NITI Aayog Committee for Assessment of Strategic Minerals in the Defence Sector brings together national stakeholders

By Tapaswini Sahoo

Bhubaneswar/Odisha, Sep 3 : The second meeting of the Committee for Assessment of Strategic Minerals in the Defence Sector, constituted by NITI Aayog, was held at CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR IMMT), Bhubaneswar, under the chairmanship of Maj Gen K Narayanan, AVSM, SM (Retd), Programme Director, Security & Strategic Affairs, NITI Aayog.

 The meeting brought together representatives from leading public sector enterprises, including BHEL, HAL, MIDHANI, and ECIL, along with experts from national research and development laboratories including CSIR, DRDO and officials from the NITIAayog, defence and other government organisations.As part of the programme, Dr Kali Sanjay, Head, Business Development and Centre of Excellence (CoE), CSIR-IMMT, took the delegation through the Institute’s various research, pilot and demonstration facilities, explaining the capabilities and ongoing work in mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, and the recovery and value addition of critical minerals from primary and secondary resources.

The Delegation also visited the recently inaugurated 50 kg/day fly ash processing pilot plant at NALCO Research & Technology Centre (NRTC), Bhubaneswar. The interaction included discussions on the strategic importance of critical and strategic minerals and the need to strengthen indigenous capabilities across their value chains.