The long-term prospect for the steel industry in India looks brighter than several other countries, said Aruna Sundarajan, IAS, Secretary of Ministry of Steel at the inaugural ceremony of the international seminar on ‘Start Up, Stand Up India from Mining to Steel’ at the MECON Community Hall on Friday.
The Steel Secretary stressed on the theme of the seminar that goes well with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. “It is a great call to awaken India and lead it to newer heights of industrial development and an approach towards betterment of nation’s economy. The view of Start Up India can only be fueled by research and development, entrepreneurship and innovation and the Government is fully committed to ease of doing business, nurture and promote startups,” said Sundarajan.
Sundarajan also drew similarities between the current state of the country as it is commonly referred to as the Start Up Nation with 50 per cent of the population accounting for the youngsters aged below 25 years. “The lowest rate of organization in India is at 30 per cent and this is all set to accelerate in the recent future. We can no longer depend on the old, indigenous paradigm of growth. From here on, sustainable growth is the way. We are hoping to grow at a rate of eight to nine per cent and the potential for the same is there, too. We just need to tap it well with better planning,” added she.
AP Singh, Director (Engg.) and Chairman MIST-2016 gave an overview of the seminar. “At this juncture of depleting resources, the need of the hour is to re-orient ourselves to new technologies and innovative start-ups for which government is keen to support start-ups,” said Singh.
There are five technical sessions covering various topics related to managing iron ore fines, depleting iron ore reserves, maximizing sinteringand pelletising usage, blast furnace operation and technology, challenges of today’s steel making and manufacturing sector-Make in India. There are a total of 35 paper presentations and 160 delegates attending the seminar from India, Europe, Russia, Korea, China and also graced by the top bureaucrats from the industry and ministry.
SS Mohanty, Director (Tech.), SAIl & President IIM expressed that steel sector is passing through a cycle turmoil and the economic slow down in China has affected the industry more. “Replacement of steel by use of light metals like Aluminum etc is also coming up particularly in Automobile sector. The challenge is to use the material resources like coking coal as available in India and enhancing the productivity of available manpower,” said Mohanty.
The Director (Technology), MECON and Co-Organising Chairman, MIST-2016 addressed the dignitaries at the event. “There is a strong need to tap the potential of the industry with better planning and innovation, technology and entrepreneurship seems to be the only possible way ahead,” said SR Sengupta.
The three-day event is a joint effort of MECON limited and RDCIS and CET (SAIl), under the aegis of Indian Institute of Metals, Ranchi Chapter.