Category: Education

The Foundation unveils Samuday Crafts – a range of handmade products by rural women artisans on the e-commerce platform. All products will be available on the Flipkart website: https://bit.ly/3lBtUea

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Saturday unveiled ‘Samuday Crafts’, a range of handmade products made by 500 rural women artisans under a CSR initiative by HCL Foundation in partnership with Flipkart Samarth.

  During the event, an exclusive range of home decor products namely ‘Alankaar’ was also launched. All products will be available on the Flipkart website: https://bit.ly/3lBtUea.

  Samuday Crafts enables rural artisans to produce and sell products in the categories of home décor, lifestyle, and apparel.

  It offers a range of crafts like Taat embroidery, natural fiber-based crafts (Moonj, Kans, and Wheat Grass), hand embroidery (chikankari), block-printing, and tie and dye.

  The price range of these products starts from Rs 200 and goes up to Rs 3,500.

  “HCL Foundation’s partnership with Flipkart will further help rural women artisans to reach a much wider audience through their handicrafts. I would like to congratulate them for this initiative,” Maurya, who is also UP Rural Development Minister, said on the occasion.

  The state government has always supported handicrafts and “we are committed to support replication of such cluster development models in other parts of the state,” he said.

  The UP Deputy CM further said that the Uttar Pradesh government is working in collaboration with HCL Foundation in 11 blocks of the Hardoi district in six areas of rural development including health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation, infrastructure and livelihood.

  Through the livelihood intervention, over 22000 rural women have been able to strengthen the financial condition of their family, he added.

  HCL Foundation under its flagship program HCL Samuday, has partnered with Flipkart Samarth to provide livelihood opportunities to rural women in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh by reviving existing crafts and skilling through training programs. As part of this initiative, HCL Samuday unveiled Samuday Crafts.

  Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Rural Development Vijay Laxmi Gautam, Agriculture Production Commissioner Additional Chief Secretary in Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Manoj Kumar Singh as well as HCL Foundation Project Director Alok Varma and Flipkart Group Director – Government affairs Tushar Mukherjee were also present on the occasion.

  HCL Foundation Project Director Alok Varma said the handicraft sector provides an opportunity to create an alternate source of income for rural women, skilled in making traditional handicraft products.

  Since 2015, as part of its livelihood interventions, HCL Samuday has supported 22,000 women with a range of livelihood opportunities. While close to 2,000 women artisans have benefitted from additional income through our efforts, we realized that the potential could be much higher if we are able to connect them directly to the consumers.

  “Our partnership with Flipkart Samarth is a step in this direction and can be truly transformational for these artisans. This association will help showcase the ingenuity of skilled artisans on a global platform, resulting in increased acknowledgment and remuneration.

  “We expect that the partnership will help artisans to make sales of around Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per month directly,” he said.

  Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group, said Flipkart’s Samarth initiative was launched in 2019 to support under-served communities, artisans, weavers and craftsmen and provide them access to a national market, using the power of e-commerce.

  “Through this initiative, we have been able to support millions of livelihoods engaged with this program across the country. Under this partnership with HCL Samuday, we are committed to extending the opportunities of the digital economy to these talented women artisans, support their financial independence and build visibility for their local crafts,” he said.

  Working together as a group since 2017, these rural women artisans have been enabled to generate revenue of Rs 3.5 Cr in the last five years, helping them individually earn an average income of Rs 2500 to Rs. 3000 per month. This additional income is empowering the rural women in the district with a sense of financial security while helping them become earning members of the household.

  This is a comprehensive livelihood upliftment initiative where women are empowered, not only through skill development on handicrafts but also on financial literacy, design and marketing linkages. They also benefit from health initiatives under HCL Samuday, thus leading to holistic transformation.

  To ensure that rural women refine their craft-making skills, HCL Foundation, over the years, has partnered with Craftizens, Kadam, and Rang Sutra to provide skill training to artisans in multiple crafts. Artisans have also been supported to showcase their work in various exhibitions such as Dastakar, Delhi Haat, Jaipur Lifestyles Festivals, and Heritage, etc.

With this campaign, Honda aims to make children safety ambassadors of tomorrow and help adults understand the importance of using the roads safely.

Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) has targeted schools in India to spread its National Road Safety Awareness Campaign and the need for road safety awareness among citizens.

  A three-day camp was held at the Radha Krishna Public School in Ghaziabad, where over 2100 school students and staff members learnt about safe riding practices.

  Speaking on HMSI’s commitment to sensitising India on road safety, Prabhu Nagaraj, Operating Officer – Brand & Communication, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd., said, “Road safety education is education essential for developing a road safety mindset. Continuing to strengthen further our commitment to building a safer India on roads, we have resumed our on-ground road safety training – National Road Safety Awareness Campaign”.

  He said that with this campaign, Honda aims to make children safety ambassadors of tomorrow and help adults understand the importance of using the roads safely.

  “Honda will strive for zero traffic collision fatalities involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles globally by 2050”, a company statement has announced.

  Fulfilling its corporate social responsibility (CSR), HMSI has promoted road safety in India since its start in 2001. Today, working towards realising Honda’s global safety vision, HMSI’s road safety awareness initiative has already spread to over 45 lac Indians. It’s skilled safety instructors conduct daily programmes at its ten adopted traffic parks across India and 7 Safety Driving Education Centers (SDEC).

  HMSI’s proprietary virtual riding simulator increases the risk-prediction ability of riders. At the same time, new customers to are given predelivery safety advice (PDSA) before they start riding at every dealership across India.

HMSI has educated over 1.44 lakh people of Hyderabad (more than 92,000 kids + 52,000 new and existing riders including both male and females) since inception.

Committed to spread road safety awareness to make Hyderabad roads safer for all, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) and Hyderabad Traffic Police today celebrated severla glorious years of its Children’s Traffic Training Park in Goshamahal.

 The celebration was held in the august presence of G. Harish (Inspector, Traffic Police, Hyderabad) and members from Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India. 

In April 2015, HMSI in collaboration with Hyderabad Traffic Police inaugurated its first adopted traffic training park across entire South India at Hyderabad. 

Spreading awareness on safe riding habits, road safety rules, signs and markings and road sharing manners, HMSI announced that through its daily trainings for all age groups, it has educated over 1.44 lakh people of Hyderabad (more than 92,000 kids + 52,000 new and existing riders including both male and females) since inception.

HMSI Senior Vice President (Brand and Communication) Prabhu Nagaraj said the development of Hyderabad’s traffic training park with Traffic Police of the city is one such initiative that is driving positive change in not only the existing riders but also preparing more responsible riders of tomorrow. 

“Educating over 1.44 lakh people of Hyderabad bears testimony to the fact that our combined efforts are making a difference constantly. Moving forward, we will continue to instill more discipline among the citizens of Hyderabad to make them responsible road users,” he added. 

HMSI had in April 2021 announced it will strive for zero traffic collision fatalities involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles globally by 2050.

Fulfilling its corporate social responsibility (CSR), HMSI has been promoting road safety in India since its start in 2001. Working towards the realization of Honda’s global safety vision, HMSI’s road safety awareness initiative today has already spread to over 44 lakh Indians. 

Its team of skilled safety instructors conduct daily programmes at its 10 adopted traffic parks across India and seven Safety Driving Education Centres (SDEC).

Not only this, all 1000 plus dealerships of HMSI across India spread road safety awareness. HMSI’s proprietary virtual riding simulator increases the risk-prediction ability of riders; while new customers too are given predelivery safety advise (PDSA) before they start riding at every dealership across India.

Additionally, ensuring that learning doesn’t stop in the New Normal, HMSI started the digital road safety education initiative – Honda Road Safety E-Gurukul. Since its start in May’20, this initiative has sensitized over 7 lakh Indians on importance of being aware and responsible road users.

To educate and foster skill development in the Electric Vehicles (EV) component industry, MG Motor India and the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) have come together to boost the development of the EV ecosystem. The two work in tandem with the IIT Delhi campus

To educate and foster skill development in the Electric Vehicles (EV) component industry, MG Motor India and the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) have come together to boost the development of the EV ecosystem. The two work in tandem with the IIT Delhi campus at Sonipat in Haryana for research on the deployment of electric vehicles in urban India.

