Correct Answer - Option 4 : 1959
The correct answer is 1959.
-
Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), in Rourkela, Odisha is the first integrated steel plant in the public sector in India.
- It was set up with West Germany collaboration with an installed capacity of 1 million tonnes in the 1960s.
- It is operated by the Steel Authority of India.
- German metallurgical firms Mannesmann, Krupp, Demag, Siemens, and Austrian company Voestalpine provided machinery and consultancy to the plant among others.
- Rourkela Steel Plant was the first steel plant in Asia to use the LD (Linz-Donawitz) process of steel-making.
- Rourkela Steel Plant has an associated fertilizer plant that produces nitrogenous fertilizers using ammonia feedstock (from its coke oven plant).
-
On 3 February 1959, then president Rajendra Prasad inaugurated RSP's first blast furnace named 'Parvati' when the company was known as Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL).
- Subsequently, the RSP became a unit of the (SAIL).
- At the global level in 2018, the world crude steel production reached 1789 million tonnes and showed a growth of 4.94% over 2017.
-
India is the largest producer of sponge iron in the world and the 3rd largest finished steel consumer in the world after China & the USA.
- The growth in the Indian steel sector has been driven by the domestic availability of raw materials such as iron ore and cost-effective labour.
- Consequently, the steel sector has been a major contributor to India’s manufacturing output.
-
Price regulation of iron & steel was abolished on January 16, 1992.
- Since then steel prices are determined by the interplay of market forces.
- Domestic steel prices are influenced by trends in raw material prices, demand-supply, conditions in the market, and international price trends among others.
- A Steel Price Monitoring Committee has been constituted by the Government with the aim to monitor price rationalization, analyze price fluctuations and advise all concerned regarding any irrational price behaviour of steel commodity.
