Indus Valley Times

Lanjigarh, Feb.1 : Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh, India’s premier producer of metallurgical grade alumina, was recently awarded the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility in recognition ofits developmental initiatives in Kalahandi andsurrounding areas. This comes as a significant recognition of the company’s holistic developmental efforts in the spheres of education, healthcare, livelihood, grassroots sports and art & culture, with a special focus on women and child development.

One of the most prestigious awards of its kind in India, the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility assesses and recognizes companies who focus on socialconcerns in addition to their business goals, encouraging the adoption of a morebalanced approach toward achievingfinancial profits, economic value addition and social good.

Sharing his thoughts on the recognition, Mr GG Pal, Dy. CEO – Alumina Business, Vedanta Limited, said, “Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh is keenly focused on achieving significant social transformation through its operations, in close step with the UN sustainable development goals of quality education, good health, zero poverty, sustainable communities, and decent work & economic growth. Towards this end, we believe in offering to the community several avenues for positive change, through our interventions in the realm of education, healthcare, livelihood, grassroots sports and art & culture, with a focus on women and child development.This award gives us impetus in our endeavour to continue creating positive socio-economic impact.”

Vedanta Lanjigarh’s community transformation efforts has taken shape via several initiatives, including:

Project Arogya, which focuses on ensuring quality healthcare in underserved areas, has helped achieve 598successful cataract surgeries in four years, and undertake mega heath camps across 114 villages in the region.

Project Sakhi, which focuses on the socio-economic empowerment of rural women through entrepreneurship, supports the initiatives of the Shaktimayee Foundation, which is today a 3943-members strong group. It aids members in identifying new income-generating activities and linking them to appropriate social security schemes, towards achieving sustainable socio-economic progress within their communities.

Dhokra and Saura Art projects, which seeks to preserve ancient artforms of Odisha by facilitating new market and training avenues for rural artisans.The initiative has helped the artisans develop a product portfolio comprising of over 100 art and craft designs, under the ‘Kalahandi Craft’ brand.

Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.27 million tonnes in FY22. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 2ndin the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) 2022 world rankings for aluminium industry, a reflection of its sustainable development practices. The company operates a 2 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) capacity alumina refinery in Lanjigarh (Kalahandi district, Odisha), India since 2007 and an associated 75 MW captive power plant. With its world-class aluminium smelters, alumina refinery and power plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.