November 5, 2003
Tata Sponge wins IIM Award
Tata Sponge Iron wins IIM National Quality Award
The unwavering commitment made by Tata Sponge in its relentless pursuit to set and sustain superior quality standards came up for recognition by the Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) in the form of a National Quality Award for the year 2002-03, when the company shared the first prize with Jindal Iron & Steel Company, in the pig iron plants/DR plants/major re-rolling units category. This annual competition on Quality instituted by the Ferrous Division of the IIM is aimed at recognizing the iron and steel plants in India registering highest quality performance during the year under review. The award was jointly received by Mr. B. Muthuraman, Company’s Chairman and Mr. Ashok Pandit, Managing Director during the National Metallurgists Day function organized by IIM in Kolkata on the 14th November, 2003.
As per the rigid strictures that the competition stipulates for its the participants, an applicant has to qualify in ten evaluation criteria covering every aspect of company operations & management ably supported by a sustained level of profitability, setting examples for good corporate citizenship and formulating short and long term strategies and interacted action plans for business growth to secure a robust future for the company, besides addressing a host of other issues concerning the protection of stakeholders’ interest.
Incidentally, Tata Sponge was the first and is the only sponge iron company in India to be selected for this prestigious award five times in the past eight years. To vindicate the quality drive in the company, Tata Sponge also holds the record of being the first DRI company to have received the ISO 9002 certification and now being the first to have been recertified under the new 2000 version. Another first that embellishes Tata Sponge’s crowning glory is the ISO 14000 certification which the company received earlier in March this year.