India-EU Trade and Technology Council Hosts Workshop on Marine Plastic Litter Monitoring

Bhubaneswar: The India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) Working Group 2 on Green & Clean Energy Technologies held an online workshop on “Assessment and Monitoring Tools for Marine Plastic Litter.” The workshop brought together officials and experts from India and the European Union (EU) to address the growing plastic pollution crisis and explore digital solutions for monitoring marine plastic waste, with a focus on India’s unique environmental challenges.

The event opened with remarks from Dr. Marianne Olsen, Research Director at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), setting the stage for collaborative discussions. Dr. Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, emphasized the importance of India-EU collaboration, calling it “timely and essential” in tackling plastic litter, while Ms. Signe Ratso, Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation at the European Commission, lauded the partnership as an example of effective technological cooperation.

The workshop featured a presentation on India’s plastic pollution challenges by Prof. H. N. Chanakya, Chief Research Scientist at IISc Bangalore. NIVA experts, Prof. Bert Van Bavel and Dr. Oda Ellingsen, introduced a newly developed e-learning tool for plastic waste monitoring, explaining its modules and Thermo Analytical methods. Indian experts, including Dr. Smita Mohanty from CIPET Bhubaneswar and Prof. E. V. Ramasamy from MG University, offered insights on regional needs and provided feedback on the tool’s application in Indian scenarios.

Interactive panel discussions allowed participants to engage with NIVA researchers, discussing further collaborations on technology exchanges, joint research, and capacity building. The workshop concluded with an announcement of an upcoming Ideathon initiative to foster innovation in marine plastic reduction, by Dr. Hafsa Ahmad of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, and Kinchit Bihani from the EU Delegation to India.

The India-EU TTC, established in 2023, is pivotal in addressing shared environmental and technological challenges through initiatives such as this workshop, which marked an important step toward advancing sustainable marine practices through international collaboration.