Signing of the MOU between KBK, IIT ROPAR and CelsiusPro Switzerland

TRIPARTITE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING SIGNED BETWEEN IIT ROPAR, KBK ENVIRON INFRASTRUCTURES LTD AND CELSIUSPRO AG ON MARCH 3^RD, 2020

Overview-

In this age of cyber-savvy necessity, it is equally important to be technology gifted as well as technology-oriented. With a vision to use research to serve the nation and society, IIT Ropar has made a historic collaboration with KBK Environ Infrastructure Ltd and Celsius Pro today on 3^rd March 2020 in a meeting held at IIT Ropar. KBK Environ Infrastructure Ltd, founded in 2004 is focused on global collaboration for implementing innovative technological solutions to address issues related to Agriculture, Environment, Education, Youth, Women etc., while CelsiusPro founded in 2008 is a Swiss Insurtech company that specialises in offering global insurance digitalisation solutions for insurers with focus on weather, agro and parametric NatCat products.

The meeting witnessed signing up of MOUs with two IIT Departments- Department of Civil Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering. Department of Civil Engineering was represented by Dr. Reet Kamal Tiwari (Assistant Professor, Geomatics) and his PhD scholar Mr. Akshar Tripathi along with their head of the department Dr. Naveen James. Dr. Tiwari is the main collaborator and signatory to the MOU from his department. The department of Chemical Engineering was represented by Dr. Neelkanth Nirmalkar (Assistant Professor) and his research scholar Kalyani Agarwal. Dr. Nirmalkar is the signatory to the MOU from his department.

KBK Environ Infrastructure Ltd was represented by Shri Jagjit Singh Kochar and Shri Devendra Kumar Kaushik and CelsiusPro AG was represented by their Director of Business Development & Technology Sebastian Glink who joined via Skype.

Minutes of the MOUs-

The parties agreed upon the following points (department wise)

A. Department of Civil Engineering

The consortium formed by the collaboration of IIT, KBK and CelsiusPro will work to provide crop yield modelling throughout the globe.  Dr. Tiwari and his team would provide all remote sensing-based data inputs, parameters and would develop machine learning models using Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning for crop yield prediction and estimation in close association with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Ropar. Dr. Tiwari and his team would also provide field data about the soil health parameters, soil type, land parcel boundary and would develop a mobile app for use by farmers to store and send crop and soil-related on-ground data. KBK would co-ordinate in the collection of historical field data from farmers regarding crop yield.

IIT will Set-Up and do the operation of Crop Yield Estimation System on village/block level which will be used by CelsiusPro as Input for the platform for the monitoring, estimation and calculation of loss based on average yield forecast at farmland parcel-level. This consortium will focus on providing digital solutions for GOI schemes like Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for the states where this scheme has been implemented. For states which are planning to adopt their own Fasal Bima Yojana, like Punjab, the consortium will work to provide customised solutions.

The consortium will provide comprehensive technology solutions for the project provided to the Government, Semi-Government, Private Sector or any other entity operating in India and globally. IT will develop customised front-to-back solutions from pricing, policy management and settlement to climate and NatCat monitoring tools for enabling seamless settlement of Claims Under various Fasal Bima Yojna. The consortium shall intend to use the yield prediction models for benefitting the farming community and would help and ease the crop insurance process for entire Punjab state.

Prof. Naveen James, HoD civil engineering department said that study of the environment, agriculture and water are few of the key focus theme of the department, and this MoU will add new dimensions to it. 

B. Department of Chemical Engineering

The objective of the MOU is to document the terms of collaboration between KBK and IIT for providing, on exclusive basis, the nanobubble technology solutions to the government / Private Sector clients Globally in various sectors, for instance, wastewater treatment, agriculture, aquaculture, construction sector, nanobubble packaged drinking water, hydroponic system, pond and river remediation, bay water treatment, algae control etc. and many more.

Dr. Nirmalkar and his team will be providing design and technology solutions for developed Nano Bubbles Generators for various applications of nanobubbles technology and will be providing scientific input to operate the nanobubble generator depending upon the application.

Along with this, his team will be providing experimental validation/proof at the lab/commercial scale for a given application to enhance the reliability and trustworthiness of the technology. IIT will be conducting testing and characterisation of the samples from the site. IIT will be providing detailed calculations and design for the installation of the nanobubble generator for any given application. IIT will be participating in the promotion of nanobubble technology.

Photographs of MOU Signing in Progress