RESEARCH ACTIVITY IN RUBBER FIELD IN INDIA

 

RESEARCH ACTIVITY IN RUBBER FIELD IN INDIA

 

More than four decades back I attempted to summarize the research activities carried out in the field of rubber for two decades that is 1960 to-1980, which was serialized in a Rubber Journal of the country. However, none tried to take it further to record these type of activities and  recognize  the Institute and the persons who were engaged in this field and carrying out research activities with rubber and allied material.

I am trying to describe briefly the scenario since then and trying to mention different Institutes and Organization which  are carrying out research activity in the field of rubber in the country and the prominent persons who are at the helm of such research activity.

This is primarily divided into two sections, namely rubber research carried out at Academic & Government institutes and the Industry R&D Centers. Academic institutes include some commercial R&D laboratories along with different institutes whereas the industry R & D centers are purely the effort of individual industry, most of them do not publish their research work which are primarily carried out for the requirement of the Company and thus it is not possible to comment about the work carried out in such R&D centers.

Major center under Academic & Govt. Institute   following may be considered.

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur,

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta

Cochin University , Kochi

M.G.University , Kottayam

Rubber Research Institute of India , Kottayam,

Indian Rubber Manufacturers Research Association, Thane, near Mumbai.

National Chemical Laboratory , Pune

Of these I I T Kharagpur is the  best Center for rubber research which has now become a department. Initially Prof. S Banerjee started the research activity in the field of rubber in 1960s & 1970s and then was taken over by  Dr. D. Mangoraj ,Prof. Sadhon De followed by Prof. Anil Bhowmic, Prof. G.B. Nando and earlier to them some names to be mentioned  - Dr.S.K. Bhatnagar , Dr.S.P. Manik , Dr.C.K. Das etc., who all have contributed substantially in the academic research in this field ,reported in  publications in different International Journal and some of the work are well recognized. The department is active and pursuing research activity besides M.Tech degree in this field.

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science , Calcutta had an active department , Macromolecules ,wherein high level of research in rubber field was carried out for nearly two decades  which were published in well-known International Journals.

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Calcutta, at  its Macromolecule department was active in the field of rubber research in early years 1960s and 1970s. Later the department was changed to other subjects and activities in the field of rubber stopped. It was a premier Research Institute and produced high level of publications in international journals during this period. CSIR sponsored research schemes were made available under the guidance of Dr. D Banerjee and the researchers of those years who later become established personalities in the field of rubber like Dr.  Anil K Sircar, Dr.  Pranoy K. Chatterjee, Dr. M.L. Bhowmik  and Dr.  S.N. Chakravarty , Dr.U.S.Nandi .

Cochin University , Kochi has Polymer dept. wherein research in the field was carried out initially by Prof. Francis and made publications in different journals.

M.G.University , Kottayam too had Polymer dept. wherein research in the field was carried out initially by Prof. Rani Joseph.

Among universities one can note the activity carried out in the field of rubber at Cochin University and Mahatma Gandhi University,  polymer department, time to time carry out research activity and publish the results.  Prof. Francis in Cochin University and Prof. Rani Joseph in MG university were active.

 

Rubber Research Institute of India, under Rubber Board , Ministry of Commerce, Government of India ,  is situated in Kottayam , Kerala . Research activity of RRII is primarily in botanical field for the benefit of the rubber growers, improving yields and disease resistant clone etc are the major activity besides carrying out application research with natural rubber to promote the same.

IRMRA is a development & testing organization in the field of rubber. With some development work, basic research was also carried out   in a limited way. It is under the Ministry of Commerce, set up with the aim of training, development and testing facility for rubber and allied material. Rarely published the work in reputed journals. Dr.B.Banerjee carried out proper research work jointly with IIT Bombay , Chemistry dept. ( Prof. Biswas ) and Dr. S. N. Chakravarty of Bayer India Ltd. Prominent persons during last few decades are / were Dr. W. Millins , Dr B. Banerjee , Dr. R. Rajkumar.

In 1960s   some research activity on rubber was carried out at  National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. Some names to be mentioned are Dr. Shivaramakrishnan , N.D. Ghatge , V.B. Phadke , S.L. Kapoor, M. Santappa etc. But these activities seized after 1960s.

INDUSTRY

Among rubber industries in India quite a few are pursuing research activities related to their application and some of them have the Research Centers for basic work as well. Some of these industry are carrying out activity jointly with other academic institutes like IIT Kharagpur and Delhi. In forefronts are the tire units who have good laboratory setup and  also qualified manpower to pursue proper research activity. Some of the tire units do carry out development work but do not publish as these research activities are primarily aimed for their  company oriented subjects.

Among these units who carry out research activity are JK Tyre & it’s research unit HASETERI ( Dr. R. Mukhopadhya ) , Modi Rubber Ltd. was  prominent in the 80s  under the guidance of Dr. S.N.Chakravarty, often jointly with IIT Delhi & Kharagpur  , Apollo Tyre (  Dr Arup Chandra )  has well equipped Research Center at Chennai , MRF and BKT  do company oriented work only. After leaving Modi Rubber Dr. Chakrvarty started own consultancy organization and continued research activity jointly with Client’s Lab publishing the findings in different journals.