Right from its inception in Kutch, Sanghi´s promoters have focused on developing the social infrastructure in the surrounding areas, where most villages suffered from lack of livelihood options, shortage of water, poor or no healthcare facilities, barren land and no set- up for education. Alok Sanghi, Director, Sanghi Industries traces the path taken by the company to give back to the society.

Sanghi Industries (SIL) believes in the transformation of socio-economic conditions of the region. As per the group´s tradition, the company is conscious about the responsibility towards the society. In the year 1994, the company established the Sarvodaya Trust to undertake the welfare activities in its operational area. Since then, the trust has undertaken various programmes and conducted work for rural development, public welfare and charitable work, health, education, drinking water supply, horticulture, conservation of wild life, protection of environment, establishment of Nira Kendra for supplying fodder to cattle, maintaining sanitation and hygiene and medical help to the poor and needy.

The company believes that this is the way to build a better state, a strong India and a clean, green world, not just by manufacturing cement but also by the humanitarian approach. Sanghi´s creed is that the future is a concrete one with such initiatives.

Medical and healthcare

The trust has opened a full-fledged hospital with a fully functioning pathological lab at Sanghipuram the Sarvodaya Health Care Centre (SHCC) for the employees and for nearby villagers. A qualified team comprising of doctors, nurses, lab technician are managing the medical centre. A senior medical officer and nurse is available round-the-clock. On an average, 120 patients per day are being examined at SHCC. Free medical checkups and free medicines are provided to villagers of surrounding fifteen villages. A fully equipped ambulance is available for emergency services. Special healthcare related programmes like malaria awareness programme, blood donation camp, etc, are being organised at Sanghipuram. The trust also organises various vaccination camps for DPT, MMR, measles, polio, etc.

Education

The Sarvodaya trust is running a CBSE affiliated high school, the Smt. Kamla Rani Sanghi Public School at Sanghipuram. The school has its own building, with adequate teaching and support staff, laboratories, library and a huge playground. Apart from running this school, the trust has opened balwadis in three villages nearby: Akri, Jadva and Motibar. The trust also encourages adult education in the villages. Teachers of the school teach the children and adults by taking special classes in the neighbouring villages. Further, the company is industry partner at ITI – Panandhro – Kutch in developing a Centre of Excellence through public private partnership scheme of central government for the upgradation of ITIs since 2008-09.

Water conservation

Low cost treatment and re-use technology To cope with the acute scarcity of water, and to meet the water requirements of different agricultural and horticultural activities in the area, the company has constructed four check dams with a total capacity of about 1.5 million m3 near its plant location. The people from neighbouring villages use this water for different purposes like irrigation, cattle feed, domestic consumption, etc. The company has also installed a desalination plant of 5500 m3/ day. This water is used for drinking in the surrounding 83 villages.

The company has also been active in implementing various water conservation techniques in the arid areas of Kutch. The company regularly converts the mined pits into water storage reservoirs. Apart from check dams and the reservoirs, Sanghi has constructed many percolation ponds, surface storage tanks and farm ponds (khet talavadis) to recharge the deeper aquifer in the Jadva limestone mines.

To ensure optimum usage and reuse of the waste water, the company uses the drip irrigation method to water the greenbelt developed. All the sewage generated from the residential colony, administrative building, guesthouse, and other places is collected and treated by the root zone technology system (RZTS). The treated water thus generated is being re-used for gardening, developing green belt and for cultivating vegetables. The wastewater treatment system adapted to treat 250 m3 of domestic wastewater is well acknowledged by various private and government agencies. The treatment uses a zero- cost technology that produces very good quality treated water. As water is scarce in the region, the treatment technology is being promoted to implement in small dimensions to treat and reuse the sewage and domestic wastewater in the nearby villages.

Green-belt development

Environment conservation: plantation

Sanghi Cement boasts of a clean and green cement plant with around 4 lakh trees planted in and around the campus which ensures near zero-dust generation. The company has also developed mango farms in around a hundred acres of land. The company also possess an established full fledge nursery with a facility to store about 2 lakh plants. It is a matter of pride that the company is chosen as the first private sector company by the state government for planting jatropa on a mass scale.

Nature conservation centre

The company has set up a nature conservation centre which is spread across ten acres of land, two kms away from the plant site. The centre is making concerted efforts for the eco-restoration of the area by planting indigenous plant species that exist in Kutch. The nature conservation centre is designed in such a way that it inspires youth and nature-lovers and conveys the importance of balanced ecology and environment for sustainable development of the area.

Community development

The company provides ample employment opportunities to the local residents of the villages under its operational area. Apart from employment generation, Sanghi is taking special care to highlight and protect the cultural heritage and ethical values of the local community. The company organises several functions at local and regional level to bring out the talents and encourage them by providing recognition and felicitation. Further, realising the role of senior citizens in the social development, the company developed a `Dada Dadi Park` in 2005 at the district headquarter, Bhuj. About a hundred people regularly visit the park which has become a major centre for morning and evening activities in Bhuj. The company provides milk and snacks to the senior citizens every morning along with newspapers. Various programmes related to literature, culture and general awareness are organised on a regular basis at this park. The company has developed 50 acres of its area as vegetable gardens; the vegetables grown in these gardens are distributed free of cost among the company staff and workers from surrounding villages. The company also organises fodder camps for cattle owned by the local residents in the times of drought. Free water and fodder is provided to the cattle from surrounding villages. The company has always taken a lead role in times of natural calamities in the area.

It ran many rehabilitation camps and provided shelter and food to the earthquake affected residents of Kutch.

Environment policy

Sanghi is an environmentally conscious company, which aims to deliver quality services to all of its clients with the best environmental practices. The company is committed to taking appropriate measures for controlling pollution and for conserving non-sustainable resources. Based on the requirements of the ISO 14001:2004 standards, together with their ´Clean and Green´ philosophy, teir environmental policy is as follows:

• The company is committed to identifying and complying with all local environmental legislation and regulations, and with other applicable requirements to which the company subscribes, and continually seeks to improve its environmental performance wherever possible.
• SIL works closely with its employees, suppliers, clients, other companies and the community in order to develop and effectively implement agreed environmental management initiatives, for the purposes of enhancing the company´s environmental achievements.
• SIL has established and monitors, reviews and revises environmental objectives and ensures that procedures and programmes are developed, implemented and audited to meet defined environmental objectives and targets.
• SIL is committed to operate its various facilities and deliver all of its services in a sustainable manner by determining and implementing strategies and adopting best practices to conserve resources and energy consumption, whilst preventing/ minimising environmental pollution and achieving sustainable improvement.
• SIL provides an environmentally sound and employee-friendly workplace by implementing beneficial environmental work practices and taking appropriate measures to minimise health and safety risks, and is able to effectively respond to accidents and emergency situations.
• SIL imparts regular trainings to enhance environmental awareness and understanding, and actively participates in external environmental activities, in addition to providing various R&D programmes.
• SIL uses monitoring programmes and analyses to assess its environmental performance. The company communicates its environmental commitment and achievements through annual reports to its top management and stakeholders. These are also published on the company website.
• SIL tries to share its environmental knowledge and experiences with other organisations, thus raising the interests.
• As a responsible corporate citizen, SIL advocates the need of sustainable development and green aspects of construction. Since their launch of cement till the year 2010, they were producing and selling 53 grade OPC. In 2010, SIL added PPC to their product line, which utilizes fly ash, a waste resource for production of cement. This has helped the company in reducing the dependence of natural resources.

Sanghi Industries Ltd is a company engaged in manufacturing and distribution of cement in western India. The company has its cement plant of three million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity at Sanghipuram in the Kutch district of Gujarat and has a strong presence across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with a network of over 1, 700 dealers.

Alok Sanghi, a Business Management Graduate from Indiana University, USA, joined his family business, Sanghi Industries Ltd, in 2005. During his stay in the United States, he was associated with renowned organisations like Merrill Lynch and Regency Securities. He is actively associated with CII´s Young Indians (Yi) Chapter , an organisation involved in various social upliftment activities. He is past Chairman of Young Indians, Ahmedabad Chapter. He is a member of YPO (Young Presidents´ Organisation) and is also associated with the Lions Club. He is also a member of the Managing Committee of the Cement Manufacturers´ Association (CMA).

The company believes that this is the way to build a better state, a strong India and a clean, green world, not just by manufacturing cement but also by the humanitarian approach.

The trust has opened a full-fledged hospital with a fully functioning pathological lab at Sanghipuram the Sarvodaya Health Care Centre (SHCC) for the employees and for nearby villagers.