A TEAM of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar has detected the presence of tantalum, a rare metal used in manufacturing of electronic components, in the Sutlej river sand in Punjab. The discovery was made by a team headed by Dr Resmi Sebastian, assistant professor at the institute’s Civil Engineering Department. The researchers were working on an unrelated project when they stumbled upon the metal in samples collected from the Sutlej basin, Dr Sebastian told The Indian Express. “One of my research students found the presence of tantalum while conducting experiments on the characterization and properties of...