The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics will lead the consortium with 34 member companies, universities and research organisations that include corporates such as SABMiller and Jain Irrigation.
India and European Union have signed a Rs 80-crore (about €12 million ) agreement to recycle industrial and domestic waste water to provide water to irrigation purposes. Indian corporates such as SABMiller and Jain Irrigation too are partners in the four-year research oriented project.
Besides, the two sides would work on other products that come out of waste water and also on the efficient use of water under the Water4Crops-India project.
From India, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) will lead the consortium with 34 member companies, universities and research organisations. The Union Department of Bio Technology (DBT) and the EU team would put in €6 million each for the project, Shailja Vaidya Gupta, Director of International Cooperation (DBT, Govt of India), said.
The Indian consortium includes The Energy Research Institute (TERI), National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Euro India Research Centre and M S Swaminathan Research Foundation.
“The consortium will be working on three types of industrial waste water mainly from the Charminar Breweries of SABMiller in Andhra Pradesh; the onion and fruit processing plant at Jain Irrigation , Jalgaon in Maharashtra; and the sugar factory from Ugar Sugar in Karnataka,” Suhas P. Wani of Icrisat, who is leading the Indian consortium, told reporters here on Tuesday.
kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in
source: http://www.TheHinduBusinessLine.com / Home> Industry> Agri-Biz / by The Hindu’s Bureau / Patancheru (Medak) / January 29th, 2013