Union Minister Harsh Vardhan launched three important centre's set up by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) at IIT Madras on 25 January 2019. The first one is the 'DST -IITM Solar Energy Harnessing Centre'. The second centre is the 'DST-IITM Water -IC for SUTRAM of EASY WATER'. The third centre is the 'Testbed on Solar thermal desalination solutions'.