Reported by: Insha Zarine Sayeed and Kanhu Charan Gouda
Bhubaneswar, June 30: Today at 11.30am in the Mayfair Convention in the capital city of the state, a National Seminar was held on Aluminium titled as the Strategic Metal, having organized by the Aluminium Association of India.
The Chief Guest and the Guest of Honour for the occasion, Shri. Balvinder Kumar, the Secretary to Government of India of Ministry of Mines of and Shri R.K. Sharma, the Principal Secretary to Government of Odisha of Ministry of Steel and Mines respectively, released the National Directory of Aluminium Industries and INCAL-2017 which is the First Call Brochure on the International Conference and Exhibition on Aluminium which is to be held in February in Bhubaneswar, Odisha under the aegis of Ministry of Mines, Government of Odisha.
The Theme of the Conference will be Make in India: Aluminium- The Strategic Metal. It is of topic relevance and applicability to all Aluminium primary and secondary producers as well as those related to the industry.
INCAL-17 is the 7th in the series of INCALs, whose basic objective is to bring the international Aluminium fraternity together on one platform where the current issues will be discussed and ideas will be exchanged on the growth, development and potential of Aluminium, keeping in view the sustained growth of Indian Aluminium Industry in the 21st century and need to support further growth.
At the event, the welcome address was delivered by Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand, the honorable President of Aluminium Association of India, The CMD of Nalco as director in Coal, Steel and Aluminium. He remarked, “Aluminium is not only the strategic metal but it is also the green metal and the future metal. The Aluminium sector is undergoing one of the toughest challenges as all metals, and is experiencing a sluggish market condition. One of it being to all the producers of this metal is to bring down the cost of which major component goes to power and logistics. When such challenges are ahead, one of the bright spot in the global economy is India, a major centre of consumption with government’s various skills like make in India. There has been a resurgence of self-confidence among the entrepreneurs, industries and general investors that yes there is an economy which is enduring and this economy will probably be the striving one in Asia with China which is gradually abdicating or declining from the position of an Asiatic giant. There is a possibility that India may fill in the position.”
“Hence, as a future rescue operation to it the Aluminium Association of India has requested to the government to constitute an Aluminium Development Council in the line of Steel Development Council so that its inputs, producers, secondary producers, customers and all the stakeholders can charter out an action plan for promoting the consumption of Aluminium as this would give a boost to make in India,” He added.
Chief Guest, Shri Balvinder Kumar addressed the media saying, “Nalco is first of all in the Expression mode. Many new projects are being coming up. They have a target of capital expense which is of 1000cr and the most important is the earning mines. They have also agreed to constitute the Aluminium Development Council as put forward by the CMD of Nalco.”
He also said, “As per the CMD of Nalco, Odisha should be called as the Aluminium Capital as it holds a production of 70% of Aluminium, which is the largest in all over India. It’s also been decided to forward a request to the Railway Ministry to categorize Aluminium in the Category of Bauxite in railways.”
The Guest of Honour, Shri R.K. Sharma also let out to the audience similar views as of the other two delegates.
The technical or the interactive sessions were taken by Shri. Satish Pai, the Deputy Managing Director of Hindalco Industries Limited on the Outlook of Aluminium.
Shri. Abhijeet Pati, CEO of Vendanta Limited conducted a session on Aluminium Park and the Strategic Model for Future.
Shri. D.C. Galada, the Managing Director of Galada Power and Telecommunications Limited took on the Possibilities of Synergetic Development of Aluminium and its Products.
Dr. B.K. Satpathy, the Ex-Executive Director of National Aluminium Company Limited held the session on Emerging Applications of Aluminium and its Alloys.
Shri. B.K. Das, the General Manager of National Aluminium Company Limited addressed on the Substitution Threat to Aluminium and finally Shri. Sushanta Mohanty, the CGM of IDCO cum CEO of Angul Aluminium Park and Shri. K.C. Mohanty, the GM of IPICOL conducted the technical session on Angul Aluminium Park.
The concluding remarks were given by Shri. B. Dhal, the Senior Advisor of People and Change Advisory of KPMG.
But most of it all the eye-catcher of the event were the two mesmerizing performances on Odissi Dance one dedicated to Lord Ganesha titled as Deb Bandana and the other was on Radha and his friend presented by Halisaka dance group having Moonmoon Chakraborty, Sourabhprabha Parida and Gouri Shankar Das as the artists. They were also well appreciated by the Chief Guest especially.
