FOREWORD COVID-​19 HEROES TI COVID-​19 HEROES B&F COVID-​19 HEROES HCI

COVID-​19 HEROES PT&D COVID-​19 HEROES WET COVID-​19 HEROES RAILWAYS

COVID-​19 HEROES GEOSTRUCTURE COVID-​19 HEROES MMH COVID-​19 HEROES SWC

SNS’s — LOCKDOWN MUSINGS KALEIDOSCOPE AWARDS & RECOGNITION

SNS – MOST INFLUENTIAL LEADERS

HCI IC launches a new Web Portal for Treasury Functions

In line with the management commitment towards innovation and digital transformation, HCI IC has developed an online module for their Treasury function, ‘WALLET’ which was launched by S. V. Desai (SVD), Senior Vice President and Head — Heavy Civil Infrastructure IC, in the presence of P. Jayaprakash (PJP), Head, FA&A, P. Niranjana (PN), Head, Technology & Corporate Services, K. R. R. Chandran, Head, Special Bridges Segment, Barttanu Kumar Das, Head HR, Prasanta Gupta, Head — Procurement, S. Jayachandran, Head — Corporate Centre and other dignitaries of HCI IC on 9th January 2020.

SVD and PN lauded the initiative and stressed on its adaptability in day-​to-​day treasury functions, enabling taking stock of the Inflow Plan & Collection Management, Outflow Fund Management and Net Cash Flow (NCF) & Management Report. PJP emphasised that ‘WALLET’ would further enhance project monitoring in terms of cash position equating with project progress online. The module could be an enabler to the BU’s focus on revenue recognition in terms of cost spending thereby maintaining positive cash. ‘WALLET’ will be a stimulator to the treasury team to monitor collection targets as envisaged at the beginning of the month by the respective projects.

The delegates were taken on a tour of the HHL Centre where they were impressed with the scale of L&T’s diverse projects. following which Dr Stephanie Fahey and other lady delegates had a brief interaction with future women leaders of L&T lead by Ms. K. Bhavani, Segment Head-Metros.

Later, the Australian delegates had a business pitching session with senior executives — N. Ramasethu (VP & Head, Water International, WET), Balasubramanian Gnanasekaran (Head — Construction Methods & Technical Support, WET), R. Shankar Narayanan (Head — Corporate Centre, B&F), S. Subramanian (Head — Contracts (CB&A), B&F), V. Ramanathan (Head – EHS & Risk Management, PT&D), Mohammed Ghouse Mohideen F (Enterprise Architect & Head, Technology Innovation Centre, SWC), Sridhar Jayaraman (Sr. Manager, SWC), Chockalingam CT (Sr. Construction Manager, MMH), S. Jayachandran (Head – Corporate Centre, HCI) and Narayan Manjunath Vernekar (Manager, Business Development, HCI). The program was fruitful and provided a good platform for networking among the Australian delegates and L&T executives fostering a vibrant relationship in the future.

Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is responsible for promoting trade, investment, international education, tourism policy, programs, and research. The objective of the program was to connect Australian delegates with key executives across ICs, to explore mutually beneficial business opportunities.

WET IC is strongly committed to create an innovation driven culture focused on continuous performance improvement and value creation towards which the IC has initiated a special employee/​ team recognition program, christened as RAVE – ‘RECOGNITION AWARDS FOR VALUE ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE’ which was launched by S. Rajavel, Sr. Vice President & Head — Water & Effluent Treatment IC on January 3rd, 2020. K. Asok Kumar, Executive Vice President & Head – Water & Effluent Treatment, N. Ramasethu, Vice President & Head — Water International, K. Masilamani, Vice President & Head — Industrial & Large Water Systems BU, T. Sukumar, Vice President & Head — Finance, Accounts & Admin, E. P. Sajit, Vice President & Head — Water Supply & Distribution BU, S. C. Satish, Head –
Smart Infrastructure, K. Rajeevan, Head – EDRC, S. Ramkishore, Vice President & Head – Human Resources, G. Balasubramanian, Head – Corporate Centre, T. Shivaram, Joint General Manager (Human Resources) along with EDRC (BU) Heads from WET IC were present on this occasion.

