SJVN CMD gets distinguished alumni award from PAU

New Delhi: The Governor of Himachal Pradesh Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar and Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur on Monday presented a Scroll of Honour to SJVN Limited's Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) Nand Lal Sharma and honoured him as a distinguished alumnus of Sarwan Kumar HP Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur.

The Governor, as Chancellor of the University, was presiding over the 16th Convocation function of CSK HP Krishi Vishvavidyalaya (CSKHPKV), Palampur, a premier agricultural university of the country.

Chief Minister attended the convocation, as chief guest of the function while the former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Shanta Kumar graced the occasion as an esteemed guest of honour.

At the convocation, among the 393-degree recipients, there were 21 scholars who received their PhD degrees, 8 were conferred gold medals, 110 students received their master's degree and 262 students received their graduate degrees.

At the impressive function, the governor also presented a Scroll of Honour to the distinguished alumni of the University.

Sharma, an alumnus of the university, was honoured for his outstanding contributions in administrative services and in the power sector and his dynamic leadership in heading SJVN as CMD of the Central Government Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Power.

Born in an agrarian family, on February 12, 1964, at Dohak village in District Bilaspur of Himachal Pradesh, Sharma after completing school from the government senior secondary school Lathiani (District Una), did his B Sc (Agriculture) from the then College of Agriculture, Solan in 1985. He completed his M Sc in Agricultural Economics from CSK HP Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur in 1987. Sharma has also done a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from International Centre for Promotion of Public Enterprises (ICPE), University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (Europe).

Sharma started his career in 1989 as a Himachal Pradesh Administrative Services Officer.  He worked in various capacities with the Himachal Pradesh government before joining SJVN as Executive Director-Human Resources in July 2008.

Selected through an All India Open Competition by Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), Sharma was appointed Director (Personnel) SJVN in March 2011. During his tenure as Director (Personnel), he initiated and successfully established several Human Resource interventions that have achieved outstanding performance for SJVN in remodelling of its business plan.

Taking charge as CMD in December 2017, Sharma has been at the forefront of turning SJVN into a diversified multinational power company with operation and construction of projects in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Starting out as a pure hydropower company, with Sharma in the leadership SJVN today has ventured into thermal power, wind and solar energy generation, and into electricity transmission also.

With a robust portfolio of 31 projects of about 10,000 MW (Megawatt) capacity in the pipeline, SJVN for itself has set an ambitious target of achieving 5,000 MW installed capacity by 2023, 12,000 MW by 2030 and 25,000 MW by 2040.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Sharma said, "It truly humbles me to be honoured in such a way at the University where once I strived hard as a student."

About his contribution to the power sector and leadership in spearheading a Miniratna Public Sector Company, Sharma said, "leadership is a great responsibility and one has to lead from the front just as the famous American writer John C Maxwell says 'A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way'."

In his address, Arlekar congratulated all the recipient degree holders' meritorious students and urged them to serve the state and country in a selfless manner.

Other dignitaries who attended the function included Speaker Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Vipin Parmar as Guest of Honour and Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Virender Kanwar as Guest of Honour.  Thakur as chief guest released three books, one compendium and one report on the occasion.

Earlier, Prof. HK Chaudhary, Vice-chancellor CSKHPKV, welcomed and honoured the Governor and other dignitaries on the occasion. He also read out the annual report of the University, detailing the strides the institution had made in the concluded academic year.

(PSU Watch– India's Business News centre that places the spotlight on PSUs, Bureaucracy, Defence and Public Policy is now on Google News. Click here to follow. Also, join PSU Watch Channel in your Telegram. You may also follow us on Twitter here and stay updated.)