Tata Steel and IIM Calcutta Launch Crucible Workshop to Equip Indian Industry for 4IR

Tata Steel Industrial Consulting (TSIC), the consulting arm of Tata Steel, has partnered with IIM Calcutta’s Management Centre for Human Values (MCHV), to host a five-day ‘Crucible Workshop’ from November 3-7, 2025. This workshop is specifically designed and developed for strategy builders by bringing together the world’s best field and case studies, offering experiential hands-on learning and ensuring a unique experience like few other training programmes in India.

The Crucible Workshop is an intense learning portal for Indian firms to understand, appreciate and have a compass for journeying into the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) that humanity is now experiencing. This learning portal teaches how a small number of companies are successfully tacking these new challenges with organisational systems and human behavior changes.

Tata Steel’s plants at Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar in India, and Ijmuiden in the Netherlands have all been designated as World Economic Forum Global Lighthouse Factories for their pioneering use of 4IR technologies. Through this workshop, the Company will be sharing its decades-long experience with other organisations and leaders keen on building similar manufacturing organisations, thus raising India’s global competitiveness, and making Indian industry future-ready.

IIM Calcutta (IIM-C) is India’s first management institute and has been at the forefront of management education in India. IIM-C’s MCHV studies the march of civilisations and connects each evolutionary step with the values that remain constant.

Interested individuals can visit the Crucible Workshop link to learn more.

India and UAE Join Hands for Collaboration in Industry and Advanced Tech Including AI, Supply Chain, CleanTech, Space Systems and Industry 4.0

• UAE-India MoU to drive investment and collaboration in industry and advanced technologies
• UAE and India to collaborate in Industry and Advanced Technology, including Supply Chain Resilience, Clean Energy Technology, Healthcare, Space, Industry 4.0 and industrial standards
• Agreement also aims to accelerate development of technologies that can help decarbonize industry and advance renewable energy

The UAE and India will cooperate more closely in sustainable industrial development following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Thursday at Emirates Palace.

The MoU signed focuses on seven key areas, including supply chain resilience, renewable energy and energy efficiency, health and life sciences, space systems, AI, Industry 4.0 and advanced technologies, as well as standardization and metrology.

In the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) , the UAE and India will cooperate in the deployment of AI technologies in the space sector, energy, healthcare and supply chains. Both countries will work together to advance capabilities in machine learning and data analytics across priority sectors.

To build supply chain resilience, the UAE and India will collaborate to identify opportunities to supply raw materials. The two countries will also share best practices on industrial enablement and incentivization for industrial growth and development, for instance in areas such as energy, land, CAPEX, OPEX, technology, and labor.

In the energy sector, the UAE and India will collaborate in advancing energy storage technologies, Smart Grid and IoT deployment, and R&D in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Similarly, in health and life sciences, the countries will collaborate in the development of pharmaceuticals, the use of biotechnology, and R&D.

Under the MoU, the UAE and India will also collaborate in the deployment of 4IR (4th Industrial Revolution) Technologies in industry, real-time data processing, the development of machine-to-machine control systems, the development of autonomous robotics, equipment and vehicles, as well as the deployment of additive manufacturing in key Industries.

With this MoU, both the countries will collaborate in the commercial development, launch and use of small satellites for communication and Earth observation, as well as space exploration. The countries will also collaborate in the development of licensing of space-related materials, in addition to R&D in the Space Technology sector.

The final area of collaboration is standardization, metrology, conformity assessment, accreditation, and Halal certification. The countries will exchange information including procedures, guidelines, and lists of regulated products. The countries will also cooperate to harmonize standards with international requirements and work towards the mutual recognition of the conformity assessment results.

The MoU was signed by His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and His Excellency Mr. Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, with the presence of His Highness Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.

Focusing on facilitating industrial investments, technology transfer and enabling the deployment of key technologies in industries, the MoU will benefit both countries through joint industrial and technological developments.

Commerce Minister Mr Goyal commented: “This MoU opens new doors to develop cooperation efforts and build an institutional framework in the fields of emerging technologies. It would help in promoting and developing bilateral cooperation in sectors such Space, healthcare, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, and many other vital areas.”

HE Al Jaber said: “In line with the UAE leadership’s vision, we are committed to strengthening bilateral relations to enhance sustainable and economic growth. Given the UAE’s strong relationship with India across the economic, technological, and social domains, we are pleased to sign this MoU to further develop the industrial sector in line with advanced technology and sustainability standards. This aligns with the objectives of the national industrial strategy, and ‘Make it in the Emirates’ initiative, aimed at transforming the UAE into a global hub for advanced industry, especially industries of the future.”

Under the MoU, cooperation includes industrial and academic collaborations as well as collaborative research and development projects. The countries will also share best practices relating to science and technology policies.

