Sustainability and Waste Management in India
RWTH India Alumni Insights Web Seminar Series
RWTH India Alumni Insights is an online event series that was created to offer RWTH alumni a platform to share their journeys at the University and beyond with like-minded individuals. It is a collaboration between RWTH's Alumni Team and International Office, the latter having estab-lished a local presence in New Delhi in March 2021 to support the University's activities in and with India.
On February 10, the second session of India Alumni Insights was opened by Professor Bernd Markert, RWTH’s Rector’s Delegate for Alumni, and featured Anil Gokarn as the main speaker. Anil Gokarn, the founder of ProEarth Ecosystems and an alumnus of RWTH, shared his varied insights and experiences with the audience. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, he first worked in the automotive industry, gaining experience at companies such as ZF Group and Tata Motors. However, he then saw the dire need for improvement in waste management in India and decided to pivot away from the automotive industry to focus on this important issue instead.
During his talk, Anil Gokarn gave a valuable glimpse into the state of waste management in India. He discussed the various challenges and opportunities in the industry, and shared the ap-proaches he and his team at ProEarth Ecosystems take to address them. He highlighted the typical journey of waste in India, and that it effectively ends up in large landfills around the country, with one site in Delhi now measuring 65 meters in height. Thus, an overall paradigm shift – away from a linear towards a circular economy – has to be the way forward. Anil Gokarn is confident that the coming years will bring an increased awareness in society and that more entrepreneurs will choose to start businesses in this sector. These past few years have shown that this change is not only necessary but also possible.
One of the main focuses of ProEarth Ecosystems is to provide services for communities and companies designed to help them effectively manage their waste – in theory and practice. Addi-tionally, the company is committed to educating people from all walks of life about the importance of waste management and how to implement it in practice. For example, hands-on training solu-tions designed by Anil Gokarn and his team empower lower-income workers to earn a living with waste management for communities.
Anil Gokarn’s talk at the India Alumni Insights event is a perfect example of how meaningful dis-cussions and exchanging ideas can develop among RWTH’s alums with the support of their al-ma mater.
The insights and experiences shared by alumni like Anil Gokarn are invaluable for current and future generations of RWTH students, who can learn from their successes and challenges and gain a deeper understanding of the various opportunities that exist in the field.
Waste management is an important issue not just in India but all around the world. The ap-proaches developed and used by ProEarth Ecosystems clearly demonstrate the team’s com-mitment to finding solutions to this complex problem. By working together, alums, students, re-searchers, and organizations can continue to make progress in improving waste management and creating a more sustainable future for everyone.
RWTH Aachen University and Its Connections to India
The RWTH India Office, among others, helps facilitate these India Alumni Insights web seminars and works on strengthening the University’s alumni network in India. It serves as an essential contact point for students and researchers and is responsible for promoting RWTH’s Fast-Track Bachelor Admission Program, for industry outreach, and supporting the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability. The RWTH India Office collaborates with organizations such as the German Centre for Research and Innovation, DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/German Research Foundation), Goethe-Institut, and other German universities with ties to India. One of the main goals of the RWTH India Office is to facilitate collaborations between RWTH and institutions and organizations in India. This includes supporting research collaborations, student exchanges, and partnerships between industry and academia.
India is a key partner country in RWTH's Internationalization Strategy. The University has established partnerships with IIT Madras, IISc Bangalore, IIT Mandi, and IIT Delhi, which form the basis for successful collaboration and exchange of students and researchers. RWTH and IIT Madras have a historically established and successful strategic partnership and research activities at both institutions are supported by the International Office through Junior and Senior Research Fellowships. The two institutions also jointly coordinate the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) to promote German-Indian exchanges for students and researchers to specifically tackle sustainability topics.
The “Global Water and Climate Adaptation Centre – Aachen, Bangkok, Chennai, Dresden (ABCD)” was set up at IIT Madras in mid-2021. The ABCD-Centre is dedicated to addressing urgent global problems of water and climate adaptation and offers various collaboration and exchange opportunities for RWTH researchers and students. It is financed by the DAAD, using funds from the German Foreign Office.
In addition to the RWTH India Office in New Delhi headed by Benjamin Pfrang, the RWTH International Academy gGmbh and the Institute of General Mechanics (IAM) have launched AcademyIAM India with its own office in Pune headed by Dr. Sandeep Patil, to recruit Indian students for master’s degree programs at RWTH and to establish research-based collaborations with renowned Indian universities.
– Author: Benjamin Pfrang