Chairman in Bhubaneswar - Meets with the Hon'ble CM and promises 100 crores for Kalahandi development

On 30^th August this year, Mr. Anil Agarwal, the Chairman of Vedanta Resources Plc. visited the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha Shri Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar. After the brief meeting, the CM announced that the Government had decided to set up a medical college in Kalahandi to provide accessible healthcare facilities to the people. It would be a Government medical college and the infrastructure would be provided by the Vedanta group. The Chairman promised to partake in the development initiatives benefitting the people who really needed it in and around the region. He said that there is much necessity of the medical college being set up and he would mobilize an amount of Rs 100 crores for building the infrastructure required for the college which will be managed and run by the Government.

Kalahandi and the surrounding districts are affected by poverty and malnutrition. Not much has changed for the people who still clamor for basic healthcare amenities and travel hundreds of miles in search of good hospitals. Recent incidents have necessitated the establishment of such institutions which will find permanent solutions to the problems of the local folks. Such an institution will help focus on education and healthcare at the same time, two areas which are of prime importance in Kalahandi.

The Chairman said that he had a special attachment with Odisha and Vedanta is willing to take up a series of CSR activities. It is his vision to bring employment, entrepreneurship and education as poverty eradication measures. He opined that Odisha is a land of richness in every field including natural resources and a judicious use of the mineral resources holds the key to the growth of Odisha and solutions to the many problems facing the state. Citing a McKinsey report he said mining has the potential to create six million new jobs and contribute an additional $47 billion to GDP by 2025. Mining jobs get created in the most backward districts of India’s poorest states. He strongly believes that in mining and farming are the answer to the country’s poverty. He is a strong advocate of technology and stated that scientific prospecting and exploration will let us know better about the resources beneath the earth. Gone are the days when the environmental toll was heavy during exploration exercises. Today, cutting edge tech and best practices in mining are being used for exploration with no environmental consequences. It is the wealth beneath the earth which will bring prosperity above it.

Having raised about 2 lakh crore ($30 Billion) abroad for supporting manufacturing industries and job creation in India, more than 52,000 crore rupees ($8 Billion) have been invested in Odisha, the highest by any corporate. His reason, he states is, India is best suited to produce Aluminium, not China. In spite of having no local bauxite, China is still the largest producer of Aluminium. India, on the other hand, has got its own reserves and thus deserves a better chance of achieving prosperity with the responsible utilization of these resources.

In his earlier visit to Vedanta’s Aluminum production facility at Jharsuguda, the Chairman stressed upon community development responsibilities of the organisation at the plant sites. According to him, “A true development can only happen through collaborative approach of people, government, and industries to ensure timely achievement of developmental aspiration of the state and nation”.