RNS: CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur celebrated its 71 Foundation Day and Constitution Day on a virtual platform. To highlight CSIR-NML’s glorious journey since its inception in 1950, the program started with the NML film “Beyond the boundary”.
The foundation day programme was presided over by Dr. S. C. Mande, Secretary, DSIR & DG CSIR. The Chief Guest of the function was T. V. Narendran, CEO & MD of Tata Steel. Prof. Indranil Manna, VC BIT Meshra was present as the Guest of Honour.
Dr. Indranil Chattoraj, Director, CSIR-NML, in his welcome, briefly mentioned about the contribution of CSIR-NML in the development of our nation over the past 70 years through various technological developments and pioneering works.
Prof. I Manna, the guest of honour, delivered a lecture on “Perspectives and Prospects of Additive Manufacturing” in which he highlighted how additive manufacturing is becoming relevant to many industries by making production processes cost effective with minimum waste. He mentioned that this industry is growing rapidly and is likely to rise to $120 billion by 2025. As highlighted in his presentation, this manufacturing process has several advantages and is ideal for the production of high-value low volume engineering components and devices, which find applications in Automotive, Defence and Aerospace industries.
The preamble of the Constitution of India was read to celebrate Constitution Day.
The annual awards were also declared and presented in the auspicious presence of honourable dignitaries. These awards are conferred in the names of previous directors of CSIR-NML. Chief Guest, Narendran, felicitated the award winners.
Delivering the Foundation Day lecture on “Creating an Ecosystem for Innovation in Materials and Manufacturing” Narendran mentioned that the biggest challenge in India’s target to reach 300million tonnes of steel production by 2030, is the government regulations related to the environment. He discussed the Chinese approach of having dedicated universities and institutions for research and handling issues in the production of Steel, Mg, Ti and other materials. He emphasized the need for new technologies for carbon dioxide capture and utilization and production of green electricity and green hydrogen.
Before delivering the presidential address, Dr S C Mande, released two issues of the Journal of Materials Science and Metallurgy (JMMS). These special issues are on “Advanced materials” and “Specialized and smart coatings”. The issues of the journal include the contribution of various eminent researchers in the areas of advanced and functional materials in the fields of health, environment and energy.
In his presidential address titled “CSIR: Past, Present & Future”, Dr Mande mentioned a few pioneering works of CSIR in the past and elaborated on the present ongoing works and achievements of CSIR to combat the current situation of COVID-19. CSIR has worked on several diagnostic technologies (FELUDA, Dry Swab Direct RT-PCR) and developed a ventilator (by CSIR-NAL). He expressed willingness for working on collaborative future projects to develop CO2 utilization technologies, green hydrogen technologies and High Altitude Platform (HAP) system (for applications in Telecommunication, Remote Sensing, Surveillance and Disaster Recovery).
The programme concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Soumitra Tarafder, Advisor Management of CSIR-NML. The function was attended by around 200 guests from various institutes and organizations via MS Team, 451 online views were recorded in the Facebook and 160 views on YouTube.
