Bhubaneswar: National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) organised a conference on Smart Mining & Manufacturing in Bhubaneswar on Friday on the theme “Smart Aluminium: Driving Operational Excellence through Industry 4.0.” The event brought together key stakeholders from industry, academia and technology sectors to explore how digital innovation is reshaping manufacturing and industrial operations.

Inaugurating the conference, NALCO CMD Brijendra Pratap Singh emphasised the importance of embracing Industry 4.0 technologies to boost efficiency and competitiveness. Singh highlighted the role of progressive government policies, such as support for start-ups and ‘Make in India’ initiative, in fostering self-reliance. He said India, as the fourth-largest economy, is witnessing strong investment and infrastructure growth, driving rapid expansion in the core and manufacturing sectors.

In his welcome address, Jagdish Arora, Director (P&T), described Industry 4.0 as a revolution driven by advancements in automation, AI and IoT that enables transformative value creation across manufacturing and industrial operations.

Vedanta Aluminium Limited CEO Rajiv Kumar graced the occasion as the distinguished guest while Sarajit Jha, Chief – Business Transformation & Digital Solutions, Tata Steel, joined the session virtually as a keynote speaker. Pankaj Kumar Sharma, Director (Production), and Tapas Kumar Pattanayak, Director (HR), NALCO, also shared their insights.

Industry leaders from SAIL, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Deloitte India, EY-Parthenon and McKinsey & Company participated as distinguished speakers at the conference, contributing to discussions

on emerging trends and strategies in the Industry 4.0 landscape.

The conference provided a collaborative platform to exchange ideas, showcase emerging

technologies and discuss strategies for accelerating Industry 4.0 adoption, featuring tech

sessions and panel discussions on AI and data analytics. Technocrats, researchers, policy makers and delegates from the metal sector and allied industries shared technological know-how.