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Our Bureau

Kolkata , July 29

THE Indian Paint Association (IPA) and Jadavpur University (JU), through their Industry Institute Partnership Cell (IIPC), have joined hands to set up the country's first Indian Paint Research Centre (IPRC) at the Salt Lake campus here.

Initially, the IPA is putting in Rs 25 lakh and JU Rs 5 lakh. The centre, which will also offer a one-year diploma course in paints and oils technology, will be inaugurated on Friday by Mr Somnath Chatterjee, Lok Sabha Speaker.

IPRC will mainly offer testing facilities to paints units, particularly in the SME sector for establishing purity of raw materials, quality of paint to meet Indian Standards and other specifications and also help calibrate testing instrument, standardisation, quality and certification.

Briefing newspersons here today, Prof A.N. Basu, Vice-Chancellor of JU, said the Centre was expected to concentrate on basic research to upgrade Indian paint technology and also provide technical education to students who wish to pursue a career in the paints industry.

The IPRC would collaborate with other international research centres of the world and ensure that its functions are of global standards.

"We at JU, along with industry would focus on efforts to make the centre a world class model of partnership between industry and university." Pointing out that the project was conceived some three years ago, he said all future industry-academia initiatives have to research-driven.

He said besides developing a comprehensive data bank on surface coatings, the centre would organise workshops for architects, builders, painting contractors and applicators.

Explaining the need for such a centre, Prof Basu said this was owing to lack of technology development in large sections of small and tiny paint units, and also the shortage of funds and trained manpower. According to Mr Murshed Nawaz, founder member of IPRC, the globalisation of the Indian economy enjoins upon the Indian coatings industry also to reflect the dynamics of change and development.

The challenge at the global stage was to innovate new products and services so that our markets remain vibrant for our customers.

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