Industry Visit to HT media on 29th March, 2011

The moment we stepped into the premises of the HT Media Plant in Greater Noida, we confirmed the high quality HT Media Limited is known for. This fully computer-automated plant was inaugurated on 1 May 2005 by former Finance Minister
Mr. P Chidambaram.click for full report

Paontasahib Industrial visit

We, a  batch of 31 students accompanied by 3 faculty members (Ms. Meena Bhatia, Ms. Shivani Khurana and Ms. Merlin Mythili left our Lodhi Road campus by Bus to Paontasahib by 7.15 am on 26th March and reached the hill town of Paontasahib  by 3.30 pm after a long winding and tiring journey.

After a refreshing rest at the Grand Riviera we left for the famous Paontasahib  Gurudwara  and spent a  couple of hours at the shrine . It was interesting to hear a local legend that says that Guru Gobind Singh chided the river to keep quiet as its noisy waves were disturbing his thoughts while writing the Dassam Granth and he had threatened to leave the place if it did not keep quiet. The river it seems fell quiet thereafter.

Marvelling at the piety of the place we went back to the hotel for a restful night gearing up for a hectic schedule the next day.

We left for our first stop at Himalaya International Limited after a sumptuous breakfast. Himalaya International Limited is a listed company that is engaged in a motley of food related export activities.

The first visit within the Company was to its Mushroom unit where we got to see for first hand, huge temperature controlled rooms with plastic bags of Compost stacked in rows and rows of shelves. The combination of soil, Gypsum, organic waste aided by the damp air and temperature controlled at 24 degrees allows the button mushrooms to  grow to the recommended size to be harvested within 45 days and everyday a container full of mushrooms packed and stored in -20 degree Celsius is exported to the US. It was to revelation to taste raw mushroom.

The same Organisation has expanded into producing and supplying sweets such as Peta, Doda, Gajar Ka Halwa, Savouries such as Pakoras and Samosas, milk products like Curd, Butter, Cheese , under their own brand name are also for Reliance Fresh. These products also have an attractive foreign market. The most interesting aspect about this Organisation was its unit that exported sliced and scooped potatoes to the US. It was interesting to note that because an American Consumer doesn’t have the time to slice and scoop potatoes to make a stuffed baked potato dish, a business opportunity gets created in the  hill town of Paontasahib generating hundreds of job opportunities to the poorest of the poor men and womenfolk there.

We discussed at length, all aspects of Management, like assembly line, worker safety, environmental standards and quality standards maintained by this Organisation and the challenges involved in the business of perishable food products with the Organisation’s representative who took us around the unit.

Pleasantly surprised to see many units within one Company, we moved on to the Mount Everest water bottling plant that is a TATA enterprise. A complete contrast to the peivious company, the bttling plant was a neat and squeaky clean campus with manicured lawns and roses in full bloom. We started our visit to this amazing water journey, from the pump house which automatically pumped out natural mineral water, from a natural water reservoir which is 578 feet deep in the valley near the Sivalik range. A US commission of Geologists submitted a report to the then Prime  minister Indira Gandhi on three sources of natural drinking water that can be tapped in case of a nuclear attack, one at Haridwar-Roorkee, another at Baroti and the third one at Paontasahib. An affluent NRI Dr. Dadi Balsara, who wanted to invest in India bought land here 13 years ago and started this bottling plant and it is since then taken over by TATA.

This unit produces one of the costliest natural mineral waters available in the market with 200 ml of it priced at 10 rupees, the reason being that the mineral content has not changed over the years as stated by the proud employee who took us around. The whole process is untouched by human hand with fully automated machines, the water goes through a simple sand filtering and then is bottled in special plastic bottles that are specially made within the campus and distributed all across India and abroad. We also went through the laboratory where the water quality, its mineral content and the pH ranges are stringently tested and reported to maintain quality.

After a refreshing water journey ,we left to the Valley Iron and Steel Company’s Rest house where they served us with an elaborate three course lunch with dessert and we left to the sprawling acres of the steel factory that looked like a scene out of a wild west movie of yore.

Mounds and mounds of Iron and Steel scrap, Sponge Iron and Chrome accumulated from all parts of India and abroad were lifted by Gargantuan cranes that  dropped them  in cauldrons at 1678 degree Celsius, The melting alloy is checked for the various metals and their percentages by computer aided machinery that sets the temperature and gets the right mix of Oxygen and Nitrogen blown into the cauldron and red hot blocks of Stainless steel  are cut and pass through a series of rollers that beat and draw them into thin long sheets. They are numbered and then distributed to factories that make stainless steel utensils.

The plant also has an expensive pollution control plant that sucks in all the sooty air produced in the factory and releases decontaminated air into the atmosphere, and  the filtered fine dust particles that contain iron soot, soil and rust are sold to cement factories.

We enquired and found out that adequate safety measures are provided to the 1000 workers who work in such physically demanding work conditions along with insurance cover.

We left for a quick and brief stop at Liberty shoe factory which produced PVC boots for school children and army men  who use these shoes in high altitudes, Again the various aspects of assembly line, product layout and quality measures were observed and we left back for the hotel after a tiring but exciting day of learning.

Having rested for the night, we left for Delhi at 8. 30 am and reached the campus by 6.30 pm.

Overall it was a great learning experience and  we would like to thank Ritika Bindal for the great hospitality and arrangements that made this trip exciting and memorable.