In news
Several centers are being set up by the Department of Science and Technology to house major analytical instruments to provide common services of high-end analytical testing, thus avoiding duplication and reduced dependency on foreign sources
Highlights
- Three such centers set up at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and BHU Varanasi, are being operated with a transparent, open access policy.
- These centers initiated under the ‘Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes ’ scheme of DST.
- DST is planned to set up five SATHI Centers every year for the next four years.
Significance
- SATHI will address the problems of accessibility, maintenance, redundancy and duplication of expensive equipment in our Institutions, while reaching out to the less endowed organizations in need, e.g., industry, MSMEs, startups and state universities.
- This will also foster a strong culture of collaboration between institutions and across disciplines to take advantage of developments, innovations and expertise in diverse areas.
SATHI
- The aim of SATHI is to provide a shared, professionally managed services and strong Science and Technology infrastructure / facilities, with efficiency, accessibility and transparency of highest order under one roof to service the demands of faculty, researchers, scientist and students of Host and User institutes / organisations (including other academic institutes, universities, national laboratories, start-ups, manufacturing and engineering industries, SME’s, R&D Labs) to enable them to carry out R&D activities on a round the clock basis with minimum downtime.
- SATHI will have facilities for fabrication work, rapid prototyping, material testing, characterisation, new device fabrication, smart manufacturing and characterisation facilities etc., to attract and help R&D labs, industrial R&D, MSME, Incubators and Start-ups, etc.
Source: PIB
