National Innovation System Required For Better Access To Medicines

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May 10, 2017

Noted surgeon Dr. N K Pandey emphasised that sustainable development goals (SDGs) related to access to medicines and healthcare, should definitely be a priority for the government. Speaking at a conclave on the ‘Role of Industry Associations in Influencing Healthcare Innovations and Sustainable Development in India: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policy considerations’ organized by Open University of the UK and Centre for Responsible Business (CRB), Prof Theo Papaiannou from the Open University (UK) shared the findings of his research, ‘Unpacking the Role of Industry Associations in Innovation & Development’. He highlighted the importance of National Innovation System (NIS) in a country like India, emphasising on the linkages of institutional actors particularly industry and government.

The conclave held between major stakeholders from pharmaceutical and healthcare sector became more topical as recently Narendra Modi had announced his government resolve towards promoting standardised generic medicines. The need for doctors to prescribe generic medicines in India has often been raised before, but for the first time it has come from the Head of the Government.

With the above developments, there was a discussion on how the pharmaceutical industry and some of the other actors could address these concerns. Also, to understand what role needs to be played by the other key actors – government, regulators, industry associations and civil society to enable this.

Chairman & Managing Director of Asian Institute of Medical Sciences Padmashri Dr. N K Pandey stated that the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needs every country to judiciously prioritise, and adapt the goals and targets in accordance with local challenges, capacities and resources available.

Prof Papaiannou, while sharing the findings of his research, ‘Unpacking the Role of Industry Associations in Innovation & Development’ highlighted the importance of National Innovation System (NIS) in a country like India, emphasising on the linkages of institutional actors particularly industry and government. He added from the research that the historical relationships between governments and industry have influenced each other’s activities. Their relationships are complex and their evolutionary trajectories have been shaped by government industry relations over the phases of economic liberalisation. Industry associations are more effective when industry is relatively cohesive and able to speak with one voice.

Ranjit Madan, CEO of Life Sciences Sector Skills Council stressed that skilling in this industry has been targeted at the youth from around the major pharma ‘clusters’ in Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Gujarat and Karnataka.

There was some consensus across the table of the need for establishing a multi-stakeholder dialogue forum on responsible pharmaceutical sector in the country, and take into consideration some of the following key action points:

Capture people’s voice in policymaking (especially given the strength of the public health movement in the country)
Analyse factors that influence the nature of government-business relations in the pharma industry
Accord adequate attention towards prevention, and not only on treatment
Consider developing industry ‘code of conduct’ by Industry Associations for members
Need for Skill-gap analysis in the sector and assess availability of ‘skilling partners’

This has happened at a time, when the Department of Pharmaceutical had already sought public comments for improving accessibility, affordability and availability of medicines in the country, especially given a large section of the population still faces considerable difficulty in obtaining medicines.

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Taiwan To Legislate On Corporate Social Responsibility: Vice President

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The CSR Journal

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May 9, 2017

The Taiwan government is drafting an amendment to the Company Act that would require businesses to “internalise” good governance and social responsibility, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said on Wednesday.

At an award ceremony for businesses that have shown excellent corporate social responsibility, Chen said that as enterprises pursue profits, they should also take responsibility for the well-being of their employees, local communities and the environment.

“This is a good approach to achieving sustainable development of the environment, society and economy,” he said.

The government is pro-actively promoting a plan to revise the Company Act to create a legal basis for social responsibility among businesses, Chen said.

He said he hoped that law would also help businesses become more competitive as they gain the trust of consumers and attain sustainable operation.

However, social commentator Lucifer Chu (朱學恆) questioned the timing of the planned legislation, saying that at a time when 80% of the public thinks the domestic economy is not doing well, small- and medium-sized businesses might not be strong enough to bear the higher costs of complying with the proposed law.

While the U.S. is seeking to cut its corporate tax rate from 35 % to 15%, Taiwan is trying to increase the compliance costs for its companies. “Wouldn’t that create too big an impact on them?” he said.

