Septemer spo 2017

www.spoindia.org Vol. II

| Issue 11

| September 2017

| Rs. 50

Sushma, Smriti, Sitharaman (3s) The strong pillars in Modi Government | 20pg Shri. Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India

Smt. Smriti Irani Minister of I&B and Minister of Textiles

Smt. Sushma Swaraj Minister of External Affairs of India

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman Minister of Defence www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 1

2 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

LEAD STORY | 32

Editor-in-Chief: Deepak Kumar Sahu Executive Editor: Dr. Vijay Anand Assistant Editor: Samrita Baruah Copy Editor: C. M. Dutta Art Director: Rakesh Kumar Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar Singh Manager-IT: Subhash Mohanta Manager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera

For Indian IT organizations, CSR is a bigger gain

BUSINESS: Vice President: Prasanna Rout General Manager: Ashok Ranjan Dash Marketing Manager: Dipendra Kumar

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Kolkata: Bureau office Marketing Officer: Kiran Kumar 67 Sarada Park, Garia, Kolkata - 700 084 Mobile: 09903088480 Printed by Deepak Kumar Sahu and Published by Deepak Kumar Sahu on behalf of Deepak Kumar Sahu and Printed at Pushpak Press Pvt. Ltd. Shed No. 203 - 204, DSIDC Complex, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110 020 and Published at A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, Ignou Road, New Delhi - 110 030 Editor - Deepak Kumar Sahu

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News- 6-17 SPOI CORPORATE 18 Neo Natal intensive care (NICO) at Pune Cover Story 20 Sushma, Smriti, Sitharaman (3S) The strong pillars in Modi Government

“Saubhagya” to electrify Indian households SPOI CORPORATE 28 Aricent contributing to the technical- based economy through sustainable programs

FACE TO FACE 24 Google empowering small businesses with the power of Internet 31 NXP semiconductors helping the society for a real cause SPOI FOUNDATION 30 Nasscom foundation along with Mphasis launch the Nasscom social innovation forum

LEAD STORY 32 For Indian IT organizations, CSR is a bigger gain

SPOI ANALYSIS 26 Ambuja creating a sustainable society on the back of strong partnerships

SPOI Govt.

36 PM Modi's initiative www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 3

Information explosion has manifold advantages

……………but also some disadvantages

As the focus of industries shifts from developed countries to emerging nations, India is being seen as the next center stage for industry players from the West, China and Japan to invest in.

Rapid globalisation and increased competition make incessant demands on businesses to continuously upgrade existing products, processes, and business models to sustain the existing and add new sources of revenue. With the emergence of disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), is radically changing the way we think of technology and various aspects of our daily life. Companies are now significantly investing in Artificial Intelligenceto to boost their future businesses with the help of technology.

Supreme Court has declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right. Respecting the judgement of Justice SA Bobde, on the scope and ambit of a constitutional protection of privacy can only be revealed to us on a case-by-case basis. Justice J Chelameswar, in his concurring but separate opinion, laid down possible areas that could give rise to legal proceedings over privacy rights. These include telephone tappings, Internet hacking by State, hacking of personal data, and collection of biometric data by Union of India under the Aadhaar scheme.

It is a fact that, we are moving towards a digitally economic country and are increasing our reliance on Internet based services. We are creating deeper and deeper digital footprints. Privacy is nothing but a form of dignity, which itself is a subset of liberty. They are all equally important and of equal need in the great social order. Emphasizing on the function of Facebook, Uber etc. need to be regulated to protect privacy.

According to the judgement, non-state actors needed to be regulated to protect the rights of citizens in the digital age and they should not be allowed to exercise control over people like “big brother”.

Uber knows our whereabouts and the places we frequent. Facebook knows who we are friends with. Alibaba knows our shopping habits. Airbnb knows where we are travelling to. Social network providers, search engines, email service providers, messaging applications are all further examples of non-state actors that have extensive knowledge of our movements, financial transactions, conversations and shopping habits. The right to privacy has been traced in the decisions, which has been rendered over more than four decades to the guarantee of life and personal liberty in Article 21.”

