Bhubaneswar, Oct 15: Hon’ble Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Govt. of India and Vice-President, CSIR Harsh Vardhan visited CSIR-Institute of Minerals & Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar on 14th October, 2016. He saw two major facilities on “Mineral Processing” and “Sea-Bed Minerals” programme being developed at the institute.
The Hon’ble Minister laid the foundation stone for the “Iron Ore Pelletisation Pilot Plant” being set up at CSIR-IMMT at an outlay of around Rs. 20 crore. The institute has created an R&D niche in the area of Low-grade Iron Ore Processing and has taken up an ambitious programme to design and demonstrate a Pelletisation Plant that will be scaled up by M/s. L&T for indigenous use.
In the second leg of this visit, he took keen interest in the “Sea-Bed Minerals” research centre which is sponsored by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India. Apart from Manganese Nodule as Sea-bed Mineral, he also stressed on looking at other resources such as rare earth elements.
The Hon’ble Minister addressed the scientists, staff and students of CSIR-IMMT and made particular mention on institute’s contribution to strengthen the Indian Iron and Steel industries. At the same time, he also emphasized on the need for more S&T contribution from the institute towards the development of the under-privileged and tribal areas. Furthermore, he inspired the young students to take keen interest in Science to contribute to making our nation strong industrially and socially by working on various National Mission programmes launched by the Government.
He also stressed that CSIR should contribute its scientific and technological knowledge to boost entrepreneurship driven growth of industrial clusters that would enable young engineers and scientists to find a role in Government’s Mission programmes like “Start-up India”, “Make in India” etc. It should also support creation of appropriate skill development in specific areas to foster this growth.
