Mirabai Chanu and Suruchi’s Shared Triumph

Mirabai Chanu, who has made notable contributions to Indian weightlifting, shared the prestigious Sportswoman of the Year title with Suruchi, highlighting the excellence of women in sports. The recognition of these two athletes reflects the growing recognition of women’s achievements in various sporting fields. Their accomplishments signal a strong shift towards celebrating and uplifting female athletes who continue to inspire the next generation.

Cricket Stars Make Their Mark

Women cricketers were particularly lauded at the event, with several players recognized for their extraordinary contributions to the sport. Their efforts not only improved the visibility of women’s cricket in India but also helped elevate the standard of the game. The event underscored the progress made in promoting women’s sports, showcasing how determination and talent can pave the way for future successes.

Recognition of Emerging Talents

The Sportstar Aces Awards also highlighted emerging talents who have shown potential in various sports. Suruchi’s triumph in receiving the Young Achiever award emphasizes the importance of supporting younger athletes in their developmental journey. It is crucial to create a nurturing environment that encourages budding sports talents, ensuring they have the resources and support needed to excel.

Impact of the Awards on Women’s Sports

The recognition given at the Sportstar Aces Awards serves a dual purpose. It not only honors past achievements but also aims to inspire future generations of female athletes. By celebrating the successes of women in sports, these awards play a pivotal role in changing societal perceptions and encouraging more girls to pursue sports seriously. The event signified a powerful message about gender equality in athletics, promoting inclusivity and opportunities for women.

Future of Women’s Cricket

As women’s cricket continues to gain traction, the accolades received by players and emerging talents at this year’s Sportstar Aces Awards reinforce the potential and appeal of the sport. The growing visibility and recognition may lead to further investments and grassroots development initiatives to support women’s cricket and other sports. It will be vital to maintain this momentum to ensure a brighter future for women athletes in India.

A Celebration of Excellence and Promise

The successful celebration of women’s contributions to sports at the Sportstar Aces Awards brings hope for improved opportunities and recognition for female athletes in the country. With events like these, there is a growing acknowledgment of the hard work and dedication that women athletes exhibit, paving the way for future successes. This emphasizes the importance of continuing to provide platforms for women in sports, encouraging their participation and representation on national and international stages.

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Computer literacy is no longer a bonus skill—it is the foundation for accessing jobs, services, and opportunities. Think about how much we do online now: applying for jobs, paying bills, filing documents, tracking deliveries, or even consulting doctors. A single missed step—like not knowing how to upload a PDF or fill an online form—can shut the door to opportunities. But someone who understands the basics of computers suddenly finds themselves more confident, more employable, and more independent. In many ways, digital skills have become the new passport to progress.

But with opportunity comes risk, and this is where awareness becomes crucial. The digital world is full of clever traps—fake messages from “banks,” urgent emails asking for OTPs, and websites designed to steal data. In 2025, online scams look more real than ever. Computer literacy isn’t just about using a device; it’s also about protecting yourself. Knowing how to spot red flags, verify sources, and secure accounts can save people from serious financial and emotional stress. In today’s hyper-connected world, digital safety is self-defense.

Students, especially, feel the impact of digital literacy every single day. They attend hybrid classes, search topics online, submit assignments digitally, and prepare presentations on various tools. A student who knows how to navigate the digital world learns faster, creates better projects, and feels more confident tackling academic challenges. Technology doesn’t replace learning—it amplifies it. And the earlier students develop digital comfort, the easier it becomes for them to explore, experiment, and grow.

Workplaces too have evolved dramatically. Whether someone works in a corporate office, a shop, a startup, or a government office, digital tools are everywhere. Simple skills—like maintaining sheets, creating presentations, or using communication apps—can boost productivity overnight. People who understand technology adapt faster, work smarter, and solve problems creatively. In many offices today, digital fluency decides who leads and who follows.

Computer literacy also plays a much bigger social role than we often acknowledge. It bridges the gap between urban and rural communities, between those with access and those without. A farmer who learns to use a smartphone can check crop prices instantly. A student in a small town can attend online classes from teachers who live miles away. A family in a remote village can use digital payments safely without relying on middlemen. Technology levels the playing field—but only for those who understand it.

