Jindal Steel Ltd has won the 2026 Steelie Award for Excellence in People for its Dakshata Engineering Safety: One Duty Position at a Time programme, recognised by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) at the 17th Steelie Awards in New Delhi on 12 October 2026. The award acknowledges the company’s approach to strengthening workplace safety by assessing employees’ practical capabilities and role-specific preparedness rather than relying solely on conventional training.
The Dakshata programme addresses a critical challenge in steelmaking, where employees working in different duty positions face distinct operational hazards and safety requirements. Its framework defines the knowledge, practical skills, emergency preparedness and behaviours required for each role. Employees are assessed to identify capability gaps, receive targeted development and undergo reassessment, with the results informing workforce deployment and supervision.
The scale of the initiative is reflected in its Safety Lens assessments, which have covered more than 27,100 executives and non-executives across six locations. An assessment of 11,639 non-executives recorded an average safety knowledge score of 0.81, compared with a practical skill score of 0.71, highlighting the gap between understanding safety procedures and applying them effectively in the workplace.
Jindal Steel has also conducted 16,539 assessments for new hires and delivered 372 safety and health, safety and environment (HSE) programmes, achieving a 96 per cent completion rate through 69 certified trainers.
At the company’s Raipur Machinery Division, the capability-based approach is complemented by AI-enabled workplace observations, digital risk analytics, access controls, practical learning and engineered risk reduction. During FY 2025–26, the site recorded 17,752 safety observations and eliminated or mechanised 379 high-risk tasks. Emergency response time improved by 15 per cent to 5.25 minutes, while the site achieved a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) of 0.00.
The Steelie Awards recognise achievements across the global steel industry among worldsteel member companies. Jindal Steel was selected by an independent expert panel for the 2026 Excellence in People award from a finalist field that included China Baowu, InfraBuild, Tata Steel and USIMINAS.
The recognition highlights the growing importance of combining structured competency assessments, practical training, digital technologies and risk elimination to strengthen safety performance in industrial operations.