...They found themselves close by the village of Sakchi near the meeting point of the two rivers, Kharkai and Subarnarekha, which never run dry. (The Creation of Wealth)

This is a small but extremely significant milestone in the countdown to the centenary year of Tata Steel.

Mr P N Bose’s statue at Jamshedpur

On February 24, 1904 an Indian geologist, Mr Pramatha Nath Bose, who had undertaken survey work for the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj, wrote to Mr J N Tata to say he had discovered rich iron ore in the State. The Tatas were perplexed because they thought that no iron deposit could equal those discovered at Dhalli and Rajhara. Mayurbhanj was then ruled by an enlightened ruler. After more than one appeal from him,

Mrs Kamala Bose, a great source of strength for Mr P N Bose

Mr Dorabji Tata, Mr Perin, Mr Weld and Mr Saklatvala went to Mayurbhanj. The party was met by Mr Bose, who expounded the promising results of his survey of the state’s resources.

The five men plunged into the jungles in the direction of the ore-fields, situated to the northwest of the state. In the lofty hills of Gorumahisani Hill, which rises to a height of 3,000 feet they found enormous deposits of iron-ore. They further found hundreds of acres of rich ‘ore-float’. This was the moment Jamshedpur was first sighted.

The survey group in 1908 at the village of Sakchi

A graduate of London University, Mr Bose had spent 25 years in England as the first graded Indian Officer of the Geological Survey of India. He was also the first Indian graduate in Science from a British University. Credited with many other ‘firsts’, none are quite as important to Tata Steel as the letter he wrote one hundred years ago, which led to the discovery of Sakchi, later to be renamed Jamshedpur.