InFocus
Sweet rewards
Sugar technology promises

With the oil prices shooting up in the international market every now and then, the need of finding substitutes — like blending alcohol with oil — to rein in the prices is being felt acutely for the past couple of years.

Experts are of the view that this substitution could bring down the prices of oil to some extent and bring relief to the burgeoning middle class that is feeling the maximum pinch. Even Mani Shankar Aiyar, Petroleum Minister, has been consulting oil majors and public sector oil units of the country to reach a consensus on the issue.

In this scenario, the B.Tech (Sugar and Alcohol Technology) course being run by the Department of Applied Chemical Sciences and Technology, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, holds bright prospects for the students of the non-medical stream, who are looking for job-oriented courses after plus two.

The admission to the course is done on merit and the candidates will have to clear an All-India entrance test to be held on June 24.

Kamal Jit Singh, Head of the Department, says that this is four-year degree course approved by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). It was started in 1988 to meet the requirement of technically trained personnel for the expanding sugar industry in the country. However, keeping in mind the demand of the industry, the university has upgraded and re-designed the sugar technology course into a sugar and alcohol technology with specialisation in sugar-alcohol-electricity (co-generation).

Besides theory, the thrust of the course was on imparting practical training to students. For this, eight-month-long industrial training is given, a report of which has to be submitted by every student, he elaborates.

In addition, the department organises a three-week educational industrial tour every year in which students, accompanied by teachers, visit various leading sugar factories and distilleries in the country. The thrust areas of the course are sugar manufacturing, potable and power alcohol technology and co-generation technology, he adds.