(Source & Image Courtesy: Focus Taiwan)

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Development And Conservation Must Go Together: Pranab Mukherjee

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The CSR Journal

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May 9, 2017

Development and conservation must go hand in hand, President Pranab Mukherjee said as he underlined the need for “sustainable” development. “Debates are being held all over the world on development versus conservation. To me development and conservation are not contradictory. Humanity needs both,” Mukherjee said at a convocation of Indian Forest Service probationers at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy. He said the solution to the debate was “inclusive” development, which looked at the environmental aspects of development. “Mother earth has everything to meet the needs of its children, but not enough to meet the greed of every man,” Mukherjee said, quoting Mahatma Gandhi.

A batch of 47 officers today passed out from the academy, set up by the British in 1926. The landmark building, once on the outskirts of the city, is now sandwiched between the booming Uttarakhand capital and lush green forests.

“The final objective is that we must have sustainable development. The riches of mother Earth are not our earning. We have inherited it and we have no right to destroy it. We must hand it over to generation next,” he said. The president appreciated the fact that forest cover in the country had increased from 64.2 million hectares in 1987 to 79.4 million hectares, or 19.32% of its land mass.

He said the forest policy of 1952 had underscored the need to maintain forests over one third of the country’s land. “This goal of 33% of forest cover was one of the professed goals behind the setting up of the Indian Forest Service in 1966, and it is time that concrete measures are ensured in this direction,” he said.

Earlier, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat called for inclusive development, while stressing that forest service officers should not ignore the expectations of the people.

(Financial Express)

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Increasing Equality A Key Factor To Unlocking Prosperity In Asia-Pacific

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Neha Bilandani

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May 8, 2017

About 400 million people in Asia and the Pacific still confront poverty as part of their daily lives due to widening income inequality, despite the region’s impressive gains in reducing income poverty in recent decades. This is according to a new report launched by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The report, titled Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity in a Changing Asia-Pacific, notes that on top of the 400 million people — or one in ten — in the region living in extreme poverty, more than one in four people in Asia and the Pacific’s developing countries experience poverty in multiple dimensions. This includes additional deprivations that impact their health, education, and standard of living.

“As outlined in the report, a renewed strengthening of the social contract is critical for addressing multi-dimensional poverty and the high marginalisation and exclusion of people,” said United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Dr. Shamshad Akhtar at the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development.

“It also provides opportunities for innovative partnerships in which diverse stakeholders can find common ground to inclusive and sustainable growth to tackle entrenched problems and build synergistic solutions to the challenges of poverty in both rural and urban areas. This requires strong policy signals, clear commitments and allocation of resources to address the multiple dimensions of poverty,” she added.

The report underscores the importance of addressing poverty through pro-poor urbanisation, effective management of rural-urban transitions, and investment in sustainable infrastructure. Although people in extreme income poverty are more likely to live in rural areas, they are increasingly found in cities, therefore provision of high quality; low-carbon, and resilient infrastructure is essential.

“Asia’s infrastructure needs are large and will only grow, with our recent report suggesting that the region will need $1.7 trillion annually in climate-resilient infrastructure investments,” said ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development Mr. Bambang Susantono. “How our region chooses to bridge the infrastructure gap will have profound global implications. Concerted efforts, as highlighted in the tripartite report, can help us cover the last mile for infrastructure towards inclusive and sustainable development.”

“As urbanisation booms across Asia and the Pacific, its cities are powering innovation, economic growth, and prosperity, lifting many out of poverty. But there has also been an increase in inequality and exclusion in some regions,” said Mr. Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. “To be more inclusive and to leave no one behind, cities must adopt innovative policies that align with the SDGs, and prioritize building the resilience of the most vulnerable groups.”

The report recommends effective action on eradicating poverty, while tackling the systemic, socio-cultural, and geographic factors that underpin marginalisation, exclusion, and lack of human rights protection. The number of people likely to be in vulnerable employment in the region is now greater than the global average, for example, and women are particularly affected. Measures to ensure that all people can benefit from growth in the region on an equal footing are needed.

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My Failures Taught Me How To ‘Fail Faster’: Jimmy Wales

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The CSR Journal

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May 6, 2017

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, urged young people to be bold in their ideas, capitalise on their inherent creativity and to never fear failure, in a keynote speech delivered on the second day of the UNESCO NGO Global Forum hosted in Saudi Arabia.

