MUMBAI: Asian Paints Limited (APL), Asia’s second largest paint company, aiming to become one of the top five decorative coatings companies world-wide, has spent Rs. 47.84 crores in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in the financial year 2016-17, which is higher than the statutory requirement of 2% of the average profit for the last three financial years, reflecting in the Annual Report of 2015-16.
The CSR initiatives of the Company were under the thrust areas of health & hygiene, education, water management and enhancement of vocational training.
“To celebrate 75 years of Excellence at Asian Paints, Kaleidoscope was launched to begin a wonderful journey to touch multiple lives and inspire even more. The key objective of Kaleidoscope is to provide infrastructure support, development oriented activities and events across health and education areas, centered around schools and communities along with activate employee contribution and participation.”, report said.
The Company’s CSR Policy statement and annual report on the CSR activities undertaken during the financial year ended 31st March, 2017, in accordance with Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 and Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014.
Last year Asian Paints spent Rs. 34.44 crores in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the financial year 2015-16, which is 2.16% of its Profit After Tax (PAT).
“While the Company weathered its way through the uncertain environment, it continued to drive its commitment on social responsibility agenda in areas like Education, Health & Hygiene and Water Management. Lot of work has been undertaken at the manufacturing facilities in the area of environmental sustainability like achieving water-neutrality by investing in community rainwater harvesting structures, reducing nonprocess fresh water consumption and reducing trade-effluent and waste generation. During the year, the Company made further investments in renewable energy to reduce its carbon footprint and drive sustainability. Almost 22% of the power requirement at the manufacturing facilities is being met through renewable energy sources.”, Ashwin Choksi, Chairman, Asian Paints Limited said in message to the stakeholders.
In accordance with the CSR Policy of the Company, the CSR initiatives were focussed on the following pre-identifed areas:
Health & Hygiene
The initiatives under the thrust area of health & hygiene aim at enabling access and delivering quality primary healthcare services and promote health-seeking attitudes and behaviours. The Company continues to focus on promoting health amongst the village community, helping the communities to stay healthy, giving opportunity to access basic sanitation needs, providing safe drinking water and helping them to stay safe from water related diseases.
Education
In the area of education, the Company would continue its focus on the core indicators of the educational cycle, viz., enrollment and retention, improving learning outcomes in schools, life skills & employability and providing support for education.
The Company aims at making a positive impact on society through educational development directly and through its partners.
Water Management
The Company aims at reducing its resource footprint by focusing on water neutrality. The focus is on mapping and reducing water usage for manufacturing processes, watershed management, locating specific interventions like dam desilting, river and streams rejuvenation, water accumulation deep trenches and pits, compartment bunding, etc.
Vocational Training Programs
When it comes to mastering the art of professional painting; Asian Paints Colour Academy aims to offer the best training facilities to both new and experienced paint applicators, in order to enhance their skills, empower them, provide opportunities, enhance their ability to take better employment and better livelihood.
With Colour Academies across the nation, various certificate courses and remarkable expertise; the goal of garnering respect for painting professionals has never been this exciting! Since the inception of Colour Academies in August, 2014, 1,00,915 trainings were conducted with a total of 55,000 uniquely profiled individuals.
(The report is based on Annual Report, 2016-17 of Asian Paints Limited)
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