IIT Roorkee, WRI India partner to advance sustainable battery ecosystem and clean energy research
New Delhi, June 20
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and WRI India on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at strengthening collaboration in areas such as sustainable batteries, electric mobility, resource efficiency, battery recycling, clean energy transition and policy research.
The partnership seeks to facilitate joint research projects, academic collaborations, policy studies, knowledge-sharing initiatives, workshops, training programmes, conferences and student and faculty exchanges. The institutions will work together on issues related to sustainable mobility, battery technologies, critical mineral value chains and circular economy practices.
The collaboration comes at a time when India is witnessing rapid growth in renewable energy deployment, electric mobility adoption and advanced manufacturing, leading to increasing demand for sustainable battery technologies, resilient supply chains and efficient resource utilisation.
IIT Roorkee Director Prof. Kamal Kishore Pant said the transition towards a sustainable and self-reliant energy future requires stronger partnerships among academic institutions, industry, research organisations and policymakers.
"The transition towards a sustainable and self-reliant energy future requires strong collaboration among academia, industry, research organisations, and policymakers," he said.
"This partnership with WRI India will create new opportunities for research, innovation, capacity building, and knowledge generation in areas critical to India's energy transition, including sustainable batteries, circular economy, critical minerals, and clean mobility," he added.
Prof. Vivek Kumar Malik, Dean SRIC, IIT Roorkee, said the agreement provides an important framework for collaborative research and academic engagement.
"The MoU provides a valuable framework for collaborative research, academic exchange, and capacity-building initiatives," he said.
"By combining IIT Roorkee's research strengths with WRI India's expertise in sustainable development and policy engagement, we aim to create meaningful outcomes that contribute to technological advancement and evidence-based decision-making," Malik added.
The agreement was signed by Prof. Vivek Kumar Malik, Dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC) at IIT Roorkee, and Pawan Kumar Mulukutla, Executive Program Director for Integrated Transport, Clean Air and Hydrogen at WRI India.
— IANS
Reader Comments
Finally some serious attention to battery recycling! We're going to have millions of tonnes of lithium-ion waste in a decade, and most Indian cities aren't prepared. This partnership should focus heavily on setting up recycling infrastructure alongside research. Let's not repeat the e-waste mistake. ♻️
Good to see Indian institutions collaborating with global experts. The critical mineral value chain focus is crucial — we have lithium reserves in Jammu & Kashmir and rare earths in Odisha. Now's the time to build domestic processing capabilities. This MoU could pave the way for more such partnerships.
Nice initiative, but I hope this isn't another MoU that remains on paper. WRI India has done decent work in transport, so that's promising. Would love to see specific timelines and deliverables — student exchanges, specific recycling pilots in UP or Tamil Nadu. Also, please include local startups in the loop. They're the ones actually building solutions on the ground.
This is the kind of multi-stakeholder approach we need — academia + policy think tank. The circular economy aspect is especially important. IITs have world-class engineering, and WRI India has the policy network. If they can also bring in industry partners like Tata Chemicals or Exide, this could really jumpstart India's battery ecosystem.
Encouraging to see an MoU that covers both technology and policy. India's EV transition can't succeed without affordable, sustainable batteries. The critical mineral supply chain is geopolitical — we need to diversify beyond China. This partnership should actively explore sodium-ion and other alternative chemistries too.
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