Wales spoke to the need for societies to encourage young people to take risk, try something new, and be confident in their ability to deliver success through failure. He highlighted some of his own failures, including from an online menu idea in 1996 to a search engine he named The Three Apes, as he set out on a path to launching Wikipedia. The online, community-edited encyclopaedia is now the fifth most trafficked website in the world.

“My failures taught me how to ‘fail faster’,” he said. “I also advise you not to tie your ego to a particular business, and most importantly, to enjoy yourselves along the way. If you are doing something interesting and you think it is meaningful, even if just does not work out, it means at least that you can do something interesting and meaningful.”

Answering a question about how young people can counter fake news, Jimmy said they could talk to their friends, and challenge fake news online, to counter the “viral” nature of false facts. Recently launched was WikiTribune, a news website bringing the community-editing concept to journalism.

The forum was attended by more than 400 NGOs and over 2000 delegates from more than 70 countries. It is organised to aid as a platform to co-create initiatives and select ideas to enable the full engagement of young people within their societies and allow them to become the change-makers of tomorrow.

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Children Victims of Farmer Suicides See A Bright Future, Thanks To This Young Couple

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Pooja Domadia

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May 4, 2017

After working in Pune city for about four years as a software engineer, 27-year-old Ashok Deshmane went to his hometown in Marathwada region of Maharashtra. This region is well-known for being water stressed and had then been suffering from drought.

He had heard of many farmer suicide instances. He comes from a farmer family and thus is familiar to the crisis they face. But when he went there and saw the situation on ground, it moved deeply. He saw a different aspect of the issue which was largely ignored.

The issue of farmer suicides has been shouted aloud in the state office of Maharashtra. Opposition and ruling parties are discussing various factors related to the issue. But one factor that is relatively sidelined in this agricultural battle is education and future of kids of these farmers.

Concerned about the future of these children, Deshmane took up the responsibility of educating them. “Kids of many poor farmers and the ones who had committed suicide didn’t go to school as the family couldn’t afford it. Due to drought, the families couldn’t earn even Rs 100 per day. They could not afford education of their kids. These kids had to suffer and they way for their future was unclear too,” said Deshmane, Founder of Snehwan.

He decided to do adopt some of these children. But the way further wasn’t an easy one. His parents initially opposed the idea of letting their only son adopt children before he was married. “I had to explain them that my work no longer made me feel happy and helping these farmers was the task I wished to do. After over a month, my parents agreed and decided to accompany me in this initiative. They shifted to Pune with me and my mother assumed the responsibility of cooking food,” added Deshmane.

Farmer parents were also not keen on the idea of free education for their children in a different area. However, consistent efforts to convince them bore fruits and they agreed to send them.

He spoke to a friend about his idea of adopting kids for education and he offered house with five rooms in Bhosari area of Pune district. Deshmane gladly accepted the offer and called it Snehwan (Forest of Love) adopted 18 kids in the first year in December 2015. In the second year, he adopted 25 kids in the age group of 8-15 years.

As the official guardian, Deshmane takes care of the education of children, food, daily activities, and home studies among all other activities that a parent or guardian would do. Kids have a disciplined schedule that includes regular exercise, studies and extra-curricular activities. Children also learn tabla, classical music, painting from teachers who volunteer to teach them. A small library too has been set up.

Deshmane pumped in all his savings and for the initial eight months, he worked in night shifts to take care of both responsibilities. But he realised that it could not work for long. He quit his job and is now dependant on donations. “My mother initially cooked food for all of us and now since the last November, after my wedding, my wife takes care of it,” said Deshmane.

Before he got married, he had made his side clear as to he would continue working for the children post wedding. Fortunately, his wife Archana too hails from a farmer’s family and is a graduate by academics. “Being educated, Archana was open-minded and she also understood the problems of a farmer’s life. In our community, the practice of dowry still prevails. I had clarified that I don’t want a penny as dowry but my life-partner would have to be someone supportive of the cause I work for. After all, dowry is one of the major reasons behind debts and deaths of farmers. Archana happily accepted her role and since the wedding has been playing the role of a mother the kids,” explained Deshmane.

About 30 people celebrate festivals and stay together as one family. During vacations, children are allowed to go to their parents. With the upcoming academic year, there will be addition to the number of kids to 30 residential and 20 non-residential.

