CSR: o9 funds menstrual health project for tribal community; sponsors football coaching and residential training camps for underprivileged children

Bengaluru, India: o9 Solutions, a leading enterprise AI software platform provider for transforming planning and decision-making, today unveiled the highlights of its CSR initiatives completed in FY22-23. From providing training for women on manufacturing low-cost sanitary pads, to football coaching and training camps for underprivileged children, and funding and sharing educational kits to children, o9’s focus areas of CSR in India are quality education, sustainable communities, industry innovation and infrastructure, healthcare, sports, environment and biodiversity, disaster relief, and others.

Highlights of o9’s CSR initiatives in FY22-23

o9’s community-based initiatives in Coimbatore

o9 is working to ensure the enhanced sanitation and hygiene of the women of the Sathyamangalam community, it also funded a menstrual health project under which the women of the same tribal community are trained to manufacture low-cost sanitary pads.

In collaboration with Read India team, o9 will help them connect them with marketplaces and assist them in selling the product in and around the communities. The girls’ students at the school will get free sanitary pads. This would improve the overall condition of hygiene among women in the community. Several awareness programs are planned to be conducted by the resource persons and the employees of o9 to raise the awareness level of girls and women in the community.

Another key CSR initiative is ‘Sports for Life,’ under which o9 ensures the well-rounded development of underprivileged children who are at risk by promoting football. It collaborated with The Freedom Project India (TFPI) to provide technical training to these children through personalized coaching and residential training camps. These focused football learning and practice sessions help children learn some essential skills and bring discipline to their lives.

Additionally, o9 has made conscious CSR interventions in the Sathyamangalam tribal community of Coimbatore. In collaboration with India Cares Foundation and Read India, o9 sponsored the distribution of educational kits to 200 children from the community.

o9’s collaboration with NITEI, Mumbai:

To boost research and innovation in the supply chain, o9 is sponsoring a joint research project on supply chain management using AI/ML technologies in collaboration with the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITEI), Mumbai.

o9’s collaboration with TSWREIS, Telangana:

o9 has a strategic collaboration with the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) to ensure that improved quality of education can be provided to female students. As part of its CSR initiative, o9 provided B. Tech curriculum books to 15 women engineering colleges in Telangana. Furthermore, o9 funded the complete renovation and donation of equipment for Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, and Biology labs for the Centre of Excellence, a girls school in Hyderabad. This initiative has enabled more than 600 girls to access fully equipped and advanced science labs.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts

o9 believes in fostering a culture of DE&I by ensuring equal representation and opportunities to everyone within and outside its ecosystem. One of the high-impact CSR initiatives of o9 was implemented in collaboration with Samarthanam Trust for Disabled, which focused on skill development and the employability of youths with special needs. The training aimed at making the candidates job ready by teaching them specific critical technical and soft skills. After completing the training, more than 75% of the candidates got a job placement in the retail, e-commerce, and hospitality sectors.

Employee Engagement

Since employee engagement is in the DNA of the organization, besides the global employee engagement initiatives, o9 harnesses the passion of its people by providing them with mentorship opportunities in collaboration with the Foundation for Excellence. Under this initiative, o9ers mentors the B. Tech students on soft skills like problem-solving attitude, communication skills, time management, presentation skills, basic technical skills, and other corporate skills, which will improve their preparedness for job interviews. The organization takes pride in stating that the project has been running successfully for the past two years, and employees are cherishing their mentorship experience.

“o9’s CSR focus and commitments are aligned with the broader goals of the company. We believe in creating shared value for our clients through our technology, which accelerates sustainability in supply chains by the optimisation of resources, thereby facilitating their net zero journey. o9 will continue to exhibit high levels of commitment in addressing the most critical problems of its stakeholders through effective Sustainability initiatives,” said Siddhartha Niyogi, Managing Director, India, o9 Solutions.