Critical materials key to tech self-reliance, says MIDHANI chief

SVS Narayana Murty, CMD, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd (MIDHANI), and Vice-President, Indian Institute of Metals (IIM), has stressed the need to strengthen the country’s indigenous capabilities in critical and high-performance materials for technological self-reliance.

He said this while delivering the presidential address at the fourth edition of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Processes for Strategic Sectors (ICAMPS-2026) that concluded here on Saturday. He emphasised integrating materials development with processing and manufacturing capabilities and called for stronger R&D–academia–industry collaboration to translate indigenous research into practical applications.

R Balamuralikrishnan, Director-General (Naval Systems and Materials), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), who was the chief guest, highlighted the importance of advanced materials and critical minerals for national self-reliance. He called for bridging the gap between material discovery and product deployment through resource recovery, recycling and collaborative innovation.

An IIM spokesman said ICAMPS-2026 brought together scientists, technologists, academicians and industry professionals to deliberate on advances in materials and manufacturing technologies for strategic sectors. It was organised by the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of the IIM. The 2026 conference focused on advanced materials and manufacturing processes relevant to defence, aerospace, nuclear, energy and other strategic and high-technology sectors. Earlier editions were held in 2012, 2015 and 2018.

TPD Rajan, Chairman, IIM Thiruvananthapuram Chapter, delivered the welcome address, while Rohit Kumar Gupta, Vice-Chairman, gave an overview of the conference. Guests of honour included K Balasubramanian, Director, Non-Ferrous Materials Technology Development Centre; C Anandharamakrishnan, Director, CSIR-NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram; and N Venkatesh, Associate Director, LPSC/ISRO.

Meanwhile, delivering the Brahm Prakash Memorial Lecture on ‘Critical Materials – Challenges in Scale up of Process Technologies and Way Forward,’ Balasubramanian highlighted the need for a stronger value-addition ecosystem in the materials sector. Citing Japan’s ability to transform imported raw materials into high-value products through advanced processing, he called for focused policy interventions and stronger indigenous materials-processing capabilities.

Anandharamakrishnan called for moving beyond conventional incremental research towards innovative, technology-driven research that addresses real societal problems and delivers impactful solutions. U Kamachi Mudali, Vice-Chancellor, Homi Bhabha National Institute, and Sandip Ghosh Choudhury, Director, CSIR-NML, offered felicitations. K Jayasankar, Secretary, IIM Thiruvananthapuram Chapter, proposed a vote of thanks.

The conference featured 12 keynote lectures, 36 invited lectures, industry lectures, contributory technical presentations and nearly 300 poster presentations, facilitating interaction among researchers, technologists, academicians and industry, the spokesman said. The deliberations emphasised indigenous materials development, process scale-up, advanced manufacturing and research–industry collaboration to meet India’s growing strategic and high-technology requirements.