Tata Steel paid homage to the pioneering Bengal-born geologist Pramatha Nath Bose on his 167th birth anniversary on Thursday with an array of events in hybrid mode across its operative areas in Jharkhand.

Born in 1855 in Gaipur village in Bengal, Bose completed his studies from Krishnagar College with flying colours before moving to Calcutta for further studies. In 1874, he graduated from St Xavier’s College. He travelled to England on the Gilchrist Scholarship to earn an undergraduate degree in science. Bose was in fact the first Indian to get a BSc degree from a British university. He went on to get a diploma from the Royal School of Mines.

The most outstanding achievement of his life was the discovery of iron ore deposits in the hills of Gorumahisani in Mayurbhanj in modern day Odisha. Following the discovery, Bose wrote a letter to J. N. Tata (Founder of Tata Steel) on February 24, 1904, which led to the establishment of Tata Iron and Steel Company at Sakchi on August 26, 1907.

The group, led by Jamsetji’s sons, set out to prove his findings, and Bose’s prediction was proved right. Odisha continues to be the largest producer of iron ore in the country.

Senior management of Tata Steel and employees paid homage to Bose bust near Armoury Ground at Jamshedpur.

Vice-president raw materials Tata Steel D.B. Sundara Ramam, Sanjeev Kumar Choudhary, president, Tata Workers’ Union, vice-president corporate services Tata Steel, Chanakya Chaudhary and other executives of Tata Steel and office-bearers of the workers union.

“P.N. Bose had been an architect in making India self-reliant in the area of mines and metals and it was his foresightedness and discovering that resulted into birth of India’s first integrated steel plant in Jamshedpur. Future generations and we shall follow his footprints for making his dreams true. Tata Steel has been able to get a couple of more mines in recent auctions, which will pave way for future of the company and all its stakeholders,” said D.B. Sundara Ramam, the chief guest of the event.

Digital homage was also planned for Tata Steel employees across all locations. People from the community, including children, too participated in the celebration at Jamshedpur and Raw Materials locations in Noamundi (West Singhbhum) and West Bokaro (Ramgarh).

At West Bokaro, quiz and drawing competitions were organised at Tata DAV Public School. More than 180 students of participated in the drawing competition. An exhibition depicting the contribution of Bose was organised at Raw Material locations of the company.

Natural resources division of Tata Steel also organised the 4th P N Bose Memorial Lecture at the Centre for Excellence. The guest speaker of the lecture was Sisir Kanti Mondal, a senior faculty in the department of Geological services, Jadavpur University.

Bose has several firsts to his credit. He was first to discover petroleum in Assam; first to set up a soap factory in India and also the first to introduce micro sections as an aid to petrological work. His efforts led to the foundation of the Bengal Technical Institute which is better known as the Jadavpur University of which Bose was the first honorary principal.