The National Metallurgical Laboratory, the third in the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) family of 38 laboratories. The foundation stone of NML was laid on 21.11.1946 by the first and only Governor General of independent India, Shri C.Rajagopalachari. The laboratory was formally inaugurated and dedicated to the nation on the 26th of November, 1950 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru  " in a sprit of hope and faith in the future". The laboratory formed part of the great plan, which Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar visualised in 1940, for providing India with a network of research institutes capable of taking the country forward in the Science & Technology. The establishment of the laboratory was generously supported, in cash and kind, by Tata Industries Ltd., Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Sardar Bahadur Sir Indra Singh of Indian Steel and Wire Products (ISWP) Company. Dr. Balraj Nijhawan, the first Indian Director of the laboratory, set the pace for the rapid growth of the laboratory through the establishment of a number of pilot plants and facilities and initiating research programmes which were in line with the Five Year Plans of the young Republic of India. NML has one Centre at Chennai