Corporate Award for Business Response to HIV/AIDS goes to BILT

[Guest guest]

BILT Conferred TERI Corporate Award for Business Response to HIV/AIDS

• BILT's initiatives in prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS

recognized

• Awards organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and

German Technical ation (GTZ)

New Delhi, 31st May 2008: Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT),

India's largest paper manufacturer and part of the over $3 billion

Avantha Group, was conferred the prestigious TERI Corporate Award for

Business Response to HIV/AIDS at a function held in New Delhi today.

The award was presented by Mr. Kamal Nath, Union Minister for

Commerce and Industry to Mr. Rajive Vederah, Managing Director, BILT.

Organized by The Energy and Research Institute (TERI), in association

with German Technical ation (GTZ), the award acknowledges the

efforts of companies that have successfully launched and executed

HIV/AIDS intervention programmes at their workplace, community or

supply chain. The award also seeks to mainstream the private sector

in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The initiatives of all winners,

including BILT, will be subsequently published by TERI in a special

compendium titled " Best practices for HIV/AIDS interventions in the

Indian Industry. "

Mr. R.R. Vederah, Managing Director, BILT, said, " BILT has a well-

defined HIV/AIDS prevention programme that has reached out to over

40,000 people. We are thankful to TERI for recognizing our efforts,

and we hope these awards will encourage more private participation in

HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives. "

Ms. Yashashree Gurjar, Chief General Manager, Corporate Social

Responsibility for BILT said, " We are grateful to TERI and GTZ for

this honour. At BILT, we have implemented a comprehensive HIV/AIDS

programme that covers employees, casual workers, truckers and

transporters as well as communities living around our six

manufacturing locations across the country. Besides generating

awareness, we are proactively involved in the prevention and

treatment of HIV/AIDS. BILT runs an anti-retroviral treatment (ART)

centre at Ballarpur, Maharashtra, in collaboration with the State

Government. This is the first such public-private partnership in the

state. We also have another ART centre coming up later this year at

our unit in Sewa, Orissa. "

In the past BILT has won several awards and accolades for its CSR

initiatives. These include the national level TERI Award for CSR

(2003-04), the national level Business for Social Responsibility

(BSR) Award (2005-06), Businessworld FICCI-SEDF CSR Award (2005-06),

Asian CSR Award (2005-06), the Golden Peacock Global Award for CSR in

Emerging Economies (2007), and the Intel - AIM Corporate

Responsibility Award (2007).

_____________________________________________________________________

About Avantha:

Avantha Group is one of India's leading business conglomerates. Its

successful entities include BILT, Crompton Greaves, Global Green,

Avantha Power and Infrastructure, Solaris Chemtech, Salient Business

Solutions, and Avantha Technologies. International subsidiaries

include Pauwels, SFI, Intergarden, Ganz and Microsol. The over US$ 3

bn Avantha Group is on the path for a turnover of US$ 10 bn and a

market capitalization of US$ 25 bn by 2013. The Group has business

interests in diverse areas including power generation and

distribution, power transmission and distribution equipment and

services; paper and pulp; food processing; farm forestry; chemicals;

infrastructure, IT and ITES. Led by Mr. Gautam Thapar, Avantha

demonstrates strong leadership globally and emerges as a focused

corporate, leveraging its knowledge, leadership and operations,

adding lasting value for its stakeholders and investors.

About BILT

Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), part of the US$ 3 billion

Avantha Group, is India's largest manufacturer of writing and

printing (W & P) paper. BILT accounts for over 50% of the coated wood-

free paper market, an impressive 85% of the bond paper market and

nearly 45% of the hi-bright Maplitho market in India. BILT has six

manufacturing units across the country, with a capacity for producing

4.5 lakh tonnes of paper and 1 lakh tonne of pulp every year. In

2007, BILT acquired Sabah Forest Industries or SFI, Malaysia's

largest pulp and paper company with a production capacity of 1.5 lakh

tonnes of paper and over 1.3 lakh tonnes of pulp per annum. This

acquisition has elevated BILT's global ranking to 87.

CSR at BILT

As part of its CSR, BILT works with more than 200,000 people living

in remote parts of the country on a wide range of issues including

livelihood enhancement, health and education. Formation and

strengthening of community-based organisations like self help groups

and youth groups, and capacity building the panchayat members are an

important focus of the programme.

The company offers skill training and also helps communities set up

small enterprises through the provision of micro finance at the

village level. BILT's CSR initiatives have been widely recognized,

and have been conferred with various awards, including TERI Award for

CSR (2003-04), Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Award for CSR

(2005-06), Businessworld FICCI- SEDF CSR Award (2005-06), Asian CSR

Award (2005-06), Golden Peacock Global Award for CSR in Emerging

Economies (2007), Intel - AIM Corporate Responsibility Award (2007)

and TERI Corporate Award for Business Response to HIV/AIDS (2008).

________________________________________

For Further Information:

Shravani Dang

Sunaina Jairath

Group Head of Corporate Communications

Ballarpur Industries Limited

Tel: +91- 11- 46523433

Tel: +91 124 4099436 / +91-9811261080

Mobile: +91-9811645243

Email: sdang@...

sunaina@...