The information explosion has manifold advantages but also some disadvantages. We are in an information age and with the growth and development of technology, more information is now easily available. The access to information, which an individual may not want to give, needs the protection of privacy. As we are in the age of big data where a large number of people would like to keep such search history private, but it rarely remains private, and is collected, sold and analysed for purposes such as targeted advertising.

Lastly, it is good to see the notification from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, shall give preferential treatment to Indian companies in the procurement of cybersecurity products, including both hardware and software used across all its departments at the center and state levels.

Deepak Kumar Sahu Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, SPO India www.spoindia.org 4 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

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www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 5

NEWS/e-Governance

DGCA invites consulting firms to help in executing its e-Governance project

A notice issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has invited applications from consulting firms to advise for execution of its e-Governance for Civil Aviation (eGCA) project. The eGCA project aims to automate the processes and functions of DGCA. The issue said that, “DGCA invites EOIs (Expressions of Interest) from reputed consulting agencies to provide consultancy services required to execute the e-Governance for Civil Aviation (eGCA) Project.”

The aviation regulator aims to provide online services to its stakeholders like automated workflow, automatic generation of Management Information System (MIS) reports, online application verification, online approval, online audit and support functions amongst others. Under this project, the regulator will also create a central, electronic repository of all records and enable an integrated workflow across functions of different directorates.

Noted, DGCA had lost its entire data set regarding safety and security of planes and pilots due to a server crash, in 2015.

NSDL e-Governance’s GST Platform Commences Operations

NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Ltd. (NSDL e-Gov), a leading e-Governance Service provider, commences operations for NSDLgst, its GST platform for providing ASP and GSP services.

This is a comprehensive and secure platform, which enables traders, dealers, businesses, chartered accountants (CAs) and tax consultants to upload invoices, file returns and upload information in the prescribed format. The platform is built using latest technolog y, combined w i t h simplicity and innovation.

This user-friendly platform can help large and medium businesses easily integrate their ERP and accounting solutions vide variety of interfaces. Moreover, the cloud based platform supports small businesses as it does not require installation of a separate IT infrastructure at the dealers end. Additionally, the platform has zero start-up time and will support an e-Sign facility, which is part of the base level service offerings. NSDLgst is one of the few platforms in the industry that offer the best security infrastructure and complete business continuity practices.

Barnala tops in Punjab in e-office Mapusa civic body takes on implementation task towards implementing Barnala district has secured the first position in implementation of "e-office" — an important project developed by NIC Punjab. e-governance

District administration has achieved this milestone with rigorous hard work of 4 months and continuous efforts of all the administrative officers and staff.

NIC Barnala has also extended its full technical support in its implementation.

B a r n a l a Mankanwal D e p u t y Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said, "Implementation of e-Office in all DC offices of the state is a big step taken by Department of Governance Reforms, Punjab to ensure good governance for the citizens. e-Office platform is targeted to replace the traditional manual movement of dak with paperless electronic movement of dak. It not only brings transparency but also ensures security of government data by saving multiple copies of data at centralized servers placed in data centers at different locations."

6 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

After resolving to implement Goa (Right of Citizens to TimeBound Delivery of Public Services) Act to provide better services to citizens, Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) is taking steps towards digitization of all records.

With an aim to take services to the doorsteps of people, the civic body is gearing up to provide e-g over nance services.

For instance, payment and renewal of trade licence, income certificate, NOC for power and electricity will soon be one click away.

The municipality has invited expression of interest from firms to develop and manage the software which will include online workflow system for application and renewal of trade licence, issuing income certificate, power and water connections, file tracking, SMS system for application tracking and maintenance of the council website.

