Andhra Pradesh: IIPE aims at becoming energy hub for the country

Institute planning to start courses that will focus on sustainable energy

The Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE), which was established in 2016 by an Act of Parliament and is an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is currently focussing on becoming the energy hub of the country.

The institute, recognised as the ‘Institution of National Importance’, is working towards becoming the think tank for the energy needs of the country.

Energy is the most important aspect for any country and it is directly related to the health of the economy, Director Prof. Shalivahan tells The Hindu.

“Keeping that in view we are working on courses that will serve the country’s energy needs by moving closer to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals on sustainable or green energy. Sustainable or green energy is the future and all our programmes will lay special emphasis on this aspect,” he says.

Apart from the two B.Tech programmes in chemical engineering and petroleum energy, IIPE is now planning to start various PG programmes that will focus on sustainable energy.

“Our idea is that the institute should be able to give solutions to the country’s energy needs and that is why we are designing PG and research programmes that will focus on topics such as sustainable energy for smart cities and nano material and nano technology,” he explains.

Each of the PG programmes will have modules taught by foreign and industry experts. The students will have a one-year industry exposure and there will be a lot of focus on industry-academia interface. This apart, IIPE is also planning to start EDP (Entrepreneurship Development Programme) and about 10 programmes have been lined up for this year.