Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 4 (ANI): Petroleum major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has given an additional grant of Rs. 50 lakh to run the ONGC-sponsored Centre for Petroleum Biotechnology.

A company release said that an MoU was inked between ONGC and Tezpur University on April 30 in the university premises, to accord permanence to this rare industry-academia linkage aiming to take India closer to advanced and cost-effective technologies in Microbiology.

This Centre for Petroleum Biotechnology was set up in 1999 with an ONGC grant of Rs. 1.89 crore. The earlier MoU between ONGC and Tezpur University, creating the Centre, expired in 2008. ONGC’s support now will fuel the Centre with fresh life, to undertake current research in microbiology and biotechnology in general, and bioremediation and microbial enhanced oil recovery in particular.

The grant will be used for development of advanced and cost-effective technologies in Microbiology, mainly for environment protection

The development is expected to give a big boost to industry-academia interface in upstream oil and gas industry.

In a country, where industry-academia interface is lagging behind other peer nations, oil major ONGC has a structured framework for Industry-academia interface, with regular programmes for summer training and industrial tours for students, support to set up laboratories and academic institutes and collaborative research work.

ONGC is also considering offering monthly scholarships of up to Rs. 5000/- to meritorious students for short-term projects of national importance. (ANI)