Tata Chemicals Limited is India's leading manufacturer of inorganic chemicals. It also manufactures fertilisers and food additives. Incorporated in 1939, the company has an annual turnover of over Rs 2,500 crore and is part of the Rs 65,000-crore ($14.25 billion) Tata Group, India's foremost business conglomerate.

In the six decades since its inception, Tata Chemicals has been continuously raising the bar in technological competence and gaining recognition as a leader and innovator. The company has an enduring commitment to protecting and enhancing the environment, serving and improving the communities in which it functions, and adhering to the highest ethical standards of corporate behaviour.

TCL operates the largest and most integrated inorganic chemicals complex in India, at Mithapur in Gujarat, a state in western India. A pioneer and market leader in the branded, iodised salt segment, the company manufactures salt that has a purity percentage of 99.8 per cent, the highest in the country. It is also among the largest producers of synthetic soda ash in the world.

The company's state-of-the-art fertiliser complex at Babrala in Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India, has a remarkable record in energy efficiency. This facility, which makes urea, has won several awards in the fields of environmental conservation and safety.

TCL's phosphatic fertiliser complex at Haldia in West Bengal is currently the only manufacturing unit for DAP/NPK complexes in West Bengal. The Haldia plant has production volumes exceeding 1.2 million tonnes per annum. The fertilisers, sold under the brand name 'Paras', lead the market in West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The quality factor
TCL manufactures a wide range of high-quality and competitively priced products, including soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, salt, caustic soda and urea, which deliver outstanding value to its customers. The company's products and production processes are benchmarked with the best of global touchstones, and meet the most rigorous international specifications.

TCL's products go into numerous end-use applications in a variety of industries: glass, detergents, paper, textiles, agriculture, photography, pharmaceuticals, food, tanning, rayon, pulp, paints, building and construction, and chemicals. The company exports to a variety of world markets including South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

TCL is now in the process of expanding its operations globally. It is uniquely positioned to achieve this objective — thanks to the skill and dedication of its people, the excellence of its production facilities, and the technical and technological expertise it has nurtured.

Growth with responsibility
As TCL grows and touches new horizons, it continues to be guided by principles of good corporate governance while pushing the profitability envelope. The company is unswerving in its belief in ethical and fair business practices, and focused on providing value to all its stakeholders: customers, suppliers, shareholders and employees.

TCL is committed to bettering its already-impressive quality norms and systems. It has been awarded the ISO-9001 registration, a quality standard adopted by over 90 countries worldwide. The company has also embraced the Tata Business Excellence Model in its quest to become more performance-oriented and customer-centric. Based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, this model takes a holistic and comprehensive approach to improving business processes and strategic decision-making.

Driving the company's push towards excellence and customer delight is a workforce of close to 3,500 employees. TCL's employees are the key to its growth and success. The company invests in them by providing opportunities for job enrichment, concentrated competency development, sharing of best practices, and more.

Beyond business
TCL takes the greatest possible care to ensure the safety, health and welfare of its staff and the communities living around its facilities. Protecting the environment is a crucial component of this equation. The company is a signatory to Responsible Care, a voluntary global initiative of the chemical industry which calls on enterprises to demonstrate their allegiance to safety, health and environmental issues.

An example of TCL's philosophy of 'avoid, reduce and recycle' is its cement plant at Mithapur, which was set up solely to consume the solid waste generated during the manufacture of soda ash. The company has also developed the Mithapur salt works as a natural habitat for thousands of migratory birds. Its fertiliser unit at Babrala is the most energy-efficient plant in the Indian fertiliser industry.

Safety is given paramount importance across the organisation. Stringent safety and occupational health programmes are in place to ensure the wellbeing of employees and facilities at all locations. Both plants are ISO-14001 and OHSAS-18001 certified. The Japanese 5-S and 'total productive maintenance' concepts have been implemented to ensure the maintenance of quality standards and safety management norms. The safety management system is in line with guidelines set by the British Safety Council.

The underlying philosophy at TCL is that ownership of safety lies beyond a company department or an outside authority; safety is the duty of every employee and every stakeholder.

Enriching life
"What comes from the people must go back to the people many times over" — this principle is an inheritance from the founding fathers of the Tata Group. TCL honours its legacy through the Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development (TCSRD), established in 1979 for the benefit of the rural population in and around the company's plants and townships.

TCSRD's fundamental purpose is to foster development that is sustainable and integrated. Be it helping with natural resource management, livelihood support, or the building of health or education infrastructure, TCSRD's aim is to improve the lives of the rural communities of Okhamandal and Babrala. The participation of the beneficiaries is vital to the success of the programmes it undertakes, and forms the basis of all project designs.

With a distinguished past and a flourishing present to power it forward, Tata Chemicals is poised to build on its achievements in the years ahead.