NEWS/Digital India

216 million people under financial inclusion via Mobile Banking: A. Sundararajan

Addressing the session on – A Digital Bridge Growth –at the IACC’s (Indo-American Chamber of Commerce) in Mumbai, Aruna Sundararajan, IAS, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India, said that in the last eight months 216 million people have been brought under the ambit of financial inclusion using mobile banking. Now the number of people having bank accounts in the country has surged to 65%.

“Never before such a massive scale of enrollment in the banking sector has happened in India. It is indicative of how digital space is connecting the government with the masses and vice versa,” she said. She also referred to how the direct transfer of subsidy to the marginalized people was made possible through mobile telephony and assured that more such welfare measures would be undertaken by the government with the help of technology.

95 mobile companies set up plants in India: IT Minister

Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that 95 mobile manufacturing companies have set up their plants under the new government.

"Today 95 mobile manufacturing factories have come in India and India is becoming a big hub of electronics and mobile manufacturing. 32 have come in Noida and Greater Noida," Prasad said at Capital Foundation Annual Lecture. He was speaking on 'Emerging Digital World In India'.

"In Silicon Valley 51 per cent of new inventions are IT based and 14 per cent of those are created by Indian minds there. That is how India is emerging," Prasad said.

He said that young entrepreneurs are growing their businesses and raising hundreds of millions from investors.

"Every day we are adding 3-4 start-ups. They are IITians, they left their jobs in America and come back to India," Prasad said.

Majority of elderly feel excluded Debit and credit cards of all from India’s digital literacy drive banks accepted by Indian – Agewell Foundation study Railways

The Centre’s flagship Digital India scheme, to create a digitallyempowered society, may elude a vast section of the country’s population — the old and vulnerable — if one goes by a survey done in Delhi-NCR alone.

A majority (75 per cent) of 5,000 old people surveyed by Agewell Foundation said that lack of computer skills and digital illiteracy was affecting their life in old age adversely.

The survey found 85.8 per cent respondents to be digitally and computer illiterate. Of this, 76.5 per cent were men and 95 per cent were women, with 82.4 per cent of the digitally illiterate respondents saying they considered themselves “marginalized and under-privileged” in the new settings of society governed by modern infotech and internet.

With the rising trend of the elderly left to fend for themselves, 85 per cent respondents grumbled that their younger family members avoided communicating with them due to their inability to understand the modern digital language of communication.

Clarifying on media reports which said that the Railways is not accepting a number of financial institutions from using its payment gateway for debit cards, The Railway ministry said that it has not imposed any restrictions and debit and credit cards of all Indian banks powered with VISA and Mastercard are accepted.

IRCTC or Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation said that it has provided seven payment gateways for accepting domestic debit and credit cards and has also provided direct integration to some banks as value added service to for the convenience of its passengers.

In a circular issued, the Railways also added that direct integration with banks has additional costs. IRCTC had earlier asked banks to share a part of the transaction charge with the Railways but later on forfeited its share of the transaction charge and asked banks to pass on the benefits to the customer. www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 7

CSR/CORPORATE

Huawei India R&D Center provides clean drinking water in rural Bengaluru

Avaya with Save the Children to work for maternal and new-born healthcare services

Huawei India R&D Center has announced the inauguration of safe drinking water facilities in rural parts of Bengaluru, as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility programme. Huawei India R&D Center has identified provisioning of clean drinking water in villages and rural areas as an urgent and important need for the overall development of society. Towards contributing to this basic need, Huawei is setting up clean drinking water facilities (RO Plants) in 10 villages of Bengaluru in partnership with the MLA of Mahadevapura, and Former Minister – Higher Education and Health, Government of Karnataka, Shri Arvind Limbavali.

The RO Plants installation programme is a 50:50 partnership between Huawei and the MLA (Under the MLA Local Development Grant Scheme), to provide clean drinking water to the villages. The construction and installation of 4 such RO plants have been completed in Nallurahalli, Seetharampalya, Mullur and Panathur. Each RO Plant has a capacity to dispense 500 units of 20 litres of pure drinking water every day, which will tremendously benefit the villages.

