The Deccan Chamber of Commerce, Industries & Agriculture (DCCIA) of Pune conferred on Mr. RK Behera, Chairman, RSB Transmissions (I) Ltd., the DCCIA Pune Life Time Achievement Award 2012 at a felicitation function held in the city on October 20.
The Award for Mr. Behera, who was on a foreign tour, was presented in his absence to his son, Mr. Rajnikant Behera, Vice President – Corporate Strategy & Finance, and also on the Board of RSB Transmissions, by Dr. D.Y. Patil, Governor of Tripura.
DCCIA noted Mr. Behera’s extraordinary journey of entrepreneurship which commenced in 1975 with a meagre monetary help of Rs. 15,000 from his father. Passing through numerous trials and tribulations, RK, as he is generally known, along with his brother, Mr. SK Behera, has led and nurtured RSB into a global engineering institution with 13 state-of-the-art manufacturing plants spread over seven locations in India – Jamshedpur, Pune, Dharwad, Chennai, Pantnagar, Cuttack and Lucknow – and one each at Homer (USA), Tessenderlo (Belgium) and Silao (Mexico), with a cumulative employment base of more than 4,500 persons.
In his acceptance speech, which was read out by his son,
Mr. Behera said he considered it to be a great honor to share the hall of fame with the past awardees who are indeed industrial luminaries. He reiterated that the award has further encouraged him to work for the development of society through industry with a missionary zeal.
RSB operates in two verticals, namely, automotive and CMI (construction, mining & infrastructure) equipments & aggregates. In the automotive vertical, RSB is a leading global manufacturer of propeller shaft systems & components, an array of axles, including front axle, trailer axle, tractor axle, dummy axle & axle beam, fully finished gears, shafts, hubs & sleeves, and transmission components like differential cases, yokes and carriers. In the CMI segment, it specialises in heavy fabrications and aggregates like frames, arms, booms and buckets.
Indian and global OEMs like Tata Motors, Tata Hitachi, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, John Deere, Fiat, Ford, Allison Transmissions, American Axle, Eaton, Magna, GKN, Daimler, Renault Nissan, Kamaz, Caterpillar, Terex, JCB, Kobelco, Leyland, Komatsu and GE are the company customers.
For his outstanding contributions for industrial and social development, Mr. RK Behera has also been conferred in the past with several awards such as the Enterprise Leadership Gold Medal from NIT, Jamshedpur Alumni Association, Kalinga Shree Award from Utkal Shaitya Kala Parishad, Odisha, and the Visveswaraya Award from the Orissa Engineers’ Forum.