Technological Changes in Blast Furnace Iron Making in India since Last Few Decades

India as a 4th steel producer in the world, has resulted due to adaptation of new technologies in the field of iron and steel making since from the last few decades. Keeping in view for increasing quality of hot metal and its production rate, efficiency of the furnace operations with keeping clean environment, adaptation of few newer technologies and practices in the area of Blast Furnace iron making are selected for this paper. Selected areas are described with salient features such as burden preparation including different raw materials such as iron ore, coke, lime stone, sinter/pellets etc, burden distribution including bell less top charging design, furnace structure design, cast house design and practice with multi tap-hole and runner, furnace cooling system design changes with staves cooler, use of carbon refractory materials in hearth lining, hot blast quality improvement, efficiency enhancement of gas cleaning system, automatic process control and taking care of environmental challenges. The present paper deals with the salient features of the above said changes adopted for the improved productivity and efficiency of the furnace operation in the field of Blast Furnace iron making process.