The Steel Ministry plans to increase investment in R&D from the present level of less than 0.25 per cent of sales turnover to at least 1 per cent by 2015-2016 and 2 per cent by 2020.
A Ministry-backed report -- A Roadmap for Research & Development and Technology for Indian Iron and Steel Industry – said the main problems of the industry relate to technological obsolescence and lack of timely modernisation, automation & control, absence of R&D intervention, inferior quality raw materials, inefficient shopfloor practices.
The roadmap plans to develop a collaborative R&D projects at national level with academic and research institutes/laboratories of repute as well as the industry to share expertise.
It also aims at further streamlining R&D investments in the steel industry through incentives and lays emphasis on phasing out obsolete production facilities.