Center of Excellence in Steel Technology
Faculty involved
Prof. K. Narasimhan (Co-ordinator)
Prof. N. B. Ballal
Prof. Indradev Samajdar
Prof.B.P.Kashyap
Prof. N. N. Vishwanathan
Prof. M. P. Gururajan
Prof. Prita Pant
Prof. Aparna Singh
Prof. N. Prabhu
Prof. Ashutosh Gandhi
Prof. Somnath Basu
Prof. N. K. Khosla
Prof. MJNV Prasad
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The steel industry is facing numerous economic, energy and environmental challenges. Globalization and customers’ demands have necessitated greater emphasis on innovation and creative solutions in steel production and downstream processing. On the other hand there is a dearth of quality manpower to meet the requirements of the expanding steel industry in the Country. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) establish a Centre of Excellence in Steel Technology (CoEST) at its premises, which was inaugurated today by Shri G. Mohan Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, GoI, in the presence of Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Bombay. In his address, Shri G. Mohan Kumar said, “Indian steel companies are now major global players and are global leaders in making; however this leadership would not be complete unless we achieve Technology leadership. Thus this steel center should aspire to achieve not only global steel production leadership, but also global steel technology leadership. He also emphasized the need for closer Industry Academia relations in R&D". In his words, the new age of research would not be performed by just sophisticated equipments, but also by networking, collaboration and integration. Dr. Anil Kakodkar, in his inaugural address elaborated the challenges that lay ahead for steel R&D and expressed his hope to see India as a leader in a broader arena of steels beyond just some niche steels used in nuclear energy where India is currently a leader. Sponsored by the Ministry of Steel, the Centre has a vision to see India as a world leader in steel production and technology. The centre will broadly focus on creation of high quality manpower for the steel industry and focused R&D on steel technology. “The objectives and activities of CoEST will include performing industry relevant research and development on various aspects of steel technology; developing highly skilled manpower for steel industry, providing consultancy to the industry, organizing training programmes for refreshing and updating knowledge of steel industry manpower, organize international conferences on steel technology and network with other organizations involved in steel technology,” informed Prof. Devang Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay. IIT Bombay has a strong group of faculty and research infrastructure in physical and process metallurgy of steel. The institute also offers an M.Tech program in Steel Technology. The inception of this center would add impetus to the current steel research being conducted in the institute and would accelerate the technology development and human capital for the steel industry. IIT Bombay will provide the infrastructure/building for the proposed center. A new building with about 3000 sq.m area dedicated to the CoEST, has been sanctioned by the Board of Governors of the Institute and is in an advanced stage of planning. |