KORBA (Chhattisgarh): “We should rise above the narrow feelings of religion, caste, region and language and keep our allegiance towards the Nation. Let’s sacrifice our feelings about apathy and finding short comings in others and come together for Nation building. Ignorance is the first step towards slavery. Let’s take our daughters ahead in the field of education. Well cultured and well-educated daughters can take the society ahead”.
These feelings were shared by Vikas Sharma, CEO and Director, Balco while addressing the gathering on the occasion of the Nation’s 71st Independence Day function held at Dr. Ambedkar Stadium in Balconagar.
Sharma unfurled the National Flag. He also inspected the Guard of Honour and took the salute of the March Past. In his address, Sharma also said that the Nation’s visionaries showed us a path to become mentally strong and to ward off outside influences and win over them.
Sharma further shared that the members of Balco family were very lucky to be giving their service to such an aluminium industry which has helped the Country take major leaps in the field of defence and space research. The easy way to challenge the low cost of production of Chinese industry and that of other nations is to reduce our expenses and to make our cost of production more competitive on a global basis. In the FY 2016-17, we have achieved the highest production of hot metal at all times.
This figure touched 4,25,798 metric tons. In comparison with the previous year, this is 28.5% more. There has also been an increase in the production of finished goods to the tune of 27.7 % in the FY 2016-17. The production of wire rods went up from 3000 MTS to 14000 MTS. Pot Line -2 achieved the maximum current efficiency of 94.53 %.
From the point of research and development also this year was very important. Keeping the international market in mind, Balco developed alloy –A 356.2. Balco has 16946 Certification for Alloy ingots issued by I.R.Q.S and I.A.T.F
Balco is the Country’s fifth company to get the I.S.O. 55001:2014 Certification. In the area of Quality Circle, the percentage of Balco officers, employees and contract employees has gone up from 23% to 41%. Last year 12 teams got a gold medal in C.C.Q.C, 4 teams got par excellence in N.C.Q.C and one team got a gold medal in I.C.Q.C.C. In the direction of cost reduction, the Company has started an important campaign – RTS in which nearly 300 officers, employees and contract employees participated and saved a sum of nearly Rs. 2 crores.
Along with this the Company saved nearly Rs. 11.9 crores by the development of new vendors. Taking an important step towards the conservation and improvement of the environment, Balco has taken the help of expert companies for safely dealing with S.P.L. As a result of internal improvements, the handling capacity of Cast House has been going up by nearly 1 lakh tons per annum. This improvement has saved the Company a sum of nearly Rs. 22.5 crores. A further Rs. 2.27 crores has been saved by the implementation of Dross Processing Machine.
The efficient implementation of resources by Balco fetched it many awards from renowned forums. These include ‘The ET 2 Good 4 Good Certificate, Grow Care India EHS Award – 2017, Water Digest Award, Golden Peacock Award, India Manufacturing Excellence Gold Award, Special Award received from Dr. Raman Singh, Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh for co-participation in Quality Circle, CII National Award, National Energy Conservation Award, Sustainability Challenger Award, D.L.Shah Gold Award, FAME Gold Award, Greentech Safety Gold Award, Best CSR Project Award, CII- HSE Award, ‘Rashtriya Media Ratna’ Award, Shristi G-Qube Award, ABCI Award etc.
Community Development
117 villages come under the purview of Balco’s Community Development area. In the FY 2016-17, Balco constructed a new Emergency Department in the Health Centre being run by ‘Jan Swasthya Sahyog’ in Village Ganyari under Bilaspur District.
A new branch of I.L.& F.S. Skills School started in Mainpat Bauxite mining area. On the occasion of World Glaucoma Day, Balco organised free Glaucoma Detection Camps in the development blocks of District Surguja and in Health Centres. Under the Jalgram Project, farmers were given training in Sri Paddhati for paddy farming. Farmers were also given fertilisers.
Under the Jalgram project, a Check Dam was constructed in Village Dondro. With a view to making the environment of Korba smokeless and clean, Balco actively participated in a campaign initiated by the District Administration. Help is being extended in a large way to women who are becoming self-dependent by their working in self-help groups. Women have been associated with stitching, embroidery, progressive farming, poultry farming, safety helmet and shoes rental business, mushroom farming, beauty parlour, ‘dona-pattal’ production, ‘atta chakki’ masala grinding etc.
A new project has been started for children under the name ‘Project Connect’ in Parsabhata. The aim of this project is to help such students of Balco area who are weak in studies. Sports talented persons are being encouraged by Balco Management.
On this occasion, Sharma appealed to all members of Balco family to take care of safety standards in every sphere of life. Sharma said that the Management as well as various Labour Unions active in Balco, have a purpose of building a strong Balco. We are committed towards the making of a harmonious industrial environment. Many plans are helping to encourage employees and contract employees. Sharma motivated the youth to prepare themselves by considering the challenges of the future.
Momentos were presented to the schools and private security agencies for participating in the March Past and P.T. Drill by Vikas Sharma, Deepak Prasad, Head-Aluminium Business, G. Venkatareddy, Head-Power, Rohit Soni, C.F.O., Pankaj Kapoor, Head-Legal and Anita Sharma, President of Balco Ladies Club. On this occasion, Tinu Anand of Balconagar was honoured for his special service to the Community.
The programme also saw the presence of P.S Toor, Head-Engineering Services, H.K. Bhatia, Head-Industrial Relations, Ashutosh Dwivedi, Head-1200 MW Power Plant, Ashish Ranjan, Head- CC & CSR, Amit Singh, Head-Corporate Affairs and many Balco officers, employees, office bearers of different labour unions, local representatives and their family members.
The Vote of Thanks was presented by Major Kumud Kumar, Head-Human Resources, Balco. The programme was compered by Keshav Chandra and Sri Vyas Narayan Singh.
