The year 1975 witnessed the birth of an organization that went on to achieve great feats in performance in a sector that

was, until then, characterized largely by lack of investment, severe supply shortage and operational practices that made the commercial viability of the sector unsustainable. On November 7 1975, NTPC came into being and with it came a bold way of looking at the power infrastructure that could support the economy, then reeling under the oil crisis. Since then, NTPC has led the power sector with the creation of an immensely efficient and reliable power generation infrastructure which was till then largely in the hands of state electricity boards. NTPC was set up in the central sector to build, own and operate large thermal power stations which unit size of 200 MW and 500MW. Capacity addition by NTPC was meant to supplement the efforts of state electricity boards (SEBs). The first four projects, namely, singrauli, Korba, Ramagundam, Farakka, in four different regions of the country, were already on the drawing board and were to be set up as pit-head stations. There were challenges aplenty. The expectations were high and so were the risks. NTPC symbolized hope

of the country suffering from crippling power black-outs, the government of India, which was trying to put an ailing, economy back on track and the World Bank, which was supporting the country in many development initiatives. Thus, NTPC was created not only to redraw the power map of India but also to excel in its performance and set benchmarks for others to follow. It succeeded on both counts. In 1978 it was a clean state. Until the first sketches of an idea were scribbled on it. And them, in no time, it seems, what was a dream became a reality power. Today, Singrauli stands tall among Indias foremost power plants.

Cleared by the Government of India on 8th Dec.76, the project began to take shape in early78. An intrepid group of site engineers, supervisors and workmen braved the elements to lay the foundations of what at the time was thought to be a dream. By mid 1978, the first T.G raft connecting, a very precise and massive task was completed. By Nov. 78, the erection of the first steam generator had commissioned. In Nov.79, the first major mile-stone in the erection of the main plant was reached with the boiler drum of unit I being lifted successfully, signaling the commencement of pressure parts erections. By June80 the turbine installation work had already begun, and in Sept.81, the boiler was lit up and the cleaning process completed by Oct.81. Finally on 13th Feb.1982 the turbine was steam rolled and the first unit of NTPC was successfully synchronized with the Northern Grid at Shaktinagar. The peak load of 200MW was touched in April82. The fifth and last one on 20 th Feb.84, bringing the curtain down on stage I of the project.

National Thermal Power Corporation is the largest power generation company in India. The Forbes Global 2000 ranking for 2005 ranks it as the 5th leading company in India and the 486th leading company in the world. It is a public listed (Bombay Stock Exchange) Indian public sector company, with majority shares owned by the Government of India. India. At present, Government of India holds 89.5% of the total equity shares of the company and the balance 10.5% is held by FIIs, Domestic Banks, Public and others. NTPC ranks amongst the top five companies, in terms of market capitalizations. NTPC's core business is engineering, construction and operation of power generating plants and also providing consultancy to power utilities in India and

abroad. As on date the installed capacity of NTPC is 26, 404 MW through its 14 coal based (21,395 MW), 7 gas based (3,955 MW) and 4 Joint Venture Projects (1,054 MW). NTPCs share on 31 Mar 2013 in the total installed capacit y of the country was 19.51% and it contributed 27.68% of the total power generation of the country during 2012-13. Thus, every fourth home in India is enlightened by NTPC. A total of 170.88 BUs of electricity was produced across all the stations of the company in the financial year 2012-13. The Net Profit after Tax on March 31, 2013 was INR 58, 202 million. Net Profit after Tax for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 was INR 15528 million, which is 18.65% more than the same quarter in the previous financial year (2011-12) where the profit was INR 13087 millio