Tata Steel has been declared the Best Integrated Steel Plant in India for the year 2000-2001. Asia's first and India's largest integrated steel plant in the private sector, Tata Steel has been conferred this award for the FOURTH TIME and thrice in SUCCESSION since the institution of the award.The trophy awarded annually by the Prime Minister of India , carries a trophy and a cash award.

The trophy instituted in 1992-93 on the suggestion of the then Hon'ble Prime Minister,
Mr. Narasimha Rao, recognizes the outstanding performance of the integrated steel plants. The award is intended to spur the steel plants to achieve international standards of efficiency, quality and economy in their operations. The primary objective of the scheme is to generate a sense of competition among the steel plants so that they continuously benchmark themselves with the best and improve their performance.

The evaluation for the award is done by a panel of judges comprising technologists, economists, consumers of steel and workers' representative on a set of criteria covering operational, financial, market, export, quality, customer satisfaction, environment and HR related parameters. Assessment of approaches is carried out based on the CII Exim Model by the assessors appointed by the CII. For the year, 2000-01, the panel of judges was headed by
Shri S.R. Jain, former Chairman, SAIL.

All the steel plants applying for the award undergo a rigorous evaluation process comprising site visit by the panel of judges, an evaluation of the excellence of approaches in leadership, strategy formulation and deployment, partnership and resource management, people management & process management and an independent survey of customer satisfaction. The assessment carries a total of 100 points. Tata Steel outperformed the domestic steel producers in virtually all the parameters and scored way ahead of the others with over 73 percent score.

During the period under review, Tata Steel posted the most emphatic results by bettering its financial performance and making significant improvements in all areas of operations, such as production of hot metal and crude steel, quality assurance and customer satisfaction. The Prime Minister's Trophy for the Best Integrated Steel Plant was earlier conferred on Tata Steel for the years 1994-95, 1998-99 and 1999-2000.

Mr.B.Muthuraman, MD, Tata Steel and Mr.R.B.B.Singh, President, TWU received the award from the Prime Minister. Mr.Muthuraman thanked the Prime Minister and said "Indian Steel Industry can become World beater once infrastructure like Roads, Railways, Ports are provided". The Prime Minister had all the praise for Tata Steel and its employees and said that "Tata Steel is the pride of the country".