Forging Environmental Sustainability Solutions in Partnership with IITKanpur
Kanpur: The rapid pace of urban development and the emerging challenges have resulted in Sustainability Metrics taking precedence over every other development indicator. Geo Climate Risk Solutions (GCRS), a company specialized in the realm of environment risk evaluation and sustainability, has joined hands with IIT Kanpur to provide geoinformatics based long term solutions for achieving Global Sustainable Development Goals. The founder and CEO of the company, Prasad Babu, is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur.
With GAIL (India) Ltd as an investing partner, GCRS is valued at Rs 20 crores. GCRS has also signed an MoU with the highly renowned National Water Company of Israel, Mekorotto work together in the water sector. The company’s key clientele include The World Bank, UNDP, GIZ, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Oxfam India, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Ministry of Environment and Forest & Climate Change, Aditya Birla Group, Bisleri, Government of Meghalaya, IC Net (Japan) and LWR.
The collaboration between GCRS and IITK will strengthen the company’s environmental risk and sustainability analytics platforms developed for critical infrastructures such as cross-country hydrocarbon pipeline sand water supply pipelines, natural water bodies, canals, national highways, railways and strategic infrastructure establishments. The company also plans to undertake joint R&D projects in areas of natural resources conservation, restoration, environmental sustainability, and waste management solutions.
Despite having offices at Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society and NASSCOM Centre of Excellence (CoE) and IoT, the company chose to set up its R&D base in Technopark@iitk premises. “Being an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and having closely experienced its research and innovation environment par excellence, it was my obvious choice of returning to IITK for setting up our company’s R&D centre. We truly feel that the association with IITK will definitely strengthen our R&D initiatives and open doors for huge opportunities,” said Prasad Babu, Founder of GCRS. IIT Kanpur, currently, has some of the leading experts in the field of Geospatial Technologies and Remote Sensing.
Prof. Avinash Agarwal, Professor In-charge, Technopark@iitk highlighted that the IITK Research and Technology Park is currently home to seven companies and three more are expected to join soon. He emphasized and invited other companies as well to become a part of this ecosystem and take advantage of the advanced research done by faculty at IITK, the best student talent available, state-of-the-art research facilities and the international partnerships.