INAE Study Group on Indian Engineering Heritage on Metallurgy

Record Notes of the Meeting held at CGCRI Kolkata on July 14, 2012

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Participants

Prof. Arun Kumar Biswas (formerly IIT Kanpur)

Dr. S. Jaikishan (SLNSAOrientalDegreeCollege)

Prof. I. Manna (CSIR-CGCRI)

Dr. S. Tarafder (CSIRNML)

Dr. N.G. Goswami (CSIRNML)

Dr. S. Srikanth (CSIRNML) (Chairman)

Dr. T. Venugopalan(TATA STEEL) (invitee)

Dr. S. Ghatak (CSIR-CGCRI) (invitee)

Dr. Rakesh Kumar (CSIR-NML) (invitee)

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The meeting started with a welcome by Dr. Srikanth. He thanked Prof. Manna for his help in organizingthis meeting at CGCRI. In spite of the postponement of the meeting which was originally scheduled to be held in February 2012, the participation in the meeting was very low. The mandate for the Group which started in 1996 is broadly to study, propagate and document the metallurgical heritage of India and is not veryrigid. It is left for this study group to draw up a roadmap for its tenure. The Agenda for the meeting was circulated. The participants were informed about the emails received from some of the members who could not attend the meeting.Point-wise discussion was held on various issues and the summary is presented below.

  1. Mandate: The opinion was divided on whether the group should include metallurgy alone or the entire gamut of materials and engineering. It was decided that the Group will primarily focus on engineering materials, including ceramics and construction materials. The study Group will also cover Conservation studies as well as the Mining Heritage of India. Prof. S. Ranganathan suggested inclusion of Textile which also formed a part of the glorious Indian Heritage.

It was clarified that INAE Heritage Group is not a research group. Its role is that of a facilitator/enabler.

  1. Seminar and Symposium: The Group may not organize Seminar/Symposium at its own but act as a facilitator towards the organization of seminar and symposia and will provide token financial support. Calls for the organization of symposia/seminar under the aegis of INAE on any aspect of materials heritage of India will be put up in the Heritage website (

CGCRI proposed to host a meeting on glass and ceramics.

(Action to be taken by Dr N G Goswami and Dr S. Ghatak)

  1. Subgroups: It was proposed to have sub-groups which may be spearheaded by different organizations; metal (CSIR-NML), glass and ceramics (CSIR-CGCRI), building materials (to be identified) etc. Tata steel may support the sub-group on iron and steel.
  1. Knowledge management: A proposalwas made for the creation of a digital library along the lines of TKDL for the documentation of traditional Indian knowledge on metals/materials. It was proposed that this would be put up to all the members of the study group to seek volunteers who would like to champion it. Electronic space for this would be provided in the Heritage website.

CSIR-NML volunteered to contribute to the knowledge library on traditional materials.

(Action to be taken by Dr Rakesh Kumar)

  1. Monographs : Preparation of four monographs was suggested :

1-Glass and Ceramics (CGCRI). The monographs will include sustainable technologies in glass and ceramics. Prof. Biswas may help CGCRI in the preparation of monographs (Dr. S. Ghatak).

2-History of Weaponry (Dr. S. Jaikishan)

3-On Indian Heritage (Dr. PPDeshpande). Dr. Pravinhas proposed to give the manuscript to INAE, without any royalty. It can be made available as an e-book on INAE website.

4-Multi-authored monograph (Prof. A.K. Biswas) (target date 2015)

These monographs will be received and reviewed for its suitability for publication. Dr Pravin Deshpande can coordinate the review of all these monographs. CSIR-NML would facilitate printing of the monographs wherever required.

  1. Lectures: It was agreed to have Prof. Balasubramaniam Memorial Lecture every year on 9th December at Hyderabad. The lecture will be organized by Dr. Jaikishan. Selection of the speaker will be done by a committee comprising of Profs. S. Ranganathan, A.K. Biswas and Jaikishan. Publicity will be taken care by Dr. N.G. Goswami (CSIR-NML). INAE will take care of expenditure to the tune of Rs. 5000/-.