Avaya is working with Save the Children, the international nongovernmental organization that supports children in developing nations, to improve maternal and new-born healthcare services in Pune, India. Project Kushal, which is also supported by Pune Municipal Corporation and other organizations, will give expectant mothers access to support and information through the childbirth process, while ensuring needed medical interventions can be made in time, helping to save new-born babies lives.

By deploying Avaya’s web-based video conferencing solution, the project aims to improve patient care and staff efficiency, strengthening healthcare services in the targeted region. This Avaya-sponsored initiative would benefit over 2.7 lakhs households in the Pune district of Maharashtra State.

Project Kushal will enhance mentoring and improve quality of maternal and new-born care in 16 health facilities in Pune, with an IT-enabled network connecting tertiary health-care facilities, general and maternity hospitals, dispensaries and other medical facilities.

NXP India cares for the safety of its women employees

Avaali Solutions to tackle the widening digital gap in the industry

As part of its commitment to ensure security and safety for their women employees, NXP India has provided a safety wearable device called ‘SAFER’ to female employees. The pendant was handed over to 90 women employees, who usually work late after 7 pm for various critical projects. The aim of this initiative is to ensure women feel safe at work and on their way home.

This is the first phase of the initiative, in the second phase the pendant would be distributed to all employees of the organization.

Sanjay Gupta, VP & India Country Manager, NXP India said, “At NXP, we value and promote diversity at workplace and we want our female employees to have ample of opportunities to show case their skills and calibre without being affected about security”.

8 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

As a specialist Digital Services provider, Avaali has launched The Avaali Academy.

The Avaali Academy is intended to focus on providing trainings on digital skills.

The first set of courses is intended to drive specialisation in Information Management.

In this regard, Avaali has partnered with AIIM (the Association of Information and Image Management), one of the oldest and most respected communities in Information Management.

Avaali will deliver AIIM courses in an online, classroom as well as blended learning format. The AIIM course materials and content are based on industry good practices of over 196000+ member community. Avaali will deliver conceptual as well as technical courses, aptly supported with practical case studies that will equip the participants to tackle real-world enterprise requirements.

Srividya Kannan, Founder Director of Avaali stated, “Our vision is to enable anyone, anywhere at any time to learn digital technologies that are likely to make a significant impact on enterprise performance. This will in turn help create jobs, and contribute to reducing the skill gap in enterprises. I’m excited with the possibilities this presents to Avaali to build skills for the ecosystem and enterprises worldwide, and enable enterprises function better.”

CSR/CORPORATE

SmartE partners with Delhi Metro to launch 1000 E-Rickshaws

AICTE ties-up with Youth4work to help youth showcase their skills

SmartE has announced the launch of 1000 Electric Rickshaws in Gurgaon, in partnership with Delhi Metro. The service was flagged off at HUDA City Center Metro Station by Honourable Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari.

Joining Gadkari for the launch were Honourable Minister of State for Urban Development, Shri Rao Inderjit Singh and Managing Director, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Dr Mangu Singh.

SmartE has forged an exclusive partnership with DMRC to offer services from key metro stations in the cities of Gurgaon and Faridabad. SmartE and DMRC are also closely working to enable Metro Smart Cards for SmartE ride payments and to drive the adoption of a ‘Common Mobility Card’ concept.

The vehicles which are completely ‘Made in India’ are loaded with features including GPS tracking and sensors. The vehicles are designed keeping passengers safety and comfort in mind. SmartE has priced its service very economically with fares starting at Rs 10 for first two kms and Rs 5 per km thereafter.

All India Council of Technical Education, under which more than 10,300 technical institutions & about 80 Lac students are regulated, signed an MOU with Youth4work.com that has over 21 Lac Youth across India tested and profiled for their skills.

