MeitY Secretary S Krishnan inaugurates Centre of Excellence (CoE) on E-waste Management at C-MET, Hyderabad

Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) is an autonomous scientific society under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.  It is having three R&D laboratories located at Pune, Hyderabad & Thrissur focusing on different thrust areas on critical electronic materials. C-MET, Hyderabad lab is focusing on the development of leap frogging electronic materials and strategic materials including metals and alloys.

One of the major thrust area of C-MET, Hyderabad is to develop environmentally benign e-waste recycling technologies to promote resource efficiency and circular economy in the country. India generates around 3.2 Million Tones per year of electronic waste as reported in 2019, which contains many precious materials like Gold, Copper, Palladium, Silver, etc in addition to hazardous materials like lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury etc. which can cause irreparable health hazards to human being.

The Centre of Excellence (CoE) on E-waste Management facility is inaugurated by Shri S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, in the presence of Shri Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT E&C, GoT; Shri Rajesh Singh, JS&FA, MeitY; Dr Anil Kumar C, CE&MD, M/s Greenko; Dr Sandip Chatterjee, GC, MeitY; Shri E Magesh, DG, C-MET; Shri Ashok Kumar Khatwa, CE, CPWD. The C-MET has established (CoE) first of its kind in the country under PPP model. The CoE has developed various e-waste recycling technologies viz. spent PCB, Li Ion Battery, Permanent magnet and Si-solar cells, etc C-MET has not only developed recycling technologies but also designed and fabricated necessary processing equipment for the same.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri S Krishnan mentioned that a circular economy approach towards e-waste management will play an important role in resource efficiency, reduction in carbon foot print, recovery of precious materials and minimization of health hazards. He mentioned that C-MET has made a commendable job on developing various environmental friendly e-waste recycling technologies and transferring the same to multiple industries for commercialization. The materials extracted from E-Waste will be beneficial for resilience for supply chain of upcoming semiconductor industry. He also reiterated that the indigenously developed e-waste recycling technologies will give a fillip India’s Mission to Atmanirbharata and circular economy.

Dr. R. Ratheesh, Director, C-MET, Hyderabad welcomed the gathering. C-MET scientists, staff and students, CPWD, GoT officials were also participated.

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