Ranchi, Jun 29 (PTI) Tata Steel Ltd is betting big on new technology development over the next three to four years and has firmed up plans to pump in around Rs 1,200 crore as a part of its endeavour to “enter materials beyond steel”, a top company official said.In the new materials business, the steel giant has been focusing on graphene, which can be mixed with plastic and recycled like brand-new products, among other attributes, he said.Tata Steel is a leading global producer of graphene-enriched products - the biggest in the country and among the top 10 in the world."As far as the new materials business is concerned, the outlay in entire technology development, including incubation, over the next three to four years is about Rs 1,200 crore," Vice-President, Technology & New Materials Business, Debashish Bhattacharjee, told PTI.As compared to "asset heavy" steel - the core of Tata Steel, these new materials are asset light, he said."In order to be in a place where we dominate reasonably well (steel)... we need to also understand the other materials which are going to be useful for humanity going forward.“We felt there are multiple ways of entering materials beyond steel... engage deeply with universities and institutes where a lot of fundamental work is happening,” Bhattacharjee said.He said the graphene business of the company is around Rs 500 crore, but expansion plans are afoot, including export of graphene-enriched products."We have commercialised graphene as an additive in MDPE and HDPE pipes. We are using graphene in conveyor belts. In each of these cases, the life of the products increases by two to three times, cutting down on maintenance and life-cycle cost. Graphene also finds use in corrosion-resistant paints,” the official said.Tata Steel has inked a pact with Digital University Kerala, the country"s first on-campus digital university and Centre for Materials for Electronics Technologies (C-MET), paving the way for the first graphene research and innovation centre in the country to become a reality.The India Innovation Centre for Graphene will undertake research and development, product innovation and capacity-building activities in the area of graphene and 2D materials ecosystem.The steel giant has also identified advanced ceramics as one of the new materials for strategic growth, Bhattacharjee added. PTI NAM RBT RBT