A modest Deshmane humbly said, “Being associated with social workers like Dr Prakash Amte, I always wanted to do something substantial for society. With this initiative, I am fortunate to be an intermediary to let the cause take shape. Never before had I sensed this level of happiness. Good people around have been kind enough to help me pave way at every step.”

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Sustainable Buildings – A New ‘Green Revolution’ For Tomorrow’s India

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Anirban Ghosh, CSO, Mahindra Group

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May 3, 2017

India is home to more than a billion people and this is expected rise to 1.6 billion by 2050. More than 70% Indians live in rural areas today but it is expected that 60% of a much larger population will live in urban areas in 2050. Both these trends support the projection that 70% of buildings required by India in 2050 are yet to be built. Therefore the Government has put a number of programmes in place to ensure universal housing. These include 100 Smart Cities Mission, Housing for All, Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT), Make in India and construction GDP is almost eight percent of overall GDP of the country.

This is great for the sector but buildings are a major source of emissions. A case study on “Construction in India” by Development Alternatives states that the construction sector in India emits about 22% of the total annual emission of CO2 emitted by the Indian economy. A lot of energy is consumed throughout the life cycle of buildings thus making them a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Energy statistics 2013 of India’s National Statistical Organisation (NSO) show that electricity accounted for more than 57% of the total energy consumption during 2011-12 in India; building sector consumes close to 40% of the electricity.

Construction also leads to a lot of waste. A study done by Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission estimates that construction industry in India, annually generates about 10-12 million tonnes of waste. While some of the items like bricks, tiles wood, metal, etc. are re-used and recycled, concrete and masonry constituting about 50% of the construction & demolition waste, is not currently recycled in India. While its low cost and high levels of adaptability makes cement a favourite material for construction, large quantities of CO2 emission associated with its manufacturing makes it a significant contributor to global warming.

There is, thus, a huge opportunity to adopt technologies right through the lifecycle of construction and use of buildings that reduce the emission burden on the earth and thus make them more sustainable.

Buildings become sustainable by using designs that reduce the need for energy post construction. They use materials that have low carbon footprint, have high local relevance and reduce the incidence of waste. The manner of construction is not energy intensive and causes significantly lower levels of pollution. These buildings employ appliances and machinery that are highly energy efficient. Water fixtures and recycling methods leads to lower consumption of fresh water per capita than in conventional buildings. Design methods lead to facilitation of water harvesting and ground water recharge. Waste management systems ensure that recycling and reuse of waste is maximised while the waste going to landfills is minimised. Adoption of landscaping techniques leads to reduction of heat island effects and dust levels in the vicinity of the building. Living conditions in these buildings lead to superior productivity and higher sense of well-being. Sustainable buildings are therefore green in a plethora of ways.

It might raise the possibility that all this would raise the cost of construction of a building to make it sustainable. Over time the incremental cost incurred has been steadily decreasing and in recent times it has been observed by leading developers that there is often no incremental cost. The benefits received by residents in the course of living in the building are however getting stronger by the day.

The good news for India is that over 2,400 green building projects in the country have already been constructed or are being constructed. This makes India a country with the largest green footprint in the world after the USA as per the Indian Green Building Council.

Some developers have been early adopters of green building technologies. But the movement needs to become widespread if the sector is to make a tangible difference. To enable this the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank institution, has built a coalition of some pioneering, like-minded developers such as Mahindra Lifespace Developers, Godrej Properties, Tata Housing, Value Budget Homes and Shapoorji Pallonji as a part of their eco-cities program supported by the European Union. The coalition is called the Sustainable Housing Leadership Consortium which has taken upon itself the task of identifying technologies to make buildings sustainable and enabling policy to ensure widespread adoption of the best green technologies in a viable manner.

The founding members of the consortium have committed to make their housing portfolio completely sustainable by 2017 and achieve 20% reduction in incremental variable costs. The consortium will provide leadership and advocacy to make 20% of India’s new housing construction sustainable by 2022.The programme is working to catalyse the green-buildings market and promote climate-smart infrastructure projects in five selected cities with a focus on scalable and replicable clean energy and resource-efficient solutions.

