Tata Structura, India’s leading brand in steel hollow sections, today unveiled the winning design of ‘NOTIONS OF INDIA’, ‘Symbol’ at the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) World Expo, which is being held in Mumbai from the 26th to 30th September 2007 . Over 20,000 AEC professionals and visitors are expected to visit and get a glimpse of the ‘Symbol’ that is that ‘Notions of India”

Notions of India, a design competition was held to create an Architecture and Engineering ‘Symbol’ for Contemporary India. This event was managed by IA&B (Indian Architect & Builder), who have emerged as the country's premier architecture magazine focussing on communicating advances in architecture and design. The winning ‘Symbol’, entitled ‘The Charkha’, has been designed by Mumbai based architect Nuru Karim and imaginatively traces the concept of the spinning wheel, which is emblematic of the history and the traditions of India, into an innovative form that captures the spirit of India with the spirit of steel. Selected by a highly eminent panel of Master jury members – architect Dr Balkrishna V. Doshi (Principal Partner -Vastu Shilpa Foundation), Engineer Mahendra Raj (MD – Mahendra Raj Consultants Pvt. Ltd.) and Dr Jyotindra Jain (Professor – School of Art & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University), the design of Nuru’s ‘Symbol’ was recognized for its inventiveness, in both, the idea and the use of steel hollow sections. Lauding his efforts, the master jury had commented, “As Indians sitting in the midst of an emerging India, for us the story of this spinning wheel holds immense significance – from a form that transpires from the Ashok Chakra to the Charkha and that, which had imploded earlier has now exploded with vigour and vivacity to capture the dynamism of the momentum of India with the material of the future”. As the winner, Nuru Karim will now get the opportunity to have his, ‘Symbol’ fabricated and built as the,‘ NOTIONS OF INDIA’. He has also been conferred with a cheque of INR 5 lakhs.

“Notions of India” had called for entries on 26th January 2007 with the intention of giving contemporary India its view architectural & engineering ‘Symbol ‘– an embodiment that would acknowledge, recognize and celebrate its very spirit. Having invited architects and engineers of India to partake of their responsibility to mould a vision that would be consistent for India now and in the future, the competition received over 120 entries from across the country. Four regional jury reviews and a technical jury review, which included renowned professional such as architects Romi Khosla, Ramu Katakam and Edgar Demello, engineers Kamal Hadker, Srinidhi, Anantharaman and Dhananjay Dake, industrialist Harshwardhan Neotia, urban designers K. T. Ravindran & Swati Ramanathan and artists Jatin Das, Dhruba Mistry and Sudarshan Dheer amongst others, critically analysed these entries to select twelve that had based captured the thought and scope of the competition. These shortlisted participants were Kirtisagar Boller, Bipul Das, Vinish Desai, Himanshu Upadhayay, Nuru Karim, Mayank Loonkar, Arun Nalapat, Pratap Patil, Madhav Raman, Ananth Sampathkumar and Sanjit Roy & Sashikant S. Having seen all the twelve entries and after the deliberation, the master jury chose, ‘The Charkha’ as the ‘Symbol’ that had the visual and experiential kinetics to appropriately communicate & be the ‘NOTIONS OF INDIA’.

Eminent People from Tata Steel like Mr Ashish Anupam (Chief Marketing and Sales, Tata Tubes), Mr Sunil Seth (Chief Marketing and Sales, Long Products) and Mr P.K Sen from Living Steel attended the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) World Expo.

About Tata Steel and Tata Tubes

Established in 1907 as Asia’s first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel today is the world sixth largest steel producer with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent acquisition of Corus Limited, the combined enterprise has a pro forma crude steel capacity of 25.6 million tonnes with over 84,000 employees across the four continents.

Tata Tubes, a Strategic Business Unit of Tata Steel is the largest domestic manufacturer of steel tubes in India, has been an independent Profit centre since August 1993.The SBU has its plants situated at Jamshedpur, has its own marketing set up head quartered at Kolkata along with a network of sales offices across the country.

*The Company is proposing, subject to market conditions and other considerations, an offer on a rights basis of its equity shares and cumulative convertible preference shares and has filed a Draft Letter of Offer with SEBI and the stock exchanges. The Draft Letter of Offer is available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in and the respective websites of the BRLMs at www.jmfinancial.in, www.citibank.co.in and www.dspml.com”