The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
JHARSUGUDA, SEPT 27, 2022
Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, felicitated 114 meritorious students from local communities, who are children of Subhalaxmi Cooperative members, for their superlative performance in matriculation examinations, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha. On this occasion, the meritorious students were also awarded scholarships through the Subhalaxmi Mahila Kalyan Panthi to encourage their aspirations of higher education.
Subhalaxmi Cooperative, the flagship community development initiative of Vedanta’s Aluminium Business, is one of India’s largest rural women’s cooperatives which works in the realm of ‘sustainable livelihoods’ and ‘women’s empowerment’.
The felicitation ceremony took place at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Jharsuguda in presence of Sarat Chandra Panigrahi, Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Government of Odisha; Samiranjan Das, Chief Scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Jharsuguda); and Manoj Kumar Barik, Extension Scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Jharusguda). The newly elected Board Members of Subhalaxmi Cooperative Society led by President Pankajini Oram and Vice President Kumudini Rout were also present at the occasion.
Since inception, through Mahila Kalyan Panthi, Subhalaxmi Cooperative has benefitted more than 1,300 members and their families through scholarships to meritorious children, financial support to expecting mothers, loan waivers to members in case of death in the family, etc.
Congratulating the students, Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda CEO Sunil Gupta said, “We firmly believe that access to quality education is a key enabler for sustainable development of a region. Our educational interventions in Jharsuguda, which includes Subhalaxmi Cooperative’s scholarship program, are aimed at encouraging local students to pursue their educational aspirations with passion. Our Subhalaxmi Cooperative is a shining example of what corporate and community partnership can achieve, when it comes to self-empowerment of women. With such endeavours, we are committed to the progress of our local communities in and around our areas of operation.”
Speaking about Vedanta’s Subhalaxmi Cooperative bringing more women to the socio-economic mainstream, Sarat Chandra Panigrahi, Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Jharsuguda said, “The Subhalaxmi Cooperative has transformed the lives of thousands of women in Jharsuguda by providing livelihood opportunities in the region. Starting with just ten members, today it is a major force of empowerment in the region. I congratulate the students and urge them to take inspiration from their success and aspire for higher education for a stellar career.”
Subhalaxmi Co-operative, the flagship community development initiative by Vedanta Aluminium at Jharsuguda, works in the realms of sustainable livelihood and women’s empowerment. Since its inception in 2008, it has grown to over 4100 women members today – a testimony to the company’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals of Zero Hunger and Gender Equality. The co-operative enables aspiring women with micro-finance, skill development, financial literacy, market linkage and is a support system for thousands of equally ambitious women. It also bridges them to various welfare schemes developed by the Indian government for their socio-economic empowerment. Today, the women run micro-enterprises like fast food centres, poultry & vegetable farms, grocery stores, beauty parlours, tailoring centres and many more. The impact of this initiative is evident in the fact that Subhalaxmi Co-op now has presence in 72 villages of Jharsuguda and continues to grow in strength year on year.
Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.26 million tonnes in FY22. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 4th in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) 2021 world rankings for aluminium industry, a reflection of its sustainable development practices. The company operates a world-class 1.75 MTPA aluminium smelter and 3615 MW thermal power generation facility at Jharsuguda, in Odisha. The only Indian smelter in the global ‘1 Million Tonne’ production and export club, Vedanta Jharsuguda is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications across core industries. With its state-of-the-art facilities, unparalleled engineering prowess, R&D and innovation abilities, the company is working towards a sustainable and greener future for all by spurring emerging applications of aluminium, the ‘Metal of the Future’.
