Delhi, 26th February 2016: India’s largest PVC pipes and second largest PVC resin manufacturer, Finolex Industries Ltd, was recently recognised by two of the biggest names in the CSR Award category in India – BlueDart Global CSR Excellence and Leadership Awards for ‘Support & Improvement in Quality of Education’ at an event held in Mumbai; and IndiaCSR for Best Innovative CSR Practices in Education at an event held in Delhi. Finolex Industries received awards from these bodies for exemplary work in the field on Education. Finolex Industries undertakes its CSR programs with the help of its CSR partner Mukul Madhav Foundation.

These awards recognises the organisation for demonstrating and creating opportunities for students in the rural areas for international quality education and for their commitment to bring positive change to the educational health of the country.

“Finolex Industries realises the need and importance of education, more so in India which still needs a lot of infusion of investment in quality education. This need and our familiarity with Ratnagiri as a geography led to the birth of Mukul Madhav Vidyalaya in the year of 2010,” said Mrs Ritu Chhabria, Director, Finolex Industries and Founder & Managing Trustee, Mukul Madhav Foundation. She added, “Philanthropy, Environmental Responsibility, Inclusive Growth and Effective Collaboration are the main pillars of CSR and sustainability practice at Finolex Industries and we will continue to work with local communities in various region as we have been doing for the last 25 years even before CSR became mandatory.”

Mukul Madhav Foundation was set up as an independent entity committed to social welfare and philanthropy. Both Finolex Industries and Mukul Madhav Foundation had education as one of their key social activity since their inception. Owing to passion for similar causes, Finolex Industries joined hands with MMF in 2008. MMF started working closely with Finolex Industries to assist them in fulfilling their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and providing those activities a greater reach and focus. Through programmes on health, education, livelihood and skill development, executed in association with state governments and multiple local partners, the Foundation is helping in bringing about positive change in the lives of the multitude.

Working in and around the villages of Ratnagiri, the Management saw a crying need for rural upliftment. It realized that many of the workers at the plant were in the prime of their youth with young children. The only facilities providing an urban education were 20kms away in the city of Ratnagiri. This realisation led to the birth of an English medium school, Mukul Madhav Vidyalaya (MMV). MMV started with a modest strength of 151 students and has grown steadily into a full- fledged SSC affiliated school with 492 students. It not only provides state-of the art infrastructure but is set on the lines of international standard of education with importance to outdoor activities, physical and mental wellness, hygiene and healthcare.

Education effects life and shapes up livelihood and through the Mukul Madhav Vidyalaya Finolex Industries have tried to make a positive impact on children in the hope of providing them a better future. The education at MMV is provided at an extremely subsidised rate.