Jamshedpur, June 18: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had inked a nearly 7 million dollar twinning agreement with the Metals Industry Development Institute (MIDI) of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia located in the Horn of Africa for capacity and capability building of MIDI.
This is the largest foreign sponsorship received by CSIR till date. CSIR- National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML) is the nodal laboratory for the twinning programme which will be jointly executed with four other CSIR laboratories Viz CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI)), CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute(CEERI), CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI).
The steering committee for the twinning from Ethiopia, consisting of eight delegates including their State Minister for Education Teshome Lemma, the Director General of MIDI, Workneh Delelegn, and six other distinguished personalities from Ethiopian industries and academies, visited CSIR-NML on 17th June, 2017, to have a first-hand glimpse and feel of the excellent facilities and expertise of this Jamshedpur based CSIR laboratory.
Through a series of presentations and demonstrations, the Ethiopian delegation were provided the spectrum of core capabilities of CSIR-NML as well as its state of art facilities, ending with a visit to the pilot plant of CSIR-NML.
During their visit, the delegates saw the Mechanical Evaluation facilities, Non-destructive testing laboratories, Materials Characterization facilities, Ferrous and non-ferrous extraction capabilities including values extraction from wastes, Metals forming, Mineral processing capabilities and others.
The various technologies developed by CSIR-NML which may be of relevance to the Ethiopian industries were also showcased. The Ethiopians were extremely impressed with the expertise, capabilities and facilities of CSIR-NML and showed their eagerness in utilization of these for the twinning activities.
The principal objective of this multilateral programme is to enhance the competitiveness of the metals and engineering industries through a transformation of Metals Industry Development Institute (MIDI) of Ethiopia into a globally competitive centre of excellence in the field of metals and metals manufacturing.