(Chronicle note: We published the news about IT-BHU being involved in steel technology in our last month’s issue.)
Friday 17th of August 2007 A Rs.200 million steel technology centre will be set up at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, for higher learning and research in the field of steel making.
The proposal for the centre, which would be run according to the rules and regulations of other such centres in the institution, was cleared by an empowered committee in the ministry of steel, according to an official statement.
IIT Kharagpur will provide facilities like manpower, administrative and infrastructure support and available equipment and laboratory.
The centre will encourage faculty members to offer more courses in iron and steel, take up research projects relevant to the industry in India and encourage students to take up projects relevant to the sector for their dissertations.
It will also carry out laboratory trials of technology developed jointly by the faculty of IIT, Kharagpur, scientists from the National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur, and other scientists and engineers from the steel industry.
The estimated expenditure of Rs.200 million for setting up the centre includes installation of laboratory facilities to address problems in iron and steel making and related areas.
The department of science and technology will bear 20 percent of the cost, including the expenditure on the chair professor and five research fellows. After five years, the recurring expenditure will be taken care of by the income generating activities of the centre, the statement added.
The empowered committee also cleared a proposal to create a post of chair professor in the department of metallurgy in IIT, Kharagpur, Benaras Hindu University and the National Institutes of Technology in Rourkela, Durgapur and Jamshedpur as also other institutes.
The salary of the chair professor will be at par with the individual institute's norms.
Each of these institutes will also provide scholarships to five undergraduate students to pursue studies in areas related to iron and steel.
The undergraduate scholarships will carry a stipend of Rs.4,000 per month during the entire period of the course.
The empowered committee, led by Steel Secretary R.S. Pandey, also approved a proposal for conducting a study to assess manpower requirement for the growing steel industry in the country. The study, to be undertaken by the Indian Institute of Metals, Kolkata, will project the manpower requirement of different skills from technicians to engineers over the next decade.
The report will be submitted by the end of December this year.
The committee reviewed the progress of ongoing research projects as well.