Shri Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma, Minister of State for Steel & Heavy Industries, formally launched the R&D schemes and the SRTMI web portal, underscoring their significance in fostering innovation and sustainability within the steel sector. He highlighted that these initiatives, along with the SteelCollab platform, would be instrumental as India works towards achieving a 300 million-tonne steel production capacity by 2030. Stressing the need for accelerated technology commercialisation and domestic manufacturing of capital goods, he pointed out that the newly launched web portal would facilitate industry-wide engagement, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.

Shri Sandeep Poundrik, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, addressed India’s growing role as a global steel demand hub, projecting an increase in per capita steel consumption from approximately 100 kg to 158 kg by 2030. He outlined key challenges facing the industry, including plant efficiency, adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning, digitisation, and decarbonisation. Given that 45% of India’s steel capacity is concentrated in the secondary sector, he emphasized the need for research tailored to the country’s industrial structure.

Shri Amarendu Prakash, Chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and President of SRTMI, underscored the importance of industry-academia collaboration in enhancing India’s global competitiveness in steel production. He noted that India’s steel demand is growing at an annual rate of 11%, significantly higher than the global average of 0.5%, making collaborative research efforts even more crucial. He reiterated that the newly launched R&D schemes would play a key role in driving joint research initiatives.