West Bengal, India: Under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Institute of Drilling Technology (IDT) of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited to undertake several collaborative R & D projects between the two institutions. The MoU was signed between Shri. G.A.V.S. Prasad, HOI, IDT, ONGC and Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Dean R&D, IIT Kharagpur in the presence of Shri. O. P. Singh, Director, Field and Technical Services, ONGC who was the special guest of honour.

The collaborative Research & Development (R&D) between both the institutions will highlight industrial and inter-disciplinary research efforts undertaken at Deysarkar Centre of Excellence in Petroleum Engineering. One of the R & D projects for development of thermally stable drilling fluids has already been initiated by Prof. Sandeep D. Kulkarni, Deysarkar Centre of Excellence in Petroleum Engineering as Principal Investigator and Prof. Kiran Gore, Department of Chemistry which has been positively received by IDT, ONGC. Potentially, several such collaborative projects would be initiated between IDT, ONGC and IIT Kharagpur in the domain of drilling, drilling fluids, cementing fluids and completion fluids.

Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Dean R&D, IIT Kharagpur remarked, “I believe that this is a landmark MOU that will surely provide a new perspective to our Lab-to-Market translational research initiatives, by interlacing the academia, R&D and Industry altogether in a uniquely threaded framework that is rare in the national context.”

Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur stated, “As India is becoming an important link to the global supply chain and its position in the international trade dynamics is at its best ever, these industry-academia collaborations will entail to robust technological development in holistic domains and will also enable the students of IIT Kharagpur to be industry ready.”