Concrete

Envisioning a Better Tomorrow

Published

3 years ago

April 10, 2023

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Vivek Agnihotri, CEO and Executive Director – Cement, Prism Johnson, speaks about the company’s innovations in cement and their vision for the future.

Prism Johnson, the ‘Made for Future’ philosophy largely encompasses all of its three divisions. They have recently launched new products – Prism Champion, which in comparison to all cement present in the market has a higher quality; Prism Champion Plus, which is a premium product that contributes about 40 per cent to the total sale; and Prism Duratech, which is a specialised product for high strength performance areas. Customers have accepted Prism Champion Plus as a premium product. There are territories where approximately 70 to 80 per cent of sales is from this premium product.
Wherever architects and engineers design long beamless walls or narrow sections, Prism Duratech comes in use as a specialised product. The company has also launched a water resistant cement, which had been in research and development for the last three years. They noticed that this segment was emerging, but still took their time to launch to make it better than the products available in the market. With multiple iterations, research and tests done, they believe this will be the best water resistant cement in the market.
Prism Johnson follows the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). This is a mandate in India. They also take samples from the market and construction sites and analyse what is commonly available in the market and then reconfigure their specifications to give more to the customers. Their premium is not just price, it also comes with surety of performance.
The brand is well accepted in the central part of India, and it has a high rate of capacity utilisation, which has been going good in the recent years.

The Eco-friendly Approach
Prism Johnson makes and sells blended cement with the permitted levels of fly ash in the cement composition. They do not have slag available in the central part of India as hardly any steel plants are located close by, otherwise they would have developed a blend using slag as well. Reducing the clinker factor and creating blends is their effort towards reducing their carbon footprint from the environment.
The company has reduced fuel consumption and power consumption as compared to previous years and that is an on-going process. They are an efficient plant and have installed a waste heat recovery system and perhaps it is one of India’s best in the cement industry. It is a 22.5 megawatt WHRS plant, which is of much higher capacity than other cement plants. They have also installed a 30 megawatt solar power plant and are using approximately 35 per cent renewable energy. They are looking forward to increasing this capacity and steps are being taken in this direction.
The three key benefits that their customers get from using their products foremost include quality. They are extremely focused on quality and give demonstrations in the market with site constructions. Secondly, it is their technical support services. Their services are one of the highest intensive support services in the market that provides support to the customer to train his masons, thus training hundreds of masons per month. They have approximately 65 thousand masons registered with them who at some point of time used their cement and have been trained by the company’s experts. Good quality cement requires good quality construction practices. They work a lot on good quality construction practices with the masons.
Thirdly, Prism Johnson works very closely with architects and engineers. They understand their requirements, designs and what they are working on. This is a huge plus for the end user as the product they get is what they truly need.
Prism Johnson is a rural based organisation. The kind of construction that is coming up in the rural parts of the country, using their cement, is almost similar to that of the metro cities due to the practices that the company follows. They support builders and help them to design buildings using their cement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Vivek Agnihotri shoulders multiple responsibilities as the CEO and Executive Director (Cement) as well as Board Director with Prism Johnson Ltd.

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Concrete

India’s Core Sector Growth Eases to 4.8 Per Cent in August

Cement, electricity and iron ore offset declines in other sectors

Published

22 hours ago

September 26, 2026

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India’s output across eight core industries grew 4.8 per cent year-on-year in August 2026, easing from the revised 5.0 per cent growth recorded in July, according to provisional data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The Index of Core Industries (ICI), which tracks eight key infrastructure sectors, accounts for a significant share of the Index of Industrial Production.

Cement production led the expansion with growth of 12.5 per cent, followed by electricity at 11.6 per cent and iron ore at 5.5 per cent. Steel output increased 3.4 per cent, while refinery products rose 2.6 per cent during the month. The ministry identified cement, electricity and iron ore as the main contributors to overall core sector growth in recent months.

The gains were partly offset by contractions in several sectors. Coal output declined 3.8 per cent year-on-year, while natural gas and crude oil production fell 4.9 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively. Fertiliser production recorded the sharpest decline, falling 12.4 per cent in August.

Cumulative growth in the ICI during April-August 2026 stood at 4.3 per cent, compared with 2.4 per cent in the corresponding period a year earlier. Steel output increased 4.1 per cent during the period, while cement and electricity production grew 10.3 per cent and 9.6 per cent, respectively.

Coal, natural gas, crude oil, refinery products and fertilisers recorded negative cumulative growth during April-August. Their contractions stood at 3.2 per cent, 4.4 per cent, 4.1 per cent, 1.4 per cent and 6.7 per cent, respectively. The ministry also revised the final ICI for July to 120.8 from the earlier provisional estimate of 121.2, resulting in a downward revision in the month’s growth rate to 5.0 per cent from 5.4 per cent.

Concrete

Jammu Division Begins First Cement Rail Traffic to Anantnag

Cement Loading From Kathua for Anantnag to Begin on September 14

Published

6 days ago

September 21, 2026

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Jammu Railway Division has placed an indent for the first movement of cement by rail within the division, linking Shaheed Captain Sunil Kumar Choudhary Kathua Railway Station with Anantnag Railway Station. Loading for the consignment is scheduled to begin on September 14.

Concrete

Hard Worker Wins Three Honours at Kyoorius Design Awards

Ramco Cements’ brand secures Grand Prix and two Blue Elephant honours.

Published

6 days ago

September 21, 2026

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The Ramco Cements Limited’s construction chemicals brand, Hard Worker, has won three honours at the Kyoorius Design Awards 2026, including the Grand Prix – Grey Elephant in the Design in Action category.

The brand also secured two Blue Elephant honours, one for Design in Action and another for Packaging, recognising the design approach behind its brand identity and packaging.

Launched in 2025, Hard Worker entered the construction chemicals segment with the brand promise, “Hard-working products for hardworking people.” Its visual identity uses animals and birds to represent product benefits. The camel represents the water-retention capability of Hard Worker Eco Plaster, while the cheetah represents the speed and performance of Hard Worker Block Fix.

The visual language has been extended across packaging, retail, communication, literature, digital platforms and other brand touchpoints. Hard Worker uses bold colours, distinctive animal illustrations and simple visual storytelling to communicate product benefits across markets and audiences, including construction workers and applicators.

“For Hard Worker, design was never an afterthought. It was fundamental to how we wanted to build the brand. In a category that is largely functional, we wanted to create a brand that people could recognise, understand and remember instantly. The Kyoorius recognition is a wonderful validation of this design-led approach,” said Mr. AV Dharmakrishnan, CEO, The Ramco Cements Limited.

Mr. Balaji K. Moorthy, Executive Director – Marketing, Ramco Cements said “In a category where communication has traditionally been product-led and functional, we wanted Hard Worker to stand apart by making design an integral part of the brand experience. From the distinctive animal-led packaging to our communication across consumer and trade touchpoints, every element was designed to make the brand more memorable and the product benefits easier to understand.”

Within its first 12 months, Hard Worker crossed Rs 3.5 bn in sales. The latest recognition follows six honours secured by the brand’s campaign at the Kyoorius Creative Awards earlier in 2026, including the Grey Elephant Grand Prix for its Eco Plaster film.

The Kyoorius Design Awards recognise outstanding design work in India’s visual communications sector across multiple categories and platforms. The 2026 awards were announced on 12 September in Goa.

The Ramco Cements Limited is part of the Ramco Group and operates across cement and allied building-material solutions. Hard Worker is its construction chemicals brand, offering solutions across key construction applications.