Steel PSUs Steel Authority of India Ltd and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd have spent a total of ₹ 1,017.25 crore on research and development (R&D) activity in last three financial years, Parliament was informed on Monday.
R&D is an ongoing activity and steel companies in both private and public sectors are conducting research in iron and steel sector, Minister of Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
Providing the details of steel PSUs, he said the R&D expenditure of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) between financial year 2015-16 to fiscal 2017-18 stood at ₹951.93 crore.
Giving further details he said, the R&D expenditure of SAIL for 2015-16 was at ₹277 crore, for 2016-17 (₹ 339.43 crore) and 2017-18 (₹ 335.50 crore).
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) spent ₹65.32 crore on R&D activity during the said period, the minister said adding ₹21.74 crore was spent in 2015-16, ₹23.52 crore in 2016-17 and ₹20.06 crore in 2017-18.
The minister had earlier said that adoption of advanced technology can help domestic steel industry become a leader in quality steel.
With this aim, the ministry has set up an industry driven institutional mechanism Steel Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI) to facilitate joint collaborative research projects in the iron and steel sector in India.

Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.