Tata Steel observes the 185th Birth Anniversary of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata
More than a century ago, even as the blueprints for an Independent India were being drawn, the founders of Tata Steel envisioned creating indigenous capability to produce steel as one of the first steps towards building a nation that is truly independent and self-reliant.
Today, as Tata Steel observes the 185th Birth Anniversary of the Tata group Founder, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, it renews its commitment to the cause of nation building and partnering in India’s journey towards self-reliance and sustainable growth.
Tata Steel came into being in 1907 as the Tata Iron and Steel Company and held the distinction of being India’s first integrated steel company. It was a truly swadeshi enterprise.
It coincided with a time when the nation was swept up in Lokmanya Tilak’s call for the Swadeshi Movement and was beginning to fight the colonizers in a way that had not been seen since the 1857 mutiny. The Tatas, thus, appealed to the people of India to raise the capital and they responded.
Years later, Sir Dorabji Tata, the younger son of J N Tata, wrote about how proud he was that such a large sum had been raised from the wealth of India for the industrial development of the country: “It was the first time that the raw materials of India did not go out and return as finished articles to be sold in the country. Above all, it was a purely swadeshi enterprise financed by swadeshi money and managed by swadeshi brains.”
The first ingot of steel rolled out of a 100,000 tonne Tata Steel plant at Jamshedpur in 1912. The plant attained capacity production by 1916, at the height of World War I, and put up its first expansion programme, the Greater Expansion Scheme, for sanction by the shareholders the same year. The plan was approved.
Tata Steel launched the expansion immediately after the war and had increased production to 420,000 tonnes of saleable steel a year by 1924. By the early 1930s, it was providing 72 per cent of India’s requirement of steel, covering the gamut from defense requirements to railway infrastructure, manufacturing industries and iconic projects like the Howrah Bridge. 23,000 tonnes, or about 85 percent of the steel used to build the bridge that defines the Kolkata skyline to this day, came from Jamshedpur.
The Company parallelly invested in boosting and leveraging swadeshi intellectual capital. It set up the Jamshedpur Technical Institute in 1921 “to replace foreign technical experts with their Indian counterparts”. It then set up the Research and Control Laboratory in Jamshedpur. This kickstarted the research and development of new types of steel and the launch of brands like TISCROM, TISCOR and Tata Sun — all propelling Tata Steel to become the largest integrated steel plant in the British Empire by 1939 and forever changing the way Indian steel was viewed on the global stage.
Such was the importance of Tata Steel to India’s economy and future that it had the support of some of the biggest leaders of India’s freedom struggle — Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Rajendra Prasad. When Gandhiji visited Jamshedpur in the 1920s and addressed an audience of 20,000, he had said, “It was my ambition to see one of the greatest — if not the greatest — Indian enterprises in India and study the conditions of work there…. believe me, throughout my public service of 35 years, though I have been obliged to range myself seemingly against capital… in all humility, I may say that I have come here also as a friend of the capitalists — a friend of the Tatas.” He had added: “I wish to this great Indian firm all the prosperity that it deserves and to this great enterprise every success.”
The making of steel, a key ingredient in agriculture, industry and infrastructure, is closely linked to the economic development of a country. When India gained independence in 1947, it needed an agricultural as well as industrial revolution. Steel was essential to building factories, dams, power plants and other infrastructure. It was essential to manufacturing agricultural tools. It was also essential to scaling down the import of capital goods — needed to industrialise India. As the largest steel maker in the country then, Tata Steel played a key role in the Herculean task of nation building that lay before Indians.
The era of planned large-scale industrial and infrastructure development commenced in 1951 with successive Five-Year Plans. The steel for these plans — which included iconic projects like the Bhakra-Nangal Dam, power plants, heavy engineering industries, railways and other transportation, entire cities like Chandigarh and more — came from Jamshedpur.
Today, over 110 years since its first ingot of steel rolled out, Tata Steel has come a long way, but its pivotal role in nation building hasn’t changed. The Company’s portfolio of products and brands has rapidly expanded across market segments like automotive, construction, industrial and general engineering and agriculture to address diverse needs.
More than a third of infrastructure projects in India now use Tata steel. The Company has helped build at least 40 major airports and almost all metro rail networks, partnering the nation to meet the demand of commuters poised to increase multifold. It is in two-thirds of the country’s flyovers and bridges, including landmark ones like Mumbai’s Bandra-Worli Sea Link and Assam’s Bogibeel Bridge.
Tata Steel plays a vital part in powering the nation — from the equipment needed for mining to reinforcing dams that produce hydroelectricity, fortifying solar module mounting structures, constructing power plants and strengthening transmission lines. It has even gone into building sports infrastructure like the Narendra Modi Stadium in Gujarat, which is the world’s largest cricket stadium.
As India stands poised for the next Industrial Revolution, Tata Steel has stayed ahead of the curve in continuing to invest in technology-led business transformation. The Company has firm plans to become the leader in digital steelmaking and be a beacon for Industry 5.0. With a focus on innovation and technology, and guided by its Founder’s vision, Tata Steel continues to work for the benefit of both people and the planet.
