Tata Steel MD TV Narendran urges holistic support from SMEs, academia, and govt for manufacturing growth

ISQ Jamshedpur chapter organizes ISQ Annual Conference 2023

Jamshedpur, Dec 2:  The Indian Society for Quality (ISQ) Jamshedpur Chapter organised ISQ Annual Conference 2023 at the United Club. This flagship event stands as a testament to the city’s industrial legacy and marks the first time the conference has convened in Eastern India.

The theme of the conference is ‘Making Indian Manufacturing a Hallmark of Quality in the World.’ This Conference is an effort towards bringing ‘Manufacturing Industries’ and the Quality thought leaders and practitioners together from various geographies to delve deeper into the subject.

The 3-day Annual conference started on 30^th November with 2 seminars – a) “Creating and Assuring Quality” by N Ramanathan, Academician International Academy for Quality & ISQ Dronacharya Award Winner; b) TQM implementation in service functions by Anil Sachdev President TQM International and Dr Pankaj Kumar, advisor TQM, Tata Autocomp Systems.

The conference on 1^st December commenced with a welcome address by Avneesh Gupta Chairperson, ISQ Conference Program Committee and Jamshedpur Chapter & Vice President TQM and Engineering & Projects, Tata Steel. He underscored the importance of quality in line with the theme of the event.

Janak Mehta, President ISQ, presented the presidential and conference theme address. He talked about India’s position in World trade and linked contribution of manufacturing sector in India’s GDP story.

The Chief guest for the inaugural session was Soumitra Bhattacharya, CEO & Director, Indian Foundation for Quality Management (IFQM) and Chairman & Director, Bosch Limited. In his speech he focused on Quality as a cornerstone for global competitiveness. He also talked about Global shift in Manufacturing and how synergy between Make in India and Made in India has supported the growth of Start-ups and MSMEs in India.

Celebrating excellence, the conference bestowed five awards upon exceptional achievers. The awardees were: Jamestji Tata Award – Dr. Jairam Varadaraj (Managing Director Elgi Equipments Ltd), Planet Earth Award – R. Mukundan (MD& CEO – Tata Chemicals Limited), Ashoka Award – Arnab Banerjee – (MD & CEO CEAT Limited),  Harsha Award – Dr. Prem Motwani (Retd Professor, Center for Japanese Studies, JNU & Author), Harsha Award – Satyendra Kumar (Independent Advisor & Consultant)

 TV Narendran, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Steel Limited and Chief Guest at the Awards Night, emphasized the crucial role of manufacturing in the contemporary context. He underscored the need for holistic support from SMEs, academia, and the Government to enhance the manufacturing ecosystem. Drawing parallels to the success of the services sector, he highlighted the pivotal moment for manufacturing, emphasizing the significance of infrastructure and supply chain development.

 Narendran emphasized the role of major manufacturing companies, like automobiles in the past, in fostering indigenization of the supplier base and promoting quality-driven SMEs.

The Day-1 of the conference also witnessed the launch of book – Daily Management and Problem Solving for Services– authored by Pankaj Kumar and Anil Sachdeva alongside a dedicated session on Quality Management at Schools by Ankur Gandotra, Head TQM post which two TEEP participating schools – JH Tarapore School and Gulmohur High School shared their excellence journey.

The Day-2 of the conference started with a session on TQM principle for Social Impact. Mr. Sourav Roy, CEO, Tata Steel foundation, and his team presented the various initiative run under TSF.

It was followed by keynote speeches by Ravindra Kulkarni, Jamshedpur Plant Head, Tata Motors and Mr. R Mukundan, MD & CEO, Tata Chemicals Limited.

Day-2 also had a special panel discussion on theme “Attractiveness of Manufacturing sector for Millennials”. It was chaired and moderated by Ms. Atrayee Sanyal, VP HRM, Tata Steel.

Subhrajit Basu, GM Tata Business Excellence Group and Vice President ISQ Jamshedpur Chapter presented the summarization of conference proceedings and Mr. Nishith Sinha, Honorary Secretary, ISQ Jamshedpur Chapter, gave the vote of thanks.

Parag Auty, on behalf of ISQ Pune Chapter, announced the ISQ Annual Conference 2024 which will be hosted at Pune.

The 3-day annual conference finally concluded with an industrial visit to Tata Steel and Tata Motors.