And then there’s creativity. Digital knowledge doesn’t just help us complete tasks; it opens doors to imagination. Whether it’s coding a simple game, designing a poster, creating content, or launching a small online business, computer literacy gives people the tools to turn ideas into reality. Innovation thrives when people feel confident exploring the digital world rather than fearing it.

Ultimately, computer literacy ensures that no one is left behind as the world accelerates toward a fully digital future. It keeps society inclusive, competitive, and connected. Without these skills, people don’t just miss out—they slowly disconnect from opportunities that others access effortlessly.

So, as we celebrate 2025—a year buzzing with AI, automation, and advanced technology—it’s important to remember that true progress begins with one simple skill: knowing how to use a computer with confidence. When people become digitally literate, they aren’t just learning a tool—they’re unlocking a world of opportunities, safety, creativity, and independence.

In a world that runs on clicks, swipes, and logins, computer literacy isn’t just important.

It’s empowerment. It’s survival. It’s the power to move forward.

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This initiative transcends a mere sponsorship programme. It embodies Nippon Paint India’s pillar of “Building and Enabling Local Communities”, where the company actively collaborates with partners to address the needs of diverse groups, including students. By providing access to quality education for the next three years, Nippon Paint India equips these young minds with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive.

Nippon Paint India recognises education as a powerful tool for social transformation. Investing in the education of students facing financial challenges, is not just about providing academic support; it’s about unlocking their potential and creating a ripple effect of positive change within their families and communities. This initiative aligns with the company’s vision of fostering “inclusive growth and equitable opportunities”.

This partnership builds upon Nippon Paint India’s social endeavours of impactful CSR initiatives. The company’s ‘Rangon Ke Badshah’ campaign, for instance, empowered over 10,000 garage painters across India through skill development, social recognition, and educational grants. Such efforts demonstrate Nippon Paint’s deep-rooted commitment to giving back to society and creating a lasting impact.

According to Sharad Malhotra, Director, and President (Automotive Refinishes), Nippon Paint India, “We are delighted to extend our support to the students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds of Pragati Wheel School. Education is a powerful tool for social transformation, and by investing in these students’ futures, we hope to make a meaningful difference in their lives. This association reflects our ongoing commitment to corporate social responsibility and aligns with our vision of fostering positive change and creating a meaningful impact in society.”

Founded in 2007, Pragati Wheel School began with a mission to combat child labour and provide quality education to children facing challenges in urban settings. Recognising the economic constraints that often keep children out of school, Pragati Wheel School offers free education, nutritious meals, and essential school supplies to its students. The school’s convenient location near their homes further removes barriers to access.

According to Mr. Raman Khanna, Administrator at Pragati Wheel School, “We started Pragati Wheel School with a dream: to empower children, not just through education, but by opening doors to a brighter future. Thanks to partnerships like this with Nippon Paint, we can offer our students not only academic skills but also exposure to professional opportunities and the chance to break the cycle of poverty. This association will impact not just the children but the entire community, promoting awareness, sensitisation, and the understanding of rights and duties as model citizens.”

Nippon Paint India’s commitment goes beyond one-time initiatives. The company fosters long-term partnerships and collaborative learning platforms, ensuring the sustained progress of its beneficiaries. By supporting Pragati Wheel School, Nippon Paint India is contributing to a brighter future, not just for the students, but for their families and the wider community.

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The event began on a personal note, with members of senior management addressing the audience on TresVista’s CSR journey and its purpose. An exclusive chat with the keynote speaker, Mr. Suvendu Mishra – President, Rotary Club of Bombay Airport, was followed by panel discussions centered on the key theme and served to exemplify the power of collaboration and collective influence. The various sessions also saw all attendees in active support, with their involvement and engagement adding to the quality of the discussions taking place.

Mr. Vishal Shah, Executive Director, TresVista applauded the efforts of everyone present and said, “Over the past 16 years, with the help of our partners and employees, we have been able to define TresVista’s CSR platform. This event symbolizes what we have achieved and, more importantly, what is yet to come. The learnings from today extend beyond the workplace, with new insights gained and preparations underway to take on more volunteer work in the future. We look forward to expanding engagement opportunities with our partners and hope that our association and the impact we create continue to grow exponentially.”

