IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao on Monday called for innovations that help cooling solutions cut down on carbon emissions and make them more sustainable.
Inaugurating the Telangana Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain set up at the GMR Innovex Campus near the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, he said the initiative for promoting sustainable cooling innovation and accelerating the deployment of energy-efficient refrigeration for food and vaccine supply chains across India, was the first of its kind initiative in the country.
Stating that it had to be ensured that air conditioning systems do not generate more heat impacting the environment outside than the cooling it would be providing inside, he quoted Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and said we may be able to switch off every operation on the planet, but not agriculture.
“The moment you venture to do so, you will be in for food scarcity. As India moves up the value chain by emerging as a surplus nation in terms of food production and supplies, it will require more such sustainable solutions. The country will need more packaging solutions too,” he said.
Phase One of the project would focus on post-harvest practices, food and health cold chains. Phase Two would be extended among other things to electronics and data centres as well, he said.
“The CoE will have state of the art equipment and will serve as a one stop solution to address all challenges around the cold chain ecosystem in the country. It will develop and demonstrate cooling technologies and solutions that meet the State’s needs and could be scaled up with global reach,” he said, thanking the University of Birmingham for choosing Hyderabad as well as industry partners including Carrier for supporting the initiative.
The Centre of Excellence will have a solutions development lab and demonstration centre, a model pack-house and community cooling hubs. It is expected to have a significant impact on the lives of farmers in Telangana. Currently, many farmers are unable to sell their perishable produce because they do not have access to cold storage facilities. The Centre will come up with solutions that will help farmers preserve perishable produce and improve the quality of goods.
Adopting a ‘hub and spoke’ model, the CoE will deliver upskilling and training programmes for farmers and local agri-businesses, agri-start-ups and entrepreneurs, equipment technicians and researchers.
The CoE is a joint initiative between the State government’s Trade Promotion Corporation, Centre for Sustainable Cooling (CSC), University of Birmingham, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the GMR Group, and is the outcome of an MoU signed between the State government and University of Birmingham in 2022.
The University will serve as the knowledge partner and will help develop the centre into a state-of-the-art research and innovation hub that will help deploy needs-driven and equitable system-level cooling and cold-chain solutions in Telangana and India.
Gareth Owens, British Deputy High Commissioner in Hyderabad, Professor Toby Peters, Director, Centre of Sustainable Cooling, University of Birmingham, M Bikshapathi, Chairman, TSTPC, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary (IT and Industries), E. Vishnu Reddy, Special Secretary (Investment Promotion), SKG Kishore, Executive Director, GHIAL, Jimmy Washington, Director Sustainability, Carrier Group and others were present.