Rajeev Chaba, President and MD MG Motor India has said “MG Motor and ACMA will collaboratively add value to the EV component industry by imparting education and skill development to create a future-ready workforce.

The alliance is also aligned with MG’s vision of CASE mobility, learning & skill development, and overall commitment to strengthening the EV ecosystem.”

The ACMA President Sunjay J Kapur while appreciating the gesture said “We are grateful to MG Motor for providing us with this opportunity. A future-ready workforce for manufacturing electric vehicles is the need of the hour and this collaboration will help the auto component makers in upskilling themselves and remaining relevant.”

The association is in line with MG’s vision to support and develop the ecosystem for the electric vehicle. Previously, MG had formed an alliance with IIT Delhi – Centre for Automotive Research and Tribology (CART) for similar research.

Founded in the UK in 1924, Morris Garages vehicles were world-famous for their sports cars, roadsters, and cabriolet series. MG vehicles were much sought after by many celebrities, including the British Prime Ministers and even the British Royal Family, for their styling, elegance, and spirited performance.

The MG Car Club, set up in 1930 at Abingdon in the UK, has thousands of loyal fans, making it one of the world’s largest clubs for a car brand. MG has evolved into a modern, futuristic, and innovative brand over the last 96 years.

Its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Halol, Gujarat, has an annual production capacity of 80,000 vehicles and employs nearly 2,500 workers. Driven by its vision of CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric) mobility, the cutting-edge automaker has augmented across-the-board ‘experiences’ within the automobile segment today.

It has introduced several ‘firsts’ in India, including India’s first Internet SUV – MG Hector, India’s first Pure Electric Internet SUV – MG ZS EV, India’s first Autonomous (Level 1) Premium SUV – MG Gloster and MG Astor- India’s first SUV with personal AI assistant and Autonomous (Level 2) technology.

As unemployment concerns have shot up in India off late due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a CII panel today pitched for effective use of CSR funds for re-skilling and up-skilling of workforce in the country in order to restart the economy

As unemployment concerns have shot up in India off late due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a CII panel today pitched for effective use of CSR funds for re-skilling and up-skilling of workforce in the country in order to restart the economy.

The panel outlined ways for India Inc to utilise its CSR funds to undertake skilling programs that are vital to restart the economy.

It also examined the relevance of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Law for skill building and the importance of creating an ecosystem that enables new age skills for a sustainable future.

Dicussing on “Skill Development through CSR” in a webinar organised by industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the panelists said digital platforms across verticals like healthcare, education, retail are expected to generate significant employment in coming quarters and the pace at which innovation in skill building is adopted to such online models is critical in the wake of new emerging realities.

Batting for strong inter-agency partnerships and bridging the digital divide, the panelists agreed that Covid has changed the way resources are allocated in CSR. The renewed focus is on employability that leads to employment which further leads to economic upliftment.

India is aiming to become a 5 trillion-dollar economy and enjoys a strong advantage of vast and young demographic that stands at a crossover of digital leap.

By 2023, 70 million more people will have entered India’s workforce (data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-2018. Unemployment concerns have shot up in India off late due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they said in a statement.

“Covid-19 poses special challenges for skill development. Today when the world faces a crisis, the government, corporates and implementing agencies are turning to CSR,” Former Director General and CEO Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs Bhaskar Chatterjee said addressing a webinar on organized the industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Asserting that promoting employment-enhancing vocational skills is the need of the hour, he said there is a need to address the challenges like difficulty in skilling, re-skilling and people employment.

“The government must now act as a facilitator and encourage corporates to go more into the skill development,” he said.

Noting that there is meet the dynamic needs of the employers, Chatterjee suggested that this can by done by offering flexibility in the courses being designed, certifications being offered and the way resources are trained.

The need of the hour is to tap into technology to leap-frog youth of today into employability, he added.

Brigadier P K Goyal (Retd), Conference Chair and Member, Regional Committee on Skill Development and Livelihood, CII Northern Region said: “Covid-19 and the global lockdown has impacted the skills ecosystem, resulting in imbalance in the skills landscape. There is a dire need to skill, upskill and multi-skill a huge workforce so there is suitable employability. An effective means to do this is through CSR funds. Govt of India, the corporate industry with their funds and the implementing agencies along with consulting agencies are the umbilical link to an effective skilling programme.”

