Vedanta Aluminium, India's largest manufacturer of aluminium and value-added products, has introduced 'Baaz,' an all-women Quick Reaction Team (QRT), to improve plant and personnel security. This elite task force is made up of women security professionals who have received martial arts training and are prepared to serve as first responders in an emergency. Baaz QRT will also have access to cutting-edge technology and surveillance tools to keep an eye on the facility and maintain a safe working environment for everyone.
Mr. Deepak Prasad, CEO of Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda, said, “In a traditionally male-dominated industry like manufacturing, we take great pride in having one of the highest gender diversity ratios in the country.At Vedanta Jharsuguda, we consider every role to be gender-neutral, which has led to women leading all facets of our core functions, ranging from operations &maintenance to security, R&D, and firefighting. This has fostered a culture built on the tenets of meritocracy and excellence, and enables us to build a vibrant and inclusive environment that allows our greatest asset – our people – to thrive.Our Baaz QRT, consisting of women from Odisha itself, will act as trailblazers and serve as an inspiration to all.”
Ms Nagma Manharcur expressed her delight at being a part of the task committee, said, “I am proud to be a member of Baaz. Vedanta’s company’s efforts and commitment to assign empowering job roles to women is appreciable, and I am determined to play an integral part in ensuring robust security at Vedanta Jharsuguda operations.”
Vedanta's value system symbolises the two key pillars — diversity and inclusion – as an equal opportunity employer. In Vedanta Jharsuguda’s value chain, all employment roles are gender-neutral. Vedanta Jharsuguda's activities currently employ around 366 direct women professionals and 352 indirect women professionals in roles such as innovation, smelter and power, commercial, infrastructure, operations, marketing, logistics, safety and more.
As part of its latest effort to construct a pipeline of future women leaders, Vedanta has created V-LEAD (Diversity Development Programme) to identify high-potential women candidates early on and nurture them into leadership roles. The V-REACH initiative at the corporation attempts to identify and develop young leaders from within the ranks of graduate employees, with the goal of placing them in positions of high responsibility.
Vedanta has developed an all-women fire-fighting team called 'Agnivahini' in Jharsuguda, which has been painstakingly trained to operate effectively and quickly in emergency circumstances.
Subhalaxmi Co-operative, Vedanta's flagship initiative in Jharsuguda for sustainable livelihood and women empowerment, is one of India's largest women co-operatives, with over 4100 members. It encourages rural women to create sustainable livelihoods by providing skill development and financial assistance.
Vedanta has a world-class 1.6 MTPA aluminium smelter and 3615 MW thermal power generation facilities in Jharsuguda, Odisha, making it India’s largest producer of green metal, aluminium. Vedanta Jharsuguda is a pioneer in value-added aluminium products that find important uses across key sectors. It is the only Indian smelter in the worldwide ‘1 Million Tonne’ production and export club. Vedanta Jharsuguda is striving towards a sustainable and greener future for everybody by fostering developing uses of aluminium, the “Metal of the Future,” with its state-of-the-art facilities, unrivalled engineering expertise, R&D and innovation capabilities.