ReNew Power, Hubli and Tata Steel, Jamshedpur Among WEF's 15 New "Future of Manufacturing" Network

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently announced the addition of 15 new sites to its Global Lighthouse Network, a community of world-leading manufacturers using Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to enable bottom-line growth. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s unprecedented disruption, 93% achieved an increase in product output and found new revenue streams.

Among these 15 newly added manufacturing sites, ReNew Power in Hubli, and Tata Steel in Jamshedpur have joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network as leaders in applying Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies (4IR) to achieve profitable growth without increasing their environmental footprint.

According to WEF, these 15 leading innovators created new revenue streams while driving environmental sustainability – 53% are seeing measurable and marked environmental sustainability benefits. Some have seen almost a total reduction in CO2 emissions, double-digit increases in efficiency and reduction in material use. 

The new report, Reimagining Operations for Growth, outlines how manufacturers accomplished these results. Their CEOs will provide more insights at the Lighthouses Live event, featuring keynote speaker Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft and Alex Gorsky, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson on 17 March at 14.00 CET. See below for a full list of the new Lighthouses and their achievements.

The Lighthouse Network and its 69 sites are a platform to develop, replicate and scale innovations, creating opportunities for cross-company learning and collaboration, while setting new benchmarks for the global manufacturing community.

While 74% of companies remained stuck in pilot purgatory in 2020, research based on learnings from the network reveals that scalable Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies are key to long-term growth. By fully embracing agile ways of working, these manufacturers have been able to respond to disruption and ongoing shifts in supply and demand along their production network and value chains. They also prioritized workforce development – reskilling and upskilling employees for advanced manufacturing jobs – at the same pace and scale.

The new Lighthouses:

Asia

Bosch (Suzhou, China): As a role model of manufacturing excellence within the group, Bosch Suzhou deployed a digital transformation strategy in manufacturing and logistics, reducing manufacturing costs by 15% while improving quality by 10%.

Foxconn (Chengdu, China): Confronted with fast-growing demand and labour skill scarcity, Foxconn Chengdu adopted mixed reality, artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) technologies to increase labour efficiency by 200% and improve overall equipment effectiveness by 17%.

HP Inc. (Singapore): Facing an increase in product complexity and labour shortages leading to quality and cost challenges, along with a move at the country level to focus on higher-value manufacturing, HP Singapore embarked on its Fourth Industrial Revolution journey to transform its factory from being manual, labour intensive and reactive to being highly digitized, automated and driven by AI, improving its manufacturing costs by 20%, and its productivity and quality by 70%.

Midea (Shunde, China): To expand its e-commerce presence and overseas market share, Midea invested in digital procurement, flexible automation, digital quality, smart logistics and digital sales to improve product cost by 6%, order lead times by 56% and CO2 emissions by 9.6%.

ReNew Power (Hubli, India): Facing exponential asset growth and rising competitiveness from new entrants, ReNew Power, India’s largest renewables company, developed Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, such as proprietary advanced analytics and machine learning solutions, to increase the yield of its wind and solar assets by 2.2%, reduce downtime by 31% without incurring any additional capital expenditure, and improve employee productivity by 31%.

Tata Steel (Jamshedpur, India): Facing operational KPI stagnation and an impending loss of captive raw material advantage, Tata Steel Jamshedpur’s 110-year-old plant with deeply rooted cultural and technology legacies deployed multiple Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, such as machine learning and advanced analytics in procurement to save 4% on raw material costs, and prescriptive analytics in production and logistics planning to reduce the cost of serving customers by 21%.

Tsingtao Brewery (Qingdao, China): Facing growing consumer expectations for personalized, differentiated and diverse beers, Tsingtao Brewery rethought its use of smart digital technologies along its value chain to enable its 118-year-old factory to meet consumer needs, reducing customized order and new product development lead times by 50%. As a result, it increased its share of customized beers to 33% and revenue by 14%.

Wistron (Kunshan, China): In response to high-mix and low-volume business challenges, Wistron leveraged AI, IoT and flexible automation technologies to improve labour, asset and energy productivity, not only in production and logistics but also in supplier management, improving manufacturing costs by 26% while reducing energy consumption by 49%.

The goal of the Global Lighthouse Network is to share and learn from best practices, support new partnerships and help other manufacturers deploy technology, adopt sustainable solutions and transform their workforces at pace and scale. The extended network of “Manufacturing Lighthouses” will be officially recognized at Lighthouse Live: Reimagining Operations for Growth at 14.00 CET/09.00 EST 17 March.

Together with a diverse group of experts and innovators, the meeting aims to initiate, accelerate and scale-up entrepreneurial solutions to tackle climate change and advance sustainable development. Click here to follow the meeting.