August 11, 2019
The exhibition covered useful technologies in the fields of health, agriculture, water, food security, and environment in day-to-day life
The health sector focused on radio pharmaceuticals, medical devices for the detection and treatment of tuberculosis and cancer
The agricultural technologies on display included 44 high-yielding seed varieties and new technologies of fertilizer production
The DAE has developed technologies for clean water with applications such as ultra-filtration membranes, RO membranes, etc
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, recently organized a two-day exhibition, open to the public, on the non-power applications of DAE spin-off technologies at New Delhi. The exhibition covered technologies which are useful in the fields of health, agriculture, water, food security, and environment in day-to-day life, not only in India, but all over the world. These technologies have been developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore, and other units of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
Technologies focussed on the health sector displayed radio pharmaceuticals – from their development, production and distribution, to implementation for diagnosis and therapeutic application. Medical devices for the screening of tuberculosis and cancer, Tele-ECG, and the Bhabhatron (a radiation tele-therapy machine) were also on display.
The agricultural technologies on display included 44 high-yielding seed varieties that have been developed by the DAE by inducing mutation to suit local weather conditions across the country. The crops, which are disease-resistant, high-yielding, and have a low maturity period, have been well received by farmers. The DAE has also developed a new technology of fertilizer production, called frombio-sludge, which encourages organic farming.
The DAE has developed technologies for clean water to fulfill departmental requirements and, as a spin-off, developed many techniques which find applications in ultra-filtration membranes, RO membranes, multi-stage flash evaporation, and water hydrology based on radiotracers. Low-cost water filters for removal of all contamination from drinking water were displayed at the exhibition.
DAE technologies has found several applications in the Swachh Bharat Mission, where bio-methanization and urban sludge hygienization technologies are being deployed across the country. The Nisargruna plant is a bio-methanization plant that digests kitchen food waste and green vegetable wastes from agriculture markets, and converts them into methane, which can be used for cooking, generating electricity, or even for running biogas vehicles. This plant can also digest animal waste from slaughterhouses.
Such technologies have put India in the forefront of technological innovations to drive socio-economic development around the world.