“Indian Women’s Thar Desert Expedition” led by Ms. Bachendri Pal, was successfully completed by the 12 member-all women team in a month’s time. This remarkable feat was achieved under the aegis of Ms. Bachendri Pal, who is the first Indian woman to climb Mt. Everest and also Chief of Adventure Programme, Tata Steel. This first Indian women’s desert safari sponsored by Tata Steel, along the international border, Rann of Kutch, the Wagah border and the Thar Desert, has found a mention in the 2008 edition of Limca Book of World Records in the Adventure section.

The enterprising team started from Bhuj on January 18, 2007 and reached Wagah Border on February 18, 2007, covering as distance of over 2,000 kms in just one month’s time. This extraordinary zeal and adventurous spirit exhibited by the women has won them the much deserved laurel. Known for promoting sports and adventure, this expedition was organized by Tata Steel with the objective to add to the spirit of adventure and enterprise at the beginning of 2007 and also ushering in the 100 years celebration of Tata Steel.

Recounting the expedition, Ms. Bachendri Pal said, “This was one of the most arduous expeditions…. a journey into the unknown for us. It began with learning to ride camels. The BSF people were amazed at our 60 km a day journey on camels.” She continued, “A mention in the Limca Book of World Record is something to be proud of and it will surely promote the spirit of adventure among women. This achievement that comes in the Centenary year of Tata Steel will encourage more people to come forward and encourage them to take up such daring tasks. We are thankful to Tata Steel for allowing us to take on the challenge and for providing us with all the required support all along.”

The team in this adventurous expedition led by Ms. Bachendri Pal had participation from across the country. The other members included Premlata Agarwal, Priyansha Agarwal, Anita Soren, Binita Soren, Sushila Mardi and L. Annapurna from Jharkhand; Vasumathi Srinivasan and Kokila Sudha from Karnataka; Sushma Bissa from Rajasthan; Chaula Jagirdar from Gujarat and Arpita Chatterjee from West Bengal.

What better way than to celebrate 100 years of Tata Steel. This feather in the cap by the adventure team at Tata Steel has definitely made the Centenary celebrations of the Company a memorable one.

About Tata Steel

Established in 1907 as Asia’s first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel today is world’s sixth largest steel producer with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent acquisition of Corus, the combined enterprise has a crude steel capacity of 25.6 million tonnes with over 84,000 employees across the four continents. Tata Steel Adventure Foundation has the expertise in conducting mountaineering expeditions to various places in the Himalayas, as well as Rafting Expeditions, Kayaking Expeditions, Trans Himalaya Trekking Expeditions and High Altitude Trekking programmes.

*The Company is proposing, subject to market conditions and other considerations, an offer on a rights basis of its equity shares and cumulative convertible preference shares and has filed a Draft Letter of Offer with SEBI and the stock exchanges. The Draft Letter of Offer is available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in  and the respective websites of the BRLMs at www.jmfinancial.in , www.citibank.co.in  and www.dspml.com