Telangana collaborates with UK to set up 'hotspot' for sustainable cooling

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad would soon be home to a

Centre of Excellence

in Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain Supply to accelerate deployment of energy-efficient refrigeration for food and vaccine supply chains across the country. It is being set up as part of a collaboration between the

Telangana government

and the

University of Birmingham

.

The centre will conduct applied research in food and vaccine distribution, supporting the roll-out of affordable, energy resilient, low-emission cold-chain systems in India.

Connecting British and Indian experts with investors, agri-food businesses, farmer co-operatives and energy or logistics providers, the centre will provide capacity building and training. An

innovation hub

and technology testing and demonstration facility is also planned.

“Telangana and Hyderabad are well-connected at the heart of India and our businesses rely on efficient cold-chain logistics. This facility will provide better logistics and sustainable solutions for the produce to get to the market quickly and efficiently,” said Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary to government and commissioner industrial promotion, industries and commerce department, government of Telangana while signing a memorandum of understanding with the officials at University of Birmingham in an online event.

The University of Birmingham will provide research expertise and involve UK technology experts and industry in establishing the Centre of Excellence. The state government plans to provide land and infrastructure, staff and resources, as well as a financial contribution towards establishing, operating and maintaining the centre.

“Working with Telangana will allow us to really expand the work across sustainable cold-chains for food and vaccines, localising solutions to the environment in Telangana with the skills and business models needed to help accelerate the transition to sustainable cooling – regionally and nationally,” said Toby Peters, professor of cold economy at the University of Birmingham.

The partnership builds on the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) and will be led by University of Birmingham and UN Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency (UNEP U4E) with technical assistance funding from the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). It aims to set up a solutions development laboratory, solutions demonstration centre, model pack-house and community cooling hub.

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