for the city commissioner, who reviews the unresolved complaints regularly, Ali said. In Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur, the city administration is using a 3D model system of the entire city area spanning 264 sq km, which is then compared with new imagery gathered through drone-based aerial surveys every five years. 'Using the system, we can get accurate information on the expansion of buildings. In the latest revision ending March 2024, we found that there were additional structures in more than 20% of the properties,' an official aware of the details said on anonymity, stating this led to an additional property tax collection of ₹30 crore. While these cities have taken a lead in leveraging AI for different use cases, the Centre's Smart City Mission and Safe City project (through the Nirbhaya fund) has mainstreamed the use of AI-based integrated traffic management systems (ITMS) and surveillance systems. The ITMS systems have AI-based applications to detect red light violations, helmetless usage of two-wheelers or triple riding, wrong-way driving, among others, and identify violators through ANPR. These systems have been incorporated by all tier 1 cities and many tier 2 cities. Similarly, the Safe City project has cameras equipped with facial recognition technology to flag the presence of wanted suspects. New Delhi is soon expected to have an additional 3,500 AI-enabled cameras, along with 200 gunshot detection systems, from October 1 under the same project. While the number of cameras installed increases, their maintenance and usage have come under scrutiny, even during the recent tragic incident involving the death of a Delhi University student, Sneha Debnath. It was widely reported that a series of cameras in and around the Signature Bridge was non-functional. In the week leading up to the incident, HT reported how Delhi's Public Works Department (PWD) had found many of the existing cameras defunct or in need of urgent repair, while some of the previously acquired cameras were yet to be installed. Debolina Kundu, acting director at National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) –– a think-tank of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), said AI and ML are vital for predictive analytics that can not only improve service delivery, but also manage disaster risks. In that line, she said under the CITIIS (city investments to innovate, integrate and sustain) 2.0 programme, 21 city-level climate observatories are being set up where real-time pollution and weather data among other datasets will be used along with historical weather data to predict localised weather forecasts and disaster reduction measures. 'Integration of different layers of live and historical data is important for this,' she said. Smart city command centres also have a large amount of data that can be further cultivated to gather actionable insights, Kundu added.
India Today
03-08-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Ex-IITian says India's 'reality' made her go back to US. Viral post sparks debate
An Indian-origin woman, who had been living in the US, came back home to 'contribute,' only to leave again. This time, she said, with Rajeshwari Iyer, an alumna of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Puducherry, shared her reasons in a now-viral post on X. She said the gap between what she had hoped for and what she actually saw on the ground pushed her to move back to the US for used to find it funny when people said - 'The end goal of every Indian is to leave India,'' she said in her post. Years ago, she had returned from the US, driven by purpose and belief. 'I genuinely wanted to build a life and contribute. But the ground reality was different,' she felt let down by the public mood, calling it a society that 'blindly defends poor decisions' and 'applauds high taxes, no merit, and unchecked corruption.''Eventually, I packed up and left - this time, with clarity. And honestly, I've never felt more at peace,' she she stressed that India would always be close to her heart, she said she didn't want to raise her children 'in an environment of hate, noise, and wilful ignorance.'Take a look at her post here: Her post drew mixed reactions. A section of the internet backed her decision, calling it valid and personal. A user empathised with her as they said that choosing peace for one's family doesn't need justification. They added, 'Some of us stayed... and we're trying. One small battle at a time.'Others questioned her earlier "sense of duty" as they pointed out that choosing to leave may not help fix the problems she had returned to address. 'How far will we keep running? We need people like you to stay and fight,' said a user. 'If your parents thought like you, you would not have known the wonder that is India... Your kids would be fine too. Stop with the obsession of perfection,' one of the users said. A few users noted that every country has flaws, but India's 'resilience' and 'spirit' made staying worthwhile.A user politely asked her to reflect on her expectations from India and whether the country had changed during her time away. 'My sympathies are with you, and I can understand the challenges you faced. I have a few questions, if you'd be willing to answer honestly: What was the condition of India when you first went abroad? What were your expectations from Bharat when you returned? Have you noticed any changes during this period? I'd love to hear your perspective. Take care!' a user said. advertisementSee the comments here: While her decision sparked debate, Dr Rajeshwari Iyer stood by her clarity. For now, she has chosen peace, even if it means walking away from the place she once returned to rebuild.- Ends
Hindustan Times
30-07-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
DASA & CSAB Special Counselling 2025: Registration begins at csab.nic.in, direct link & vacant seat details here
The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela has commenced the registrations for DASA and CSAB-Special Round 2025 from Wednesday, July 30, 2025. Candidates willing to register for Direct Admission of Students Abroad and CSAB-Special 2025 counselling process for UG admissions into NITs, IIEST, IIITs, SPAs, and Other-GFTIs, can submit their applications on the official website at DASA & CSAB Special Counselling 2025: Candidates can register at The direct link is also provided here. The CSAB-Special and DASA have been brought under a single platform from this year. Also read: RRB NTPC 2025 mock test link activated, direct link to appear here Candidates will need to log in using their JEE(Main) 2025 application number and password. Those who have registered for JoSAA 2025 can use the JoSAA password. Along with the registration window, the choice filling window has also been opened. Candidates must note here that the last date to register and choice filling is August 3, 2025 at 5 PM. As per the scheduled, the mock seat allocation will also be displayed August 3, 2025, at 10 AM, and the last date of choice locking is on August 7, 2025 up to 8 PM. Also read: TN SSLC, HSE + 1 Supply Result 2025 Date: DGETN Class 10, 11 supplementary results releasing on July 31 The round 1 seat allotment results for DASA & CSAB Special will be displayed on August 9, 2025, following which the CSAB-Special online reporting, Institute Admission Fee-II payment, document verification will be carried out from August 9, 2025 from 5 PM to August 12, 2025 up to 5 PM. The resolution of IAF-II Payment Issue (for CSAB-Special only) will be carried out from August 13, 2025, at 5 PM. The DASA & CSAB Special Round-II Seat Allotment Result will be displayed on August 14, 2025 at 5 PM, and the third round allotment results will be declared on August 19, 2025. Candidates will be required to physically report at allotted institutes and make the balance fee payment tentatively by August 20 to August 23, 2025. Also read: AP EAMCET Counselling 2025: Last date for registration at today, apply via direct link here CSAB Special 2025 vacant seat matrix released Meanwhile, the tentative seat vacancy for CSAB Special Rounds 2025 has also been released on the official website. Candidates can check the vacant seat details at Alternatively, the tentative vacant seat matrix for CSAB Special Rounds 2025 can also be checked through this direct link. For more details, candidates can visit the official website of CSAB.