This is an admirable initiative by members of the housing construction sector. It will lead to far-reaching change in ways we can barely imagine. Together with the path-breaking work on sustainable technologies done by the Indian cement industry, the impact of technologies adopted by the housing sector will lead to a sea change in the emission rate, fresh water usage, waste management and resident well-being by the industry. India’s urbanisation will then be another welcome “green revolution”.

Anirban Ghosh is the Chief Sustainability Officer at the Mahindra Group. He has been working with Group in Sales, Marketing and Strategy since 1999 and has been recognised as a distinguished CSO in his current role. A gold medal winning engineer from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, Ghosh has pursued doctoral studies in Marketing Management at IIM Ahmedabad. He enjoys music, reading, travelling, driving, cricket and tennis. He is an active public speaker and has represented the nation at the Festival of India across multiple nations.

Views of the author are personal and do not necessarily represent the website’s views.

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Effective Governance Will Sustain Asia-Pacific Economic Growth And Improve Its Quality: UN Report

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The CSR Journal

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May 2, 2017

Effective governance and improved fiscal management are essential to sustaining robust economic growth and improving its quality, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said in its annual flagship report launched on Monday. The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2017 highlights that despite a broadly positive economic outlook for 2017, Asia-Pacific economies are vulnerable to rising global uncertainty and trade protectionism.

The region’s developing economies are projected to grow at 5.0 and 5.1% in 2017 and 2018, respectively, up from 4.9% last year, according to the survey.

Economic conditions are broadly stable in China and higher value-added sectors are gradually replacing excess capacity sectors as drivers of output and employment. The continued softening of economic growth in China, projected at 6.5% in 2017 against 6.7% in 2016, reflects ongoing deleveraging and restructuring efforts to boost output in the medium term. Growth in India is forecast at 7.1% this year as re-monetisation restores consumption and infrastructure spending increases. Relatively higher oil prices are projected to lift economic growth in the Russian Federation by 1.1% in 2017 after last year’s contraction of 0.2%.

The projected moderate Asia-Pacific economic growth faces risks from rising protectionism and global uncertainty. The Survey estimates that a steeper-than-anticipated increase in these factors could reduce average regional growth in 2017 by up to 1.2 percentage points.

Launching the survey in Bangkok, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary Dr. Shamshad Akhtar emphasized that better governance for effective mobilisation and use of fiscal resources is critical to advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“As we enter the second year of the 2030 Agenda, economic growth in Asia-Pacific economies is steady but modest amid prolonged weak external demand and rising trade protectionism. Future economic growth will need to rely more on productivity gains, compared to factor accumulation,” said Dr. Akhtar.

“Sustained productivity gains, in turn, will require effective institutions and better governance, in both public and private spheres,” she added. “In addition to ensuring sustained and robust economic growth, policymakers will need to address social and environmental challenges in order to improve the quality of this growth.”

The survey highlights the importance of effective governance and fiscal management, given the high demands on fiscal policy to address the diverse challenges to sustainable development. For instance, economic expansion has been accompanied by rising income inequality with inadequate creation of decent jobs in the region, which trails the world in social protection coverage. Developing Asia-Pacific economies also use twice as many resources per dollar of GDP as the rest of the world.

To address these challenges, the survey calls for effective governance, in particular a proactive fiscal policy through productive investments in such areas as infrastructure, social protection and resource efficiency. Effective governance can for example, improve health outcomes in the Pacific, promote economic diversification in North and Central Asia and the creation of decent jobs in South and South-West Asia, reduce development gaps in South-East Asia and accelerate ecological innovation in East and North-East Asia.

The survey recommends that structural reforms could complement fiscal policy and help increase potential output. It notes that governments provide an enabling environment of policies, institutions and public services that helps factor and product markets to work efficiently.

The survey evaluates governance quality by analyzing data on rule of law, regulatory quality, control of corruption and government effectiveness. A marginal improvement of institutional quality is observed in the Asia-Pacific region, primarily from gains in East and North-East Asia and in landlocked developing countries, particularly in North and Central Asia.

The survey finds that when institutions are weak, inequalities tend to increase and the pace of poverty reduction declines. The quality of governance also affects environmental outcomes, as reflected for instance in varying capacities to make and apply environmental rules and safeguards, and initiate ecological innovation and technological transfer.

