Tata Steel – the world’s sixth largest steelmaker - completed its centenary in August this year, and the occasion was celebrated with much pomp and enthusiasm at the company’s genesis ground and first steel plant, Jamshedpur. As a tribute to the town of Jamshedpur and its people, who have contributed immensely over the years to the company’s success, Tata Steel hosted a grand four-day city festival – Shatrang from January 2 – January 5, 2008.

Shatrang; a festival of 100 colours, symbolizing the different hues of Jamshedpur, was inaugurated by Mr. B Muthuraman, Managing Director – Tata Steel amidst huge fanfare with the Shatrang Mela on January 5, 2008. The city Fair in Gopal Maidan showcased a variety of vibrant activities like Hasya Kavi Sammelan, Gotipua dance performance from Orissa, Magic Show by Mandrake and his troupe from Kolkata, Indigenous dances like Jhoomar, Paika and Chhau, Folk martial arts performance by Sapphire Creations from Kolkata and Carnival rides for children. It also had the Shatrang Bazaar that had stalls selling jewellery, handloom fabrics, readymade garments, gift items.

The key highlight of Shatrang was the LIVE concert by the musical trio – Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. Also present to be a part of the revelry was Madhavan and Imtiaz Ali, the dynamic personalities who hail from the Steel City. They were overwhelmed to be a part of the 100 year celebration of Tata Steel. The winners of ‘Voice of Jamshedpur’, an inter-school music competition shared the stage with the established musicians at a grand concert at JRD Sports Complex, which was an unforgettable experience for them. The musical trio along with Mahalaxmi Iyer kept the crowd enthralled and mesmerized with their performance.

The Neo-classical Musical concert “Surangana”at XLRI on January 3rd, 2008 was a pleasure to witness as the 3 sibling duos – Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra (Indian Vocal Classical), The Violin Brothers - Ganesh and Kumaresh Iyer (Carnatic Instrumental Classical-Violin), Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya (Hindustani Classical Instrumental-Guitar) and Subhashish Bhattacharya (Tabla) performed on the theme of Universal brotherhood, had the audience spellbound and fascinated by their recitals. Alongside, at Rabindra Bhavan, the laughter champions, Navin Prabhakar and Ehsaan Qureshi had the audience in splits of laughter with their musings and jokes at the Laughter Show.

The Bistupur Street Carnival on January 4, 2007 had the streets of Bistupur transformed into a cavalcade of colours, people, music, dance and music with countless citizens of Jamshedpur gathered to enjoy the food and ambience created by the Carnival.

The morning of January 5, saw the culmination of sports stars from Tata Steel and across India like P T Usha, Premchand Degra, Bachedri Pal, Sanjeeva Singh, Bageecha Singh, Satish Pillai, Dola Banerjee and Charles Borromeo, who have taken not only Tata Steel but also India to the Global Map of sports. Almost 30,000 citizens and students from schools participated in the Grand Centenary Run to show their allegiance to Tata Steel, the 100 year old Company that has left no stone unturned in their development and progress.

Shatrang had something special for all age groups and sections of society and involved all and sundry associated with Tata Steel over the last Century. The unprecedented response for the various Centenary activities and competitions that were organised by Community centres for the local people in the bustees, was testimony that no strata of society remained untouched by Tata Steel’s Centenary celebrations and Shatrang

The four – day grand celebrations was definitely be an unforgettable experience for everyone in Jamshedpur across all age groups and levels as it was a celebration of not only 100 years of Tata Steel but also a celebration of the evolution and progress of the society which was initially a quaint village called Sakchi in 1907, that has today transformed into Jamshedpur which now has a global presence.

*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 Letter of Offer with SEBI and the stock exchanges. The 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 ”