Jamshedpur, May 12: Tata Steel paid homage to the pioneering geologist, Pramatha Nath Bose (popularly known as P N Bose) today on his 167th Birth Anniversary.
The day started with homage in the morning, where the senior management of Tata Steel and employees paid homage to P N Bose near Armoury Ground. Present on the occasion were D B Sundara Ramam, Vice-President Raw Materials Tata Steel and Sanjeev Kumar Choudhary, President, Tata Workers’ Union as Chief Guest and Guest of Honour respectively. Also present were Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President Corporate Services Tata Steel, senior office bearers of Tata Workers’ Union, Tata Steel employees among others.
Speaking on the occasion, D B Sundara Ramam said, “P N Bose had been an architect in making India self-reliant in the area of mines and metals and it was his foresightedness and discovering that resulted into birth of India’s first integrated steel plant in Jamshedpur. We and future generations shall follow his footprints for making his dreams true. Tata Steel has been able to get a couple of more mines in recent auctions, which will pave way for future of the company and all its stakeholders.”
Sanjeev Kumar Choudhary, President, Tata Workers` Union said, “Contribution of P N Bose, a pioneering Indian Geologist, is immense. His most outstanding achievement was the discovery of iron ore deposits in the hills of Gorumahisani in the state of Mayurbhanj. He informed J N Tata, through a letter, about these findings. This is how he was instrumental in the setting up Tata Steel Plant in Jamshedpur”.
Digital homage was also planned for Tata Steel employees across all locations. People from the community including children too participated in the celebration at Jamshedpur and Raw Materials locations. At West Bokaro, quiz and drawing competitions were organised at Tata DAV Public School. More than 180 students of Class 3-6 participated in the drawing competition. An exhibition depicting the contribution of P N Bose was organised at Raw Material locations of the company.
Natural Resources Division of Tata Steel also organised the 4th P N Bose Memorial Lecture at the Centre for Excellence. The guest speaker of the lecture was Prof. Sisir Kanti Mondal (PhD), Department of Geological Services, Jadavpur University.
Born on May 12, 1855 in a remote village West Bengal, geologist P N Bose graduated in Science from London University and passed out from the Royal School of Mines in 1878. During his years as geologist, he discovered iron ore mines in Dhulli and Rajhara in Madhya Pradesh. The most outstanding achievement of his life was the discovery of iron ore deposits in the hills of Gorumahisani in the state of Mayurbhanj. Following the discovery, P N Bose wrote a letter to J N Tata (Founder of Tata Steel) on February 24, 1904 which led to the establishment of Tata Iron and Steel Company at Sakchi on August 26, 1907.
P N Bose has several firsts to his credit. He was the first Indian graduate in science from a British University; first to discover petroleum in Assam; first to set up a soap factory in India and also the first to introduce micro sections as an aid to petrological work. He was also the first Indian to hold a graded position in the Geological Survey of India where he served with distinction. As a man of science, he had constantly taken up the cause of technical education in the country. His efforts also catalysed the foundation of the Bengal Technical Institute which is better known as the Jadavpur University today of which Bose was the first honorary Principal.