Welcome to the CSIR- National Physical Laboratory (NPL-India) Website. 

CSIR-NPL is the custodian of National Standards and maintains the Indian Standard Time (IST). It is mandated to be India’s National Measurement Institute (NMI) by an act of Parliament. CSIR-NPL disseminates precision measurements that are needed for the growth of Indian science and industry as well as for the legal metrology needs of the nation.

The objectives of CSIR-NPL are,

• To develop measurement and calibration standards that are internationally accepted and are among the best in the world. To offer metrology services to the industry and to the problems of national interest including for legal metrology.
• To conduct multidisciplinary R&D to develop the measurement standards for evergreen and futuristic technologies like solar cells, bio-medical, and quantum information processing.
• To develop reference standard materials, Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya (BND).
• To develop sophisticated analytical equipment under the Government of India’s Make in India initiative for emerging India.
• To train large pool of young scientists and industry personnel under the Skill India initiative.

To achieve these objectives, CSIR-NPL is striving to build on its expertise in precision measurements to,

• Be the national hub for measurement standards and calibration of equipment to meet the evolving needs of Indian industry and academia in emerging areas.
• Be the apex laboratory for testing of environmental pollutants with Indian standard reference materials (BNDs) which would also be useful in calibrating equipment.
• Develop sophisticated equipment to reduce the import dependence.
• Be the Centre of Excellence in skill development in the area of precision measurements.
• Setup research outreach program that offers the state-of-the-art facilities for industrial and academic research.

Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta
Director, CSIR-NPL

Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta obtained his Ph.D. (Physics) from TIFR, Mumbai and Ph.D. (Electronics) from Tokyo University. He is currently the Director of CSIR-National Physical Laboratory. He is on lien from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai where he is a Professor. His research interests are in the application of nanophotonics to single molecule and single photon spectroscopy through light-matter interaction in non-perturbative regimes. He has over 150 journal publications. He is a Fellow of the Optica – Optical Society of America, and the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and an honorary fellow of the Metrology Society of India (MSI). He is elected to the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) in 2022, to the Commission C2 of IUPAP in 2024, and to the executive committee of Asia Pacific Metrology Program (APMP). He is currently President of Optical Society of India (OSI), and Vice president of Indian Laser Association (ILA), and is on the EC of IEEE Photonics Mumbai Chapter. He is a member of the Empowered Board of LIGO, India, and senate member of IIT, Delhi and JNU, New Delhi.

Email: director.nplindia@csir.res.in

PA to Director: 

• Ms. Anju Manral
• Ms. Sanju Tyagi

Email: director.nplindia@csir.res.in

Tel: +91 11 45609201, 9301

Fax: +91 11 45609310

• जानकारी से कामयाबी तक | Jankari Se Kamyabi Tak (03 October 2025)
• Celebrating 79 years of India’s Independence- Prof. (Dr) Venu Gopal Achanta, Director, CSIR-NPL & CSIR-NIScPR (additional charge) (August 2025)
• Jigyasa Program: Lab Perspective by Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta | One Day as a Scientist Celebration (24 July 2025)
• Future Challenges for Global Metrology | World Metrology Day Symposium 2025 (2025)
• Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta on Asia-Pacific Metrology Conference & India tech leads (November 2024)
• Constitutional Illustrations | Sansad TV Special (26 November 2023)
• Defining India’s Vision of Quantum Communications (15 September 2023)
• CSIR-NPL One Week One Lab Campaign (April 2023)
• Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta talks about One Week One Lab and Visit to CSIR-NPL (April 2023)
• Light-matter Interaction in Metamaterials by Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta (30 November 2022)
• 13th Lecture of 2021 by Dr. VG Achanta | Vigyan Bharti (04 January 2022)
• An Exclusive Interview with Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta
• Episode #95 – The Power of Photonics w/ Prof. Dr. Achanta
• Metamaterials for Quantum Technologies by Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta
• 84_PRL ka Amrut Vyakhyaan, Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta
• The FAIR Digital Revolution | Expert Insights from BIPM150 Scientific Conference
• Science Talk- An Interview with Prof. Dr. Venugopal Achanta (Director, CSIR-NPL) | Akashvani AIR
• Conversation with Prof. Venu Gopal Achanta: Journey through Exciton Dynamics, Plasmonics & Metrology