Vedanta HZL CSR Udaipur

HZL CEO won the Business Leader Award for ‘CEO of the Year’
Hindustan Zinc also bagged the ‘Most Innovative Company of the Year’
Udaipur. In a double swoop at the Business Leaderof the Year Awards presented by World Leadership Congress and Awards, Hindustan Zinc won the won ‘Most Innovative Company of the Year’ while their CEO – Mr Arun Misra was awarded as ‘CEO of the Year’.

Being at the helm of a mining giant during a time which was unprecedented, Mr Arun Misra guided Hindustan Zinc in quite an extraordinary way. The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown posed formidable challenges, but Mr Misra steered the ship head-on by embracing change and enhanced focus on innovation, technology and digitalisation. Under his leadership, Hindustan Zinc achieved operational excellenceand set global benchmarks in setting sustainable social solutions benefitting the business, people and communities.
The ‘Most Innovative Company Award’ for Hindustan Zinc displays the type of culture that the organisation believes in. HZL has been at the forefront of adopting best-in-class technologies to gain and solidify a competitive edge in the mining industry, enhancing efficiencies and productivity along the way. The company has advanced well in the journey of leveraging digitalisation and to embrace new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and block chain capabilities in the future.
The Leadership Awards is all about Achievers, Super Achievers and Future Business Leaders. Th forum attracts the best organisations from around the world,to highlight, recognize and reward their ability to steer their businesses through turbulent times, applying the best of business modules to manage and keep their missions afloat.

Udaipur:Sustainability and water positivity is at the core of Hindustan Zinc’s principles, be it for its operations or itssurrounding communities.

Rajasthan is a water scarce state and Hindustan Zinc has been making constant efforts in conserving water as well as ensuring water sufficiency for its surrounding villages, especially for safe, drinking water.To make villages near Debari location water sufficient, Hindustan Zinc’s Smelter at Debari installed 1 RO hub plant at Ordi and 1 water ATM at Dabok. The water ATM has astorage capacity of 3000 litres of drinking water which can be availed by the local families.
These water structures were inaugurated by Mr. Pushkar Lal Dangi, ex – MLA Mavli, along with key village stakeholders and PRI Representatives as well as employees of Hindustan Zinc. The guests appreciated the support extended by Hindustan Zinc towards the communities. Till date, Hindustan Zinc has installed 6 RO plants and 21 water ATMs that provide safe drinking water facilities to members of local villages. This initiative will benefit more than 5000 villagers from nearby community daily.
As part of its core philosophy, HZL works closely with its communities to create value for its stakeholders and drive overall social-economic development. The company is currently impacting the lives of about 5 Lakh people through various community development initiatives. The CSR initiatives focus on 184 villages in the vicinity of its business operations in Rajasthan.

Two sustainability technologies developed by HZL’s research and development centre – ZnTech grated US Patent
Udaipur. In a constant pursuit of innovating for a sustainable future, Hindustan Zinc has achieved a big milestone, being granted US patents for two of their sustainability technologies. The two patents – US10844551B2 for manufacturing Paver Blocks from process waste; and US10919924B2 for the method of production of Potassium Antimony Tartrate (PAT) by utilizing Antimony bearing residues – were developed in-house by HZL’s state-of-the-art research and development centre – ZnTech (formerly known as Central Research and Development Laboratory).

Commitment towards Environment and Sustainability is one of the core principles that drive business operations at Hindustan Zinc. The company proactively works towards ensuring sustainable practices are an integral part of operations. Both these technologies are aimed to create value from waste that can be utilised within HZL’s operations and support local entrepreneurs and communities.
Commenting on this, Mr. Arun Misra, CEO, Hindustan Zinc said, ”Our outlook towards sustainability is not limited to just reducing our environmental footprint, but at the same time creating more value from our supply chain. Coupled with our approach of innovative thinking and best-in-class technologies, this culture propels us to be recognised as an industry benchmark. These US patents exemplify how sustainability, innovation and technology seamlessly come together at Hindustan Zinc to create to create smart and sustainable mines of the future.”
Fostering a culture of high performance and innovative thinking, employees of Hindustan Zinc always strive to create breakthrough solutions. The ZnTech team consisting of – Ms Sheeba Mashruwala, Mr Kiran Rokkam, Mr Ashish Kumar, Dr KD Sharma, Mr Sundar Sombhatla, and Mr Akhilesh Shukla played a pivotal role in developing and patenting these breakthrough solutions.
The method to produce PAT also has a European Patent (EP3192882) to its name. PAT is consumed by Zinc hydro smelters for purification and to produce Zinc Metal. This patented process has been successfully running at HZL since 2016. The technology for manufacturing paver blocks on the other hand, produces greener products that have a lower cost of production than conventional method while also conserving natural resources. This technology has produced 80,000 paver blocks that are laid at different HZL units as a test case. Two paver block machines are also setup in association with Self Help Groups (SHGs) to or support the community.