The aim of the MOU is to get all students under AICTE to get access to Youth4work’s Skill based test online for Building their skill profiles and get Internship & Job opportunities.

Rachit Jain, CEO of Youth4work says, “Being an engineer myself, I really believe that there is no dearth of Skills in Indian Institutes, The challenge for every student in India is to identify his/her own talent and showcase it in front of the world. India has 16 Lac technical students graduating every year, which is more than population of most cities across the world. The problem that companies are facing today is to find the right person for the right job with the right skillset and that’s what Youth4work is trying to doby showcasing the uniqueness and skills in front of employers.”

H&R Johnson to aid the visually impaired through the Tactile Campaign

Canon India celebrates 2nd Anniversary of Sol Gohalia Village adoption

H&R Johnson (India) has launched the second phase of their “Red Ramp Project” to spread awareness in order to make India accessible for the visually impaired with the use of tactiles in public spaces. This Campaign is a second initiative of the “Red Ramp Project” executed in 2015 by Johnson Tiles.

Conceptualized

by Soho Square, the campaign features Adwait Marathe, a person who is blind since birth yet is an established actor, singer and a theatre personality in real life. He portrays how tactiles help him commute independently in his daily life. The campaign is about instilling self-confidence in the minds of the visually disabled to be able to move around independently with the support of better infrastructure across the country. This campaign will hopefully nudge every individual to contribute in some small capacity starting by looking at the public places around them with sensitised eyes.

Canon India has marched forward with its social endeavours.

Started in 2012, Canon India’s flagship CSR programme, “Adopt a Village”, incorporates four adopted villages at present. Adopted in 2015, 40 kms from Kolkata, Canon’s fourth village, “Sol Gohalia” denotes its second commemoration of adoption.

This is yet another milestone in the journey of the “Adopt a Village” programme, which focuses on comprehensive advancement of communities dwelling in these villages. Home to more than 4,500 people earning their employment from daily labour, irrigation and small businesses, Sol Gohalia in the past two years witnessed noteworthy improvements in the fields of 4E’s-eye care, education, environment, and empowerment leading to holistic progress and development. www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 9

NEWS/GOVT.

Centre takes up Rs 34,000 cr road Close to one crore citizens projects to decongest Delhi join the Swachhata Hi Seva The Centre has taken up highway projects worth Rs 34,100 crore to decongest the national capital and sought Delhi Campaign government's support in expediting the work.

Chairing a high-level meeting on 'Projects on Decongestion of Delhi, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said a

comprehensive exercise for decongesting arterial road network of national highways connecting NCT Delhi was on.

He further said that projects were being expedited and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has taken up comprehensive development and decongestion of NH-1, NH-8 and NH-24. The NH-1, NH-2, NH-8, NH-10 and NH-24 converge in Delhi.

Government provides additional Rs.12000 Crores to tackle malnutrition

The Government has provided an additional Rs.12000 Crores to fight malnutrition over next three years in the country by revising cost norms for supplementary nutrition provided in anganwadis and in the scheme for adolescent girls.

Briefing media persons in New Delhi, Secretary, WCD Shri Rakesh Srivastava said that the government has effected a quantum increase of about 33% in cost norms, which have been revised for the first time since 2011 in the case of ICDS. In the case of Scheme for Adolescent Girls, cost norms have been increased first time since 2010.

With this, an additional Rs.9900 Crore have been given for supplementary nutrition in anganwadis over the next three years and Rs.2276 Crores in the scheme for adolescent girls over the next three years, he explained. This reflects commitment of the government to tackle malnutrition on a war footing as reflected in Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji’s vision, Shri Srivastava said.

10 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

The nation-wide Swachhata Hi Seva campaign is now entering its second week. The inaugural week saw a wave of cleanliness activities across the country.

In Chennai to keep the city ‘clean and green’, a battery of Judges from the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court joined hands with public, students, officials of the district administration, city corporation, police, Public Works and Income Tax departments in a massive cleaning drive along the Vaigai river.

