~ The steel giant collaborates with top institutes to give impetus to innovation ~

Dr. Sanjay Chandra, Chief R & D and Scientific Services, Tata Steel with the Runner up team, IVIT, Odisha

Tata Steel has a rich legacy of innovation through its continued focus on Research & Development. In line with its commitment to continuous improvement and focus on Innovation, the steel major today announced the launch of 'Mind Over Matter', a talent hunt for India's next student innovators. The hunt witnessed participation of trailblazing students in teams of up to 3, with path-breaking ideas submitted in one of the nine categories that have been listed on www.valueabled.com. Teams with the best entries were selected by Tata Steel to join them at Jamshedpur to execute their ideas to proof the concept in an industrial set-up. Through their summer project, the students were also mentored by the R&D team and manufacturing experts, & had access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.

Dr Sanjay Chandra, Chief R & D and Scientific Services, Tata Steel along with the winner, Ms Mohini Aggarwal from IIT, Rourkee

A campaign was run across engineering colleges in India which was followed by the launch of a microsite hosted on www.valueabled.com, a youth portal powered by Tata Steel which featured information about the talent hunt. Social networks and direct e-mailers were also employed to spread the word. To encourage further involvement and participation, a Google hangout was conducted with Dr Sumitesh Das, Chief Global Research Programs. According to Mr. Das, the initiative (Mind over Matter) was born out of a study which was done in-house by a team in Jamshedpur including him, Dr Sanjay Chandra (Chief R&D & Scientific Services) and Dr Pradip Kumar Banerjee, (Chief Researcher) and Dr Tapan Kumar Rout (Principal Scientist). Every year, around 40-50 students from various engineering colleges throughout India work on challenging summer intern projects in the R&D & Scientific Services division and bring in a lot of freshness and diverse perspective to how we look at things.

One of the participant presenting his innovative ideas

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Guest Dr Sanjay Chandra, Chief R & D and Scientific Services at Tata Steel said, "Mind Over Matter will be a great platform for students to gain hands on experience at Tata Steel wherein they can showcase their innovative ideas. This collaboration of the best minds and a corporate will provide the much needed impetus to Innovation in the nation." He also added, "The cognizance of Mind and Matter should be an exciting journey and we at Tata Steel feel proud and privileged to play host to the innovative minds of the future".

The session started with a welcome speech by Dr Sanjay Chandra, Chief R&D and Scientific Services followed by an introduction by Dr Tapan Rout, Principal Scientist-New Technology & Strategy and Dr Sumitesh Das, Chief Global Research Programs. A total of six selected teams gave presentation on their innovative ideas. The session was concluded by insightful remarks by Dr P.K. Banerjee, Chief Researcher-Raw Materials.

About Valueabled.com
Valueabled.com is an online extension of Tata Steel's sustained campaign to inspire the youth to embrace a value driven society. The portal aims at informing the youth about relevant social and environmental issues, inspiring their action, and collaboratively innovating for a better future. Amply summed in the portal's byline: 'Inspiring social and environmental consciousness, action and excellence while preserving values'

About Tata Steel
Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel Group is among the top global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of nearly 30 million tonnes per annum (MnTPA). It is now the world's second-most geographically-diversified steel producer, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries. The Tata Steel Group, with a turnover of US$ 24.81 billion in FY 14, has over 80,000 employees across five continents and is a Fortune 500 company. The Group's vision is to be the world's steel industry benchmark in "Value Creation" and "Corporate Citizenship" through the excellence of its people, its innovative approach and overall conduct. Underpinning this vision is a performance culture committed to aspiration targets, safety and social responsibility, continuous improvement, openness and transparency. In 2008, Tata Steel India became the first integrated steel plant in the world, outside Japan, to be awarded the Deming Application Prize 2008 for excellence in Total Quality Management. In 2012, Tata Steel became the first integrated steel company in the world, outside Japan, to win the Deming Grand Prize 2012 instituted by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers.