Concrete

Nuvoco strong core values

Published

6 years ago

January 10, 2020

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Nuvoco Vistas is a leading manufacturer and retailer of building materials in India, offering a diversified business portfolio under three broad business segments, namely, cement, ready-mix concrete (RMX) that enjoys a pan-India presence, and modern building materials (MBM).

Guided by one of the core values, care; Nuvoco has always made a responsible and sustainable contribution to the society in which it operates to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all its stakeholders. Nuvoco’s corporate social responsibility initiatives focus on five themes; namely, Surakshit Bharat (safety), Swasth Bharat (health), Shikshit Bharat (education), Saksham Bharat (livelihood) and Sanrachit Bharat (infrastructure development) through which we have reached out to 1,98,000 people across 103 villages.

Surakshit Bharat (safety): Keeping safety at the heart of all that we do, through this initiative, we are able to build awareness on safety (on the road and at home) and endeavours to stimulate behavioural change in the communities living in the close proximity of our operating units. We also extend support towards building a safer world while addressing issues like waste management in the villages and promoting the ban of single-use plastic while showcasing its harmful effects on the environment.

Swasth Bharat (health): Focus is to provide access to primary health care, improved sanitation and safe drinking water to the communities and addressing the needs of adolescent girls. Under the flagship program, project Angan we have adopted more than 170 Anganwadis across locations that promotes joyful learning for children and improving overall service delivery of Anganwadis especially focusing on mother and child health. Continuing our focus, Swasth Matritva is another such project where we have provided mobile ante-natal care (ANC) check-up kits integrated with a mobile app to the government health workers in rural areas. Through this kit, they were able to conduct regular ANC checkups, even during COVID-19 times, and thus contributing towards safe motherhood. We have also helped form girls health groups focusing on adolescent girls; one of its major activities is to promote the use of sanitary pads to maintain hygiene during menstruation. We have also been able to provide preventive healthcare facilities, free medical and health check-up camps and spread awareness on WASH (water sanitation and hygiene) in schools.

Shikshit Bharat (education): The focus of this initiative, is to provide access to new-age education facilities in government schools to improve the quality of education. We have been supporting approx 50 government school across locations by installing smart classes and providing better infrastructure facilities and special health care facilities for girls (construction of toilets and installation of sanitary pad dispenser and incinerator in girls toilet, etc.) in schools. Through our project Shikshit Sunderhattu (winner of FICCI CSR Jury Award 2018-19 for education) in Jamshedpur, we were able to establish "Birsa Prathmik Vidyalaya" through community participation and educate the tribal children of the Sunderhattu and Sarenbera villages, which have shaped the lives of more than 500 tribal children by bringing them into mainstream education.

Saksham Bharat (livelihood): This initiative focuses on diversifying livelihood by imparting new skills to the youth and women to enable them to become self-reliant. Projects like Aakriti (a women enterprise for garment manufacturing) and Samridhi (women group-led initiative for mushroom cultivation) have helped to accelerate progress towards the economic empowerment of rural women. These projects were also awarded FICCI CSR Awards – 2016 and 2017, respectively. Project Aakriti transformed itself from a training center to a garment manufacturing centre with turnover of more than 35 lakh per annum and supporting livelihood of more than 500 women across locations. While Project Smariddhi in West Bengal is providing additional livelihood support to more than 100 women members. Other skill development programs like computer training, bag making, food processing are also some of the initiatives looked upon.

Sanrachit Bharat (infrastructure development): Through this initiative, we have been working towards improving the quality of life by developing community infrastructure through the construction and repair of roads and providing safe drinking water through pond distillation and rainwater harvesting. We were also able to refurbish the school buildings, build community centers, improve drainage systems in villages and conduct tree plantations in communities and villages where we operate.

While the world was grappling with a situation that off-guarded everyone and pervaded every facet of our lives; Nuvoco ensured that all its stakeholders, not limited to its employees were safe and secure. Our employees came forward to support the channel partners (dealers and sub-dealers) and the local communities by contributing a day’s salary. Plant teams and their families came ahead to support the nearby villages by producing and distributing face masks, food packets, and other essential services. Nuvocans’ combined were able to distribute approximately 12,000 safety kits comprising of N95 mask, cotton mask, face shield and temperature scanners in the east and north markets and to the local district administration across locations. They also supported in installing approximately 750 hand wash stations (a foot-operated washbasin developed in-house that enables people to avoid handling taps or soap dispensers) at public places in Jharkhand, Bengal and Chhattisgarh markets and donated a ventilator machine at the government hospital in Janjgir Champa district of Chhattisgarh.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joydeep Chatterjee, Chief of CSR & Corporate Affairs at Nuvoco.

