ROURKELA: A two-member team of Capacity Building Programme Office (CBPO) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday visited NIT-Rourkela to explore the possibility of setting up ISRO’s proposed Space Technology Incubation Centre (S-TIC) at the premier institute.
CBPO associate director Jiwan Kumar Pandit and programme manager Nishank Kumar visited NIT after ISRO expressed the desire to set up the S-TIC at the institute. They held a meeting with senior administrative officers of NIT-R which was also attended by CBPO director PV Venkatakrishnan in virtual mode.
The team then inspected the golden jubilee building of the institute where the S-TIC is proposed to be set up and visited the Foundation for Technology and Business Incubation (FTBI) along with different departments of the institute.
Prof Sushmita Das of NIT-R said an MoU would likely be signed between the institute and ISRO shortly. The S-TIC initiative envisages to attract and nurture young academia with innovative ideas/research aptitude for research, motivate and support them to initiate startups and business in the field of space technology and applications, while developing Academia-Industry ecosystem for Space Technology. The S-TIC would cater to states in Eastern India including Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar islands.