The Department of Science and Technology (DST) in India and the government of Sri Lanka had launched two joint calls for ‘R&D’ and ‘workshop’ proposals in June and September 2024, respectively.

The areas in focus were food technology, plant-based medicines, robotics and automation, renewable energy, waste management, information and communication technology, sustainable agriculture, aerospace engineering, big data analysis, artificial intelligence and any other science and technology area with national relevance.

In all, 438 R&D proposals and 234 workshop proposals were received by the Indian side, while 442 R&D proposals and 208 workshop proposals were received by the Sri Lankan side in response to the joint call.

The two governments have decided to jointly support 16 R&D proposals and 22 workshop proposals.

Indo-French green R&D

India and France have selected three joint research and innovation projects under the ‘Indo-French call for joint research and innovation project proposals in green hydrogen innovations for sustainable energy solutions — 2025 edition’, officials said.

The deadline for submission of applications was May 6; 37 joint proposals were received. Following a joint evaluation, the two countries decided to fund three projects.

The first, titled ‘Low-cost earth-abundant functional materials for solar fuel production’ (LEAFS), is led on the Indian side by Dr Pradip Pachfule of SN Bose Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, along with researchers from the Institute of Nanoscience and Technology, Mohali, and SRM University, Amaravati. The French partner is Dr Jerome Canivet of IRCELYON, Claude Bernard University Lyon 1.

The second project, ‘Prospect-H2’, focuses on innovative molecular and bio-inspired catalysts for electrolysers and fuel cells. The Indian team includes Dr Arnab Dutta of IIT-Bombay and Prof Abhishek Dey of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, working with Dr Vincent Artero of CEA Grenoble, France.

The third selected proposal, ‘HIPHYDUCE’, addresses high-pressure hydrogen storage and dual-fuel utilisation in heavy-duty internal combustion engines. It is led by Dr Srikant Sekhar Padhee of IIT-Ropar and Dr Atul Dhar of IIT-Mandi, in collaboration with Dr Pierre Brequigny of the University of Orléans, France.

Safer battery tech from ARCI

The International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) has developed sodium vanadium phosphate (NVP) cathode powder material and demonstrated its performance through the fabrication of NVP-based sodium-ion pouch cells, under the government’s ANRF-MAHA EV project.

The cells have been validated at the standard laboratory scale, with field testing currently in progress.

Now ARCI has entered into an MoU with Voltasun Technologies for the development and supply of 80 5Ah pouch cells, and the evaluation and potential commercialisation of ARCI’s sodium-ion battery technology.

The validation can aid the commercialisation of sodium-ion batteries, which promise to be safer and cheaper than the lithium-ion batteries widely used today in portable electronics, electric vehicles and renewable energy storage systems.

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Published on December 29, 2025