The Role of National Metallurgical Laboratory in Ferrous Metallurgical Research and Development in India

Abstract

The world production of ingot steel was not more than 60000 tons in 1850; 500,000 in 1870; it rose to an all-time record of two million tons at the turn of the nine-teenth century. Today it has crossed the 300 hundred million tons mark and in tonnage output and value, it surpasses that of all other metals combined. Of the diverse factors that have contributed to such a pheno-menal growth of the iron and steel industry, the role of research and development in the metallurgy of iron and steel is supreme. India has not legged behind in the general expansionary trends of the iron and steel industry. It has been quoted abroad that "Of all the plans for increasing industrial output, the Indian plan for steel must surely rank with the grandest'". India's ingot steel production by 1961 is planned for 6 million tons a year. Our second Five Year Plan envisages a total expenditure of Rs. 559 crores for the establishment of three State steel plants in the public sector (Rs. 439 crores on the plants proper and Rs. 120 crores on ancillaries). Both the private and public sectors are actively contributing in this national ende-avour. In the private sector, the Tata Iron & Steel Company have now practically completed their programme for expansion to two million tons ingot steel production per year.