Proposal to empanel CIPET to train overseas students

Kochi : The Ministry of External Affairs is planning to empanel a premier plastic engineering institute in the list of institutions where overseas students are trained under a diplomatic programme of the government, Union Minister V Muraleedharan said here on Thursday.

The MEA has received a proposal from the Ministry of Fertilizers and Chemicals to empanel Central Institute of Plastics and Engineering and Technology (CIPET) in the list of institutes providing training to the overseas students under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation, ITEC scheme, the Minister of State for External Affairs said.

"I would like to take this opportunity to assure all of you that as a minister I find no reason to say that CIPET should not be included in the list of those institutions where overseas students can be trained," Muraleedharan said.

He was speaking in the presence of Fertilizers and Chemicals Minister D V Sadananda Gowda at the inauguration of a new building of CIPET Institute of Plastic Technology at Udyogamandal near here.

In his inaugural address, Gowda thanked the External Affairs Ministry for considering its proposal. He said hundreds of students studied in the CIPET have got placements in India and abroad. "Students who passed out of the CIPET get placements immediately," the Minister said.

Gowda thanked the state government for its cooperation in constructing the new building constructed spending Rs 24.90 crore on equal contribution from the Centre and the Kerala government.

The Kerala government provided 3.49 acres for construction of the academic building measuring 2,000 square metres with state-of-the-art infrastructure to conduct training, provide technology support services and research in the filed of bio-polymer science and technology.

"Without the state government's help, it would not have been possible for us to dedicate this building so early," Gowda said. CIPET, an accredited premier national institute under the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, is devoted to skill development, technology support, academic and research (STAR) activities in all the domains of plastics and engineering and technology.