It is a problem that confronts most steel makers, but few have been able to work round it. The one who has is Tata Steel. The Rs 29,396-crore steel major is piloting a technology at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh that will help it reduce wastage when it removes the ash content from coal mines. The issue can be put in perspective when the ash content in Indian coal is noted: it is almost 35 per cent, which makes it unusable as a raw material for steel. To tide over this problem, most steel makers import high-grade coal from countries such as Australia. Tata Steel, which was feted for its technology at the 2012 edition of Tata Innovista (awards that recognise innovations within the Tata Group), is looking to cut imports once it is commercialised in three to four years.
The Mumbai-headquartered company, whose largest plant is located at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, is not the only one to be devoting its attention to break-through technology of late. Information technology company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has rolled out a new software for farmers in Maharashtra and Gujarat that allows them to have easy access to information that counts, whether it is about the arrival of the monsoons, soil quality or pest control. Called Samriddh Krishi, TCS has collaborated with Tata Chemicals for the project, and the rollout, according to R Gopalakrishnan, director, Tata Sons, will be expanded over time.
Here is another example of clutter-breaking work: Tata Chemicals, the maker of Tata Salt, the largest table salt in India, has just launched an iron fortified salt. Now table salt is packed with iodine, which is a vital nutrient. But recognising that Indians also grapple with the problem of iron deficiency, the agro-chemical major tied up with the Hyderabad-based National Insitute of Nutrition to launch Tata Salt Plus this month. “This is the first time that an iron-fortified salt has been launched in India,” points out Gopalakrishnan.
The work that group companies within the Rs 4.15-lakh-crore (or $83-billion) Tata conglomerate are doing is part of a system that was put in place almost seven years ago. Recognising the need to harness creative ideas and solutions, the group formed a total quality management services division under holding company Tata Sons that, among other things, actively promotes innovations.
The group, which is eying a turnover of Rs 26 lakh crore (or $500 billion) by 2020, also instituted the Innovista Awards to help recognise good innovations. Besides this, the group also attempted to recognise those innovations that dared to try, basically ideas, which though attempted seriously, turned out to be failures.
The result of all this is a 28-fold increase in the number of entries from 2006 (the entries then were 101) to now. The participating countries have also expanded from one, namely India, to 25 including the US, UK, Europe, etc. But this is only one aspect of the culture of innovations that the Tatas have been looking to foster. Thanks to the emphasis on creative thinking, which is also part of the appraisal system of line managers, the ecosystem, says Gopalakrishnan, has seen nearly 6,000 ideas and 11,000 innovation projects over the last seven years. Of this, nearly 43 per cent has come from line managers working in Tata group companies abroad.
While the total R&D spends by the Tata group is just three per cent of its turnover at Rs 12,500 crore spread mainly across Tata Steel, Tata Motors and TCS, the group, says Gopalakrishnan, is counting on more companies to come up with clutter-busting work. The signs are visible: At the Innovista Awards this year, entries came from a total of 71 companies out of 91 that make up the group. The number of failures, which qualified for the Dare to Try category, also grew from 12 in 2006 to 87.