From the Desk of IRMA Chairman,
It was indeed a gratifying moment for us when Indian Refractory Makers Association joined hands with IIT BHU to open the IIT BHU IRMA Centre of Excellence for Refractories at the Ceramics Engineering Department, IIT BHU. The collaboration between universities and the industry is highly sought after in today's world order as a vehicle to enhance innovation through knowledge exchange. Collaboration with industry is critical for academia to create scientific knowledge and obtain industrial data. In turn, collaboration with universities is crucial for organizations in securing fresh talent and to provide the organizations with knowledge-based solutions. IIT BHU being one of the premier institutes of the country, we look forward to it for sourcing new ideas and potential research agendas which suit the needs of the fast-changing technological paradigms of the refractory and it's user industry. It also needs to be accepted that Gen Next is sometimes more inclined to join the so-called sunshine sectors like IT, venture capital or startups compared to traditional core sector industries including refractories. But the fact of the matter remains that without refractories, not a ton of steel or a kg of cement or thermal power can be produced. In want of growth of the core sector, service sectors that have fast emerged in the past few decades will be dealt a crippling blow. The Centre has a key role to play in reinvigorating the interest of the students to join the refractory industry and take up the intrinsic challenges with their clear stream of thought and scientific temperament chiseled by the IIT BHU academia.