Apollo wins Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship award

In a ceremony held on the evening of 13 December, Apollo Tyres was conferred with Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards (AREA) 2012 South Asia. The company received this award in the Health Promotion category for its HIV-AIDS initiative. Sunam Sarkar, chief financial officer, Apollo Tyres Ltd received the award from the Enterprise Asia Team.

Apollo Tyres has been working towards awareness and prevention of HIV-AIDS amongst employees, business partners and communities since 2001. Today, apart from having an HIV-AIDS Policy at the workplace, Apollo runs as many as 21 Health Care Centres across India; these are aimed at the trucking community and are therefore located in major transport hubs in India. In addition, the company also conducts sensitisation sessions for its Business Partners with the help of in-house Master Trainers.

Commenting on this, Apollo Tyres chairman Onkar S Kanwar said “caring for society has always been a core value at Apollo Tyres. And, an award of such merit and standing only strengthens our resolve to ensure that our social responsibility initiatives continue to be treated as key business goals, backed by a long-term strategic business thought and sound business processes.”

In the past fiscal year, the 21 Health Care Centres run by Apollo Tyres treated over 4,500 patients for sexually transmitted infections and over 38,500 patients for general health issues; while over 29,500 people underwent counselling on HIV-AIDS, and 13,000 people underwent voluntary testing for HIV-AIDS.

Enterprise Asia’s Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards programme (AREA) recognises and honours Asian businesses for championing sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship in the following categories: Green Leadership, Investment in People, Health Promotion, Social Empowerment, SME CSR and Responsible Business Leadership.