Education
Chicago varsity to help Karnataka clean Bengaluru’s environment
Bengaluru, Feb 7 (IANS) The University of Chicago in the US midwest has tied up with the Karnataka Urban Development Department to clean up state capital Bengaluru’s environment, a Minister said on Wednesday.
“We have launched the Bengaluru Innovation Challenge to improve the city’s air and water quality by sourcing inventive ideas from citizens, civic leaders, academics, corporations and other institutions across the country,” Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George told reporters here.
The winners of the challenge would be given up to Rs 1.5 crore over two years to test and implement their ideas, with the support of the state government and the varsity faculty.
“If successful, these ideas could become the policies that the government can implement, providing a model for other cities to emulate,” George said.
With a population of about 10 million and growing, Bengaluru is grappling with increasing air and lake water pollution.
The challenge is a programme of the Tata Centre for Development at the University of Chicago, and the Urban Development Department.
The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago’s (EPIC) India team and University of Chicago’s Energy and Environment Lab are also working together for the project.
“The answers to the problems that modern cities face today are often found hidden by those with unique on-the-ground knowledge,” said EPIC Director Michael Greenstone on the occasion.
The organisers would screen the applications over the next six months and then announce the winners of the challenge.
This project is being held on the lines of the Delhi Innovation Challenge in 2015 through an agreement between the Delhi government and the University of Chicago to improve Delhi’s air.
Some of the winning ideas from the Delhi Innovation Challenge include a device that captures particulate pollution from diesel engines to turn it into ink and paints, a device that turns rice straw into bio-char to increase soil nutrition and prevent air pollution in Delhi from straw-burning.
–IANS
bha/tsb/bg
Education
As many as six new nursing colleges to be functional in Haryana soon
Haryana Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal shared that the construction work of six nursing colleges in the state will be completed soon and classes will commence in the month of July. Not only this, the new building of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Panchkula has also completed its construction work.
Adding on to this, he shared that, till now, the classes are being held in another building, the chief secretary said while presiding over the review meeting of development projects worth more than Rs 100 crore here.
CHIEF SECRETARY REVIEWED MAJOR PROJECTS
The Chief Secretary reviewed several major projects, including power, health, medical, and technical education in the state, and directed the concerned officials to complete them within the stipulated time period.
COLLEGES UNDER CONSTRUCTION
He said that the construction of nursing colleges in Dherdu village of Kaithal, Khedi Ram Nagar village of Kurukshetra, Kheranwali village of Panchkula, Aura and Dayalpur village of Faridabad, and Sadatpur village of Rewari is under construction.
The construction work of Medical college in Koriawas in Narnaul, Medical College at Jind, Bhiwani, and Dental College at Nalhar is being completed at a fast pace. The work of the second phase of Kalpana Chawla Medical College is also undergoing.