Among the non-oxide ceramics, carbides and borides such as B₄C, TiB₂, ZrB₂, HfB₂, NbB₂, CrB₂, LaB₆, CeB₆, NdB₆, EuB₆ posses attractive combination of high temperature properties for engineering applications. However, they are difficult to synthesize and fabricate in the form of dense bodies, because of their refractory nature and low self diffusion coefficient. The synthesis of boron carbide, refractory and rare earth metal borides, their fabrication to consolidated shapes and determination of their properties, have been carried out in our laboratory and a brief review of these developments is presented in this article.