Fostering a culture of innovation

At Tata Steel, we aspire to be among the top five global technology leaders in the steel industry. Developing best-in-class technologies and stateof-the-art infrastructure, guided by a culture of innovation, are of paramount importance to us.

Graphene Centre, Jamshedpur

Spearheading breakthrough projects is integral to our technology leadership journey. Our projects are aimed at utilising low-quality raw materials, incorporating the use of innovative steel coatings, development and deployment of carbon capture and usage technologies, generation and use of green hydrogen in the steel value chain, achieve water efficiency, and implement advanced process control using digital tools and techniques, materials for the mobility of the future, among others.

We are leveraging in-house capabilities as well as external expertise through strategic collaborations and paving the way for innovations to accelerate the deployment of breakthrough technologies at scale. In FY 2021-22, an umbrella MoU was signed with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), opening the doors for joint development of advanced technologies with 38 CSIR labs across the country. Tata Steel also signed an MoU with the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC) and the Indian Navy to promote a culture of innovation in the country. Multiple start-ups were onboarded during the year, and 31 fully funded trials were conducted across the steel value chain in collaboration. An innovation event titled ‘MaterialNext’ was held with a view to provide incubation opportunities to young minds in the domain of advanced materials.

Tata Steel also hosted a webinar, ‘Mat-e-reality’ to promote technology thought leadership. The multi-day annual webinar, focussing on the theme of materials for mobility, brought together technology leaders from across the world.

Continuing the work on monetisation of in-house developed Intellectual Property (IP), the team successfully conducted commercial pilot of over 1,000 tonnes of Dhurvi Gold – a soil conditioner made from steelmaking slag.

As a testimony to the Company’s priorities and relentless efforts in focussing on innovation, we were declared the joint winner as the ‘Top Innovative Company (Large)’ in the Manufacturing category at the CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2021.

Research & Development infrastructure

Developing revolutionary, sustainable products is our primary focus. Some of our implemented and close-to-implementation initiatives include: (a) 5 tonnes per day CO₂ capture and utilisation (b) cyanide removal from coke plant wastewater, based upon a patented ultraviolet (UV) oxidation process (c) continuous injection of coal bed methane gas in blast furnace. Additionally, several low technology readiness level research programmes for the production of cheap, green hydrogen at scale through different routes, have also been launched.

Tata Steel developed a novel patented process to produce a new variant of pearlitic (C80) steel. This process modifies the microstructure to spheroidised carbides in a hot rolled condition. During FY 2021-22, the Company established a facility for studying deformation behaviour of steels at high strain rates usually seen during a crash. Also, 125 patent applications were filed, marking the highest-ever for Tata Steel.

Key product developments

In line with the vision of becoming the best-in-class manufacturer and preferred choice of steel mills, in FY 2021-22, Tata Steel developed high-end, niche products in the automotive and industrial segments.

Numerous high-strength structural grades for automotive applications were developed, including the E450 – hot formed for axle housing, S700MC [thin], and JSH 590B, with more than 75% hole expansion ratio for automotive structural. Noteworthy developments in the API segment include the successful commercialisation of J55 for the OCTG (Oil Country Tubular Goods) application. In the lifting and excavation segment, Tata Steel, in a first for India, developed S700MC with an impact toughness guarantee at -40°C for telescopic boom application. Super Interstitial Free (IF) grade in Galvannealed, 420LA CR (Cold Rolled) and DP490 CR (Dual-phase Cold Rolled) are few other notable products developed during the year.

To maintain our leadership position in the rebar segment, Fe550SD, with higher strength and higher ductility was developed, and commercialised in the size range of 6 mm to 25 mm. It was the first time that such a product had been developed in India. In order to cater to the new requirement of high strength wire rods for LRPC and spring application, new grades HC82Cr[LR HT], HC82BCr[SH HT], and PC300K were developed.

New Materials Business (NMB)

NMB was set up with the vision to explore opportunities in materials beyond steel. FY 2021-22 saw the completion of NMB’s fourth year of operations, and currently, the business has three material verticals – Composites, Graphene, and Medical Materials and Devices.

Composites

The Composites business of NMB focusses on three market segments: industrial, infrastructure and railways. The current product offerings include:

Graphene

The Graphene business crossed ₹100 crore of revenue for the first time in FY 2021-22, registering a 7x growth over FY 2020-21.

During FY 2021-22, the business successfully established graphene enriched PVC and HDPE pipes in the market, branded as WONDRA. The industrial products of elastomers and polymers, enriched with graphene, are under market validation. Graphene technology in the areas of energy, lifestyle and well-being are under evaluation.

