Govt launches 3 SRTMI initiatives to promote in R&D in steel making

Union Minister Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma on Wednesday launched three initiatives under the Steel Research Technology Mission of India (SRTMI) to promote R&D in steel making in the country, according to an official statement. 

SRTMI is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Steel and the domestic steel industry. Varma, the Minister of State for Steel, launched the R&D schemes and SRTMI web portal to drive innovation and sustainability in the steel sector, the statement said. 

The schemes were launched at the 'Catalysing R&D in the Indian Steel Sector' sector event, organised by the Ministry of Steel in the national capital. The new R&D initiatives and SteelCollab portal will play a critical role as India moves towards a 300 MT steel capacity by 2030, the minister said. 

He also noted that there is a need to accelerate technology commercialisation and indigenous capital goods manufacturing.

In his address, Steel Secretary Sandeep Poundrik stressed the need for research tailored to India's unique industry structure, where 45 per cent of capacity lies in the secondary steel sector. 

According to the statement, the first scheme -- Challenge Method -- aims to identify and solve critical industry-wide challenges of national interest, while the objective of the Open Innovation Method initiative is to support open research proposals from academia and researchers in collaboration with the industry. 

The third Start-up Accelerator scheme is for supporting early-stage startups to develop cutting-edge steel technologies. The SteelCollab platform will act as a matchmaking hub, connecting industry leaders, researchers, startups and academia to drive decarbonisation, digitalisation, and advanced steel development.