Asian Paints Achieves Rare Triple Win with British Safety Council's Sword of Honour

In a significant global recognition of its workplace safety standards, Asian Paints has secured the prestigious Sword of Honour from the British Safety Council for not just one—but three—of its Indian manufacturing facilities. The company’s plants at Rohtak (Haryana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), and Mysuru (Karnataka) have all been awarded the Sword of Honour in the 2023 cycle, placing Asian Paints in an elite group of global manufacturers with multiple award-winning sites. 

The Sword of Honour is one of the highest accolades in the field of occupational health and safety. To qualify, a site must first score at least 92% in the British Safety Council’s Five-Star audit, which evaluates over 360 criteria ranging from hazard identification to worker well-being and emergency preparedness. Those who meet this benchmark are then invited to submit evidence of their safety leadership and culture to an independent adjudication panel, which decides whether the site meets "best-in-class" global standards. 

Behind the Win: Inside the Three Sites 

Each of the three Asian Paints locations awarded the Sword of Honour stands out not just for scale, but also for the safety innovations embedded in daily operations. 

At Rohtak, a major decorative paint facility in North India, the audit team noted the integration of AI-enabled cameras that monitor real-time PPE compliance, RFID-based forklift zoning for collision avoidance, and a 1.2 MW solar installation that helps manage internal temperatures, reducing heat stress risks on the shop floor. 

In Visakhapatnam, located on the cyclone-prone eastern coast, safety protocols are built around environmental unpredictability. The plant runs quarterly storm-surge preparedness drills in collaboration with local authorities, deploys automatic foam-water deluge systems over solvent tanks, and operates a digital permit-to-work application that has reduced average maintenance downtime by 18%.

The Mysuru plant, which completed a ₹1,305 crore expansion in 2024 to double its capacity to 600,000 KL annually, reflects the company’s investment in automation and proactive safety systems. Here, a fully automated “lights-out” palletising system eliminates manual material handling in high-risk zones. The site has also reached a “Generative” stage in Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS), with a near-miss to incident reporting ratio of 38:1, indicating strong workforce engagement and safety ownership. 

Safety in Numbers 

The recognition follows a year of aggressive safety investments and reporting across the company’s operations. In FY 2023-24, Asian Paints invested ₹31 crore in health and safety initiatives. Teams logged 93,500 Safe/Unsafe Act (SUSA) observations and submitted over 37,000 proactive hazard reports. Notably, all eight of the company’s decorative paint plants currently maintain the British Safety Council’s Five-Star audit rating, but these three are the first to cross into Sword territory. 

Implications for Clients and Industry Partners 

These wins go beyond internal validation—they reflect the company’s commitment to supply chain reliability, low operational risk, and industry leadership. 

Looking Ahead 

Asian Paints is already building on the momentum. Plans are in place to: