The Hindu Business Line : Centre to set up steel R&D mission

Dr Mano Ranjan (left), Union Steel Secretary, and Mr B. Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel, at the 43rd National Metallurgists' Day inaugural session in Chennai on Monday. — Shaju John

Chennai , Nov. 14

THE Centre will set up a steel research and development mission that will bring together the best minds in India and abroad. The corpus for this mission will be unlimited and will depend on what the scientists and metallurgists involved in the mission require.

Stating this here on Monday, the Union Steel Secretary, Dr Mano Ranjan, said the mission would be managed by technologists, scientists and metallurgists. The Government would make as much money available as required for carrying out "path-breaking research" in steel, he told newspersons here.

The idea behind the mission is to use the existing research centres and laboratories for doing the actual work and the mission would pioneer new projects and market the technologies that are developed.

Dr Ranjan said the mission would take up risks (associated with developing new technologies and marketing them) and once the technology succeeds, the Government would withdraw.

Explaining the kind of research work that the mission could take up, Mr B. Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel Ltd, referred to the case of coking coal in the country. The ash content is high and hence the coking coal has to be washed to reduce it. However, washing this beyond a point would also reduce the yield. One of the projects this mission could take up is to look at how the coal could be washed down without reducing its yield.

Dr Ranjan said the mission would be set up in three months and the public sector company MECON Ltd would prepare the "nuts and bolts" of the scheme.

He pointed out that the national steel industry's R&D expenditure accounted for 0.8 per cent of its turnover, while in advanced countries it was as much as 2.5 per cent.

Earlier, inaugurating the 43rd National Metallurgists' Day and 59th annual technical meeting of the Indian Institute of Metals, Dr Ranjan hoped that the mission would develop path-breaking steel technologies that would find a place in the global list of steel technologies.

Mr Muthuraman, who is also the Vice-President of the Indian Institute of Metals, said there was a need to encourage young minds to take up a career in metallurgy and manufacturing. It is up to those in the industry to excite the youth to pursue a career in manufacturing.

Mr Sajjan Jindal, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, JSW Steel Ltd, said domestic steel producers should get an advantage in the use of iron ore. Exports of iron ore should be discouraged and policies should be oriented towards encouraging value-addition within the country rather than permitting exports of either iron ore or semi-finished products.

Mr Jindal said last year, out of the nearly 130 million tonnes (mt) of iron ore mined in the country, 85 mt was exported. He later told newspersons that the domestic steel industry would grow only when there was a disincentive on export of iron ore.

Dr Baldev Raj, Director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, and President, Indian Institute of Metals, spoke about India's energy security and the challenges for material scientists. Clean coal technologies require boilers that can withstand higher temperatures and higher pressures.

On the occasion, the institute presented medals and citations to a number of those involved with the metallurgical industry. These included the Tata Gold medal to Mr A.D. Baijal, Vice-President (Raw Material), Tata Steel Ltd, and the IIM Platinum Medal to Prof S. Ranganathan, Senior Homi Bhabha Fellow, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

The G. D. Birla Gold medal was given to Dr G. Sundararajan, Director, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Hyderabad; and Dr Jyoti Mukhopadhyay, Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research, Development and Design Centre, Nagpur, bagged the Hindustan Zinc Gold medal. Mr U.K. Chaturvedi, Vice-President (Long Products), Tata Steel, got the OP Jindal Gold medal.

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