Knowledge hub · Blog series

Reflections by Manish Kothari

Notes on circularity, learning, enterprise and policy, written from the foundry floor. Each entry has a summary; ask us for the full text.

Theme

Circularity and waste

Blog post

Circular Economy in Foundries: From Waste Streams to Value Streams

circular economy · foundry · common facility centres · ESG

Foundries already recycle metal and most of their sand, so the next opportunity lies in what still leaves the circle: fines, dust, plastic, refractories and packaging. The post sets out why recovery is hard for a single foundry (it is not the core business, scale is small, technologies are still evolving and markets must be built), shares what 29 participants of an IIF Howrah Chapter webinar wanted to know, and proposes agile common facility centres guided by a council of entrepreneurs and thinkers. Based on the IIF Howrah Chapter webinar.

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Blog post

Experiments with Circularity Models in Solid Waste Management

solid waste · circularity · decentralised · SPB

A reflection on working models of circularity seen at Muni Seva Ashram, Goraj, and at CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur, against the fragmented way many municipal facilities operate. It recalls a small biogas unit tried at Rhino in 2015-16 and describes the plan to build small demonstration units for garden waste and construction debris at Rhino's premises, linked with SPB, as a living circularity lab.

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Blog post

Is SPB Just a Product, or a Development Movement?

SPB · procurement · livelihoods · waste to wealth

Seen as a product, SPB is a measurable, waste-based building material made with a low-energy hot process. Seen as a development movement, it is about livelihoods, community participation and local production. The post asks what is lost when SPB is reduced to the lowest price in a standard tender, and how procurement could recognise the larger purpose.

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Technical note

Evolution of Silica Plastic Block (SPB) Technology: A Journey Aligned with the ISO 16290 Framework

SPB · technology readiness · ISO 16290 · SDG 11

A technical note that maps the SPB journey from concept to commercial use against the nine Technology Readiness Levels of ISO 16290: the problem of plastic and silica dust, laboratory validation, the pilot plant, field use in infrastructure, quality procedures, and the role of partnerships with municipalities and industry.

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Technical note

Microplastic Emissions and Silica Plastic Blocks (SPB): A Lifecycle and Systems Perspective

SPB · microplastics · lifecycle · measurement

A neutral assessment of whether SPB can release microplastics. It argues that release is event-driven (abrasion, machining, demolition) rather than continuous, that encapsulating plastic in a mineral matrix and finishing layers act as controls, and that no construction material can claim zero release. It proposes a common way to measure and report microplastic pathways and testing routes for SPB.

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Theme

Learning and skills

Blog post

A Practical Pathway for Internships and Apprenticeships

internships · apprenticeships · industry-academia

A two-stage approach that goes beyond the CV: a short acclimatisation in the industry for both sides to understand each other, followed by a structured internship or apprenticeship of about twelve months, so that a student moves from observer to contributor.

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Blog post

Learning Together: Why Industry Could Engage with School Students (14-18)

school students · entrepreneurship · learning

Prompted by a school student asking to intern after an entrepreneurship session, the post looks at why the years from 14 to 18 are a window of curiosity, how industry can offer the context of real work, and why the learning runs both ways.

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Blog post

Could Industry Play a Bigger Role in Lifting the Quality of Learning Outcomes in Indian Education?

education · industry-academia · apprenticeship · behavioural skills

Starting from a disappointing round of assessments in an engineering elective, the post argues for industry as a co-creator of education: real problem statements, project-based assessment, behavioural competencies, job-linked courses and entrepreneurship pathways, as seen in Switzerland, Germany and Japan.

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Blog post

From Transaction to Trusteeship: Reframing How We Value Knowledge

intellectual property · industry-academia · centres of excellence

On industry-academia projects that are priced by time and deliverables, the post asks whether knowledge that becomes usable technology should also be recognised through longer horizons, royalty-based participation and centres of excellence stewarded jointly.

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Theme

Enterprise and leadership

Blog post

Entrepreneur vs. Entrepreneurship: The Journey from Product to Process to Purpose

entrepreneurship · HiEERA · leadership

A personal reading of the difference between entrepreneurship (the process) and the entrepreneur (the outcome), traced through three phases: knowing (the product), doing (the process) and being (the purpose).

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Blog post

Meaning of Success

success · purpose · recognition

A short reflection on what recognition, such as the 2024 Indian Sanitation Coalition (FICCI) recognition for plastic recycling and waste management, means when engineering is useful to the community, and on the search for the point where what you love, know, are paid for and the world needs meet.

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Blog post

Mapping HiEERA to Case Studies Through Knowing, Doing, Being

HiEERA · case studies · sustainable business

Applies the Knowing, Doing, Being lens of the HiEERA framework to two case studies, one of sustainable business leadership and one of industrial sustainability.

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Talk

Importance and Use of Behaviour Analysis for Implementing Lean Six Sigma

lean six sigma · behaviour · quality · 5S

A faculty development talk on why quality comes from individual behaviour and mindset, why tools such as 5S fail when imposed from the top, and how practices such as the Gemba walk build discipline and accountability in MSMEs.

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Theme

Policy and ecosystem

Policy note

MSME Innovation and the SDGs: A Policy Note

MSME · innovation policy · SDG 8 · SDG 10

Start-up policy defines eligibility by an entity's age and turnover, which leaves out innovation that comes from mature enterprises. The note looks at this gap through SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 8 (decent work and growth) and weighs the risk of misuse against the loss of high-impact innovation.

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