Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu Inaugurates Diamond Jubilee Year Celebrations of NMDC

Hyderabad, December 8, 2017: Vice President of India Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu Inaugurates Diamond Jubilee Year Celebrations of NMDC(National Mineral Development Corporation), a Government of India Enterprise here in the city on Friday morning at Shilpakala Vedika at Madhapur.

Shri Chaudhary Birender Singh, Union Minister of Steel; Dr. Raman Singh, Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh; Shri Vishnu Deo Sai, Minister of State for Steel and Shri Y.S Chowdary, Minister of State for Science & Technology & Earth Sciences, Govt of India, Mohd Mahmood Ali, Dy Chief Minister of Telangana, K.T.Rama Rao, Minister for Mines and Geology, Govt of Telangana, Shri R.V.Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao, Minister of Mines and Geology, AP, Dr.Aruna Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Shri N.Baijendra Kumar, CMD, NMDC and Dr.N.K.Nanda, Director(Technical), NMDC graced the inauguration function of Diamond Jubilee Year Celebrations.

The state-controlled mineral producer of the Government of India was established on 15th November 1958.

In conjunction with the inaugural function of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, a Steel exhibition was held wherein most of the Ministry of Steel PSEs and other steel producing companies like TATA, JSW, etc. participated. The exhibition was inaugurated Shri Venkaiah Naidu.

Addressing the 2000 plus gathering, Vice President of India Shri Venkaiah Naidu said, “the contribution of NMDC in the exploration and development of country’s mineral wealth has been immense during its journey of 60years.

Adding further he stated that in the last six decades, NMDC has been contributing to India’s infrastructure development, emerging as a single largest iron ore producer in the country and a vital supplier to the domestic steel industry. NMDC developed Dantewada region. It played a significant role through its onerous corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Reaching the milestone of the 60th year of the journey is a memorable and special occasion– be it a person’s life or an organization – and when the entity is doing so well at this stage, creating immense value and spreading prosperity, it indeed calls for celebrations, Shri Venkaiah Naidu said.

The Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) have contributed immensely to the country’s economic growth. PSEs have helped the country in building a sustained industrial base and technological competencies in a number of areas, Shri Venkaiah Naidu added.

The PSEs have played a pioneering role in building the infrastructure, the public sector units served the needs of the country. Coal, oil and natural gas are the other key areas where the public sector companies have made an immense contribution to the national economy Shri Venkaiah Naidu added.

Achieving self-sufficiency, reducing imports to save precious foreign exchange, promoting exports, removing regional disparities to ensure balanced development, preventing monopolies in private sector and providing employment were among the main objectives in establishing scores of PSEs across the country. To a large extent, many PSEs worked towards fulfilling these objectives and provided employments to lakhs of people. Of course, there were also public-owned companies which failed to deliver the goods, and that is a different story altogether, Hon’ble Vice President told the gathering.

The educated population has to be fully harnessed to transform India into one of the leading economic powers in the world in the coming years. For this to happen, companies like NMDC must look beyond the conventional templates, take up-skilling programs for youth in a big way and give a thrust to ‘Make in India’ initiative, Shri Vekaiah Naidu told.

The story of NMDC is woven around the dreamy hills and the deep jungle land of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, known as Dandakaranya from the epic periods. The entire area was brought to the mainstream of civilization by the spectacular effort of NMDC by opening-up of mines in the year 1967. Today, Bailadila is a name to reckon with in the world iron ore market, Shri Venkaiah Naidu said.

NMDC’s journey has indeed been commendable, and Shri Venkaiah Naidu added that he was glad to know that nearly a fifth of the total employees in NMDC were tribals, mostly from the local areas. Further skilling of youth will enhance the human capital of our country he said.

Hon’ble Vice President congratulated NMDC on posting a Profit (before tax) of Rs.4,293 crores in FY’17 and emerging as one of the top profit-making ‘Navratna’ public sector companies in the country.

Shri Venkaiah Naidu hoped that the NMDC’s state-of-the-art R&D center at Hyderabad declared as a "Centre of Excellence" by UNIDO could spur further growth in the sector.

Shri Venkaiah Naidu said, India is a mineral rich country and produces 95 minerals. The mining industry in India typically contributes around 2.2-2.5 per cent of India’s overall GDP. This, I feel, is far below the potential of India’s rich mineral resources, which have to be explored and fully tapped. For a country like India, the growth of core sector like mining is highly significant because of its multiplier effect on the economy-- leading to higher industrial production, creating a large number of jobs and above all, leading to development of infrastructure.

I am told that India is in the second position as regards Chromite and Barytes, while South Africa and China respectively possess the highest deposits of the two minerals, he said. India is in the third position as regards coal and bauxite and ranked fourth globally as far as iron ore is concerned, Shri Venkaiah Naidu stated.