Lt Gen. Dr S P Kochhar, Director General – COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) added: “A good thing, at present, is that the government has accepted that skilling is a challenge and they are trying to address the gap. We have been advising a skilling program which is Cooperative, Collaborative, Inclusive and Adaptive. If we use technology, such an initiative becomes easier.”

Stating that training can be normalised across the country, using technology, Kochhar said,” We can combine Make in India, Digital India, and Skill India, as complementary models and CSR plays a major role in supporting this initiative. We can create co-skilling spaces, with soft and IT skills at the entry-level segment, generic sector skills at the next level of the segment, and the third level being the vaulted training centres where domain knowledge is imparted by industry experts.”

Consumer durables major Usha International and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) today announced setting up of 700 Usha Silai schools in aspirational districts and calamity prone areas of Himachal Pradesh

Consumer durables major Usha International and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) today announced setting up of 700 Usha Silai schools in aspirational districts and calamity prone areas of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the phase II of its flagship initiative ‘Mission Swavalamban’.

Under the Phase I of the initiative, 1000 Usha Swavalamban Silai Schools were set up in five states – Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. 200 schools were up and running in each state in 2019, it said.

“We are sure these 700 new Silai Schools in the Government of India shortlisted aspirational districts/ calamity affected areas will go a long way in making a real impact by training thousands of people, improving their lives and the lives of their families,” Usha International CEO Dinesh Chhabra said in a statement.

These schools will pave the way for a better tomorrow by developing rural women as entrepreneurs in their own right, and an earning power that helps them meet their aspirations. It underscores the company’s commitment to skill people in order to create a more equitable world, he said.

The objective of these school is to skill rural women in sewing and stitching to financially empower them and make them ‘homepreneurs, it added.

SIDBI Chairman and Managing Director Mohammad Mustafa, said, “In 2nd phase besides tailoring skills, we shall impart exposure on entrepreneurship and life skills. This aligns with our Mission Swavalamban which intends to spread entrepreneurship culture, family being the focal point.”

The bank will continue to leverage partnership for including the excluded as also serving the unserved. “We firmly believe that strengthening villages through enterprise enabler steps is important for national mission of Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” he added.

In Usha Silai Schools, the training will be imparted on various aspects of stitching along with maintenance and repairing of sewing machine by expert trainers of Usha International in these Silai Schools.

The women entrepreneurs successfully completing the training program will be provided with Usha Sewing machine (leg paddle driven), a certificate, a training-kit, and a Usha Swavalamban Silai School Signage board, the company added.

The Silai School program, initiated in 2011, is a pan India community based rural initiative of Usha International Ltd. This social initiative is aimed at empowering women from marginalized sections of the communities residing in the remote hamlets, habitations and villages of India.

Presently, there are 23,000 Silai Schools across India, 100 in Nepal and 20 in Sri Lanka and 3 production centers in Bhutan.

Despite not required to spend under CSR, private sector bank IDBI Bank had donated used computers to government and municipal schools for the benefit of students in the 2019-20 fiscal. According to the Companies Act, 2013, the companies are required

Despite not required to spend under CSR, private sector bank IDBI Bank had donated used computers to government and municipal schools for the benefit of students in the 2019-20 fiscal.

According to the Companies Act, 2013, the companies are required to spend at least 2 percent of their average net profits made in the preceding three years on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

In its 2019-20 annual report, IDBI Bank said there was no requirement for the bank to incur any spends under CSR for the 2019-20 fiscal because it had suffered a net loss in the preceding three years.

However as a conscientious corporate citizen, the bank had donated used computers to government and municipal schools for the benefit of the students as a part of its CSR initiatives during the reporting year.

Going forward, the bank should be able to do more CSR activities with improvement in its performance.

For the first quarter of 2020-21 financial, the IDBI Bank today reported a standalone net profit of Rs 144.43 crore as against a net loss of Rs 3,800.84 crore in the year-ago.

IDFC FIRST Bank today announced the opening of its MBA Scholarship programme for the batch of 2020-2022, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). About 150 scholarships will be granted by the Bank this year. The application for scholarship

IDFC FIRST Bank today announced the opening of its MBA Scholarship programme for the batch of 2020-2022, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

About 150 scholarships will be granted by the Bank this year. The application for scholarship can be accessed on https://www.idfcfirstbank.com/csr-new/mba-scholarship.html.

