‘Aluminium Industry can generate employment to 7mn people’

The Aluminium Demand in the country may touch around five million ton by 2015 and 10 million ton by 2020 which can generate employment for nearly 7 million people in the country by 2020, said Dr. Mukesh Kumar, President & COO – Vedanta Aluminium Limited, at a recently held seminar on “Prospects of Alumina and Aluminium Industry in Odisha”. Many eminent Scientists, Academicians, Engineers interacted on the importance of Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium for the development of Odisha.

The seminar, organized by Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, was also attended by Padmashree PK Jena; Academician Prof. Omkar Nath Mohanty; Mr. H. P. Mishra–Former Chairman, IPICOL; representatives from NALCO and State Pollution Control Board.

Dr. Mukesh Kumar also pointed out that Odisha is blessed with High Quality Aluminium Reserves and based on the present analysis nearly 60% of India’s reserves are available in Odisha. However, this wealth of natural resources could not be translated into economic prosperity for the state. The availability of such vast natural resources could have been used for turning the Mineral and Metal potential of Odisha into a gold mine and eradicating poverty but unfortunately the State is still reeling under the crunch of chronic poverty without realizing the benefits of these natural resources.

“Besides employment generation, the Industry can contribute nearly Rs. 33000 crore annually to the exchequer. If immediate measures are not taken to boost Aluminium Production domestically, even the targets of electrifying all the villages also will be difficult to achieve in absence of electricity distribution network which is the main consumer of Aluminium in the country”, he further added.

He also said, “India and particularly Odisha where lies the main depository of the Aluminium Reserves in the country could not take the advantage of its mineral wealth and thereafter not even a single Alumina Refinery and Smelter could have been put up in the State even after 25 years of commissioning of NALCO project. The Vedanta Integrated Aluminum Complex set up in Odisha also is forced to run at lower capacity as no Bauxite from the State could be made available to the Project.”

Vedanta Commits to Environment; To Plant One Lakh Sapling At Lanjigarh

 Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), Lanjigarh, celebrated World Environment Day on June 5, 2012 by organizing a massive plantation programme  involving all the Vedanta & its associate employers & families. On the occasion, Dr. Mukesh Kumar, President & COO informed that nearly one lakh saplings will be planted in and around the plant this year as part of our commitment towards making the area green and to improve the ecology of the area.

 The Environment Day Celebration at Lanjigarh commenced with plantation in the plant premises and at Resettlement and Rehabilitation colony viz. Niyamgiri Vedanta Nagar in which all employees of VAL and its Associated Partners participated.

Inaugurating the programme, Dr. Mukesh Kumar further impressed upon the principle of sustainable development through sustainable waste management & adopting best environmental practices. He said, “Our mission is to make a forest inside the plant instead of building a plant inside the forest.” He also reiterated on the initiatives and the road-map VAL-Lanjigarh has prepared to make optimum utilization of natural resources through recycling and recovering of wealth from waste and making VAL-Lanjigarh the first alumina refinery across the globe to have zero waste in addition to being a zero discharge plant.

This year the theme of World Environment Day is “Green Economy, Does it include you?” At VAL, for awareness on environment, competitions on Slogan and painting were organized among the employees of VAL and other associated companies as well as among the school children. The day-long programme also includes an awareness march organized at the VAL Township by all the families of Vedanta’s employees & school children followed by plantation and prize giving ceremony to the winners of various competitions.