BRICS workshop gets going at NIT Warangal

Hyderabad: The project initiation meeting as part of the ongoing BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) R&D Project on 'Integrated Water Management Model for BIS countries Under Climate Change Scenarios' between NIT Warangal, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE) Pernambuco, Brazil, Durban University of Technology, Durban was held on Thursday. This meeting is intended to discuss the different processes of project with the three project coordinators from Brazil, South Africa and India and other co-investigators. This will be followed by a 2-day workshop on the use of Geospatial applications

The outcome of this international BRICS R&D project is to study the climate change impact on the water resources of three river basins, one each from Brazil, South Africa and India and to develop adaptation strategies to mitigate climate change impacts. At the end of the project, an integrated watershed management model will be developed which will be useful to the decision makers of the BIS countries.

Prof N V Ramana Rao, Director, NIT while inaugurating the initiation workshop mentioned about the great possibility of the BRICS countries working together. Prof K V Jayakumar, Dean, International Relations, who is also on the panel of evaluation of BRICS R&D projects on behalf of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, talked about the way the project was allotted to the team, based on the relevance of the theme selected and the expertise of the experts identified.

Brazil Team consists of Prof. Maria do Carmo Sobral nd Dr. Carolyne Wanessa Lins de Andrade Farias and the South African Team consists of Prof Bloodless Dzwairo, Dr Munyaradzi Mujuru, Dr. Johannes Petrus Nell, and Dr. Sudhir Kumar Singh. The team visited the Kaleswaram project on 26th June and were amazed at the magnificent project. The Indian team from NIT Warangal consists of Dr. K. Venkata Reddy, Dr. M. Shashi, Prof N. V. Umamahesh and Prof. Deva Pratap. Dr. Venkata Reddy will be coordinating this research project. The next meeting will be conducted on the progress of the project in Brazil and concluding meeting will be carried out in South Africa.