I am told that NMDC is in the process of implementing its strategic management plan to achieve 67 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) production capacity by 2021-22 Shri Naidu said and added that it is also well poised to reach 100 MTPA production capacity by 2030 and thereby play a vital role in achieving the targets set out in our National Steel Policy 2030-31.

Shri Naidu complimented NMDC for its CSR initiatives. I am particularly happy that these programs are being carried out in remote and backward areas, which face serious law and order problems due to left-wing extremism. It is laudable that NMDC has spent Rs.798 crore in the last five years on a series of CSR initiatives and has been among the top 10 companies in India in actual CSR spend in the last few years. The initiatives include the creation of Education Hub in Dantewada, extending 18,000 scholarships to children from weaker sections, providing free treatment to tribals and deploying mobile medical services in remote villages.

Corporate bodies like NMDC are setting high benchmark for other organizations to emulate, he said

Addressing the gathering amidst the cheers from the Chattisgarh, its Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh announced that NMDC’s major mining operations are in the Chhattisgarh and Government of Chattisgarh and NMDC are working as partners in the state.

Speaking further he added that the contribution of NMDC in improving railway infrastructure in the state with projects such as doubling of Kirandul to Jagdalpur line and laying of Jagdalpur-Rowghat line and bringing the tribal people in the mainstream through its CSR activities are admirable. Their residential schools and schools for children with special needs are appreciable, he said.

Welcoming the gathering in his open remarks, Shri N. Baijendra Kumar, CMD of NMDC said, it all started 60years back from the dreamy hills and the deep jungle land of Bastar in Chattisgarh. Thanks to the spectacular efforts made by NMDC over the years, today Bailadila is a name to reckon with in the world iron ore market.

Continuing its journey, NMDC now as three major iron-ore-complexes—Kirandul & Bacheli in Bailadila, Chhattisgarh, and Donimala in Karnataka, from which it produced 34 million tons of iron ore in the financial year 2017. It also owns and operates the only mechanized diamond mines in Asia, in-house R&D Centre, Exploration and Geo-Statistics Centre. Our company believes in ethical governance and sustainable practices, which will be our priorities in the years to come, he said.

Speaking on occasion, Dr. Aruna Sharma, Secretary of Ministry of Steel, Govt of India said, “Six decades of successful performance of NMDC is certainly a landmark in the growth of India’s iron ore and steel industry. As a corporate citizen, NMDC stands tall as an example concerning its initiatives towards environment management, safety, and CSR, which is highly appreciable, she said.

Speaking further she added that Steel is the most widely used material in modern society, vital for industrialization and urbanization. Consumption of steel in a country, therefore, is considered a reliable barometer of the economic health of a nation. India is currently the third largest steel producer globally and is likely to become the second largest soon. India is endowed with a rich resource of iron ore, and NMDC has an important role to mine this sustainably for the steel industry.

To commemorate the occasion, NMDC has designed a special Diamond Jubilee Logo. The same was unveiled by the Hon’ble Vice President of India, Shri Venkaiah Naidu.

Ministry of Steel Dash Board was launched during the inaugural function.

Shri Venkaiah Naidu also unveiled dedicated NMDC Diamond Jubilee Stamp and Special Cover. Brig B. Chandrashekhar Postmaster General of Telangana Circle presented the same to the Vice President.

Shri Chaudhary Birender Singh, Union Minister of Steel, released the Book titled “NMDC: 60years Excellence”. The journey of NMDC is portrayed through this illustrious book.

Dr. Raman Singh, Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, unveiled the CSR Book of Chhattisgarh by NMDC.

An audio visual on 60 years of the journey of NMDC was screened to the 2000 plus gathering at the inaugural function.

A photo exhibition of images which captured its 60 years of journey was also held.

The Prime Minister’s & Steel Minister’s Trophies for the best-integrated steel plant were presented by Hon’ble Vice President of India. Government each year presents an award known as Prime Minister’s Trophy and a cash award of Rs. 2 crores and one crore for the first two best steel plants each year to the best performing integrated steel Plant(s) to generate a sense of competition and for improvement of performance of the integrated steel plants.

The objective of instituting the award for the integrated steel plants was to give recognition to outstanding performance in this vital sector of the national economy, which draws heavily on resources of capital and skilled manpower.

Tata Steel was adjudged as the Best Integrated Steel Plant and JSW Vijayanagar the Runners-Up to the PM’s Trophy (called the Steel Minister’s Trophy). JSPL(Jindal Steel & Power Ltd) Raigarh, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, AP recognized with a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh each for the Maximum Improvement among the steel plants.