Aluminium should be used more frequently - Dr Agnihotri

Dr Anupam Agnihotri took over the charge as Director of Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre, Nagpur in 2014. In a span of just five years, he has transformed the least known Central Government institution of country into a major Aluminium research and development institution of the world. Of course, the institutional process has also brought out the qualities of an institution-builder, a good team leader, a motivator, creative persona, and decision-making ability in him. In a freewheeling chat with ‘The Hitavada’, Dr Agnihotri shared his experiences in the field of research and development in Aluminium industry and also spoke about JNARDDC and its future plans. Here are the excerpts

What was the biggest challenge you faced after joining as Director of JNARDDC?
The biggest challenge that I faced initially was to make people aware about our working. After coming into existence in 1986, JNARDDC started working in research and development in Aluminium sector for limited stakeholders.

We were getting funds from United Nations and Central Government both. But we were among the least known institutions in the city. After taking charge as Director, I started interacting with private Aluminium industries to make them aware of our work. Media also played a major role in this. Today, we are working for various major stakeholders of the country and also for some international companies. n What encouraged Government of India to establish JNARDDC for aluminium research? India was the fifth largest aluminium producer in the country when JNARDDC came into existence. We had a good number of bauxite deposits and huge skilled manpower to manage this sector. Even the cost of production of aluminium in India was very low, compared to other major countries. But we were lagging in the field of technology.

This encouraged Government to establish JNARDDC to do research and development for Aluminium industry. n What kind of major issues is the centre facing to work in current scenario? Our area of working is very narrow as far as Indian scenario is concerned. In India, we have only three major players Aditya Birla Group, Vedanta Group, and NALCO. We are doing a lot of work for them. We started with projects costing some lakhs of rupees. Now, we have come a long way with our performance and we are working on projects with cost running into crores of rupees. This year, we have got a project from Vedanta worth INR 1.75 crore. However, with limited number of companies in the sector, our work also has got limited. n How Indian companies are managing their aluminium waste to protect the environment? Aluminium is a permanent metal. It can be melted a number of times without losing its property. Of the metal commercially produced in 1930s, 75% is still in use. Hence, it is known as a green metal. However, aluminium creates a huge quantity of waste in the form of Red Mud.

For example, one ton of aluminium generates 1.5 tons of Red Mud. In fact, dumping this waste is hazardous for atmosphere. Keeping this in mind, JNARDDC is working on reuse of Red Mud to extract Rare Earth Elements and to reuse it in construction industries. n What are your future plans as Director of JNARDDC? Research and development should be promoted in education system. It will help India achieve milestone in the field of research. JNARDDC has 25 patents and has published numerous research papers in different journals world-wide. Keeping these achievements in mind, JNARDDC has started working to train engineering graduates, researchers, under-graduates. We have signed several Memorandums of Understanding with various educational institutions like VNIT.

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