Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is working on innovations for the emerging mining sector. It is also looking at monetising its patents by partnering with relevant vendors.
Tata Research, Development and Design Centre, a division of TCS, is working on the innovations in materials. Already, TCS partners with large mining and metal product enterprises to help conceptualise solutions.
With various mining customers worldwide, TCS has a dedicated mining centre of excellence, where it works towards creating solutions, working from conceptualisation till implementation, focusing on building capabilities that address industry challenges.
Tanmoy Chakraborty, vice president and head - government industry solutions unit, TCS, said, “India is growing at around 8 per cent and is the second fastest growing economy with mining contributing about 2 per cent to the GDP. Currently we have a few solutions like enterprise solutions tailored to mining industry. We are looking at specific areas now for innovations in the emerging mining sector.”
“There are a few international technology players who are also tapping into the sector. We want to build differentiation in the market,” added Chakraborty.
A few of the innovations include waste management strategy. For instance, 1 tonne of steel generates equivalent amount of waste, which can be used for cement making. Again, another mining requirement - iron ore slimes - is rich with over 10 per cent alumina. Iron ore, in this state, cannot be fed into the blast furnace.
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“We are working on a customised reagent to separate the two. This innovation should be completed by 2010,” said Viswanadh Bandla, business development - lead process engineering lab, Tata Research Development and Design Centre. “Our innovations are used in our group companies as well as by other clients. We work with 30-40 clients in India and abroad. These innovations contributed around 10 per cent to TCS’ revenues last year, while this year it is around 16-20 per cent to TCS’ revenues so far,” Bandla added.
The company has 19 research and development (R&D) laboratories in the world. It files around 60-70 patents a year and have filed over 200 patents so far.