India facing acute shortage of refractory professionals

Jamshedpur, Aug 9 (UNI) India is facing an acute shortage of professionals in the refractory sector.

This observation was made here today by Tata Referactories Limited (TRL) Managing Director C D Kamath while speaking at XLRI, one of the top business schools in the country.

The trend of taking admissions in courses related to refractory industry like ceramics and engineering had taken a downward turn in the wake of so-called ''IT boom'', Mr Kamath said.

'' It is more because of the increasing desire to easily get a job in the information technology (IT) based industry, '' he added.

He further informed that it was very difficult to find a person willing to do a PHD in refractory in India adding the scenario was much better in countries like China.

''Due to such acute shortage of professionals in India, we cannot even think of starting a research and development facility here, despite the fact that we are going to double the production in our refractory plant situated in China, '' Mr Kamath added.

Refractories, mainly of six types, are made of magnetite and bauxite and used in steel as well as various other industries.

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