Thiruvananthapuram: The fourth edition of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Processes for Strategic Sectors (ICAMPS-2026) was held here on Saturday, with scientists, technologists, academicians and industry professionals deliberating on advances in materials and manufacturing technologies for strategic sectors, organisers said.
Organised by the Indian Institute of Metals (IIM), Thiruvananthapuram Chapter, the conference focused on advanced materials and manufacturing processes relevant to defence, aerospace, nuclear, energy and other strategic and high-technology sectors, a statement said.
S V S Narayana Murty, Vice-President, IIM, in his presidential address, emphasised the need to strengthen India's indigenous capabilities in critical and high-performance materials to achieve technological self-reliance in strategic sectors.
"He stressed that materials development should be supported by appropriate processing and manufacturing capabilities to translate advanced materials into reliable components and systems. He also called for stronger collaboration among R&D institutions, academia and industry to take indigenous technologies from research to practical and industrial applications," the statement said.
R R Balamuralakrishnan, Director General (Naval Systems and Materials), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was the chief guest at the inaugural function.
"He emphasised the crucial role of advanced materials and critical minerals in achieving national self-reliance and called for bridging the gap between material discovery and product deployment through resource recovery, recycling and collaborative innovation," the statement said.
K Balasubramanian, Director, NonFerrous Materials Technology Development Centre (NFTDC), and C Anandharamakrishnan, Director, CSIR-The National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST), were among the guests of honour.
Anandharamakrishnan stressed the need to move beyond conventional incremental research towards innovative, technology-driven research that addresses real societal problems and delivers impactful solutions.
Delivering the Prof Brahm Prakash Memorial Lecture 2026 on "Critical Materials – Challenges in Scale-up of Process Technologies & Way Forward", Balasubramanian highlighted the lack of a congruent value-addition ecosystem in the materials sector.
"Citing Japan's ability to transform imported raw materials into high-value products through advanced processing technologies, he called for focused policy interventions and stronger indigenous materials-processing capabilities," the statement said.
According to organisers, the conference featured 12 keynote lectures and 36 invited lectures, in addition to industry lectures, contributory technical presentations, and nearly 300 poster presentations.
"The deliberations covered emerging developments in materials and manufacturing, with emphasis on indigenous materials development, process scale-up, advanced manufacturing and stronger research-academia-industry collaboration to meet India's growing requirements in strategic and high-technology sectors," they said.
This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.