Odisha initiative for partnership with Univ of Chicago

In a step towards innovative approaches in governance, the Odisha government has initiated a partnership with the India Center of prestigious University of Chicago, to collaborate in the fields of pollution control and energy efficiency.

An expert group from the University made presentation at a meeting here to discuss the possibilities of collaboration between the two sides.

Considering the proposals and views of the expert group, Odisha Chief Secretary A P Padhi suggested to start intellectual collaborations on energy and environmental issues.

"The state government is working on pollution control and energy saving measures for some years. We would like to have an independent study of the approaches adopted so far by the state and bring in international practices for making these more effective at the field level," Padhi told reporters.
 

"We had an engagement with Chicago University through Odisha Knowledge Hub (OKH) programmes. Now we are holding preliminary talks with the India Center of the University. The state will like to gain from their world wide knowledge and expertise on monitoring of pollution control and improving energy efficiency," Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan said.

He said, "The areas of collaboration in the matters of training and capacity building are also being explored with the team."

Country Director of Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC), India, Anant Sudarshan said, "The objective of EPIC is to bring economic research to the forefront of solving energy and environment challenges."

Presently, the varsity is working with the government of India and various states in reducing power theft, increasing energy efficiency, emission trading to control industrial air pollution, water quality monitoring, exploring new decentralised opportunities, crop burning, electricity reform, access to electricity and its distribution, Sudarshan said.

He added that EPIC would like to "have collaboration with state government and Pollution Control Board to bring about qualitative as well as quantitative improvement in these initiatives of the state government."

The team would hold further discussions with the department of Energy, GRIDCO and Pollution Control Board to identify specific areas of collaboration.