OREANDA-NEWS. August 25, 2015. Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan urged scientists to develop renewable and green materials and innovative technologies for Building Industry. “CBRI has a responsibility to contribute for implementing PM’s vision of affordable housing for all by 2022, to make technological contributions for smart villages and smart cities, to celebrate 75th year of India’s independence”, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, said. Addressing scientists & staff of the CSIR-Central Building Research Institute(CSIR-CBRI) yesterday, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that CSIR-CBRI works in an important area i.e. housing, a basic necessity for any human being in addition to food and clothing.  Our country is poised to narrow down the gap with developed world in terms of economy, technology, & human resource.  In doing so, we need world class innovative, efficient& green technologies on one hand and we need to meet the demand of millions of pucca, comfortable and energy efficient houses where occupants may live with safety, dignity and pride on the other hand. For the first time our Government has set a deadline for providing every family a roof above its head, not only a roof but water supply, sanitation & 24x7 electricity and we have a plan to construct 20m houses in next 7 years, i.e. 7800 houses per day”.

“I am sure that CBRI will help us realize the great dream”, he said. CSIR-CBRI’s contributions for building the brick industry in the Country and creating technology for constructing foundations of various types of buildings are widely recognized and known.

“I see that all the major initiatives of the Government of India like Swachch Bharat, Swasth Bharat, Sashakt Bharat, Smart Villages, Smart Cities, Make in India are having something or the other ingrained in terms of technological input, which could be available from CSIR. It is my belief that some new technologies may also be generated at CBRI if the Institute take an oath to make the Housing mission a grand success. GOI may depend upon the capabilities and vast experience of CSIR-CBRI and get the things done”, the minister said.

During his address, he interacted with the staff members and listened to them as they shared the varied challenges they face in fulfilling the national tasks assigned to them. He emphasized that they should not be satisfied with past laurels & achievements but constantly try to think out-of-the-box solutions for various problems faced by the society and consider them to be world citizens at par with other developed societies.

The Minister, who was accompanied by Dr. M.O. Garg, Director-General, CSIR, and Dr. Girish Sahni, Director, CSIR-CBRI, visited various laboratories like Heavy Testing Lab, Rural Park, Fire Research lab and Polymer Plastic &Composite lab.  On this occasion he inaugurated the “Technology Gallery” where all the ongoing research activities are displayed in pictorial form.

Some representatives from the industry who have taken licenses for technologies emerging out of institutional research work were also present on the occasion and shared their success stories with CBRI technologies. While thanking the industry representatives for supporting CSIR-CBRI, he called for forging greater partnership to accept the challenges. “Prime Minister has given a call for “Make in India” and we need to generate millions of jobs within a couple of years so that great potential of youth power is suitably utilized. Seamless partnership will help in developing the products and technologies for the benefit of the common man”, he pointed out. “At the same time, the entrepreneurs should focus on using renewable and green materials of Indian origin, including materials based on nano-technology which have reasonably low carbon foot print as well are low cost”, the minister advised to the industry.