RAVE aims to drive innovation by recognizing employees/​teams in EDRC, WET IC and seeks to reward noteworthy contributions made by them towards innovation, quality, customer delight and enhanced productivity.

PT&D IC successfully migrated to ISO 45001: 2018 along with recertification for ISO 14001: 2015, following the audit process by Bureau Veritas which was conducted across selected project sites as well as at the Head Office in Chennai. The IMS certificate was handed over by Mr. M K Vinod Kumar — Head (Certification) — Bureau Veritas, Chennai to A Ravindran — EVP & Head — Renewables BU, S L Mahajan — Head — Sub Station BU, Srikant Srinivasan — Head — HR, V Ramanathan — Head — EHS & Risk Management on 10th January 2020 at HQ.

ECC NEWS appreciates the various stake holders comprising the site project teams for their commitment, dedication, and tremendous efforts for contributing to ISO 45001: 2018 certification by complying with EHS requirements across their respective sites, BU Heads, SHs, COHs, Project teams and Functional Departments for their valuable contribution throughout the process of certification audit and the BU EHS Heads, EHS Coordinators, CEHSMs, EHSMs, EHSOs for playing a pivotal role in the certification process.

SW&C BU Commemorates National Technology Day with a webinar on ‘Digital Transformation under the New Normal’

L&T’s Smart World and Communication (SW&C) BU in association with the Madras Chapters of IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS), & IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS) conducted a National Technology Day Webinar on the theme ‘Digital Transformation under the New Normal’ on 11th May 2020.

J. V. S. Ramakrishna, Head – Solutions Delivery & Platform Development, SW&C, presented on how safe & smart city technologies were helping urban authorities to improve the lives of citizens during the days of COVID-​19 highlighting a slew of smart solutions implemented by SW&C BU across cities such as AI enabled vehicle movement restriction, Crowd Control in Urban Areas, Remote Billing through Smart Energy Meters, COVID-​19 Mobile App and e‑pass solutions that have significantly contributed to combat the spread of the virus.

Giving insights on the significance of identifying cyber security threats and upcoming trends like ‘Work From Home’, Venkatasubramanian Ramakrishnan, Head – Cyber Security, SW&C, highlighted the various cyber security threats and design principles related to operating models under the new normal as the size and scale of connectivity had expanded exponentially for remote operations. He also explained about the new ransomware trend and several attacks that were taking place across the world during this pandemic crisis. Madhukar Srivatsava, Chief Technology Officer, SW&C indicated the need for robust communication networks under the new normal and emphasized the importance of rural communication for inclusive growth along with the various challenges mitigated during implementation of Bharatnet project. He enumerated the 3 key focus areas in digital infrastructure: Utility to Every Citizen, Governance & Services on Demand, Digital Empowerment of Citizens and dwelt on upcoming technology trends in communication networks such as cloud computing, 5G, wireless mesh network, Access Technology for connectivity and IoT.

The webinar, attended by more than 500 delegates, was widely appreciated by the IEEE members and dignitaries, and ended with the vote of thanks delivered by RS. The online feedback received about the conference was positive, 98% being from external delegates like engineering students, academicians, research scholars, scientists, industry leaders and IoT enthusiasts

As part of the SPEED 2.0 initiative, 3 Digital dashboards were launched by M. V. Satish (MVS), Whole Time Director & Sr. Executive Vice President — Buildings, Minerals and Metals on 2nd March 2020. SPEED 2.0 (Site Productivity Efficiency & Excellence by Digital) is a digital initiative that focuses on monitoring & improving key parameters pertaining to workmen productivity. In this context, the biometric dashboard uses attendance data of workmen to calculate crucial parameters such as workmen gang size, skill ratio, work start time and consistency at site and vendor levels. Further, it throws data pertaining to workmen churn (fragmentation) and the length of stay of workmen at sites.

SPEED 2.0 dashboard also considers Procube data to analyse, integrate progress and productivity dashboards regarding norms and key metrics which have been built into the dashboard to give priority to data quality, adoption, and usage of Procube. RFID dashboard for monitoring worker availability was also presented based on a full-​scale implementation at IIT Hyderabad site along with trends and insights into the availability data.

