Hyderabad: Ahead of the World Intellectual Property Day, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) hosted a special event titled “Celebrating Innovation, Empowering the Future” at its Hyderabad campus.

The ICRISAT said on Friday that the two key features during the event were marked with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BITS Pilani and an IP licensing agreement with Eco-Paryavaran for ICRISAT’s Solar Water Hyacinth Harvester.

Professor V Ramgopal Rao, Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani, said, “The MoU paves the way for cross-disciplinary innovation as BITS forays into the agriculture space. We plan to leverage our strengths in engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and start-ups to address critical agricultural and environmental challenges.”

Dr Himanshu Pathak, Director General, ICRISAT, highlighted, “Our IP strategy is not just about protecting crops and other innovations. It’s about building partnerships to deliver technologies to the farmers who need them most. This MoU can spark high-level innovation in the years ahead.