Jamshedpur celebrates JRD’s birth anniversary

In the 'steel city' of Jamshedpur that he founded, employees of the Tata Group gathered to celebrate the 170th birth anniversary of the legendary Indian industrialist and patriot Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. The celebrations began on Monday and continued through Tuesday.

Among other things, Jamshedji Tata was the founder of Tata Iron & Steel Co (now Tata Steel), which commenced operations back in 1907, making it Asia's first integrated steel plant. Since then, the group has expanded its operations to cover several sectors such as automotives, commodities, energy, hotels, retail, financial services, broadcast, software and telecommunication.

However, Tata himself died in 1904, and never saw his last enterprise come to fruit.

The morning of Tuesday saw a gathering of the top management from across the group, including Tata Steel director Sam Palia, Tata Sons directors Syamal Gupta, Ishaat Hussain, and J J Irani, Corus chief executive Philippe Varin, S Ramadorai, managing director and chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services, and Trent Ltd managing director Noel Tata, among many other senior executives.

The workers too were well represented by Tata Workers Union president Raghunath Pandey, Tata Mazdoor president Rakeshwar Pandey, and other office-bearers of unions from across Tata Steel operations and raw material divisions.

The ceremony at the gates of the Tata complex in Jamshedpur (still known as 'Tatanagar' in eastern India) was followed by a colourful array of 'floats' by various departments and divisions of Tata Steel, and a tribute to JRD's statue in the city by the citizens of Jamshedpur.

Sporting gesture
In addition, a weightlifting centre was inaugurated at the JRD Complex by J J Irani, a boxing centre was inaugurated at Keenan stadium by Ishaat Hussain, and Philippe Varin inaugurated a football training centre at Gopal Maidan. A series of sporting events were organised to go with the occasion.

Tata Steel has also won ''Award for Corporate Social Responsibility in Public health'' by US- Indian Business Council (USIBC), Population Services International (PSI) and the center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in 2007.

Moreover, Tata Steel is also the first integrated steel company in the world, outside Japan, to have been awarded the Deming Application Prize 2008 for excellence in Total Quality Management.

Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata was born on 3 March 1839 in Navsari, Gujarat, and died on 19 May 1904.