Indo-Italian Roundtable on Innovation and Technology for Ecosystem Restoration and Clean Environment

Gurugram: The pandemic that the world has been dealing with for almost 1.5 years now has shown how disastrous the consequences of ecosystem loss can be. By shrinking the area of natural habitat for animals, we have created ideal conditions for pathogens – including coronaviruses – to spread. It is with healthy ecosystems,  we can improve people’s livelihoods, mitigate climate change and stop the collapse of biodiversity. The cause of the ongoing pandemic has been one such human error which has stopped the world and forced us to rethink where we went wrong and what is important for sustenance of life on earth. World Environment Day offers such an opportunity and a global platform for inspiring positive change.

This year, the theme of World Environment Day being ‘Ecosystem Restoration’, is the most appropriate subject to substantiate the importance of healthy environment. At the “Indo-Italian Roundtable on Innovation and Technology for Ecosystem Restoration and Clean Environment” today, Amity School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (ASEES) of Amity University Haryana celebrated the World Environment Day with a resolve to go green with high tech minds and with sustainable solutions to assure a bright green future for the people of India and the global community. 

The online round table was participated by eminent panelists that included eminent scientists from ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development Dr Allesandro Agastini and Dr Vinod K Sharma and Dr. Antonella Marone and Prof. Gufran Beig, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India and Dr. H. Pathak, ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management (NIASM), Baramati, Maharashtra, India. 

The Roundtable was also addressed by Hon’ble Chancellor of AUH Dr Aseem Chauhan, Vice Chancellor Prof PB Sharma, President of ASTIF Dr W Selvamurthy, Chairman Amity PACIFIC Forum Dr. Ajit K. Nagpal, Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Padmakali Banerjee and Director AIB Prof. Rajendra Prasad. A number of Vice Chancellors of Amity Universities in India, Deans, Heads of the Institutions, Members of the faculty and large number of students and research scholars attended the Roundtable cum Webinar. 

Chancellor of AUH Dr Aseem Chauhan with his highly inspiring Words of Wisdom emphasized that “the Amity philosophy is to be on the side of the part of the solution and out education and research efforts have a strong focus on developing sustainable solutions to solve the major challenges confronting the humanity that include Climate Change, Environmental Pollution mitigation technologies, new energy technologies, wastewater technologies and innovative agri-technologies. AUH is the front runner in the fight to save the environment and to make this world a better place to live. We are on a mission to clean our environment. The idea of having this roundtable is to bring India and Italy together and come out with impactful solutions in near future.”

Prof P B Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Amity University Haryana while delivering his address said, “We need to create a New Normal of development and growth that shall guarantee our march on the pathways of green engineering and green technologies keeping high pace of development without sacrificing the interest of man and that of Mother Nature. Our research and innovations in AUH are aligned to national priorities and global aspirations.” We look towards working with ENEA, Italy in areas of deep interest for creating a sustainable future.

Prof Sharma further proposed that the august assembly should resolve today that "The right to breathe clean air and to have clean potable water be made a Fundamental Right of the citizens of the global world".  

Dr. Alessandro Agostini, Senior Scientist at ENEA Research Centre, TERIN, ITALY while delivering his keynote lecture on “Innovations in Agrivoltaics for crop production, energy generation and climate change”, emphasized on improving environmental sustainability achieved through effective integration of solar photo-voltaic with agriculture. Explaining further about Agrivoltaic (AV) systems he introduced the model of the environmental and economic performances of an innovative agrivoltaic system built on tensile structures (Agrovoltaico) in the Po Valley.

Dr. Vinod Kumar Sharma, Senior Scientist at ENEA, Italy presented the frontal research in the areas of solar thermal technologies that have been used for direct production of hydrogen and also the technologies for production of ethanol from biomass. Both these areas are of high relevance to India.

Prof. Gufran Beig, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune delivered the plenary lecture on “Drivers of air quality and climate change in Indian mega cities” and Dr. H. Pathak, ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management (NIASM), presented his keynote on “Climate Change and Food Security in India”

The webinar was organized by Dr I S Thakur, Director, ASEES and was supported by Dr Kushagra Rajendra and Dr Shruti for which excellent IT support was provided by Dr JS Sodhi and his team.