TresVista’s CSR is focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and doing its part in promoting sustainability and empowering people to make long-term changes. Spread across these different SDGs, the firm’s employees dedicated more than 13,800 hours of volunteer work in FY 2023 across office locations in Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru. For 2023-24, with the aim of onboarding more partners to diversify and increase its collective impact, the firm aims to target more than 15,000 hours of volunteer work.

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India became the first country in the world to make a corporate commitment for CSR mandatory for companies beyond a certain threshold.

We are certainly in the right direction in terms of attitude, legislation and participation. However, to make interventions in the development sector work, we need more than that. We need effective strategies, efficient execution and robust measurements. This is not easy.

Hence, I am sharing my own take on effective management of CSR projects, or more generally, development projects. Given the nuances and intricacies, the development sector presents, I am sharing my thoughts in a three-part series to present why systems thinking is essential in this sector. This first piece will focus on introducing the concept of systems thinking and its relevance, the second one will talk about how it can be applied for design, execution and measurement of development sector work, and the final piece will highlight some of the skill sets required for a systems interventionist and its related challenges.

When we speak of working in the development sector, what typically comes to our mind is poverty, education, backward classes/casts, health, sanitation, water, so on and so forth. It is common to see funds being allocated to specific areas such as these, but what is more important is to understand how many (or all) of these areas interact with one another and how an individual is impacted in the ecosystem he/she is in.

Let’s consider Baahubali (I picked up a trending name), who lives in a village near a chemical company and works for the same company. He is poor and the company has allocated CSR funds for the education of the village, for which Baahubali’s son is a beneficiary. But the child (Baahubali’s son) drinks untreated water from the river nearby as he does not have a water purifier at home. The water is severely contaminated because of the chemical company, where Baahubali is employed, flushes its industrial waste into the river. Baahubali’s wife is a small-time fisherwoman and is now out of business as the contaminated water of the river has over the years killed most of the fish in the river. Baahubali’s son constantly falls ill due to drinking contaminated water and all the family earnings go in his treatments, and eventually, he has to drop out of school. Similar was the case with other families. The company eventually stopped its funds for education in the village as their measurement metrics showed a drop of student enrolment in schools over time. Several families in the village had similar experience leading to increasing deprivation, and antisocial behaviour. A village that has lived in poverty for generations is now being pushed into a bleak future of more abject poverty and dissonance.

So what did you notice? The CSR funds of the company that was going for education is a complete waste. Not only could the company do anything to educate the children in the village, but also made the situation worse for them by contaminating the river.

Let’s get more local for India – consider families in abject poverty taking small loans from moneylenders, indebted for life and constantly being harassed for payments. Add caste. Add no toilets. Add violence against women and children. The list never ends.

This is a complex problem. Complex problems cannot be solved by allocating money for CSR. This needs a very different mindset.

Systems thinking is a discipline that lends a holistic lens whilst approaching a situation. A “system” is constituted of various elements or sub-systems, which are in perennial interaction with one another leading to both intended and unintended consequences, as a result of which the system itself has emergent behaviors. We read the story of Baahubali and his village above, and we can already see some of these. Every system has a boundary, outside of which there is the environment. Hence boundaries themselves can be dynamic. What is important is not the elements per se, but the interrelationships between them, because it is the nature of the interrelationships that give character to the system. Inputs to the system are transformed within it and go out as output, which in turn informs further input with feedback.

A systems mindset helps us to appreciate complexity with a critical mindset considering a variety of impinging factors.

The development sector is faced with huge challenges and complexities. Lack of funds is just one of them, and it’s not the top one. Significant funds mobilization has been enabled through philanthropy, CSR and impact investments. But other challenges include the lack of strategic planning, efficiency in execution, poor governance, social and political interference, and the lack of integration between various initiatives operating and yet not connecting with one another. Don’t be surprised at all if there were another large company near the same village where Baahubali lives that manufactures cement and is pushing in CSR funds for better health care in the village, and yet both companies are not talking to each other!

Complex situations have their own characteristics. At the outset, they are difficult to pen-down, or sometimes even difficult to imagine. They start evolving as we get into them. We need to look beyond the surface and dig below what is evident to unearth what is not. Interestingly, different people can have their own narratives of the same problem. Every narrative is valid. While simple systems are often replicable and predictable, complex systems are self-organising and do not follow any given rules. Therefore, simple problems can be solved using a template that can be replicated from one situation to another. However, in case of complex problems, templatization does not work. Every problem is unique and requires unique approaches and highly situational perspectives.

