Digitisation plays a key role in steel sector: Top official -Governance Now

Digitisation plays a key role in steel sector: Top official

Automation contributes to better management principles, production, enables management of raw materials and marketing and response to feedback

Pratap Vikram Singh | March 1, 2017 | New Delhi

#Aruna Sharma #steel ministry #Governance Now #Digital transformation summit #MSTC #metal junction

Digitisation plays a great role in the steel sector. It covers the entire process: from production cycle, product sizing, place of manufacturing, to supply to the market, said Aruna Sharma, secretary, ministry of steel at the Digital Transformation Summit 2017 organised by Governance Now.

Now digitisation has been linked to finances, Sharma said.

She underlined the significance of GPS in mining . “You can find where the raw material is lying, whether it is at the port and how much are you producing, using GPS,” she said.

In the steel sector, the entire auction process related to the mines has been automated. “E-auction solution is being provided by Metal Scrap Trading Corporation and Metal junction. The automation contributes to better management principles, production, enables management of raw materials and marketing and response to feedback.”

“If we are able to link the exports and imports related information, it will go a long way in import replacement. That’s exactly what the ministry is trying to do,” she said.

Sharma said 57 percent of the steel in India is made by the secondary sector, small and medium enterprises. It is important to maintain the ratio in coming years when the manufacturing is going to increase three-fold.

“We are also promoting the use of steel in bridges, buildings. The project monitoring will be digitised. It will also help in managing structural issues, the contractors, management and comparative cost of quantitative material,” she said.

When demonetization took place, the steel sector was impacted briefly. “What is surprising is that whole sector shifted to cashless — steel manufacturers went 100 percent cashless,” she said.

The dealers were very uncomfortable for 15 days because their business models were not based on fair accounting practices. “But when they realised this is how it is going to be in the future, they adopted it and there has been a big change since then. It led to savings for the dealers. The number of accountant they needed was reduced to one fifth.”

“If you look at the sector, we work in many remote villages. We do mining in remotest part. We have taken a challenge to shift these villages to cashless,” she said.

Beside, she said, it is important to aggregate the digitisation and automation initiatives and link the finance, supply material, product material, so that ministry is able to get the data on real-time basis of profit and loss in the sector.

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