In Maharashtra 430 GPs have been declared ODF and over 58 thousand toilets have been constructed since September 15th.

In what can be described as an act of deep commitment, sand artist, Sudarshan Pattnaik, used his award money to construct two toilets for fisherman in Puri, Odisha after receiving a personal letter from the Hon’ble Prime Minister to engage with the cause of swachhata. A young girl from Bihar created a song on Swachhata which is drawing significant attention and accolades.

Empowering the Soldier by Project Yash Vidya

A MoU was signed by Lt Gen Ashwani Kumar, AG, IHQ of MoD (Army) and Prof. E Vayunandan, Vice Chancellor, Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), Nasik on 21 Sep 2017 at New Delhi to empower the soldiers.

The Bachelor’s degree Programme designed for the Army Personnel gives special recognition to the in-service training/ Army courses completed and by providing exemption from studying certain courses. Apart from the highly subsidised fees charged, the courses offered for study by the university have been carefully selected on the basis of their relevance and overall usefulness.

The University will award Diploma in Self Empowerment and a Bachelors Degree in Arts or Commerce under PROJECT YASH VIDYA enabling them with academic qualifications for better future.

NEWS/GOVT.

Canadian delegation discusses uranium and nuclear energy collaboration with DoNER

Cabinet approves Revamped Khelo India Programme

A high-level Canadian delegation comprising Brian Parrott from the High Commission of Canada and James A. Dovchuk, President, Cameco called on the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh for discussion on various aspects of uranium and nuclear/atomic energy collaboration with India. They acknowledged and complimented the Department of Atomic Energy, GOI for having distinguished itself as an internationally known Uranium and nuclear/atomic energy establishment.

Dr Jitendra Singh referred to traditional friendly relations between India and Canada which, he said, made it far more comfortable and easy for the two nations to collaborate at different levels and in different areas. He expressed the hope that in future, the overall collaboration between the two nations is bound to gain more momentum.

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the revamped Khelo India programme at a cost of Rs.1,756 crore for the period 201718 to 2019-20.

This marks a watershed moment in the history of Indian sports, as the Programme aims at mainstreaming sport as a tool for individual development, community development, economic development and national development.

The revamped Khelo India Programme would impact the entire sports ecosystem, including infrastructure, community sports, talent identification, coaching for excellence, competition structure and sports economy.

The programme strives to raise the standards of competition, both at school and college level, to have maximum access to organized sports competitions. This programme also strives to promote “Sports for All” as well as “Sports for Excellence.”

PM dedicates Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation

Union Home Minister to check cybercrime in the financial sector

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi dedicates the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation, at Kevadia in Gujarat. The height of the dam was recently raised to 138.68 metres, facilitating a usable storage of 4.73 Million Acre feet (MAF). This will greatly benefit the participating States of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The project has helped transport the waters of the River Narmada, to the waterdeficient areas of Gujarat through an elaborate canal and pipeline network. Irrigation from the project is expected to benefit about 10 lakh farmers, and drinking water to be supplied to various villages and towns which is likely to benefit upto 4 crore people. The project has been described as one of largest ever human endeavours for water transport. Upto a billion units of hydropower are also expected to be generated annually.

Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting of all concerned agencies and representatives of certain States to review the measures being taken to arrest the growing trend of cybercrime in the financial sector. He expressed concern over the disturbing rise in cyber frauds using cards and e-wallets in particular.

The strategies being adopted to check financial cybercrimes were discussed in detail. Officers from various agencies made presentations and appraised the Home Minister of the current trends of financial cybercrimes in the country and the steps being taken by their agencies to address this challenge.

