Tata Steel Announces Winners of 'Women of Mettle' Sch Program

By: WE Staff | Monday, 13 October 2025

• Tata Steel shared the results of Season 9 of its scholarship programme ‘Women of Mettle’
• The purpose of the programme is to enhance the engagement of young women in India's manufacturing workforce

Tata Steel proclaimed the results of Season 9 of its Women of Mettle scholarship programme, with the core objective of increasing the contribution of young women to the manufacturing workforce in India.

This season saw participation from over 3,300 registrations from 55 plus premier technical institutes across the country.

For this edition, Swarnima Patel from IIT Roorkee was announced as the winner, Shrishti Shreya from NIT Jamshedpur was in first runner-up position, and Diya Adiga from ISM Dhanbad secured the second runners-up position.

The theme for this season was “Leading the Future – Operational Excellence meets Emerging Technology.” Judging the competition was a three-member jury from Tata Steel: Sandeep Kumar, Vice President – Raw Materials; Padmapal, Chief Blast Furnaces; and Jaya Singh Panda, Chief learning & Development and Chief Diversity Officer.

Participants signed up either as individuals or as pairs. Of the 2,600-plus teams, which represented a 10 percent growth year-on-year, the best 50 teams were selected for further assessment based on cognitive and domain knowledge in engineering, namely mechanical, electrical, metallurgy, and mining engineering.

The teams then had a month to work on their projects with mentorship from Tata Steel profile mentors. After presentations of case study reports and feedback and review in advance of the Grand Finale, 10 teams were invited into the Grand Finale event that was streamed live on YouTube.

The top 10 teams received ₹2, 00,000 each and also had opportunities for Technical Internships and Pre-Placement Offers, while teams ranked 11-50 became eligible for summer internships and pre-placement interviews based on eligibility.

The Women of Mettle program offers participants experiences with cross-functional challenges, mentoring from senior leaders, and real-world experience solving industrial problems.

 Similarly, Tata Steel runs programs such as QUEERious for members of the LGBTQIA+ community and Ananta Quest for people with disabilities to promote its focus on diversifying, equity, and inclusion.

Tata Steel continues to effectively connect students and academia through these programs to contribute to India's legacy of young talent for the future of manufacturing.