PROGRAMMES

Partner Institutes:
Agharkar Research Institute, Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bengaluru, Departments of Botany & Statistics, Ecological Society, SP Pune University, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) Wildlife Research & Conservation Society. The participatory components will leverage ecology and biology and statistics students and volunteers from local communities.

PKC Coordinators:
Shantanu Goel, Anita Kane, Ashwini Keskar.

This project proposes a two-pronged strategy for climate resilience of the Pune region (A) Reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from vehicles to the best extent possible: This part of the project focuses on reducing GHG emissions through mobility interventions. (B) Create a sink (tree plantation) for the residual emissions: Leveraging the data for the tree census of Pune, this part of the project will estimate the carbon sequestration capacity for the region in the coming 3-10 years. It would also serve as a decision tool for urban planning.

Part (A) and Part (B) are conceived as two separate workstreams. This brief is regarding Part B which has commenced. The key modules of this part include (i) model plantation by land use category (ii) sapling adoption (iii) Tree recruitment (iv) tree mortality and (iv) tree growth measurements and data modeling. The decision tool (with predictive modeling) will be used by the Pune Municipal Corporation for Urban Planning. The project outcomes are scalable to other smart cities in India and abroad.

Vector Dynamics and Viral Epidemics - COVID19

Partner Institutes:
AFMC, BJ Medical College, IISER-Pune, IUCAA, NCL, Persistent Systems, SP Pune University, Symbiosis Statistical Institute, TCS

PKC Coordinators:
Ajit Kembhavi, Ashwini Keskar, L.S. Shashidhara

PKC Activities and Outcomes: During the Covid19 pandemic, PKC collaborated with the local officials to develop and implement local policies based on the analysis of the COVID-19 patient-level data. PKC undertook the data curation and processing in association with collaborators from different institutes across Pune. The data analysis and modeling helped forecast the progression of the pandemic and identification of hotspot areas as well as assessment of impact of lockdown. Periodic reports submitted to PKC helped in shaping local public health policies and a web based application to derive incident COVID19 cases over time was also developed. The efforts during the pandemic also helped initiate the project to assess seropositivity in the population.

Epidemiological Database

Partner Institutes:
AFMC, BJ Medical College, IISER-Pune, IUCAA, NCL, Persistent Systems, SP Pune University, Symbiosis Statistical Institute, TCS

PKC Coordinators:
Anita Kane, Ajit Kembhavi, Rupa Mishra, L.S. Shashidhara

PKC is currently working on establishing a scalable epidemiological database to be used in Pune region. There are a few databases existing in the city although they are mostly localized and focused on a particular disease. Data curation during the pandemic also brought to light the issues with data collection across the city such as missing variables or data points. The epidemiology project led by Dr. Vidya Mave, of B. J. Medical College will undertake a formative assessment of the existing databases and design and develop a scalable epidemiological database to be implemented across Pune city. PKC will facilitate collaborations with the local authorities and public and private hospitals to facilitate the formative assessment. The industry collaborations of PKC such as Persistent Systems will provide technology support required for the project.

Indian Cancer Genome Atlas (ICGA)

Partner Institutes:
AFMC, BJ Medical College, IISER-Pune, IUCAA, NCL, Persistent Systems, SP Pune University, Symbiosis Statistical Institute, TCS

PKC Coordinators:
Ajit Kembhavi, Rupa Mishra, L.S. Shashidhara

PKC is also working on collaborations to aid the Indian Cancer Genome Project (ICGA) to establish an indigenously developed, open-source comprehensive database of molecular profiles of cancers in Indian population, beginning with breast cancer. The initial ICGA efforts in Pune will help establish the pipelines and SOPs to undertake a nation-wide consortium project. PKC will facilitate the ICGA investigators in establishing a network of consortium partners and industry collaborations to enable the successful implementation of the project.

Partner Institutes:
Agharkar Research Institute, Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bengaluru, Departments of Botany & Statistics, Ecological Society, SP Pune University, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) Wildlife Research & Conservation Society. The participatory components will leverage ecology and biology and statistics students and volunteers from local communities.

PKC Coordinators:
Shantanu Goel, Anita Kane, Ashwini Keskar.

Increase in forest cover on Reserve Forest and tree cover on private lands within PMR. Under the forest and tree cover it is proposed to initially draft an Integrated Conservation and Management Plan for the Reserve Forests and private lands. Further, a proposal to afforest a 11 sq.km. degraded Reserve Forest in the vicinity of Pune City is in the final stages of completion. PKC will cater to the scientific/technical and monitoring aspects of the projects drafted under the tree and forest cover, collaborations will be forged with implementing agencies.

Partner Institutes:
Agharkar Research Institute, Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bengaluru, Departments of Botany & Statistics, Ecological Society, SP Pune University, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) Wildlife Research & Conservation Society. The participatory components will leverage ecology and biology and statistics students and volunteers from local communities.

PKC Coordinators:
Shantanu Goel, Anita Kane, Ashwini Keskar.

Developing a Sustainable Water Policy for Pune Municipal Region:
PMRDA is in the process of developing a Water Policy for the PMR region. PKC would like to help draft a SUSTAINABLE WATER POLICY and increase forest/tree cover in six of the nine talukas: PKC will study and help draft the policy on the following sub-thematic areas: Water Availability – ground and surface; Water Use – agriculture, drinking and household including gardens and industrial; Water Discharge – sewage and industrial; Rain Water Management – harvesting and flooding; Analysis of National, State and Local Levels legal frameworks and policies; Mapping of all policy and schemes of National, State and Local Levels for judicious use of resources and Impact assessment for climate change and methods for mitigation and adaptation.

PKC, as part of its capacity building initiative, collaborates with various institutes across pune to provide new opportunities and improve knowledge base through interdisciplinary training programmes. Since January 2021, the cluster has conducted 3 courses which were very well received. In the coming month, there are currently 3 more courses that are scheduled to begin shortly with many more in the pipeline. The courses are catered to students, young researchers and professionals to provide a platform to acquire advanced skills as well as facilitate networking.

Partner Institutes:
Agharkar Research Institute, ICERTIS, Persistent Systems, Praj Industries, Serum Institute of Pune, TCS.

PKC Coordinators:
Surendra Ghaskadbi, Prachi Pasalkar

PKC in collaboration with partner institutes also periodically organizes lectures, colloquia and webinar on various topics from leading experts in the field. The talks are open to all and provide a platform to raise awareness and understanding on different topics in an accessible format. Till date PKC has organized three webinars including a discussion on the COVID19 pandemic which brought together academic and industry experts.

PKC Coordinators:
Surendra Ghaskadbi, Prachi Pasalkar