Tata Steel and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research signed an umbrella memorandum of understanding to pursue strategic technological partnership across multiple technology areas.

The MoU was signed in the presence of CEO and MD, Tata Steel, T.V. Narendran, and director-general, CSIR Shekhar C. Mande on January 31 at Jamshedpur-based National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML-an unit of CSIR) and released to the media on February 10.

The agreement was signed by Tata Steel vice-president (technology and new materials business) Debashish Bhattacharjee and director NML Indranil Chattoraj.

As per the MoU, CSIR will provide scientific and technological support through its chain of laboratories across India while Tata Steel will provide financial support to several identified projects along with technical inputs and logistics for the pilot and full-scale deployment for the implementation of the projects.

“The objective of this collaboration model is to create first-in-the-world technologies with a global impact on society, industry, and the innovation ecosystem. The MoU signing ceremony was conducted virtually, with over a hundred attendees,” said a Tata Steel spokesperson in a press statement.

Addressing the function, T.V. Narendran said: “The association of Tata Steel with institutions of eminence like CSIR goes back a long way given the mutual goals and complementary capabilities. Tata Steel intends to be an industry leader in technology and do deeper work on opportunities in the value chain to realise the vision of a green future and contribute to nation-building. We look forward to working together with CSIR for mutual benefit and for the benefit of the country.”

“CSIR is a key collaborative entity of the government, offering diverse competencies in industrial research. While there have been select project-based one-to-one collaborations of Tata Steel with individual CSIR entities such as NML and Central Electro Chemical Research Institute, there is potential to better leverage overlapping competencies of CSIR institutes through an umbrella collaboration model. Tata Steel and CSIR strive to tap this attractive alliance opportunity and be the frontrunner in developing and deploying diverse breakthrough technologies,” Tata Steel spokesperson informed.

Dr Shekhar C. Mande addressing the virtual function said: “CSIR shares a very strong relationship with the Indian industry and especially with the Tata House since the time of JRD Tata. Today, we see a further strengthening of this bond, reaffirming our faith in the joint commitment to address problems that confront humanity in the future.”

Tata Steel intends to leverage this collaboration opportunity with CSIR to develop and deploy cutting-edge technologies in critical areas like hydrogen, coatings, energy, optical fibres and applications, materials for defence, green energy, battery materials and medical materials.

This partnership will help Tata Steel further its pursuit of sustainable breakthrough technologies in the materials domain, accelerate digitalisation in the manufacturing sector and lead the steel industry’s transformation journey towards sustainable decarbonisation.