Medical Materials and Devices (MMD)

Driven by the vision to create affordable and global standard health technology solutions for India, the business of MMD successfully piloted phase-pure sprayable grade of Hydroxyapatite in FY 2021-22. Fish-scale derived collagen and gelatin were also successfully manufactured and are currently being tested at accredited third-party facilities for analytical and biocompatible parameters. The business has a pipeline of materials and devices under development, and validation in collaboration with premier research institutes and start-ups.

Way forward

Total Quality Management (TQM) and Shikhar25

As Tata Steel is growing, both organically and inorganically, deployment of TQM techniques across the value chain is crucial to achieving consistent quality and efficient performance. The TQM way of working is embedded in the culture of Tata Steel.

Innovation: Under Tata InnoVista, Tata Steel has been consistently evolving as an organisation, walking away with the highest number of awards for the last few years. At Tata InnoVista Awards 2021, Tata Steel and its Group companies bagged 6 out of 15 awards (Tata Steel - 4 and 1 each by Jamipol and Tata Steel Utilities and Infrastructure Services Limited) in the categories of sustainability, piloted technology, and implemented innovation. To drive open innovation through crowdsourcing, and developing ideas for technical challenges, this year, the Company launched a platform termed InnoVerse.

TBEM Assessment 2021: Tata Steel has been recognised as ‘Benchmark Leader’ in TBEM Assessment 2021.

Data Excellence Assessment 2022: Tata Steel Enterprise level Data Maturity Assessment was carried out by the Tata Business Excellence Group. Tata Steel has been put under the ‘Synergised’ category, which indicates that the Company has established a digital ecosystem across enterprises, its stakeholders and affiliates. Tata Steel is a forerunner for data excellence in the Tata Group at present.

The Shikhar25 program, which is multi-divisional, multi-locational and cross-functional, is an EBITDA-focussed improvement initiative that aims on delivering superior product quality, optimising product mix, improving operational efficiency, lowering carbon footprint, reducing waste generation, and maximising energy efficiency through a chain of impact centres across Tata Steel. It intends to drive breakthrough improvement projects with a focus on safety, environment and people standards, in collaboration with internal/external stakeholders, to achieve best-in-class operational performance.

During the year under review, the Company, through its Shikhar25 program, achieved performance improvements of ₹5,463 crore (including ₹2,803 crore value protection initiative). Given the continued effect of the pandemic, it was important to be agile enough to learn and evolve faster, and to keep pace with the changing business needs. The impetus was on driving value by enabling global optima and resource synergy for the Tata Steel group, resulting in synergy benefit of ₹905 crore. The program was extended with the launch of new IMPACT centres at Tata Steel Mining Limited, Jamshedpur Continuous Annealing and Processing Company Private Limited, etc.

Some of the key themes for improvement for the year under review are:

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity continues to be a top priority for our organisation. As accelerated digitalisation is coming to the fore, it is also creating a cyber threat landscape. Our strategy is designed to securely enable business and technology initiatives, while maintaining a relentless focus on protecting the organisation, our customers, and our third-party vendors. We devote significant resources to protecting and continuously improving the security of our systems.

Our cybersecurity and risk management policies and standards, aligned to leading industry standards and regulatory requirements, provide the foundation of our cybersecurity program. They are centred on protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the firm’s infrastructure, resources, and information. Through these policies and standards, we inform our employees about their responsibilities to protect customer and vendor information, in addition to the security of our systems. We also require our third-party vendors to adhere to the minimum security and control standards, our Supplier Code of Conduct, and the applicable laws and regulations.

Protecting privacy and data security

Protecting personal and financial information, and handling it responsibly, are of utmost importance to our organisation. We have built internal controls, policies and security measures designed to keep this information safe, and we require that third parties, such as our suppliers and vendors, preserve our high standards and protections for data. Customers need to know what we are doing with their personal information. We strive to provide them with clear, user-friendly explanations of our privacy practices, including how we collect, share, use and protect their information, and what choices they can make to limit the sharing of personal information. We let customers know beforehand, if we plan to make material changes to our privacy policies, through a variety of channels. We safeguard personal information through a wide range of technological, administrative, organisational, and physical security measures. In addition, our Code of Conduct, and related policies for ethical business conduct include specific guidelines about how employees should safeguard confidential information.

We have a formal privacy incident management process in place to respond to any suspected or actual incident involving unauthorised access to or disclosure of personal information, its availability, or an impact to its integrity. We notify impacted individuals of privacy breach incidents in accordance with the applicable laws. We are always investing in enhanced data privacy and security solutions to safeguard information.