Hindustan Zinc is dedicated in its contribution towards COVID 19 relief activities
Udaipur:Zinc plays a vital role in boosting immunity and Hindustan Zinc is India’s only integrated producer of Zinc – Lead and Silver. The company has been at the forefront of ensuring health, be it of its employees or local communities.

It has been persistent in its efforts to battle COVID 19 through preventive as well as relief activities in Rajasthan. The company took its efforts a step further in the preventive direction by providing an insulated vaccine van to the Udaipur district medical health office. This will make it easier to transport vaccine from Jaipur to Udaipur and make the distribution process more convenient and efficient.
Arun Misra, CEO and Whole-TimeDirector of Hindustan Zinc formally handed over the vaccination van on Monday, April 21, to Dr Dinesh Kharadi, Chief Medical Health Officer of Udaipur, at Yashad Bhawan. On this Occasion the CEOArun Misra said, “Safety and wellbeing of the communities is of utmost importance for Hindustan Zinc. With this vaccination van, we are fully in support with the local authorities and the state government to vaccinate our people and communities to tackle the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. I sincerely request everyone eligible to get themselves vaccinated so that we can resume normalcy as soon as possible.”
Dr Dinesh Kharadi appreciated the efforts made by Hindustan Zinc towards ensuring health and wellbeing of people in Udaipur and across Rajasthan.He said, “The vaccine van provided to us by Hindustan Zinc through its CSR initiative will prove to be really useful in times of this pandemic. Earlier we had to get the vaccine from Jaipur or from Dabhok and had only one van, but now that we have two vans, it will really make things easier. It will enable storage of not just COVID vaccine but all types of vaccines even for routine activities as this insulated van maintains a temperature between 2 – 8 celcius temperature. I thank Hindustan Zinc on behalf of the entire medical health department.”. The van was inaugurated by Dr Dinesh Kharadi, Mr. Arun Misra and other officers of health department as well as management of Hindustan Zinc while ensuring proper social distancing and other COVID 19 guidelines.

Sandhya Rasakatla becomes India’s first woman mine manager in the unrestricted category
Udaipur. Breaking new grounds has always been a legacy for Hindustan Zinc. Be it in the endeavors of safety, digitalization or most recent, their employees. In a constant pursuit of inculcating inclusivity and diversity in an industry like mining,

Hindustan Zinc’s Sandhya Rasakatlawas appointed as India’s first woman Underground Mine Manager and Yogeshwari Rane as UG Mine Development Manager. Sandhya assumed the role as Mine Manager of HZL’s Zawarmala Mine while Yogeshwari is appointed Head Planning & Development for Kayad Mine. Both Sandhya and Yogeshwari Rane are also the first women in Indian Mining to receive the ‘First Class Mines Manager’ certificate of competency in the “Unrestricted” category. The company is extremely proud and happy to take such a pioneering step in the mining industry that displays the commitment towards diversity and inclusivity.
Speaking on their achievement, Mr. Arun Misra, CEO, Hindustan Zinc, said, ““Women being allowed in mining has been a revolutionary decision. This is an opportunity for us and the women mining engineers out there to bring about a societal change. At Hindustan Zinc, we have embraced this and have given equal platform for our women engineers in our mining operations. I’m sure Sandhya’s and Yogeshwari’sappointment will be an inspiration for all the young ladies who want to pursue mining engineering as their option. This is just a stepping stone for young women who aspire to be leaders in the mining industry”.

Mining Engineers Sandhya and Yogeshwari have both been a part of HZL since 2018. Yogeshwari is the first woman to receive a ‘First Class Mines Manager’ certification in both ‘restricted’ and ‘unrestricted’ category. Sandhya was also the first woman in India to receive the ‘Second-Class Manager’s Certificate’ in the unrestricted category last year.
Like any other woman in mining, these engineers wouldn’t have been able to achieve this if not for a landmark decision in 2019. Following the amendments in the Mines Act 1952 in 2019; wherein government decided to exempt women employed in any mine above and below ground from the provisions of section 46 of the Mines Act, 1952; Hindustan Zinc deployed women engineers like Sandhya and Yogeshwari to gain experience in the underground mine operations.