Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. (BALCO) is an Indian aluminium company. It was in the public sector until 2001, when it was taken over by Vedanta Resources, a company which is listed on the London Stock Exchange
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It was incorporated in the year 1965 as a Public Sector Undertaking.[1] It is the first public sector enterprise in India which started producing aluminium in 1974. Till 2001, BALCO was a public sector enterprise owned 100% by Government of India. In the year 2001, GoI divested 51% equity and management control in favour of Sterlite Industries India Limited.
There's a little history behind the privatization of the company that was doing so well even being a public sector company. The reasons were never made public and during the month of Jan and Feb 2011, the town went through complete transformation. There were groups formed among people or rather BALCO employees namely supporters of privatization and the ones who opposed it. Rallies and processions were carried out in the evenings to oppose the privatization and those who supported it were left in minority. Eventually, things happened as they were planned and the company was listed under Sterlite.
The development of special aluminium alloys for “Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile” – Agni and “Surface Missile” – Prithvi have been significant achievements of BALCO. BALCO has been the first in the Indian Aluminium Industry to produce the Alloy Rods, which is a Feedstock for all Aluminium Alloy Conductors, very much needed for today’s power transmission lines. [1]
Now they are in to the power generation as well, which is mainly a coal based power plant.
And now they are looking into the Nuclear power, which is still not open for private sectore as per Government of India's rule.
A chimney under construction by Gannon Dunkerley & Company at the Balco smelter in Korba, Chhattisgarh collapsed on September 23, 2009 killing at least 45 workers.[2] Balco and GDCL management have been accused of negligence in the incident.This was the time when BALCO had a huge dent on their reputation
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