Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research has launched an Innovation and Incubation Centre with a focus on climate change and sustainability. The center, launched in Chennai, is supposed to encourage innovative solutions for start-ups that are going to focus on global environmental issues. SRIHER intends to position itself as a leader in supporting impactful ideas confronting pressing ecological challenges by encouraging collaboration between students, researchers, and industry professionals.
Speaking at the launch, Chandrashekar Kupperi, Founder of ANOVA Corporate Services, said that there is a growing need among entrepreneurs and venture investors for initiatives that directly address climate change while supporting a holistic “one health” approach. He appealed to the young minds to work on significant problems affecting large populations and transform these challenges into opportunities by developing viable business models that yield impactful and scalable solutions. He also placed a lot of emphasis on the potential for transformative change offered by innovation in this field.
This vision was added to by the Chairman of the Industrial Waste Management Association, K. Baskaran, who observed that industries were now laying more emphasis on adopting waste management strategies that include continuous recycling. He emphasized the fact that the practices that would eventually eliminate waste would bring about a sustainable and environment-friendly circular economy. The statements by Baskaran fell in line with the growing awareness and the need for the adoption of green practices on an industry level.
The key personalities at SRIHER stressed on how academic institutions are imperative for innovation and the response towards environmental crises. Mahesh Vakamudi, Pro Vice Chancellor of SRIHER, and Kalpana Balakrishnan, Dean of Research, spoke. They emphasized the immediate requirement for a new wave of public health experts to work toward mitigating climate change. They emphasized SRIHER’s research support and start-up initiatives fitting into the larger goals of the institute, which encompass improve public health and environmental well-being. Their comments further stressed the need for academia-industry partnership for long-term sustainability.
S. Sankar, Dean, Faculty of Public Health, SRIHER, invited the students, researchers, and all the representatives to join hands and work together at the newly established center. Sankar requested the involvement of stakeholders from their respective fields to undertake research and innovations leading to a solution to climate change.
The launch of the Innovation and Incubation Centre has marked a very important step towards long-term efforts by SRIHER to address global environmental issues while promoting knowledge exchange, research, and start-up incubation to bring about impactful change and create a new generation of innovators who will be committed to sustainability and climate action.