Ongoing Projects

Metatranscriptomics driven isolation of Tea root associated bacteria and their evaluation for drought tolerance properties.

March 21, 2017
| Microbes
| Sustainable Agriculture

Plant root microbiome plays the key role in plant health maintenance during conducive as well as a stressed situation and their population dynamics (culturable and non-culturable) varies with the surrounding environment. Therefore, culturable microbial strains associated with drought tolerant plants are explored and mobilized as input to sustain other plant growth during drought situation. However, the non-culturable microbes that represent substantial proportions of total microbiome are not explored yet for their beneficial role during stress condition.

C-ICE: Counteracting effect of future Antarctic sea-ice loss on projected increases of summer Monsoon rainfall

March 20, 2017
| Climate Change

Introduction

South-Asian society and economy are heavily dependent on seasonal rainfall during the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM). This rainfall has large spatio-temporal variability, the main pattern of which is expressed in an alternation of "break" and "active" phases. Break phases imply dry conditions over India’s main agricultural areas.

Analysing adverse health effects of outdoor air pollution in Delhi

March 17, 2017
| Health & Nutrition

A case study of Delhi on the adverse health effects of outdoor air pollution in a city, conducted under the National Network Programme on Human Health.

Facilitate the preparation of People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) documentation for Chorao - Madel Village

March 10, 2017
| Environment

A PBR is a document that records status of local biodiversity, landscape, waterscape elements and relationships of various user-groups with these ¿ essentially from a (local) people¿s perspective. The preparation of a PBR for Chorao would entail the vigorous involvement of the local community members through the formation of a Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC), with support from the concerned government bodies and departments and technical expertise. The PBR is a database of traditional knowledge and intellectual property of the local rural community on biological resources.

Non-coding RNAs associated with abiotic stress and their role in plant-bacterial interactions using the plant-associated bacterium, Azospirillum brasilense and Sorghum as a model

March 1, 2017
| Sustainable Agriculture

Major issues of current plant growth promoting (PGP) formulations involving bacteria include maintained consistency of field results as field conditions are more variable and there are differences in bacterial community dynamics in the field. Hence the importance of new information regarding the molecular mechanism of plant-microbe interactions and the control of targeted microbial interactions in field conditions especially under environmental stress.

Development of intumescent fire retardant (IFR) nano-composites for medium voltage cable sheathing applications

February 28, 2017
| Environment

In this study, polyolefinic nanocomposites of PP/EVA/EPDM, HDPE/EVA/EPDM and LLDPE/HDPE/EVA/EPDM will be developed. The APP used will be grafted with silane based POSS product to improve its hydrophobicity. Nanoclay and MWCNT will also be grafted with POSS after functionalization. These modified nanoparticles will be used along with modified APP to enhance fire retardancy properties. These additives will be optimized for both mechanical properties and fire retardancy characteristics. Compatibilizing additives will also be added to enhance interfacial adhesion.

To assist the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) with its Energy Efficiency Campaign

February 15, 2017
| Climate Change
| Energy Efficiency

To assist the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) with its Energy Efficiency Campaign    Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development    The main objectives of this project are to: (1) Work with Energy Efficiency Services Limited, EESL and other partners on making available affordable in India super-efficient room AC with lower-GWP refrigerants which will be successful.

Ethnobotanical survey for antiulcer drug

February 13, 2017
| Environment
| Microbes
| Sustainable Agriculture

This project will select the medicinal plants of traditional use on ethno-botanical survey of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh for their biological screening of anti-ulcer activity in experimental animals. This will help find possible anti-ulcer drugs from the indigenous medicinal plants of Northeast.

Role of Natural Gas in India’s Energy Markets

January 31, 2017
| Energy

The main objective of this study is to understand the potential for natural gas in India's energy mix in the future as its role in India's electricity sector. The project aims to identify and quantify hurdles along the entire supply chain; assess solutions from international experiences which can be replicated; analyse the cost economics of using gas in the electricity sector vis-a-vis other fuels and recommend changes that will enable 15% contribution from natural nas in India's energy mix in 2030.

Technical Assistance to the Resource Efficiency Initiative (REI) of the European Union

January 27, 2017
| Resources & Sustainable Development

TERI supports the global sustainable consumption and production agenda driven by the United Nations by supporting India in the implementation of this agenda and by promoting European Union (EU) standards and business best-practices on resource efficiency in this process.