The 5^th edition of Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet was inaugurated at the lawns of the iconic Victoria Memorial here today by Noble Laureate and President of The Royal Society, Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan.

In his inaugural address, Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan spoke of the divide between humanities and science and outlined the progress in the world that has been made possible through application of science, technology and innovation. In the same vein, he noted that “science also has a lot to learn from humanities through intermingling of ideas.”

He said there was enough evidence in history to prove that objective, scientific and technical knowledge were ingredients that made a nation rich. Nations that were resource-rich but knowledge-poor continued to remain poor.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Chanakya  Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, spoke of how the steel major connects with the community through literary events, arts and sports. He informed the gathering that, following its association with the Kolkata Literary Meet which began a few years ago, Tata Steel has begun to sponsor literary meets in the states of Jharkhand and Odisha.

Dr Jayanta Sengupta, Secretary and Curator, Victoria Memorial Hall, described the event as a “six-day extravaganza” whose objective was to dazzle, engage, entertain and also challenge the mind.

Last year, 91 sessions were held at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet which was attended by close to 60,000 people. Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet is set to become bigger this year. Among the prominent names who are attending this year’s event are Man Booker Prize winner Yann Martel, Ruskin Bond, Deborah Baker, Ramchandra Guha, Bachi Karkaria, Pankaj Kapur, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Soumitra Chatterjee, Rekha Bharadwaj and Shabana Azmi, among others.

The Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet 2019 will come to end on the evening of January 27, 2019 with a sarod recital by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan at the main steps of Victoria Memorial.

About Tata Steel                  
Tata Steel Group is among the top global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of 27.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) as on March 31, 2018. It is one of the world's most geographically-diversified steel producers, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries. The Group recorded a consolidated turnover of US $20.41 billion (INR 133,016 crore) in FY18. Tata Steel Group is spread across five continents with an employee base of over 65,000. Tata Steel retained Industry Leader position in FY18 and ranked second overall in the DJSI assessment, 2017. The Company has been recognised as the Climate Disclosure Leader in ‘Steel category’ by CDP (2017). Besides being a member of the World Steel Climate Action Programme, Tata Steel was felicitated with several awards including the Prime Minister’s Trophy for the best performing integrated steel plant for 2014-15 and 2015-16, Best Risk Management by CNBC TV18 (2018) and ‘Corporate Strategy Award’ by Mint (2018). The Company also received the ‘Most Ethical Company’ award from Ethisphere Institute for the sixth time (2018), Steel Sustainability Champions (2017) by the World Steel Association, Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Awards (2017 & 2018), Golden Peacock HR Excellence Award by Institute of Directors (2017) as well as 'Asia's Best Integrated Report' award by the Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards (2017), among several others.

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