14 Jan :Defence Minister Shri A K Antony felicitated Defence PSU ‘Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited’ (MIDHANI) here today on the company being conferred with the Mini Ratna Category-1 status. The status was conferred by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) recently.
Commending Shri M Narayan Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, and other top company officials, Shri Antony hoped the company would strive to attain the Navratna status within the targeted 3 years. Shri R. Bandopadhyay, Secretary DPE, said the status would enable the company to make investments in projects upto Rs. 500 crores and grant greater autonomy to the management in decision-making.
The Hyderabad-based company has done particularly well in the last three years. MIDHANI received the award for Quality Non-Ferrous category for the year 2006-07 and last year Shri Pallabh Sarkar, Addl. General Manager, bagged the ‘Metallurgist of the year’ title. MIDHANI raised its turnover to over Rs. 255 crores for the financial year ending March 2008, while the profit before tax crossed Rs. 50 crores.
MIDHANI plans to cross Rs. 300 crores turnover in the current financial year. The company has on hand investments of Rs. 200 crores, both from internal and external sources for augmenting facilities to support strategic sectors in defence, space, nuclear and power generation.