As part of its 38 th Foundation Day celebrations, held at Bhubaneswar, the Navratna CPSE, National Aluminium Company (NALCO) dedicated three of its projects to the Nation. The projects included launching of mining activity at south block of Panchpatamali Bauxite Mines, 18.5 MW Turbo Generator at Alumina Refinery, Damanjodi and Nano Technology based Defluoridation Plant at Smelter, Angul. These projects were formally inaugurated through video conferencing by Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Hon’ble Minister, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Mines, Govt of India, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Govt. of India. The union ministers in their message through video conferencing appreciated the efforts and achievements of NALCO in nation building and wished further success in coming days.
Hon’ble Union Minister, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, in his message appreciated the dedicated & hard work put in by Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand, CMD, NALCO, along with his team in developing NALCO as a blue chip company at National and International level and elevated it to the present position admired in Industry circle.
On this occasion, awards were also presented to individuals and organizations for their significant achievements and contributions in various fields. NALCO felicitated Padmashree Prafulla Kar with lifetime achievement award and Padmavibhusan Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia was also felicitated for his significant contributions. Besides, for this year, NALCO Kalidas awards were presented to Prof. Atul Kumar Nanda & Prof Sukanta Kumar Senapati for their contribution in Sanskrit literature. Similarly, NALCO Kharavela Awards were handed over to Shri Nirod Kumar Dehury, Ms. Sonali Mohapatra, Ms Manisha Manaswini, and Ms Sugyani Mahapatra for their significant achievements and contributions to Odissi Dance.
For 2018, NALCO Literary award were presented to Shri Dasarathi Das & Shri Shantanu Kumar Acharya. On this occasion, Shri Badri Prasad Mishra was also felicitated for his significant contributions to Environment Protections.
As part of company’s endeavor to encourage Swachhata drive in schools, NALCO awarded ‘Gul Gul- Kun Mun awards to 10 schools from Angul, Damanjodi & Vizag region.
Addressing the occasion, Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand, CMD, highlighted the company’s significant performance in last fiscal including the accolade achieved of being the lowest cost producer of Alumina in the world and also being the 2 nd highest net foreign exchange earning in the country. As a leading CPSE, the efforts put in by the employees have resulted in achieving 100% capacity utilization in NALCO’s Mines & Refinery, said Dr Chand.
On the sidelines of signing of MoU with National Skill Development Corporation with NALCO, Dr Chand said, “We aim to promote Skill Development including vocational skills among children, women, youth and differently abled, which would enhance employability and offer them better livelihood. This association reinforces our mission to take up sustainable development projects to support education, empower women along with income generation programme,” he added.
Among others, Shri Subash Chandra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India and Directors of the Company were notably present. To mark the occasion, a scintillating musical programme was performed by Ms Anuradha Paudwal & troupe.