Granted ‘Center of Excellence in Nonovens’ status
Well-known for its application-oriented textile and engineering academic programmes and close ties with the textile industry, DKTE’s educational attainment and success have come a long way. DKTE’s Textile & Engineering Institute, popularly known as DKTE, was founded in 1982 by K.B. Awade and a few other textile industry leaders who realised the urgent need for an educational and research institution aimed at generating technical manpower for textile industries.
Ichalkaranji and its surrounding regions have, for long, been a prime centre for manufacturing clothing and textiles in Maharashtra. Finding technical manpower was the biggest challenge industries faced way back in the 1970s as technical personnel never preferred a job in mofussil areas like Ichalkaranji. Thus came DKTE which began by offering a simple diploma course in textiles and has now grown into the largest textile Institute in Asia.
With its humble beginning in 1982, the engineering college has grown multifold and has branched into other fields, besides textiles. Its unique strength lies in disciplinary expertise in areas ranging from basic textile technology to far more advanced technical textiles. The curriculum is flexible and industry oriented.
The mission of the Textile Department is accomplished by offering Diploma courses, Bachelor degree, Master degree and Ph.D. degree programs that seek to develop leadership and promote academic excellence in both the student and the faculty of DKTE. The college currently offers three Diploma certificate courses, 10 Bachelor degrees and eight Post-Grad degrees, along with the facility to carry out Ph.D. within the textile sector.
The Institute is housed in the historic palace building known as ‘Rajwada’ and its campus is in the heart of Ichalkaranji city which is easily accessible from all the corners of the city. The students from different States there have taken different courses in Textiles. More than 9,000 alumni of DKTE are working successfully in various textile industry segments at national and international levels.
DKTE Society’s Textile and Engineering Institute has an ultra-modern and world class infrastructural facility in the form of spacious buildings with excellent amenities. It has well-equipped laboratories and workshops with state-of-the-art machinery and equipments. The Institute has a spacious (1,200 sq. m.), modern library, designed to meet the entire learning needs of the budding technocrats. With more than 3,200 students and 200-strong highly qualified staff, DKTE is a name to reckon with.
“Covering all the verticals, from fibre till finishing, with hands-on practical knowledge, gives the students of DKTE an added advantage while seeking a successful career after education. We are the only textile Institute in the country with 100% placements for students”, stresses Prof. P.V. Kadole, DKTE Principal, in an exclusive interview to The Textile Magazine.
The DKTE Institute, since beginning, was directed to conduct co-operative research, integrated with graduate research as a means of helping the textile industry meet the emerging challenges. Today, DKTE enjoys an international reputation for the high quality of its programs and its graduates, many of whom are occupying leadership positions in industry, education and research.
The faculty members of this Institute are engaged in carrying out research sponsored by industry as well as in-house research. As a result, as many as 650 research papers have been published / presented by the faculty members in several national and international journals and at conferences.
The Institute is working closely with international textile brands such as Rieter (Switzerland), ACIMIT (Italy), Dogetech (Taiwan), Pinter (Spain), Xerolla (Switzerland), Fongs (Hong Kong), Sedo Treepoint (Germany), Itema (Italy), Zinser (Germany), Itamma (India), Himatsingka (India), Schoch Reeds (Italy) and Dystar (India) for machinery development, training, technical support, exchange of faculty & technocrats, joint product development and for curriculum development.
The Institute maintains an extensive network of contacts with companies in the region. This gives students a unique opportunity to meet people from the industry and develop valuable relations.
DKTE continues to provide its “tradition of excellence” to the textile industry. Its capabilities have been strengthened through its alliance with numerous international textile universities such as Eastern Michigan University (USA), Technical University of Liberec (Czech Republic), North Carolina State University (USA), University of Applied Sciences HOF (Germany), Niederrhein University (Germany), etc. With this tie-up, the students of DKTE have been undergoing training and higher studies at these universities and industries.
The Institute gives equal opportunities to the students and entrepreneurs through the Government-funded projects.
DKTE awarded CoE for Nonwovens
Today, the Institute is taken as a role model for interaction with industry. It supports the industry in areas such as training at different levels in all textile industry-related areas, from fibres to finished fabric, including nonwovens, as well as technical textiles. Hence, DKTE was granted the prestigious “Centre of Excellence” status by the Government along with seven other research associations across the country.
The Centre of Excellence is to provide technical support, knowhow and all the necessary infrastructure at one place for manufacturers of technical textiles in India. DKTE has been designated as Center of Excellence in Nonwovens, and the Ministry of Textiles, has sanctioned Rs. 24.5 crores to set up this prestigious project of CoE in Nonwovens. The fund has been allocated to establish testing laboratory, process & prototype development facilities, sample bank, training facilities, incubation centers, etc., in the field of nonwovens. The project is nearing completion, with almost 80 per cent funding being invested on the best of technologies.
Technical textiles in India is at a very nascent stage. It is expected to flourish into a multi-billion dollar industry within the next five years. Hence the basic objective of CoE is to provide infrastructure and facilities at one place for the convenience of the manufacturers of nonwovens used in technical textiles and also to incubate new ideas into practical tradable products.
“We are seeing an increase in demand for our textile courses. Year after year, more students are showing interest in textile education. With investments in technical textiles on the rise, we have started to see the perception changing among people, and believe the next decade is going to be a golden period for the Indian textile industry,” said Prof. Kadole
The Institute has been regularly organising training courses and workshops for the benefit of technicians and executives of the textile industry, as also seminars and conferences on key technical issues.