In case of simple problems, our usual approach is to “solve” problems. In case of complex situations, we cannot just “solve” a problem, but we need to “resolve” the same. I avoid using the term “problem” and call it a “situation”. I rather ask who defines what a problem is. A situation may be called problematic by someone because of their own perspective and perspectives change from one person to another.

A systems interventionist approaches a situation with these aspects in mind and will essentially have three considerations. First, they will always look at boundaries critically. As for how we define boundaries is always subject to who is defining them based on their own understanding and perceptions. Consider the case above. Had Baahubali’s employer looked at drawing the boundary around sustainability and empowerment of the village, rather than just children’s education per se, they would have approached their CSR in very different manner. Second, the systems interventionist applies different methodologies and tools to approach the situation as they believe that multiple lenses will bring to the surface multiple nuances for the same situation. The company above would apply a range of tools to understand the situation and design the program that could lead to. The company above would apply a range of tools to understand the situation and design the program that could lead to the unearthing of the nuances of the village realities and address issues in a more substantial manner. The interventionist will be driven by a flexible mindset of evaluation and redesign, then just stopping a particular initiative if it did not show results. Third, a systems interventionist will always look for “betterment” of the situation – how the intervention can contribute towards the improvement of multiple stakeholders without compromising on the voices of the underprivileged. Baahubali’s employer would look for improvement of the village rather than just allocating funds for an activity. It would also institutionalise metrics that would look for holistic measurements and success parameters rather than tracking how many children are being educated year-on-year.

Systems thinking has inspired several methodologies over the years. These methodologies are handy for development workers through the life stages of design, implementation and measurement of interventions. Work in the development sector can be greatly benefitted by bringing into the fold approaches and methodologies inspired by systems thinking.

The next piece will talk about some of the approaches and methodologies that can be adopted for development projects and CSR.

Rajneesh Chowdhury is Vice-President at The PRactice, a strategic public relations firm. His work focuses on stakeholder engagement strategy, corporate reputation advisory and employee communications. He publishes widely in the field of management systems thinking and application.

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

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With wp-related activities now legally needing to amount to at least two percent of the profits of companies eligible under Section 135 of the new Companies Act (2013), the ICICI Bank Foundation-run Academy for Skills has tapped on to vocational training as its field of work in a step aimed towards meeting this ever-rising demand for vocationally-trained employees, who have not had the advantage of a complete formal education.

 “The courses are available for underprivileged students, beginning with a minimum educational qualification of having passed the eighth standard and with a family income lesser than 2 lakh rupees per annum. All the courses are free of cost and the students are provided with the training and all course material without any charge,” said Chinmay Sengupta, Chief Operating Officer of the ICICI Foundation at a wp Conclave recently hosted by the bank.

With centres located across nine cities and towns in the country, the Academy states that it currently has 1600 students on its rolls while 2400 students recently completed their twelve week courses and have reportedly all been placed.

The Academy has tied up with several firms to develop and teach course curriculum as well as creating placement opportunities for students. For example, while Schneider Electric’s resources are availed of for the course on subjects of electrical and home appliance repair, NIIT is a knowledge partner for the web-designing course and Cafe Coffee Day for retail cafe operations. In an announcement made by the Foundation earlier this month, the Academy signed MoUs with Spencers Retail and Bluechip Corporate Investment Centre regarding recruiting graduating students from the Selling Skills and Office Administration courses respectively. Paints and coatings company AkzoNobel has also come on board as a knowledge partner for a new course on paint application techniques.

The move is aimed at catering to a high demand for vocational training in non-technical skills, such as office administration or salesmanship. While government initiatives such as the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) do provide technical vocational training to youngsters across the country, the scope of such institutes does not cover the wide area of fields for which vocational training is needed for the presence of a desirable diverse workforce of skilled and semi-skilled people in our country.

An increase in the number of such institutes on vocational training will be a welcome boon for India’s corporate and industrial sectors. Yet, only time will tell whether these initiatives are implemented well and scaled up enough to make a significant impact in meeting India’s employment needs.

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