Bhubaneswar: The member secretary, economic advisory committee to prime minister, Ratan P Watal, inaugurated the three-day “Capacity Building and Awareness Programme on Aluminium” , here on Thursday.

The programme is oranised by the ministry of mines and NITI Aayog together with Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC),  Aluminium Association of India (AAI), Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) and Aluminium Secondary Manufacturers Association (ASMA).

The director JNARDDC, Anupam Agnihotri, senior consultant, office of principal scientific advisor to government of India, Dr B N Satpathy, director, ministry of mines, Amit Saran, Hindalco MCoE Bibhu Mishra, Nalco executive director, mines, Sharanan Chaudhuri and MRAI vice president Kishore Rajpurohit graced the inaugural ceremony.

Speaking on the occasioin, Watal stressed the need for  circular economy (in which resources are kept in use for as long as possible, the maximum value is extracted from them whilst in use, the products and materials are recovered and regenerated at the  end of each product  life) and resource efficiency in view of depleting natural resources in global competition. For sustainable development, Auminium resource efficiency is key element necessitating great attention at waste materials such as bauxite residue (red mud), fly ash, spent pot lining (SPL), dross and recycling of aluminium.

Agnihotri affirmed the commitment of JNARDDC to contribute in every possible way in achieving resource efficiency in aluminium industry which can become zero waste industry and carbon neutral by 2030-35 with concerted efforts of everybody involved.  Agnihotri advocated the establishment of regulatory authority (on similar lines like Bureau of Energy Efficiency –BEE- under Ministry of Power) which will help in conserving the resources enhancing cost competitiveness. 

The programme has received widespread participation from all three primary aluminium producing companies- Nalco, Vedanta and Hindalco-, MRAI, ASMA, Secondary aluminium industries, representatives from government organisations- NITI Aayog, ministry of environment and climate change, CPCB, SPCB, BARC, IBM and BIS- as well as from technology providers, young entrepreneurs, academicians and students.

Deliberation in next two days will focus on following aspects of resource efficiency in aluminium.