New Delhi (02.11.2022): Three candidates -- Dr Harish Hirani, Prof Avinash Agarwal and Dr N C Murmu -- are the frontrunners in the upcoming interview for the post of Director, CSIR-CMERI. They are associated with the Research Council of CSIR-CMERI whose Chairman along with DG, CSIR, are part of the committee constituted for the selection of Director, CMERI.

Prof Avinash Agarwal is the current member of the Research Council, CMERI while Dr N C Murmu is the Ex-Secretary, Research Council and Chief Scientist, CMERI. It may be underlined that Dr Harish Hirani (Ex-Director, CMERI) has also applied for the Director’s post from which he was removed on the charges of serious misconduct following the arrest warrant issued by the Metropolitan Magistrate, Kolkata. Considering certain facts, DG, CSIR gave clean-chit and considered Dr Hirani’s candidature for Director, CMERI.

Union Minister for Science & Technology, last year, had given a written commitment to Lokpal that selection for important posts in CSIR will be conducted through independent institutions like UPSC, SSC, etc but paying no heed to higher authority’s commitment, a “Search-cum-Selection-Committee” was constituted. Insiders believe that setting aside Lokpal’s concerns by taking the SCSC route ignores the call of the top authority.

Though there are other viable candidates vying for the coveted post, it remains to be seen whether the search-cum-selection committee selects one of the three candidates mentioned above.

Established in February 1958, the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur, is the apex R&D institute for mechanical engineering under the aegis of CSIR. Being the only national-level research institute in this field, CMERI’s mandate is to serve the industry and develop mechanical engineering technology so that India’s dependence on foreign collaboration is substantially reduced in strategic and economic sectors.