CSMCRI

With a coastline of about 3,500 miles, inland sources in Rajasthan and Little Rann of Kutch, and the rock salt mines in Mandi, India have possibilities of attaining a high position in salt production among the salt producing countries of the world. As is known, apart from being an indispensable item of food, salt is an important raw material for the manufacture of several heavy chemicals e.g. soda ash, caustic soda and chlorine. Besides, salt is used in food processing industries, such as fish curing, meat packing, dairy products and fruit and vegetable canning. India had been an importer of salt for a long time as her own production was not sufficient to meet the demand. The position deteriorated further after partition, when the extensive rock salt deposits in the Punjab and the marine salt works in Sind went to Pakistan. Soon after the attainment of independence in 1947, India was faced with the problem of meeting the acute shortage of edible salt in various parts of the country. The Government set up an inter­departmental committee under the chairmanship of Shri H.M. Patel, who was then the Cabinet Secretary, to examine and report on the measures for overcoming the shortage of salt. The committee submitted several short term proposals to the Government and also recommended that a Salt Expert Committee should be appointed to investigate into the problems relating to the production, quality and utilization of salt. The need for salt research was recognized by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi as early as 1940, when, at the instance of Dr.S.S.Bhatnagar, a Salt Research Committee was established to formulate a programme of research on the production and utilization of salt. This Committee was later amalgamated with the Heavy Chemicals Committee and revived in July 1948 with Dr. Mata Prasad as the Chairman.