The National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco) launched a slew of initiatives to promote cultural organisations and sporting talents in the State on the occasion of its 39th foundation day celebrations held here on Monday.
Padma Shri Manoj Das was bestowed with the Nalco Lifetime Achievement Award and Lok Sevak Mandal secretary Niranjan Rath with the Nalco Distinguished Social Service Award.
The company signed cultural MoUs with eight leading cultural organisations to promote and encourage artists from across the State. The company also announced to adopt around 100 budding sporting talents.
The Nalco Kalidas Awards were presented to Dr Bhaskar Mishra and Dr Bhagirathi Nanda for their rich contributions in promoting Sanskrit literature. The Nalco Kharavela Awards were bestowed on Guru Bichitrananda Swain, Pravata Kumar Swain and Sasmita Panda for their contributions to Odishi dance. While Dhrutimaya Behera bagged the Nalco Upcoming Star Award, Anshika Routray, Prajesh Murmu, Mohit Paswan, Tikaram Soren and Amit Kumar Behera got Nalco Sports Talent Awards. All the awardees were given cash awards and citation.
To encourage Swachhata drive in schools, the Nalco awarded ‘GulGul- Kun Mun’ awards to 10 schools in Angul and Koraput districts.
Nalco CMD Dr Tapan Kumar Chand praised all the awardees for their contributions and highlighted the company’s strong performance and growth while laying focus on taking concrete steps to open new coal mines and giving a strong push to the Wire Rod Mill Project at Angul during 2019. He also applauded the employees for helping the company in achieving the distinction of being the lowest cost producer of alumina and the 2nd lowest cost bauxite producer in the world.
He said the company has adopted a cashless model which will ensure supply of input materials from the Nalco and lend marketing support for finished products of MSMEs around the mother plant. This would help more than 2,000 get engaged in 200 MSMEs, he added.
The Nalco would to be the lead partner of the Global Aluminium Summit (INCAL-2019) to be held in Bhubaneswar, he said.