To promote sports in rural areas, particularly volleyball, Tata Steel today kicked off the Pragati Inter-village Volleyball Tournament at Gopalpur. Mr Pradip Kumar Mohanty, Secretary, Odisha Volleyball Association (OVA) inaugurated the tournament.

The tournament, being organised for the locals of Gopalpur and its periphery villages, has generated a lot of excitement among the local villagers. Sixty-four teams from nearby villages like Chhatrapur, Jagannathpur, Chamakhandi, Arjipalli and Narendrapur are taking part in it. The tournament is being organised in four zones with 16 teams taking part in each zone.

Today’s inaugural match was played between Patrapur and Paschimeswar Club at the Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R&R) Colony of Tata Steel at Badapaur with the Paschimeswar Club of Sanakusasthali winning the match by 24 to 13 points.

Mr Anjan Sengupta, Head (Re-bar Mill) of Gopalpur Industrial Park (GIP), was among the dignitaries present on this occasion. This initiative of the steel major follows similar initiatives at Kalinganagar where the Company is setting up a 6 million tonne Greenfield integrated steel project and at Joda in Keonjhar district.

Tata Steel has always actively encouraged and supported sports in multiple ways. To further spread sports among the rural masses, Tata Football Academy (TFA) and Tata Archery Academy (TAA) regularly organise Coaching-Talent Hunt Camps in different parts of Odisha.

About Tata Steel & Corporate Sustainability Services
Established in 1907, Tata Steel is the flagship company of Tata Group, the most respected business house in India and one amongst the leading steel producers in the world. The Company was founded on the philosophy that society is not just another stakeholder in its business, but its prime purpose. As Tata Steel’s operations have expanded to new geographies, the Company has retained a collective focus on the various areas of corporate social responsibility that impact the environment, people and their health, and society at large. In India, the Company is pledged to causes such as strengthening civic amenities in and around its sites, providing healthcare, education, training, employment and recreation, and preserving culture and heritage, especially of indigenous tribes. Tata Steel has expanded its reach from the city of Jamshedpur and its adjoining urban areas to over 800 villages in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, touching the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. In 2008, Tata Steel India became the first integrated steel plant in the world, outside Japan, to be awarded the Deming Application Prize 2008 for excellence in Total Quality Management.