Ministry of Steel Unveils Digital Roadmap at India AI Impact Summit 2026 to Drive AI-Led Transformation Across Steel Value Chain
Ministry of Steel Unveils Digital Roadmap at India AI Impact Summit 2026 to Drive AI-Led Transformation Across Steel Value Chain
The Ministry of Steel today unveiled a comprehensive roadmap on Digital Opportunities in the Steel Sector at the ongoing India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, reaffirming its commitment to transform India into a technology-driven global steel powerhouse. The roadmap reflects a strategic recognition that the next phase of growth in steel will be defined not only by expanded capacity but also by intelligent systems, predictive analytics, automation, and data-driven decision-making embedded across the value chain.
AI in Steel: From Vision to Action
At the core of the initiative is the AI in Steel Pavilion, a first-of-its-kind collaborative platform that showcases real-time industry problem statements and invites AI solution providers, startups, technology firms, and research institutions to co-create practical and scalable solutions. Unlike conventional exhibitions, the Pavilion is designed as a problem-to-solution marketplace. It presents specific operational, logistical, safety, quality control, sustainability, and marketing challenges faced by steel producers and mining companies. AI innovators are encouraged not only to demonstrate capabilities but also to partner in delivering measurable outcomes. The Pavilion signals a clear transition from incremental digitization efforts to mission-mode AI integration across mining, logistics, production, quality assurance, marketing, and corporate governance. It underscores the Ministry’s intent to move from isolated pilot projects to systemic transformation.
Industry Startup Convergence
A high-level session brought together leading steel producers, iron ore miners, senior policymakers, and AI innovators to deliberate on the sector’s digital future. Major public sector enterprises and private stakeholders presented their forward-looking digitalization roadmaps, outlining priority areas where AI interventions can create immediate and long-term value. The dialogue focused on execution. Specific high-impact use cases were identified, and industry leaders articulated the technological capabilities they seek from AI companies and startups, including predictive maintenance algorithms, computer vision systems, supply chain optimization models, and intelligent decision support systems. The session enabled a two-way exchange. Industry representatives outlined operational challenges such as reducing downtime, improving yield, enhancing worker safety, optimizing raw material blending, lowering emissions, and improving demand forecasting. AI companies expressed their readiness to contribute advanced technological solutions tailored to these needs. This convergence is expected to create a structured innovation pipeline, ensuring that promising AI solutions are rapidly tested, validated, and scaled across the steel ecosystem.
Growth Momentum and Strategic Expansion
In his address, the Secretary, Ministry of Steel, highlighted the remarkable growth trajectory of India’s steel sector and the significant investments planned across the steel and mining value chain. India’s steel consumption has nearly doubled from 77 million tonnes in 2014 to 2015 to 152 million tonnes in 2024 to 2025, reflecting the rapid pace of infrastructure expansion, urbanization, manufacturing growth, and rising domestic demand. Major national initiatives in railways, highways, housing, renewable energy, defence production, and industrial corridors have reinforced steel’s central role in nation building.
Looking ahead to the vision of a developed India by 2047, the Ministry has set ambitious and time-bound benchmarks: Crude steel capacity is targeted to increase from the current level of approximately 200 million tonnes to 300 million tonnes by 2030 to 2031 and further to 400 million tonnes by 2035 to 2036. This expansion will be supported by parallel growth in mining output, logistics networks, beneficiation capacity, and downstream value addition. Such rapid scaling requires intelligent capacity utilization, real-time monitoring, efficient energy management, decarbonisation strategies, and optimized capital deployment. AI is therefore positioned as a strategic enabler rather than a peripheral tool. The Secretary emphasized that as capacity expands, productivity, quality, safety, and sustainability must improve proportionately. Intelligent automation, digital twins, advanced analytics, and AI-driven process control systems will be critical to ensuring that India’s steel growth remains globally competitive and environmentally responsible.
Industry leaders also articulated the support required from AI startups, including domain-specific customization, scalable system architectures, cybersecurity resilience, multilingual interfaces to facilitate workforce adoption, and solutions tailored to Indian operating conditions. This clarity is expected to shorten innovation cycles, enabling startups to develop precise solutions and industry to deploy them with confidence.
The event concluded with a strong message of confidence in India’s startup and innovation ecosystem. The Ministry invited AI developers, deep technology startups, academic institutions, and research laboratories to leverage the Steel Research and Technology Mission of India as a live sandbox environment.The call to innovators was clear. The steel sector offers one of the largest industrial AI opportunity landscapes in the country, spanning mining, heavy manufacturing, logistics, sustainability, and global trade. With scale, speed, and strategic clarity, the Ministry of Steel has signaled that the next era of Indian steel will be shaped as much by data as by metallurgy. As India expands capacity to meet domestic aspirations and global demand, digital intelligence will determine efficiency, resilience, and competitiveness. The future of Indian steel will not only be forged in furnaces but will also be powered by algorithms, driven by innovation, and strengthened through collaboration between industry and India’s dynamic AI ecosystem.