Tiles that Educate Ek Acha Bhavishya “The future of my world is in my classroom today”- Ivan Fitzwater

New Delhi: Inspired by the desire to meaningfully and wholeheartedly contribute towards the nationwide mission of enabling education and inclusive growth, Orient Bell Limited is proud to introduce Tiles that Educate for a brighter future ahead.

Recognizing education as one of the pivotal building blocks for a developed nation that continues to progress, Orient Bell’s CSR initiative takes a holistic approach towards improving the state of primary education in India. Crafting an innovative program to solve the persistent problems cropping up, Orient Bell Limited began their first project under this initiative in Uttar Pradesh’s Til Begampur. Revamping the classroom setting with educative yet aesthetically pleasing digitally printed tiles with alphabets, numbers and mapsare plastered across the school.

This aids children in learning and facilitating stronger recall value transforming teaching and inspires learning to increase student engagement, nurture young minds and ultimately, improve outcome.Aided by technological innovation, Orient Bell’stransformative mission has been realized with patented digital printing on the classroom tiles. Going beyond just the classrooms, the washrooms have been covered in patented germ free tiles that exemplify hygieneand sanitation.

One of the great but often unrecognized causes of willingness to learn is the environment itself – the kind of walls, chairs and colours we are surrounded by. After refurbishing the school environs in Til Begampur, Orient Bell has witnessed the impact created with an increasing number of teachers motivated to teach and an even greater number of children attending school with a newfound interest and zeal to learn. Making proper sanitation a reality, the project has also cultivated an environment where students, especially girls, can focus on learning without worrying about the lack of hygienic facilities.

Education is a binding force and the backbone of every society in this world. Yet, what matters the most is quality education, which still remains a distant dream for many. A plethora of government initiatives to provide access to primary education may be underway, but issues of equity, quality and access remain areas of concern — particularly in rural schools. Children in rural areas continue to be deprived of quality education owing to factors like lack of competent and committed teachers, dearth of infrastructure, and lack of sanitation.

Despite several efforts being made, the absence of systematic implementation and proper direction continue to yield the impact insignificant.According to Joint Managing Director, Mr. Madhur Daga,"Quality and access are major concerns with an increasing occurrence of single classrooms to educate students from more than one grade, fewer committed teachers and lack of proper learning material in the school. However, after Orient Bell’s initiatives of refurbishing the environment, the school witnessed an increase in the presence of teachers with an enthusiasm to educate & the attendance of the students also experienced a substantial rise."

In view of such concerns, Orient Bell realized the need to uplift the education system in an exclusive manner and thus has taken up the responsibility to provide a brighter future for all alike.

Following the success of the school at Til Begampur, Orient Bell plans to expand the horizons of education across the country, with Ek Acha Bhavishya soon bridging the gap in 30 other schools.

The foundation for turning India into a strong nation has to be laid down at primary and rural levels, thereby making the need for quality education a prime concern. Fostering a haven for young minds to grow and excelby giving rural schools a holistic perspective and taking education to a whole new level, Orient Bell Limited is working towards realizing their dream of ‘Ek Acha Bhavishya’.

Orient Bell Limited was established in the 1970s, with its base in New Delhi. The company is one of thelargest manufacturers of ceramic and vitrified tiles as well as the first to manufacture ultra-vitrified tiles in India.It has launched a chain of signature showrooms to display the complete product range by aiding retailers in concept selling and is privileged to be associated with the premier construction and consultancy agencies of the country.Orient Bellhas a successful market share of 6.0% (7th largest) within the organized market segment,marking an overall market share of 50% in the tile market.

Under the strong influence of Mr. MadhurDaga who is serving as the Joint Managing Director, the company has evolved immensely, with offices/depots in most of the state capitals and a large team of sales personnel to serve the customers promptly with over 4000 dealers across the country. The first Indian manufacturer to hire a European as a Chief Product & Solution Designer and an in-house design center, the companyalso has tie-ups with a design office in Spain where the latest design techniques are used by the experienced team of Spanish designers. It is also the first company in India to have quality and durability, combined with the aesthetics of design and colour, whichhas transformed the company as a pioneer of extraordinary wall and floor solutions.

At OrientBell, new product design and development is a continuous process, which aids in providing an extensive product range in tiles with various finishes and textures such as matt, satin matt, granules, structured, rustic, luster.With specialty tiles for different applications, Orient Bell has the maximum number of patents forfour varieties of tiles,namely –Forever Tiles(40% higher abrasion and scratch resistance), Germ Free Tiles (Inhibits the growth of germs), Cool Tiles (Reflects solar heat back) and Life Tiles (removes smog and poisonous gases).The company counts some of the leading developers and government institutions as its customers-Godrej, DLF, Larsen & Toubro, NCC and Airports Authority of India to name a few.

With three major manufacturing facilities spread across North, South and West India, having a combined manufacturing capacity of 24 msm. The company’sSikandrabadplant is spread over 40 acres of land, accredited with ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 for quality, environment and occupational health and safety management systems. The manufacturing units are also ISO 14001 – 2004 certified providing complete global expression for an environment friendly industrial company. The grant of coveted BIS bearing no.

CM/L-8700002408 marks another milestone for the company’s growth.Being a member of ‘Indian Green Building Council’, Orient Bellstrives in contributing to a greener planet and does not emit any pollutants into the atmosphere and the wastewater discharged from the manufacturing units is also recycled. Validating these efforts, TUV Nord (Germany) has granted Orient Bell, 21,000 Carbon Credits for Project ‘Fuel Switching & Other Measures of Waste Heat in Industrial Complex at Orient’. The company has gained carbon Credits through Voluntary Carbon Standards (VCS) by saving GHG (Green House Gases) emission.The company has also won The "Certificate of Merit"in National Energy Conservation Award 2016 organized by The Ministry of Power for saving Power and Fuel Consumption.

With the company’s CSR initiative, ‘EkAchaBhavishya’ along with Company Transformation Initiative, ‘Project Disha’ spearheaded by Mr. Daga, Orient Bell also plans to introduce virtual shopping experiences for its customers by providing 3D technologies at their stores.

For product range and product related information, kindly consult www.oblcorp.com or www.orientbell.com