Every good thing comes to an end. And so is the case with the National Aluminium Company (Nalco), where its Chairman-cum-Managing Director Dr Tapan Kumar Chand superannuating on Saturday after a highly successful innings spanning more than four years as the head of this Navratna PSU.

Earlier, Chand had successful tenures in the boards of the steel and coal PSUs. Under the stellar leadership of Dr Chand since taking over as the CMD of Nalco in July 2015,  the aluminium major has been consistently delivering across all parameters of production, productivity and profitability with the company registering its best performance in a decade by clocking a whopping Rs1,732 crore net profit in 2018-19.

Nalco has recorded all-round success and global benchmarks during his stint as its head. Along with significant achievements on production front, Nalco achieved the distinction of becoming the lowest cost producer of alumina in the world, as per the Wood Mackenzie report, for three consecutive years.

Going a step further, the company has also been ranked as the lowest-cost producer of bauxite in the world for the year 2018-19 – a unique distinction for an Indian company to be benchmarked at the global level.

Dr Chand, as the President of the Aluminium Association of India has been successful in creating an ecosystem, wherein Odisha is being perceived as the aluminium capital of India.

Some of the key areas where Nalco has excelled during the tenure of Dr Chand are:

1.  Nalco achieved the unique distinction of becoming the lowest cost producer of alumina and bauxite in the world, thereby setting global benchmark in low cost – high quality production.

2.  100 per cent capacity utilisation of its mines, which is again an extremely challenging objective for any mining organisation and extremely difficult to achieve, particularly in the backdrop of the mines being located in Naxalism affected areas.

3.During this period, the alumina refinery unit of Nalco consistently achieved production of more than its normative capacity, challenging and exceeding its own performance, year on year.

4.Because of the visionary leadership of Dr Chand, Nalco has been able to get total raw material security for the company for the next 50 years. This includes long term mining lease for its Panchapatmali Bauxite Mines, allocation of Pottangi Bauxite Mines, allocation of Utkal C and D coal blocks in its favour and setting up of a caustic soda plant in joint venture with GACL. The biggest challenge before aluminium companies worldwide is availability of the raw materials, which has been taken care of, very smoothly by Nalco.

5.    In today’s business environment, opening up of a new mines is a huge challenge before any organisation. However, with strategic planning and meticulous actions, Nalco has opened a new bauxite mine – South Block of Panchapatmali, after obtaining all clearances, from where, production has also started.

6.    Dr Chand has been instrumental in forming two JV companies – KABIL (KhanijBidesh India Limited – A JV between Nalco, MECL and HCL), which has mandate for acquisition, exploration and processing of strategic minerals abroad for commercial use and for supplying to meet the domestic requirements and Utkarsha Aluminium– a JV between Nalco, Midhani, etc for making high end aluminium alloy in India, which will be used for defence, aerospace and use in high speed trains.

7.    Dr Chand has taken concrete steps to build the corporate image of Nalco as an organisation which cares for people as a responsible corporate citizen. Through multifarious meaningful CSR initiatives in the fields of education, healthcare and hygiene, infrastructure development, women empowerment, water management and projects aimed at upliftment of the tribal people, he has established the new corporate mantra – Nalco: Caring and Sharing.