Question

Compare the development of iron and steel industry pre and post liberalization

Answer 1

Indians were familiar with iron and steel during the Vedic age more than 4,000 years ago. It is evident from the Iorn Pillar at the outskirts of Delhi. But the seeds of modern steel industry were sown by Sir Jamshedji Tata in 1907 when Tata Iron & Steel Company Ltd. (TISCO) was set up. The first steel ingots were rolled in TISCO in 1911. This was followed by the establishment of the Mysore Iron and Steel Works in 1936, later renamed as Visvesvaraya Iron & Steel Works. Three years later in 1939, production of steel started in another private steel company, the Indian Iron & Steel Company, now a subsidiary of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). Thus, at the time of independence, India possessed a small but viable steel industry with an annual capacity of 1.3 million tonnes. In 1951, finished steel production in India was 1.1 million tonnes.