Other lecture proposals by various institutions and study group members under the aegis of INAE can be put up on the Group website. INAE would pay an honorarium of Rs. 1000/-. The lectures conducted under the aegis of INAE will have to be put up on the website.

(Coordinators: Dr Jaikishan and Dr N G Goswami)

  1. Popularization of heritage activity among students: It was decided to have an Annual Open Essay Competition for students. The competition will have an online submission, review and selection of award (Responsibility: Dr. S. Tarafder)

Possibility to bring in the existing forum BTTD (Behind the Teacher’s Desk) will be considered by CSIR-NML.

  1. The Group website: The Heritage E-Prints website created was presented by Dr. N.G. Goswami. The INAE Heritage Group website ( will be given final shape by CSIR-NML in about a month’s time. The website will include news, publications, lectures, presentations etc(Responsibility : Dr. N.G. Goswami).

Wide publicity will be given to register on the website and upload their publications, books, lectures etc. The Study Group Members are requested to upload all the material available with them to the E-prints site.

The target is to have 1000-1500 new entries every year.

CSIR-NML would provide assistance to Prof. Biswas or any other member who do not have an access to computer/internet connectivity towards uploadingthe study material(Responsibility: Dr Rakesh Kumar).

Website would be periodically updated every month.

(Responsibility: Dr N G Goswami)

  1. Resource: The Group will suggest to INAE creation a subhead in their account for its use. The Group will build a corpus of Rs 5-10 lakhs and deposit it under this sub-head for use by the study group. Prof. Ranganathan suggested that many corporate sponsors could be the alliance partners contributing Rs. 1.0 lakh per year, Needed to be explored fund, like BUMA India.

Dr. T. Venugopal, Tata Steel suggested that funding for iron and steel related activities will not be a problem and he would be willing assist the Group in generation of resources.

  1. Expansion of the Heritage Group: INAE will be asked to consider inclusion of a member nominated by DG, Archeological Survey of India (ASI). INAE would also be asked to consider inclusion of a few members from industry (Tata Steel, any other names suggested by members).
  1. Utilization of Infrastructure in Institutes and National Labs for Archaeo-metallurgical research: the view was that this cannot be within the purview of the study group since this is a committee and not an organization to coordinate research across India.
  1. E-Journal: The suggestion from Dr. PP Deshpandefor the creation of e-journal was discussed. Since the E-Prints forum that has already been created will be a repository for all the study materials, there would not be a necessity to create a separate e-journal.
  1. Meeting frequency: The Group meeting will take place at least once in six months through tele-conferencing or video-conferencing or both.
  1. Tenure of the Group: It was agreed that the tenure should not be open ended; two year tenure for the INAE Heritage Group was suggested. Prof. S. Ranganathan suggested that a term of 3 years would be better than two years. The decision will be communicated to INAE for concurrence.
  1. Partnership with other bodies: It was felt that it was first necessary to build a strong study group with coordinated activities before partnership is sought with other national/international bodies. However, it was strongly felt that similar activities being carried out by other national bodies (Science and other academies, ASI etc.) should be coordinated. ASI will be represented in the study group through the DG, ASI’s nominee. Prof. Biswas was requested to suggest mechanisms for coordination with the other bodies.

In the afternoon, a lecture was delivered by Dr. S. Jaikishan on ancient Indian cannons from south India. The lecture was very informative and provided information on gun powder to forge welded and cast cannons.

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Comments from Dr. Baldev Raj:

On Wed, 8/1/12, baldev raj <> wrote

I find the draft minutes to be excellent. Within the team, you may have to discuss as to who can spend some more time and those who are empowered with more facilities and resources. The success shall lie in establishing synergy of these two clusters to realize the results. Workshops to explore and examine characterization and conservation of metallic heritage, combined programme with major museums in India enabling research and publications, may be set as reviewable milestones, for the study group.