Corus spices up Tata Steel`s 100-year party
Business Standard — August 28, 2007

Tata Steel's centenary year would have been incomplete without the $12-billion Corus Group acquisition, the largest by an Indian company abroad.

B Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel said on the occasion of the beginning of the centenary year celebrations that the one single event in the form of the Corus deal made Tata Steel's centenary year colourful.

Muthuraman explained, "One needs to earn a celebration." Corus, which catapulted Tata Steel from the rank of 56th in the steel making world to the sixth, was cause enough for Tata Steel to celebrate.

He was addressing a select gathering of Jamshedpur residents on the occasion of the beginning of the centenary year on Sunday.

Not surprisingly as celebrations were flagged off, Corus had a presence. Phillipe Varin, chief executive officer, Corus Group, released 'The Romance of Tata Steel', a book written by Russi Lala on the occasion of centenary.

Varin said, his association with Tata Steel was around two years old and the values at the heart of the organization remained unchanged, even after the acquisition.

Responding to a query posed by Business Standard, he said that the relationship with Tata Steel could be best defined as a strong partnership.

"It is an acquisition, they (Tata Steel) are the ruler but it's not like the (Normans and) Anglo-Saxons," he added, referring to British history.

Varin has been inducted on the board of Tata Steel and is a non-executive non-independent director. However, it was unlikely that Tata Steel would rest with the Corus acquisition.

Addressing a large gathering for centenary celebrations, Muthuraman said, the company must have even more dreams, aspirations and plans to implement them.

"Tata Steel will be the greatest industrial organization in the world," he said. Though Corus has made Tata Steel a global company, the steelmaker's projects for the centenary year are primarily dedicated to Jamshedpur, its hometown and the states where operates.

Muthuraman said, Tata Steel would like to build a large airport in Jamshedpur.

The company had already identified land, which would have a 7,000 square feet runway, the standard for most Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

Sources said, the cost of the project could be around Rs500 crore. Tata Steel had already approached the government for land between Adityapur and Seraikela.

"If things were under our control, we could have built the airport in one year's time," said Muthuraman. Tata Steel already has a private airport in Jamshedpur, where Air Deccan today launched commercial operations of a flight connecting Jamshedpur and Kolkata to mark the celebrations.

Tata Steel will underwrite some of the seats on the 48-seater ATR-42 500 aircraft in certain months. The airport was set up in 1938, the year JRD Tata took over as chairman of Tata Steel.

Muthuraman also announced a centenary project to promote land and water management initiatives in the backward tribal blocks of the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the states where it operated.

The company aspires to create these blocks into models of excellence that may be replicated both by the government and the corporate entities active in the areas of community development.

The Ratan Tata Trust would provide technical support for the Rs100 crore project, aimed to impact 40,000 poor tribal households.

A school for the tribals would also be established in the three states. For Jamshedpur, a city centre mall and a park were also on the anvil.

In a parallel development, Tata Steel has roped in Suhel Seth, managing partner of Counselage, to chalk out a brand strategy for the company.

Seth said, the focus of the strategy would be to involve (all stakeholders), integrate (the different companies under its fold) and inspire.