Indus Valley Times

By Payal Banerjee

Jharsuguda (Odisha), Nov. 17: On Children’s Day, Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, felicitated 79 meritorious students from 21 government schools across Jharsuguda for securing the A-1 position in the Annual High School Certificate (HSC) Examination 2022, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha.

Envisioned as an opportunity to laud the hard work put in by the students and encourage them to aim for higher additional achievements, the program was organised in collaboration with the District Education Office, Jharsuguda, in the presence of Ms. Pushpa Minz – District Education Officer, Jharsuguda and Mr. Pradipta Kumar Sa, Additional District Education Officer, Jharsuguda.

Congratulating the students, Mr. Sunil Gupta, CEO – Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda, said, “Our education initiatives for the community strive to ensure that students hailing from rural communities enjoy better access to quality primary education, which is fundamental to shaping a bright future. It is heartening to see a rise in literacy levels of Jharsuguda, reflected in the rising higher matriculation/higher secondary passing percentage in the region and the number of students securing A-1 position in the HSC examinations. Vedanta Aluminium will continue to help bridge the literacy divide and unlock new horizons for our communities.”

Encouraging the students to aspire for higher studies, Ms. Pushpa Minz, District Education Officer, Jharsuguda said, “Education is fundamental to the inclusive development of our local communities. I commend Vedanta Aluminium for running several impactful education interventions at Jharsuguda and for acknowledging the efforts of young and talented achievers, which will positively influence and inspire our youth towards greater academic success in the future.”

Vedanta Aluminium’s educational interventions have been a key enabler in increasing the average literacy level of Jharsuguda district. Several education initiatives implemented by the company have proved central to this effort, including:

–              Vidya Graha, an e-learning program to provide recorded lectures and online career counselling to students from classes 8th-10th, thus supplementing classroom learning in government schools of Jharsuguda

–              Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education Project to impart knowledge on the basics of AI to students and build AI-based solutions for real-world problems

–              Improving access to early childhood education for around 6500 children through upgraded anganwadis, under the Vedanta Nand Ghar project

–              Infrastructure development in government schools at Jharsuguda under ‘Mo School Abhiyaan’, an initiative by the Government of Odisha

–              Vedanta Mini Science Centres, which provide innovative models, experiments, and instruments to enhance aptitude and skills of students in learning science and mathematics in effective and interesting ways

–              Vedanta Computer Literacy Programme (VCLP) which aims at imparting basic computer literacy and training to those who do not have access to proper training on using computers

Vedanta Aluminium’s social interventions in the domains of quality education, healthcare, skill development, women empowerment, water and sanitation, and community infrastructure reach out to over 79 villages in Jharsuguda and nearby areas, benefiting nearly 1.7 lakh people in a year. It empowers more than 4000 women from over 338 SHGs, provides doorstep healthcare services to about 32,000 people annually, provides educational support to more than 6400 students, and has planted more than 1.48 lakh trees in partnership with locals at the community level.