Steel Companies partnered with Union Ministry of Steel to set up Steel Research & Technology Mission

Major Indian Steel Companies on 6 April 2015 signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Union Ministry of Steel for setting up of Steel Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI) in New Delhi.

The primary objective of SRTMI is to promote collaborative Research and Development (R&D) programmes between the ministry and steel industries in priority areas of national importance in the steel sector.

The participating steel companies in this initiative are Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Tata Steel, JSW Steel of Jindal Group, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Metallurgical & Engineering Consultants (India) Limited (MECON).

The setting up of the mission is in tune with Union Government’s Make In India initiative.

Key Features of SRTMI
• The mission aims at increasing investment on R&D in the steel sector from the present level of 0.2-0.3 to the international benchmark of 1-2 percent of the industry turnover.
• Under the mission R&D will be carried out in the areas including best usage of available raw materials in the country and conservation of natural resources, optimum energy conservation and minimum emissions, innovations and in-house development of design, engineering and manufacturing facilities of key steel plant equipments.
• The mission will be set up with an initial corpus of 200 crore rupees with equal contributions coming from the Steel Development Fund of the Ministry and the participating industries.
• The mission will be formed as a registered society in close cooperation amongst the participating steel companies, Union Ministry of Steel, academia and other institutions in the country.
• The mission will be governed by a Governing Board which includes Chief Executives Officers of steel and associated companies, domain experts of national and international repute and nominee from the Union Ministry of Steel.
• There will be an Oversight Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Steel) to periodically assess the functioning and performance of the mission.