Jindal Steel Limited has won the World Steel Association’s (worldsteel) 2026 Steelie Award in the Excellence in People category for its workforce safety initiative, ‘Dakshata – Engineering Safety, One Duty Position at a Time’.
The award recognises the company’s competency-based approach to workplace safety, which focuses on assessing employees’ practical skills and safety knowledge before assigning them to specific roles. The initiative replaces generic training and attendance-based assessments with job-specific competency evaluations, targeted training and verification of skills.
Under the Dakshata programme, safety requirements are defined for individual duty positions, covering technical knowledge, practical skills, emergency preparedness and workplace behaviour. Employees undergo assessments to identify competency gaps, followed by targeted development and reassessment before deployment. This process is designed to ensure that workers possess the necessary capabilities to perform their duties safely.
The programme’s Safety Lens covers more than 27,100 executives and non-executives across six locations. An assessment of 11,639 non-executive employees identified a gap between safety knowledge and practical application. Average scores stood at 0.81 for safety knowledge and 0.71 for demonstrated skills. These findings informed individual development plans, departmental risk mapping and targeted interventions.
The initiative integrates competency assessments, practical verification, digital analytics, leadership accountability and contractor management to strengthen safety practices across industrial operations.
The 17th edition of the Steelie Awards recognises member companies of the World Steel Association for their contributions to the steel industry over the preceding year. Winners are selected through award-specific evaluation processes, with entries assessed by independent expert panels against established criteria.
The Excellence in People category recognises initiatives that improve workforce skills, strengthen training programmes and advance employee development across the steel industry. Jindal Steel’s recognition places workforce competency and safety management at the centre of its contribution to the sector.
The 2026 Steelie Awards winners were announced on October 12, 2026. Other winners included JSW Steel in Excellence in Clean Steel Production, Nippon Steel Corporation in Excellence in Process and Product Innovation, and JFE Steel Corporation in Excellence in Sustainability.