ONGC, IITs ink MoC to boost Modi's ‘Make in India' campaign

ONGC CMD Dinesh K Sarraf (right) and IIT Kharagpur Director Partha P Chakrabarti signing the MoC. 

RESPONDING to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' initiative, PSU major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Pan-IIT entered into a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) in New Delhi on January 19 to work towards a collective R&D programme for developing indigenous technologies to enhance exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons and alternate sources of energy, the oil major said in a statement. Pan IIT is a consortium...

of seven premier Indian Institutes of Technology namely, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Madras, IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Guwahati and IIT-Roorkee.

The MoC was signed by ONGC CMD Dinesh K Sarraf, and coordinating director for the Pan-IIT Forum Prof Partha P Chakrabarti, in the presence of HRD minister Smriti Irani and MoS (I/C) petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

Under the MoC, ONGC's R&D Institutes and the IITs shall jointly undertake advanced research and development projects for the E&P sector of the country in general and oilfield specific activities of ONGC in particular.

The MoC also seeks to “promoting internships, visiting and adjunct faculty programs, research oriented career programmes through an ONGC Scholar Programme. Within the ambit of this collaboration, while ONGC will make its high-tech laboratories available to the students and research scholars of IITs, ONGC geoscientists and engineers will also have the opportunity of working with IITs,” said the statement

To begin with, seven thematic research areas in the domain of geo-science, reservoir characterization, enhanced production of oil and gas, exploiting unconventional sources of hydrocarbons, software development, engineering solutions and alternate energy resources have been identified.

With this collaboration, while ONGC will use the intellectual expertise of the IITs, the actual work will be done at the ONGC's in-house R&D Institutes and oilfields to enable the best talents of the country to supplement each other by applying their mind on cutting-edge technologies to boost oil & gas production in the country.

While congratulating ONGC and IITs for deciding to join hands to bring major push for ‘Make in India’ campaign in energy sector, the HRD minister said: “Such initiatives further demonstrate India’s collective determination to realize full potential of our inherent strengths for making the country a true global leader. The ministry of human resource development will promote similar industry – academia linkages on a large scale and will also facilitate engagement of adjunct faculty.”

Terming the new initiative as quite exciting for the entire hydrocarbon industry of the country, minister Dharmenra Pradhan said, “Knowledge of theoretical aspects is available with IITs while the knowledge of practical aspects of energy business resides with ONGC. He welcomed the partnership for excellence through research and development.”