IIT Bombay and US$ 22 billion JSW Group, a business conglomerate with interests in Steel, Energy, Infrastructure, Cement, Paints, E-commerce, Sports, and Venture Capital, have entered into an exclusive strategic agreement to establish a first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art JSW Technology Hub in India for steel manufacturing in India.
Sangita Jindal, Chairperson of JSW Foundation, said, “This powerful combination will jointly leverage IIT Bombay’s knowledge-rich faculties and JSW’s technical capabilities to develop novel industrial applications for steel manufacturing with a focus on low carbon emissions. This partnership will also initiate new academic courses while consolidating existing courses.”
IIT Bombay, has created The Centre of Excellence in Steel Technology (CoEST) through support from the Ministry of Steel, Government of India, and other industry partners. The JSW Technology Hub will be established within the CoEST to achieve a rapid expansion of quality steel production while maintaining carbon emissions within the target levels. The partnership with IIT Bombay will also allow JSW Group to undertake and intensify R&D efforts in the Steel sector to develop competent capabilities in the area of steel technology for the Indian conglomerate. The JSW Technology Hub will also be the nodal point for JSW Group’s research activities beyond the steel domain.
Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT Bombay, said, “Our CoEST has the vision to facilitate the Indian steel sector to become a world leader. Through this partnership, we would like to achieve rapid scale-up of quality steel production while enabling India to meet its sustainability goals by keeping carbon emissions within targeted levels.”
According to the Agreement signed between IIT Bombay and JSW Group:
- JSW will provide financial and technical support to establish and build the JSW Technology Hub with state-of-the-art infrastructure to undertake a wide range of R&D for steel manufacturing & its use. The centre will be constructed using JSW Neosteel Rebars ranging from 8mm to 36mm diameters with Fe550D grade. IIT Bombay is expected to complete the construction of the JSW Technology Hub by FY28.
- IIT Bombay and JSW Group will leverage the JSW Technology Hub to jointly conduct inter-disciplinary research projects and technical activities on various aspects of steel manufacturing and its use.
- The Technical collaboration allows IIT Bombay and JSW to undertake Research and Training projects to develop patented industrial applications and solutions. JSW could decide to operationalize and commercialize these industrial applications in the future.
- A Joint Steering Committee will be established with IIT Bombay and JSW Steel representation. This Committee will steer the IITB-JSW Technical collaboration.
- IIT Bombay will also establish the Sajjan Jindal Steel Professor Chair to enable focused training and research on new and emerging technologies in steel manufacturing. The institution of this Chair would help IIT Bombay adopt an interdisciplinary, collaborative, synergetic, and translative approach to consistently advance research and address application-oriented demands from the industry, society, and government. The Chair would strive to leverage the existing knowledge base and provide a platform for further innovation and scale.
Seshagiri Rao, Joint MD JSW Steel & Group CFO, said, “Our thrust on R&D and product development have made us the largest and preferred supplier across categories be it in automotive with our advanced high-strength steel products, in food packaging category through our tinplate products, in white goods through our corrosion-resistant steel products, etc.”