Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) commenced year-long celebrations titled Antaragni to commemorate the 50th year of production by its first plants with a function held at the Plenary- Hall of Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The celebrations were inaugurated by Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers and Steel, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan by lighting a symbolic torch to denote the first hot metal production at Rourkela Steel Plant on 3rd February 1959 and at Bhilai Steel Plant the following day. India's first President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad had dedicated the two blast furnaces to the nation. In remembrance of the past stalwarts of SAIL, Mr. Paswan felicitated five former Chairmen of SAIL who were present on the occasion - Mr. R.P. Billimoria, Dr. K.C. Khanna, Dr. S.R. Jain, Mr. Arvind Pande and Mr. V.S. Jain. The Minister also felicitated Mr. B. Mohanty, Mr. Kailash Goyal and Mr. Gopinath Panda, three former employees of erstwhile Hindustan Steel Limited, now SAIL, who were part of iron production teams in the first two integrated steel plants. Mr. Paswan also unveiled a specially designed logo to mark the year-long celebrations and released a commemorative book pictorially archiving the `perfect past, positive present and promising future' of SAIL. Speaking on the occasion, the Steel Minister commended the resilient spirit of the SAIL workforce that had withstood various changes in the past five decades. Noting that the quality of SAIL steel was at par with the best in the world, he said that it was a myth that efficiency and competitiveness were attributes meant for the private sector alone. "The contribution of our public sector companies like SAIL to the national economy can be seen everywhere,"- he pointed out, including the area of corporate social responsibility.