Bhubaneswar, 05/04/2016: under Ministry of Mines, Govt of India, has bagged the prestigious India Pride Award for the year 2015-16 for CSR, Environment Protection & Conservation, instituted by the Dainik Bhaskar Group. On behalf of the company, Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand, CMD, received the Award from Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology, during the 7th Edition of the India Pride Awards held in New Delhi on Monday. Among others, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs and Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister for Agriculture graced the occasion.

It may be mentioned that the India Pride Awards have been instituted as a tribute to the contributions made and excellence achieved in public services, especially by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) in nation building. The awards are being given away to PSUs since 2009 in different fields of excellence.

“Nalco is working in all the thrust areas identified in the Companies Act, 2013. The company’s focus is on bringing its robust humane face to the fore, through empathetic welfare and CSR measures,” said Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand on receiving the award.

Nalco has recently launched the ‘Nalco ki Ladli’ Scheme, under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme of Government of India, which aims at promoting meritorious girl-students from BPL families studying in the periphery schools of company’s production units at Angul and Damanjodi in Odisha. The company has also proved to be an active partner in implementing the Swachh Bharat and Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan. NALCO has constructed 433 toilets in schools 206 schools of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Further, as the first PSU in Mining Sector, Nalco has signed an MoU for skill development with National Skill Development Corporation and National Skill Development Fund. The company has committed 5% of its CSR budget for this capacity building programme. Besides, Nalco in association with Ministry of Skill Development is in the process of setting up a Centre of Excellence for Skill Development in Eastern India.

Also, all the units of Nalco are ISO 14001 Certified for environment management, with zero discharge of effluents. The company has planted more than 78 lakh trees in the periphery of its operating units so far.