It has been noted that both legal and technological steps need to be taken to address this situation. Capacity building of various stakeholders such as police officers, judicial officers, forensic scientists as well as officials in the banking sector has been identified as a key measure. It has been decided to expedite the implementation of cybercrime prevention initiatives in these agencies towards this end along with measures required to acquire critical cyber forensics equipment. www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 11

NEWS/Technology

Rural Telangana to get solar technology from Verizon and IIT Madras

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras) and Verizon Data Services India have come together to take solar technology to rural Telangana. IIT Madras, in collaboration with Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Limited (TSSPDCL) and Rural Electrification Corporation, has taken up this project to provide uninterrupted power using solar technology to 300 households spread across four hamlets in rural Telangana.

IIT Madras developed this Solar Technology, which was technology transferred to and commercialized

by Cygni Energy Private limited, an IIT Madras-incubated firm, which also carried out the installations. Verizon provided financial assistance of Rs.75 lakh under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for this project.

Ramunigundla Thanda, Kesya Thanda, Jogi Thanda and Mantriya Thanda are four rural hamlets of Devarakonda Mandal in Nalgonda District, Telangana. Predominantly dependent upon paddy and cotton farming for livelihoods, the hamlets are about 100 kms from Hyderabad, located on Nagarjunsagar Road near Mallepalli.

WWF-India with Capgemini launches environment education portal

WWF-India in partnership with Capgemini has launched One Planet Academy (OPA), an environment education portal for students and teachers in India. Leveraging the affinity of today’s learners towards technology, the website focuses on various environmental themes and is a digital hub for schools, teachers and students that brings under its ambit a digital training and resource centre. The OPA is designed to be a one-stop destination for educational information and interactive and engaging content on the environment and sustainable practices. The website encourages schools to adopt green practices, offers project and activity ideas for the teachers, along with online training courses, and houses games, comics, interactive maps etc, for the students.

According to the Living Planet Report 2016, released by WWF, the global population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles has declined by 58 percent between 1970 and 2012. The report also shows that India ranks fifth in terms of bio-capacity – an ecosystem’s capacity to produce resources such as food, fibre and renewable raw materials and absorb carbon dioxide and the country’s carbon footprint currently makes up 53% of the country’s overall Ecological Footprint.

Gemalto uses its IoT connectivity HireMee’s Skill Testing App in OnKol mHealth solution connects Graduates with Gemalto has announced the use of its IoT connectivity technology in OnKol’s mHealth solution. Enabled by Gemalto’s Employers wireless module, the smart hub connects the elderly and those with special needs to their family and caregivers, allowing them to live in their own home safely, independently and comfortably.

With the population of older individuals due to double in

size by 2030 and the ratio of potential caregivers to decrease by over fifty percent2, new technology must rise to meet the need for quality care. However, adoption rates amongst elderly patients have been low as current mHealth options are often too complicated.

Designed for stylish simplicity, the award-winning OnKol hub removes barriers to technology adoption and encourages engagement without intimidation. Straight out of the box, it can notify family members, caregivers, and even medical professionals of everything from vital signs to medication reminders to emergency response situations.

12 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

HireMee, a digital portal and mobile application has joined hands with All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) to connect thousands of recruiters with tens of thousands of students spread across mini metros and deep interiors of the country with the first of its kind skill testing recruitment platform.

Under the agreement HireMee will provide its unique placement solution to students of colleges and institutions affiliated to AICTE. The Council will, in turn, support HireMee to expand the scope of its portal and app by helping expand its reach among AICTE accredited institutions.

Dr Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of AICTE, said, “HireMee is a dream come true app for the youth looking for jobs. By locating the right candidate for a job, HireMee will not only bridge the “recruiter-student” gap but will also contribute to employment generation in the country especially the rural literate population. The MOU was vetted by AICTE teams to assess its value to the student community.”

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www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 13

CSR/PSU

Indian Aviation Academy’s new campus inaugurated

Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has inaugurated the new campus of the Indian Aviation Academy (IAA).

The institute was set up in 2010 as collaboration among Airports Authority of India (AAI), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The new campus is spread over eight acres and has 12 training halls, a hostel, an open air theatre, two gymnasiums and other sports and recreational facilities.

