New Delhi, Oct 16: Jindal Steel has earned international recognition for its innovative workplace safety initiative, Dakshata Engineering Safety, winning the 2026 Steelie Award for Excellence in People presented by the World Steel Association.
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The award recognises the company’s efforts to strengthen workforce capabilities by connecting safety knowledge with practical skills required on the factory floor. Jindal Steel was selected ahead of other finalists, including Tata Steel, InfraBuild, China Baowu and USIMINAS.
The Dakshata initiative moves beyond conventional safety training by assessing employees on the specific knowledge, emergency response capabilities and practical skills needed for their respective roles. Based on individual assessment results, the programme identifies gaps and provides targeted training before reassessing workers’ proficiency. These assessments also help management improve workforce deployment and supervision.
The initiative has assessed more than 27,100 executive and non-executive employees across six facilities. During the initial assessment of 11,639 non-executive employees, the average knowledge score stood at 0.81, compared with 0.71 for practical application.
To address the gap, 69 certified trainers delivered 372 health and safety training modules, achieving a 96 per cent completion rate. The company also recorded 16,539 formal assessments for incoming personnel.
Jindal Steel has further strengthened workplace protection through digital risk analytics, engineered hazard reduction, access controls and artificial intelligence-based monitoring at its Raipur Machinery Division.
During the 2025–26 financial year, the facility recorded 17,752 safety observations and mechanised or eliminated 379 high-risk tasks. These measures helped reduce emergency response time by 15 per cent to 5.25 minutes, while the facility reported a lost-time injury frequency rate of zero.
The global recognition highlights the growing importance of data-driven safety management, role-specific training and practical risk prevention in the steel industry, where protecting frontline workers remains a critical operational priority.