BLURB
Nuvoco’s CSR initiatives focus on five themes; namely, Surakshit Bharat (safety), Swasth Bharat (health), Shikshit Bharat (education), Saksham Bharat (livelihood) and Sanrachit Bharat (infrastructure development).

Concrete

Ultra Concrete Age

Prof. A. S. Khanna (Retd., IIT Bombay) on how Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) improves strength, durability and lifecycle performance.

Published

2 weeks ago

April 1, 2026

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The need of present time is stronger buildings, industrial or common utility buildings, such as Malls, Railway stations, hospitals, offices, bridges etc. For this, there is need of long durable, tough and stable concrete, which could stand under normal and seismic conditions. Tough railway bridges are required for bullet trains to pass without any damage. Railway tunnels, sea-links, coastal roads, bridges and multistorey buildings, are the need of the hour. The question comes, is the normal cement called OPC is sufficient to take care of such requirements or better combination of cements and sand mixtures is required?

Introduction

A good stable building structure can be made with a good quality of cement+sand+water system. Its quality can be enhanced by keeping the density of admixture higher (varies from 30 in normal buildings to bridges etc to 80). Further enhancement in the properties of various cements admixtures is made by adding several additives which give additional strength, waterproofing, flexibility etc. These are called construction chemicals…

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Concrete

NCB Signs MoU With Cement Manufacturer To Boost Construction Skills

Partnership to deliver nationwide training and certification

Published

2 weeks ago

March 31, 2026

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The National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB) has signed a memorandum of understanding with a leading cement manufacturer to strengthen skill development and capacity building in the construction sector. The agreement was formalised at NCB premises in Ballabgarh and was signed by the Director General of NCB, Dr L. P. Singh, and the head of technical services at UltraTech Cement Limited, Er Rahul Goel. The collaboration seeks to bring institutional resources and industry expertise into a structured national training effort.

The partnership will deliver structured training and certification programmes across the country aimed at enhancing the capabilities of civil engineers, ready?mix concrete (RMC) professionals, contractors, construction workers and masons. Programme curricula will cover material quality testing, concrete mix proportioning, durability assessment and sustainable construction practices to support improved construction outcomes. Emphasis is to be placed on standardised assessment and certification to raise practice levels across diverse construction roles.

Practical learning elements will include workshops, site demonstrations, technical seminars and exposure visits to plants and RMC facilities to strengthen applied skills and on?site decision making. The Director General indicated confidence that a large number of professionals and workers would be trained over the next three to five years under the initiative. The partnership is designed to complement flagship government schemes such as the Skill India Mission and to align training outputs with national infrastructure priorities.

By combining the council’s technical mandate with industry experience, the initiative aims to develop a more skilled and quality?conscious workforce capable of meeting rising demand in infrastructure and housing. NCB will continue to coordinate programme delivery and quality assurance while industry partners provide practical exposure and technical inputs. The collaboration is expected to support long?term capacity building and more sustainable construction practices nationwide.

Concrete

JSW Cement Commissions Nagaur Plant, Enters North India

New Rajasthan unit boosts capacity to 24.1 MTPA and expands reach

Published

2 weeks ago

March 30, 2026

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JSW Cement has strengthened its national presence by commencing production at its greenfield integrated cement plant in Nagaur, Rajasthan, marking its entry into the north Indian market.

With this commissioning, the company’s installed grinding capacity has increased to 24.1 MTPA, while total clinker capacity, including its joint venture operations, stands at 9.74 MTPA.

The Nagaur facility comprises a 3.30 MTPA clinkerisation unit and a 2.50 MTPA cement grinding unit, with an additional 1.00 MTPA grinding capacity currently under development. Strategically located, the plant is positioned to serve high-growth markets across Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and the NCR.

The project has been funded through a mix of equity and long-term debt, with Rs 800 crore allocated from IPO proceeds towards part-financing the unit.

Parth Jindal, Managing Director, JSW Cement, stated that the commissioning marks a key milestone in the company’s ambition to become a pan-India player. He added that the project was completed within 21 months and positions the company to achieve its targeted capacity of 41.85 MTPA by FY29.

Nilesh Narwekar, CEO, JSW Cement, highlighted that the expansion aligns with the company’s strategy to tap into rapidly growing northern markets driven by infrastructure development. He noted that the company remains focused on delivering high-quality, eco-friendly cement solutions while progressing towards its long-term capacity goal of 60 MTPA.

The Nagaur plant has been designed with sustainability features, including co-processing of alternative fuels and a 7 km overland belt conveyor for limestone transport to reduce road emissions. The facility will also incorporate a 16 MW Waste Heat Recovery System to improve energy efficiency and lower its carbon footprint.

JSW Cement, part of the JSW Group, operates across the building materials value chain and currently has eight plants across India, along with a clinker unit in the UAE through its joint venture.