Other senior management present at the launch were Anantha Sayana (Chief Digital Officer. L&T), V. Sukumar Hebbar (Head — ITOS & Health BU), V. Ramesh (Head — Airports BU), K. P. Cion (Head — MEP, CB&A), R. Shankar Narayanan (Head — Corporate Centre, B&F) and Viju Varkey (Head of Operations — CB&A South).

H. Sreekantha Rao (Head — Cost Optimization & Control, CB&A) put SPEED 2.0 into context following which the individual dashboards for 3 digital solutions — Procube, Biometrics and RFID were presented to MVS who appreciated the effort, emphasizing the continuous usage of digital platforms to enhance efficiency of operations at various levels.

B&F IC’s Health BU showcased its capabilities in Healthcare Design and Construction at the 3rd Annual India Hospital Design & Build Summit conference organized by the Quest on the Frontier in New Delhi on 20th February 2020.

Being a part of the eminent panel on the topic ‘Vision and Strategies for a Futuristic Smart Hospital’, V Sukumar Hebbar, VP & Head, Health & IT OS BU addressed on the various aspects of the Smart Hospital concepts, futuristic trends of hospital infrastructure industry and the way forward. N. Nithyanand, DGM — BDM Health, presented on the ‘Emerging Business Trends in the Health Care Industry’ touching upon the various Healthcare Infrastructure facts, present, evolving & future trends in the construction industry.

An elegant stall displayed an elaborative experience of our expertise in Health Care Design and Construction solutions to many aspiring private hospital chains that visited the stall.

This flagship conference was attended by eminent personalities including Dr. B.K. Rao (Padma Bhushan Recipient), Chairman, NABH, Dr. Arun Gupta, Executive Director, Ayushman Bharat, Dr. Rajiv Kumar Jain, Chief Consultant – Health, Indian Railways, Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Joint Director (Architecture), Ministry of Defense, Mr. Varun Sharma, Senior Consultant, AIIMS New Delhi, CEOs and Directors of various hospitals including Apollo, Max, Fortis, C K Birla Group, Metro Group and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

The first issue of ‘WET-​ink’, a new EDRC magazine on engineering design conceived and developed by EDRC, WET IC, was released by S. Rajavel, Senior Vice President & Head — Water, Smart World and Communication, on 11th March 2019 at HQ Chennai in the presence of K. Asok Kumar, Executive Vice President & Head — Water & Effluent Treatment, N. Ramasethu, Vice President & Head — Water International, K. Masilamani, Vice President & Head — Industrial & Large Water Systems BU, T. Sukumar, Vice President & Head — Finance, Accounts & Admin, E. P. Sajit, Vice President & Head — Water Supply & Distribution BU, K. Rajeevan, Head — EDRC WET IC, S. Ramkishore, Vice President & Head — Human Resources, G. Balasubramanian, Head — Corporate Centre, along with EDRC (BU) Heads from WET IC.

Highlighting the importance of design, SRV in his opening remarks, underscored that a good design team adds value to the engineering initiatives and plays a vital role to achieve project milestones. KAK mentioned that several talented professionals join EDRC year on year and this magazine would serve as a platform to showcase their talents and nurture them apart from stressing the importance of sustaining this magazine. It dives deep into the areas of sustainable technologies for water management, BIM, distribution model and throws light on some significant design enhancements across key projects.

D K Sen — Whole Time Director & Senior Executive Vice President (Infrastructure) inaugurated the Constro International Expo organized by the Pune Construction Engineering Research Foundation (PCERF) on 16th January 2020 at the New Agriculture College Ground, Pune. The theme for Constro2020 was Mechanized and Intelligent Construction with focus on key areas such as National Building Code, Construction Skills Development, Green Sustainable Buildings and Safety at Construction Site.

DKS shared insights on India’s construction market and how it was poised to become the 3rd largest construction market by 2025, highlighting that India was ramping up its infrastructure across roads, buildings, railways, irrigation & urban Infra and elucidated on how mechanization and digitalization were helping to improve speed, scale and productivity of the projects with cost savings. On skilling, DKS mentioned that L&T was fully committed towards skill building and had established 9 Construction Skill Training Institutes in 8 states across India through which several youngsters were nurtured into skilled workmen.

Constro, the biggest expo in Western India, was held in January 2020 and attracted more than 350+ exhibitors, 12000+ business visitors and 2 lakh+ general visitors.