With the inauguration of the new facility, IAA aims to train double the number of students each year.

I A A runs training programmes in airport operations, aviation safety, airport engineering and planning, air cargo management, environment concerns in aviation, besides regulatory training through DGCA and security training through BCAS, according to a statement.

Oil PSUs contribute Rs 15 crores towards Gujarat CM Flood Relief Fund

Six Central Oil PSUs viz. ONGC, IOC, BPCL, HPCL, GAIL and OIL have contributed Rs 15 Crore to the Flood Relief Fund of the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat to aid the flood affected people of the State. While ONGC and IOC have contributed Rs 3.2 Crore each, the other four PSUs have contributed Rs 2.15 Crore each.

A cheque of Rs. 15 crores was handed over to Shri Vijay Ramniklal Rupani, Chief Minister of Gujarat by the representatives of Oil companies led by ONGC CMD Shri D K Sarraf at the CM’s Office in Ahmedabad yesterday.

Additionally, as part of its CSR initiative ONGC’s Ahmedabad and Mehsana Asset had carried out flood relief activity through distribution of food packets, drinking water, preventive medicine, utensil sets and hygiene kits in association with the district administration in the districts of Banaskantha, Palanpur and Patan.

A state of the art dewatering unit was also pressed into service for removal of flood water from a 66 KV power Sub Station which supplies electricity to the entire Gandhinagar District.

NCL promotes U 17 FIFA Football NTPC Organises RTI Workshop A Workshop on RTI was held at NTPC, PMI-Noida. The World Cup programme was inaugurated by Director (HR), Shri S. Roy and

To promote Under-17 FIFA Football World Cup 2017 scheduled in October 2017, NCL is organising Football Tournament from 15th September to 24th September under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ambit of the company.

As a part of inaugural ceremony, Chief Guest, S.K. Jha, General Manager (CSR), NCL flagged off the tournament in Karela on 15th September, 2017. T.B. Raju, GM (Personnel) and Bikul Borthakur, GM (Civil/CSR) graced the occasion as guests of honour.

The 10-day tournament, lasting up to September 24th, 2017, will be played under rural and urban genre. Opening match of the tournament was played under ‘Rural’ genre between Karela and Barmani village in which the host team, Village Karela won by 2-0. In this sequence, second match of the tournament was played between Pipra and Birkunia village in which the team of Village Pipra registered a whopping victory by 4-1.

14 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

ED(CP) Shri P. Purkayastha. The objective of the Workshop was to promote, awareness, update the development in RTI field and to have an effective communication between APIOs and RTI Cell.

The Portal for internal communication was also displayed and suggestions regarding the same were sought from the participants.

In his Inaugural Speech D(HR) stressed on the importance of

timely disposal of RTI queries and make the internal Portal effectively functioning by one month.

CPIO, Shri S. Nandan delivered a Session on NTPC’s RTI experience, achievements, issues and challenges while RTI Consultant, Shri O P Khorwal delivered his Session on overall RTI scenario. Ex-CPIO, Shri M.K. Goyal discussed the evolving nature and spectrum of RTI for last 1 year.

CSR/PSU

Upgraded Belagavi Airport inaugurated

Coal India organizes its 40th Annual General Meeting

The upgraded Belagavi Airport was inaugurated by Shri Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister of Karnataka and Shri P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister for Civil Aviation in the august presence of Shri Ananth Kumar, Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs; Member of Parliament Shri Sanjay B. Patil, Member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Smt. Sanjyot Bandekar, Mayor, Belagavi City Corporation as the guests of honour.

The New Terminal, a centrally air-conditioned building, with an area of 3,600 sqm has a capacity to handle 300 peak hour passengers at a time. It has all essential passenger friendly amenities and conveniences and is provided with CUTE-enabled Check-in Counters, Baggage Conveyors, