GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

230 RATIONALIZATION IN INDIAN BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
mass' production of coke, pig iron and .rolled steel with Ii
very IIllich larger capacity than the old plant." This
new plant has beeri in operation since. 1924 and by 1926
the chairman was in. a position to announce that it actually
increa.s~d produCtion .and reduced· costs. The following
ligures indicate the difference in the costs of production
betW~en the old and the new plants:
Rail Bar
... Rs. 150
New 112
Rs. 163
130
Reduction in working costs through the enlargement
·of the plant is then im aspect of rationalization' to
which Indian industrialists have been getting used. The
same theory finds expression in the decl~ration of policy
made to the Tariff Board (1926) oE" which a summa~y is
presented in ~he chairman's speech of 1926 in the following
words:, "We propose," said he, "to close the old
rolling mills and to roll all the steel on the new mills."
This has reference to one part of the plant. In regard to
~nother part, we are told about th~ir intention "to instal
one new steel furnace and convert some of the old steel
furnaces so as to increase the production of steel." This
is the typical languag~ of orthodox . rationalization, be it
German or AlIlerican, especially in its post-war tendencie~.
The programme was chalked' out for seven
years. And it is because of i:hispx:omise of extensions
and Impro~ements that the Tariff Board has recommended
the " protection ., on a 5lew basis ~after the. abolition
i>f the bounties (1927). 9
9 Chairman'. Speech (Tata Iron and Steel Co.) Bombay, 1927; Annual
Report for 1927-28 (Tata Iron and Steel ·Co.) Bombay, 1928; Report of the