The Steel of India Podcast

In branding, endurance beats noise. The brands that last are the ones that hold their story while everyone else chases the trend. 

In this season 2 finale of The Steel Of India Podcast, Narratives That Endure, we explore how credibility is earned by closing the gap between what a company says and how it behaves, and what it means for Jindal Steel to be the steel of India - building the country quietly, year after year, in the bridges, buildings and infrastructure that are part of our country’s growth story. 

And we are joined by a formidable panel - Arpana Kumar Ahuja, EVP & Head of Corporate Brand and Communications, Jindal Steel; Abhijit Avasthi, Founder, Sideways Consulting; and Arun Sudhaman, Founding Editor, Earned First - who unpack what it really takes to build a brand the world trusts, and hold on to it across decades. 

Steel is changing how India builds - faster, stronger, built to last. 

In this episode, Stamped In Steel, we dig into how modern infrastructure is engineered to stand a hundred years and beyond, why structural steel is cutting construction time and total cost, and how quality construction has become a moral responsibility to the communities inside these buildings. 

Hear from industry leaders: Kunwar Vijayant Singh on financial and delivery pressures reshaping projects; Shobit Uppal about on-site realities and faster timelines; and Roopali Mehra on innovations in steel and sustainable sourcing. Expect concrete examples, policy implications, and practical takeaways for builders, planners, and citizens. 

India needs more steel than ever- and cleaner steel at that. So how do you do both? In this episode, Steel in Transition, we go inside the Jindal Steel plant to find out. Naveen Ahlawat, President of Sustainability & Decarbonisation at Jindal Steel, walks us through the playbook- efficiency-first operations, 4,000+ tonnes of CO₂ captured daily, and green hydrogen on the horizon. 

Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Director General of TERI, busts the myth that green is expensive and makes the case for bolder R&D and smarter policy. Pratik Ghosh, Jindal Steel’s AVP of Sustainability & Decarbonisation, reveals how sustainability is being embedded into governance, data systems, and everyday decision-making across the organisation.

In steel, every failure in production is a business event - so where does AI belong, and where must humans stay in the loop? 

In this episode of The Steel Of India Podcast, Indradyumna Datta, Group CDO, Jindal Steel; Dilip Sawhney, MD, Rockwell Automation India; and Daisy Chittilapilly, President, Cisco India & South Asia, unpack the intelligent-by-design enterprise, exploring industrial AI, scaling pilots into production, robotics on the shop floor, and what leaders must never outsource.

What does it take to build a high-performance manufacturing culture? 

In this episode of The Steel of India Podcast, Jindal Steel's CEO Gautam Malhotra, VP of L&OD Rachita Sahgal, and industry training expert Ravi Tennety unpack capability as an organisational muscle - exploring leadership behaviours, shop floor discipline, the education-industry gap, and why systems always outlast superstars. Essential listening for anyone serious about future-ready manufacturing.

Shallu Jindal, Chairperson of the Jindal Foundation and 2025 EdelGive Hurun Impact Philanthropist of the Year, opens Season 2 with a grounded and deeply personal perspective on what purpose-led CSR means in practice. 

From empowering tribal women to building dedicated grassroots teams, she reflects on how meaningful impact is created and sustained over time.

Joining her is Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, widely regarded as the architect of India’s CSR framework, who traces the evolution of CSR from a policy idea into a national movement.

Together, they examine the difference between real impact and checkbox compliance, the importance of institutions over individuals, and how CSR must evolve as India moves toward its centenary.