Today, ONGC pays rich and grateful tributes to former Prime Minister and the architect of modern India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the father of Indian national oil industry Keshava Deva Malviya on their death anniversary.
Under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru when the nation was establishing modern industries to free itself from dependence of the western imports, Malaviya ji as Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Scientific Research was laying the foundation of indigenous oil industry which later grew massively and today provides much of the energy need that the country requires.
K D Malaviya
The vision of these very leaders created the foundation India stands successfully and firmly today at.
Speaking of K D Malaviya himself, the man and his singular vision of placing India definitively on the global oil map have been at the heart of the origins of this legacy-rich organization that is ONGC. He is, beyond a shadow of any doubt, the unqualified father of the hydrocarbon sector of this country. Undeterred by strong western skepticism about the viability or, even the potential, of the country’s hydrocarbon capabilities which was largely a propaganda driven by the western oil companies, Mr. Malaviya, the original one among the rich lineage of visionaries of the country’s oil & gas industry of which there has been quite a few, was undaunted in his vision and unrelenting in his pursuit of a country that was energy-secure. However, with support from Jawaharlal Nehru, Malaviya launched a crusade for the formation of a national oil company with formation of ONGC in 1956. In fact, most of what Mr. Malaviya achieved, with the unstinted support of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, in those early days of Nehru’s national project of modernizing the nation and making it industrially competent has, over the years, provided and continues to provide a strong foundation to the economic success story that India is today.
His commitment to India's progress for gaining self-reliance in energy sector was a shining example of the patriotism for the younger generation and a source of strength to the scientific community. Clear in his thoughts and supremely purposeful in his action, he was an inspiration for the younger generation of that era to come together in the hunt to find oil and secure the country’s future.
Despite much having changed between then and now, the ideals of a national competitive spirit and hunger for excellence in every realm of activity that these two stalwarts, one the nation builder the other the dynamic change agent, were the most keen proponents of and much sought to instill in the collective consciousness of a country that was just beginning to find its feet are mightily relevant even in today’s times as our proud and esteemed organization embarks upon a journey of immense change and transformation - a journey that could well steer the fortunes of this generation and the ones to follow to an even more brighter space. And the trajectory that ONGC’s destiny takes in the future could well play an instrumental role in shaping the country’s fortunes as well. This epoch demands another generation of inspired youth that can carry on the good work that traces its birth to the vision of these path-breaking gentlemen.
And so today, in reflection and remembrance of the ideals and aspirations that the two embodied, proud ONGcians pay tributes to the great visionaries who charted that foundational road map for our success.
