The US-India Business Council Population Services International (PSI) and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies conferred its “Award for Corporate Social Responsibility in Public Health” on Tata Steel for its outstanding contribution in combating HIV/AIDS. The Award was received on behalf of the Company by the Managing Director, Mr B Muthuraman and was presented by acclaimed

Mr B Muthuraman receives the Public Health Award from Ms Ashley Judd

Hollywood actress, Ms Ashley Judd, Board Member PSI, at a ceremony organised by FICCI in Mumbai on March 14.

The process for the award selection began in March 2006 with the Resident Director of USA-CII India Business Trust, Mrs Indira Shandilya visiting Tata Steel to apprise herself of its activities. Then in November of the same year, Mr Pramit Mitra of CSIS took stock of the Company’s HIV/AIDS initiatives. He was extremely impressed and provided an excellent feedback to the award committee, even posting Tata Steel’s initiatives on his organisation’s website. In addition, Mr Bharat Wakhlu of Tata International has been presenting Tata Steel’s

efforts at high- level meetings in the US, including important testimonial, however, for Tata Steel came from the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS,which has been putting forward the Company’s case-study for other organisations to adopt as a best practice.

While accepting the award, Mr Muthuraman elaborated on the Company’s role. “As a corporate citizen, for almost a century, Tata Steel Ltd is committed to improving the quality of life of its employees and also the community that we operate in. We have set some global benchmarks in Corporate Social Responsibility and this award is in recognition of the exemplary work undertaken by Tata Steel in controlling and preventing a

life threatening disease like
HIV/AIDS.” Tata Steel has been involved in raising
awareness levels to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS since 1989. In 1994, the Company constituted Core Group AIDS and voluntarily accepted the responsibility for  HIV/AIDS Awareness in East Singhbhum. It has dovetailed these programmes with all its public health initiatives in Jamshedpur, the peri-urban and the rural areas, within a radius of 40 kilometre of its operations. HIV/AIDS awareness forms an integral part of its Adolescent Reproduction Health Projects.