Thursday 15 December 2016

Director CSIR-NEERI,Nagpur



 Director CSIR-NEERI,Nagpur

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director CSIR-NEERI
Dr. Rakesh Kumar has taken over as Director of the CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI). He has assumed charge on 23rd May 2016. Before becoming Director, Dr. Kumar was Chief Scientist and Head of Mumbai Zonal Laboratory, CSIR-NEERI. He obtained M.Tech. in Environmental Science and Engineering from IIT-Bombay and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from RTM Nagpur University. He has a vast experience in all fields of environmental science and engineering, especially air pollution control and management, urban air quality monitoring, emission inventory and modeling, environmental impact assessment, environmental audit, climate change and health. Dr. Kumar has given a notable contribution in developing technologies for reuse and recycle of domestic and industrial wastewater which brought a paradigm shift in the country. His efforts have always been for upliftment and application of Science and Technology for a sustainable development. His goal is to provide science and technology oriented solutions for the benefit of society and industry. He has received 9 awards for his outstanding contributions in Environmental Science & Engineering, among which the notable ones are Commonwealth Commission Award, UK in 1994; “Environmental Leadership Award” by US Asia Environmental Partnership and US-AID for the year 2005 for outstanding contribution in improving quality of life for the population of Asia. He has been given an award for largest number of technology transfer for low cost waste water treatment-PHYTORID in the year 2012. He has been given VASVIK award for 2012 for his exemplary work for urban environment improvement and sustainable technology "Phytorid" for sewage treatment for better environment.  He has been recently awarded "Hiyoshi Think of Ecology Award" in September 2015 for his work on use of ecology in solving environmental engineering problems. He has also served as ‘Adjunct Professor’ at Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT-Bombay.
Dr. Kumar has ten patents on pollution control devices including two international patents, and published more than 83 papers in national and international Journals and 92 papers in national and international conferences. He has authored three Self Learning Books on various topics of Environmental Science and Engineering, one of them for Commonwealth of Learning, Canada.
Dr. Kumar has taken charge from Dr. Tapas Nandy who was earlier holding charge of Acting Director, CSIR-NEERI.


Water Safety Plan

  • Quantitative Chemical Risk Assessment (QCRA)
  • Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA)
  • Health based targets
  • Application of GIS and mathematical models for determining risk in water distribution system
  • Water safety plan for urban water supply
  • Water safety plan for rural water supply
  • Identification, recommendation and implementation of corrective actions and recommendations
  • Implementation and follow-up of water safety plan

Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance


  • Water quality monitoring of  chemical and microbial parameters
  • Water quality surveillance
  • Sanitary surveillance
  • Uniform drinking water quality monitoring protocol
  • Development of analytical techniques for water quality monitoring 
  • Monitoring of priority organic pollutants (POPs) and pesticides
  • Limnological studies of surface water bodies
  • Evaluation of water quality monitoring kits
  • Multi-district Assessment of Water Safety based on statistical sampling
  • Surface, ground and coastal water quality monitoring
  • Monitoring heavy metals in drinking water sources 


Water Treatment – Urban Water Supply

  • Design of water treatment plant
  • Evaluation of water treatment plants
  • Assessment of specific issues in water treatment plant such as iron and manganese
  • Design and optimisation of water distribution network 
  • Evaluation of water supply system for health related water quality parameters
  • Development of operation and maintenance protocols for water treatment plants
  • Greywater treatment and reuse  

Water Treatment – Rural Water Supply


  • Community based electrolytic defluoridation plants
  • School and household based electrolytic defluoridation units
  • Household chemo-defluoridation units
  • Hand-pump attachable iron removal plants
  • NEERI ZAR – Community/Household Water Treatment Unit
  • NEERI ZAR – iron removal unit for isolated habitations
  • Arsenic removal units
  • Development of operation and maintenance protocols for water treatment plants
  • Greywater treatment and reuse
  • Evaluation of water treatment plants/units

Groundwater quality assessment and management

  • Water balance in micro-watershed
  • Development of groundwater potential zones
  • Solute transport modelling of ash ponds 
  • Isotopic studies of groundwater
  • Protection of contaminated aquifer by designing remedial measures 
  • Development of artificial recharge sites in the hard rock terrain 
  • Deciphering aquifer geometry through integrated hydrogeological and geophysical studies
  • Water Security Plan
  • Assessing feasibility of groundwater recharge using treated sewage 

Environmental Impact Assessment


  • Environmental impact assessment for railway corridor
  • Environmental impact assessment for water resources development projects
  • Catchment area treatment plan
  • Land use/land cover mapping using Image Processing and GIS software  
  • Assessment of salinity ingress in coastal areas

Air Pollution Control Division is involved mainly in the following areas of research and development

1.   Air Pollution Surveillance and Monitoring
  • Urban  ambient  air  quality
  • Industrial air quality / fugitive emission
  • Vehicle emission monitoring and stack monitoring

2.  Air Quality Modelling & source Apportionment Studies
  • Source dispersion modelling of Point - industrial emissions
  • Vehicular emission and area source emissions for prediction of ambient air quality under different scenario in space and time
  • Receptor modellingof particulate matter for source  apportionment analysis
  • Air quality trend analysis using statistical and neural network tools

3.  Air Pollution Control Systems Design and Development & Performance Evaluation
  • Emissions generation, treatment studies and design of Air Pollution Control Systems for small/medium scale industries

4.  Air Quality Management, Assimilative Carrying Capacity Studies
  • Delineation of air environment management plan and improvement plan for major sources
  • Environmental audit
  • Carrying capacity based developmental planning
5.  National Clean Air Mission
  • Demonstration studies for Air Pollution Control.
  • Air Pollution  & Health Impact Assessment.
  • Creation of Centre for Excellence.   

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