The quality of governance also impacts revenue mobilisation, as willingness to pay taxes is influenced by public perception of government expenditure efficiency. The survey further highlights the importance of transparency and accountability for better governance, and advocates for the production and dissemination of key fiscal data and development of capacity to monitor, evaluate and audit policies as essential to effective governance.

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Bajaj Wants Govt To Clarify On Tax Exemption On CSR Spending

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The CSR Journal

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May 1, 2017

Bajaj Group patriarch Rahul Bajaj has asked the government to clarify whether the Indian firms spending two per cent of their profits on corporate social responsibility, as mandated by the new company law, should get tax exemption on it.

Citing the conflicts in the tax laws, the veteran industry leader on Saturday said that when the companies spend money on charitable trust or donate to institutions as the Prime Minister Relief Fund, then they get exemptions but CSR spending is taxed.

“Today you spend money on R&D and you get 130 to 150% write off. You give money into the PM Relief Fund, you will get 100 per cent write off. On various things, you donate you get write off. Will you give it to the same organisation for CSR. You said that you would not get. There is contradiction in terms. It’s not clear at all,” Bajaj said.

However, he also said: “We do not want any exemption and incentive but there is a clear cut anomaly there.”

According to Bajaj, who is now involved with few NGOs and charitable organisations as member of the board of trustees and chairman, CSR is also like a philanthropy and “anomaly has to be clarified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Ministry of Finance”.

The Companies Act of 2013 has made it mandatory on the corporates to spend two percent of their average net profit of the past three years on corporate social responsibility-driven activities.

“It is for CII to consider whether they deem fit it to refer the concerned relevant committee to make it to the government and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Finance Ministry also,” Bajaj said while addressing the annual session of industry body CII here.

According to him, if a company spends on charitable work through CSR, then the end recipient get the amount after tax is paid. “I know people who are associated with outstanding organisations including Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, I know how difficult it is for him to get money,” he said.

Thermax Chairperson Meher Pudumjee said that there was a need to think beyond CSR activities involving public private participation.

Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co CMD Jamshyd N Godrej said that there is no short of cause for spending on social works.

According to Godrej, there is need to think beyond the traditional philanthropy leveraging intellectual, financial and human capital.

Infosys co-founder S Gopalakrishnan said more funds (as part of CSR and philanthropy) needs to be channelled into research in various areas.

Kris, as Gopalakrishnan is popularly called, has donated USD 1.8 million to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for brain research.

He has also committed funding in a brain research centre at the Indian Institute of Science and set up three chairs at the Centre for Computational Brain Research, IIT Madras.

(Business Standard)

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NABFINS And Swades Foundation Join Hands To Initiate Customised Microfinance For Rural India

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The CSR Journal

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May 1, 2017

NABARD Financial Services Limited (NABFINS), a subsidiary of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) would be initiating its direct lending operations in Raigad in partnership with Swades Foundation. Swades Foundation is working on developing the local entrepreneurial ecosystem in Raigad focused on animal husbandry, food and agro-processing units, self-help groups based small and medium businesses.

The MoU would initiate customised microfinance lending in Raigad district of Maharashtra. The partnership was formally launched at an event in Mahad recently and attended by J K Mohapatra, IAS (Retd), Chairman NABFINS, Dr B S Suran, Managing Director, NABFINS and Ronnie & Zarina Screwvala, Founding Trustees of Swades Foundation. The MoU between the two institutions was signed and 47 loans were sanctioned at the event itself.

About 500 local villagers and project beneficiaries were also present at the launch.

Speaking on the occasion, J K Mohapatra from NABFINS said, “We believe in banking to the un-banked, providing them access to affordable financial services and the partnership between NABFINS and Swades would further this objective. The strong connect that Swades has with the community is a big facilitator.”

Swades-NABFINS partnership will enable the rural households in Raigad engaged in diary activities to access the formal credit market at reasonable interest rates. As a part of the plan, over 2,500 rural entrepreneurs are expected to be benefited

Swades Foundation operates to empower rural India through the best practices, modern technology and values. “This partnership will facilitate empowerment and provide tailor made financial services for each kind of enterprise. Availability of adequate and transparent credit from formal channels shall allow the entrepreneurial spirit of the masses to increase output and prosperity and decrease forced migration to the city,” said Ronnie Screwvala from Swades Foundation.

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