The National Metallurgists Day Celebrations commenced in Jamshedpur today. The Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) in association with Tata Steel Limited is organising National Metallurgists Day celebrations in the Steel City this year and the event is being hosted in Jamshedpur after a period of nine years; NMD Celebrations were last held here in the year of 1997. The National Metallurgists Day celebrations, instituted in 1962 by the Ministry of Steel & Mines are held every year on 14th November, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The celebrations are held on behalf of the Ministry of Steel to honour distinguished metallurgists of India for their outstanding contributions in the field of metallurgical education, research and industry. Traditionally, a symposium is also organized prior to the NMD celebrations and the Annual Technical Meeting (ATM) of IIM is organized after NMD celebrations.

This year overwhelming response has been received from the IIM members as well as from the metallurgical industry leaders in India and overseas. More than 900 delegates have registered for the event.

As scheduled, the International Symposium on Steels for Automotives began at the Tata Auditorium at 9 AM and concluded late in the evening.

During the day, 12 technical papers were presented by experts from France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, China and India. The papers covered the viewpoints of the automakers as well as of the steelmakers. Details on auto auxiliaries like tyres were also presented. Mr. B Muthuraman, President IIM and MD, Tata Steel Ltd., began the day proceedings with a short welcome, after which the two technical sessions, chaired by Mr. Ravi Kant (MD, Tata Motors) and Dr. Subir Kumar Bhattacharyya (ex-MD, Durgapur Steel Plant and ex-President, IIM), took place. The delegates asked a number of questions at the end of the session, as there is widespread interest in automobiles, given the burgeoning Indian automotive industry with a whopping 8% growth rate and major players like Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, Ford, General Motors, Tata Motors, etc., already in the fray.

After a long hard day of technical deliberations, the delegates and their spouses enjoyed the laser show at the Jubilee Park.