Light Metal Industry in India

Abstract

WHILST the metallurgy of heavier metals rapidly developed with the recovery of those relatively easier to smelt, the lighter metals such as aluminium and magnesium were first produced only in the nineteenth century. The Second World War in its train gave a tremendous stimulus to the devel-opment of light metals and their families of alloys both in output targets and range of service requirements. Whilst general progress in the metallurgy of light metals in India may not have followed related trends in other parts of the world, industrial production of light metals and thair alloys can rightly claim a place of pride during India's Third Five Year Plan now emerging from its embr-yonic stage. In most of the important light metals, Indian resources by any metallurgical standards would be regarded as "classic" and yet the same connotation can hardly be used to signify the growth of light metal industry in India. Viewed basically in this context, the National Metallurgical Laboratory's Symposium on Light Metal Indu-stry in India was most opportune in focussing the atten-tion of India's industrialists both in the public and private sectors, Government authorities and research workers both at home and abroad on the importance and urgency of consolidation and expansion of Light Metal Industry in India under the tempo of our Five Year Plans.