The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : CPRI invites 300 experts to use its facilities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

CPRI invites 300 experts to use its facilities

M. Raghuram

BANGALORE: The Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), headquartered in Bangalore, is all set to intensify efforts to initiate research in the power sector, and is ready to emerge as a national centre for collaborative and advanced research.

It is also involved in giving effect to the National Perspective Plan in research in power and energy management.

The CPRI has sent 300 invitations to experts all over the country offering its campus facilities for research. Speaking to The Hindu, Director General of CPRI A.K. Tripathy said that “large power corporations in India spend as little as .5 per cent of their turnover on research and development activities while elsewhere power corporations, including General Electric, Westinghouse, Siemens, spend 2 per cent to 3 per cent of their earnings on such activities. Manufacturers and producers spend more than 6 per cent of their earnings on research”.

He said that at a time when India was experiencing a spurt in growth in infrastructure, the power sector should start expanding, particularly in the field of production, transmission and distribution.

Realising the importance of research and development in the power sector, the Ministry of Energy constituted a standing committee on research and development to frame the 15-year National Perspective Plan.

While formulating the National Perspective Plan, it is important to critically review the growth of the power sector, assess the existing research and development infrastructure in the country and identify the crucial research and development needs for the power sector. All the key public sector players in the power sector have participated in this task and brought out a research and development plan report, Dr. Tripathy said.

Chairman of the Central Electricity Authority Rakeshnath, who was also the chairman of the National Perspective Plan, was keen to see the plan well defined. The authority and the CPRI would like to infuse a “consortium approach” into the research projects, he added.

Dr. Tripathy said the CPRI had adequate infrastructure for promoting research nationally.

The CPRI launched the Centre for Collaborative and Advance Research (CCAR) in 2006 with an explicit objective to give impetus to collaborative research work in various fields such as electronics, electricals, cables, transformers and turbines.

He said CPRI and CCAR can together become the nodal centre for fruition of the National Perspective Plan.

He said experts from Sri Lanka and Japan have also shown interest in the research programmes and the facilities offered by the CPRI.

The CPRI was also involved in various projects with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

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