Keeping in line with Prime Minister Modi’s stress on stronger and long-term cooperation between African countries and India for mutual benefits in the areas of agriculture, women empowerment, rural development, infrastructure etc., while addressing the annual meeting of African Development Bank at Gujarat recently, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has entered into an agreement with the Metal Industries Development Institute (MIDI), Ethiopia to implement a twinning programme. The same is aimed at R&D capacity building of MIDI. CSIR has clinched this multi-million US dollar assignment through a process where many international organisations were considered. The twinning is one of the largest programs (in terms of contractual amount) between a CSIR institute and a foreign entity. It should also facilitate CSIR’s future collaborations with African Organizations.
The agreement was signed on 7th June, 2017 at Addis Ababa in the gracious presence of H.E. Dr. Alemu Sime, State Minister of Industry, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, H.E. Mr. Teshome Lemma, State Minister of Education, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Dr. Girish Sahni, Director General, CSIR and H.E. Mr. Anurag Srivastava, Ambassador of India to Ethiopia, Djibouti and African Union. Dr. Girish Sahni on the occasion said that the knowledgebase of CSIR in the identified areas could be of immense importance for leveraging the technology capacity of African countries. He invited the industry to join hands with CSIR and its counterparts in respective African countries to deploy the technology for benefitting the masses in the region.
The agreement was signed by the Director of National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur (CSIR-NML) on behalf of the participating CSIR Laboratories, and the Director General of Metals Industry Development Institute (MIDI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. CSIR will enhance the capacity and capability of MIDI under the twinning arrangement and thereby enable it to contribute more efficiently towards the development of Metals and Engineering sectors in Ethiopia and thus enhance their competitiveness. The MIDI will be positioned to emerge as a globally competitive center of excellence in the field of Metals and Engineering, through the twinning programme.
This agreement signing is the follow-up action of the execution of a Letter of Intent (LoI) between Metal Industry Development Institute (MIDI), Ethiopia and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. The assessment of the requirements of MIDI and GAP analysis of MIDI were major initial activities which a CSIR team carried out as a prelude to Twinning with MIDI. The constituent laboratories of CSIR, namely CSIR-NML, Jamshedpur, CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur, CSIR-CEERI, Pilani, CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh and CSIR-CLRI, Chennai, through a common collaboration platform, will execute the twinning arrangement. These laboratories have demonstrated expertise in minerals and metals extraction, casting, forming and shaping of metals, manufacturing processes and process controls, electronics and instrumentations, soft skills and quality management systems.