The last date for applying for this scholarship is July 31, 2020, the bank said in a statement.

The scholarship programme aims to financially support students from weaker social economic backgrounds, enabling them to pursue a management degree from a B-school of their choice.

To qualify for the scholarship, the candidate needs to secure admission into a two-year full-time MBA programme and the family income has to be less than Rs 6 lakhs per annum.

The initiative provides financial assistance to students so as to ease the burden of fees payable by them and to make admission to the best colleges and universities accessible to economically weaker students.

IDFC FIRST Bank CSR Head Rachana Iyer said: “We believe expenses of MBA are rather high and even meritorious students often drop out from pursuing their careers because of financial difficulties.”

Through this initiative, the bank wants to lend a shoulder with Rs 2 lakh per student for two years, to students from vulnerable communities, to pursue higher education and to attain a higher standard of living.

The scholarship supports students from over 150 B-Schools all across India. Since the number of applications far exceed the number of scholarships, the Bank prioritises and ranks-orders the applications for scholarships based on criticality of need, which may involve factors such as family income, socio-economic background and other such criteria.

The MBA Scholarship programme was instituted as a CSR initiative by erstwhile Capital First in 2016 and continued after the merger which resulted in the formation of IDFC FIRST Bank. So far, 530 students from both urban and rural India have benefitted from this programme.

These students belong to diverse family backgrounds with parents being retired lower-income scale government employees, auto-rickshaw drivers, farmers and other such backgrounds.

As an extension of this programme, IDFC FIRST Bank also provides scholarships to students pursuing higher education or teaching in the mental health space, students with autism, students enrolled in the Young India Fellowship programme of Ashoka university, and to youth from shelter homes and underprivileged backgrounds.

In an effort to upskill the youth and enable them to make productive use of lockdown, global NGO Aide et Action today launched the “iLEAD Goes Online” initiative through a Facebook Live session. The objective of the programme is to impart vocational

In an effort to upskill the youth and enable them to make productive use of lockdown, global NGO Aide et Action today launched the “iLEAD Goes Online” initiative through a Facebook Live session.

The objective of the programme is to impart vocational education to youth from marginalized sections of the society. The initiative encompasses 13 iLEAD courses through a digital medium, an official statement said.

The development comes amidst the World Youth Skills Day. Amidst the lockdown induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, digital education is a viable option to continue academics.

After having trained 2,50,000 youths in more than forty domains with the placement of 75 percent, the NGO is launching iLEAD online skill training courses.

“The training can be undertaken remotely from the safety and comfort of home on a digital platform. The initiative aims to provide livelihood education among the youth from underprivileged families and help them to utilize the lockdown period effectively. And this will also help to develop a new strategy for the organization across the globe” Aide et Action South Asia Board President Rajiva Wijesinha said.

The iLEAD alumni, along with the current trainees along with trainers and other stakeholders shared their views on this initiative.

The 13 courses which are now available online are Tally, Computer Operator, Beauty Therapy, Fashion Designing, BSPA, CRR, Automobile, ITeS, Electrician, Hospitality, BSPC, Beautician and Electrical. The platform is available to the registrations through our skill training initiative iLEAD.

Elpro International has partnered with Shiksha Seva Foundation for supporting education and well-being of underprivileged children, especially girls, as part of its CSR initiative. The initiative aims at donating funds to provide a safe and nurturing

Elpro International has partnered with Shiksha Seva Foundation for supporting education and well-being of underprivileged children, especially girls, as part of its CSR initiative.

The initiative aims at donating funds to provide a safe and nurturing environment where children can access education, nutrition and healthcare.

Elpro will be educating around 50 girls under this initiative.

Elpro International Chairman and Managing Director Deepak Kumar said: “As a responsible corporate, we have been continuously evolving at the CSR front and devising action-based solutions to bring in a societal change along with our customer-centric initiatives.”

The company is delighted to partner with Shiksha Seva Foundation on this project to educate and empower the girl child.

Elpro International has Elpro City Square Mall as well as Elpro International School under its umbrella.