The industrial growth would further yield into all-round growth and development of the state and the need of the hour is to set up value added industries here. It is ridiculous that we are poor despite having rich minerals resources in abundance, said chief guest and finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei on the occasion of the Bhumi Puja ceremony of the sixth furnace of Balasore Alloys on Friday.

While Rs.1265 Crore would be spent in phases, production of first phase, 30% of existing capacity i.e, nearly 30,000 tonnes would commence by march 2009, informed Joint Managing Director of Balasore Alloys.

“It is high time to ban all exports of minerals and set up value added industries in order to bring all-round development of the state adding more now we stress on setting of industries here, which would generate employment ancillary units and more revenue for the state while we can no longer afford to export our raw materials indiscriminately to various countries, said Ghadei.

“We had nearly 18 million Tonne of chromites in our reserve out of which eight million MT have already been consumed and rest of the reserve could last for another 10 to 12 years, hence we should stop exporting and start setting up own value added industries”, he said

He also highlighted the various achievements on various fronts of Government stressing on healthy industrial atmosphere. Establishment of joint venture company for production of stainless steel is on the cards informed Jena. A China based company has already visited the district to set up the same in collaboration with Balasore Alloys, Jena informed.

Among others revenue ministers Manmohan Samal, Information & Public Relations Minister Raghunath Mohanty, Nilagiri MLA Pratap Sarangi, Bhogarai MLA Ananta Das spoke on the potential of Balasore District and sought more industries here Sadar MLA Arun Dey, IG(ER) BP Mohapatra, Collector Alekh Padhiary, Superintendent of Police Yaswant Jethwa and company MD L K Poddar, Senior Manager Sanjay Acharya also spoke.

The product range of the company includes ferro chrome, charge chrome, ferro manganese, and silico manganese, used in steel making. The company has chromite and manganese ore mines of it’s own and a state of the art metal recovery plant for 100 per cent metal recovery.

As a noteworthy contributor of foreign currencies to the National Exchequer by way of it’s exports, the company was recognised as a Star Trading House by the government of India. The company’s export market is spread over 18 countries all over world including quality conscious countries like Korea, USA, Japan, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, etc. Balasore Alloys have been awarded India Manufacturers Excellence Award (Silver) for the year 2005. Mr Rabindra Kumar Jena having graduated in mechanical engineering from Institute of Engineers (India), started his professional journey with Ispat Alloys Ltd (presently Balasore Alloys Ltd, Balgopalpur) a leading ferro alloy industry in the country, as a graduate mechanical engineer trainee in April 1990.

Later he completed his master degree in business administration with specialisation in finance from Xavier’s Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. With rapid strides in the corporate ladder, the reign of the company with which he had started his professional career, is presently in his hands.

He was awarded as the youngest executive director in the entire Ispat Group, recently. With strategic acumen, nimble man-management and visionary steps, while he has scripted a success story by transforming a loss making entity to a profitable one within the span of two years, the company is on the way of earning Rs 1000 crore in the next five years.

The turn-over of the company was a humble Rs 35 crore in 2001-02. While working in office, on invitation, he visited number of countries ~ Germany, UK, South Africa, Namibia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Switzerland to attend and participate in various discussions, seminars related to various socio-economic factors.

He has been an active participant of CII, Orissa, as the zonal chairman from Balasore and Utkal Chamber of Commerce, as an executive member. Presently working as the executive director, besides being responsible for operational excellence of one of the leading employers of the state and a contributor to the national exchequer, he is also in-charge of the overseas plant of the Ispat Group.

In recognition to his outstanding contribution to social cause and industries, he has been awarded by various prestigious organisations in recent years, which includes Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award, by Rajiv Gandhi Forum, Orissa,Utkal Samman 2004, Maharaj Sri Ramchandra Bhanjdeo Award,Industrial Promotion in the State Award 2005 by the Governor of the state, Excellence Award 2005 and a number of other recognition from local, state, and national bodies as well.