Kolkata will provide self-reliance to India

Kolkata, Sept 7: After grabbing the multicrore project Biotech park, the Calcutta University has successfully signed another MoU of Rs 50 crore with the Defence Research and Development Organisation to establish the country's first centre for Millimeter Wave Semiconductor Devices and Systems(CMSDS) here.

The MoU signed at New Delhi on August 30, stated that the building would be constructed by the DRDO and the research work carried out by the Radiophysics and Electronics department of the University, Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University Ashish Banerjee informed the press yesterday.

Though Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose invented the semi-conductor of a greater advance than Hertz in 1895, he was never allowed to patent it, following which India lagged behind in producing the devices.

Being DRDO's first project in West Bengal, it is also the first single largest research work for the university, Mr Banerjee said.

''Millimeter(mm) waves which have increased applications in radars, missile guidance and satellite communication would have future applications in P&T, railways, civil aviation and world wide television systems as the microwave frequency range was being saturated,'' Head of the research team Prof S K Roy said.

To give the project an instant boost,the state government had already sanctioned 3.72 acres of land on the outskirts of the city near the airport, said Mr Banerjee.

He later told UNI that DRDO had asked the Centre to ensure production of Rs 100 crore annually.

Previously India had been importing the mm devices worth crores of rupees from countries like USA, Russia, Germany and France.

However, the production would save a huge amount of foreign exchange. Currently USA had restricted exporting the devices due to strategic reasons, hence the immediate production, which is expected to start this year, would provide huge strategic and economic self reliance to the country,'' he added.

UNI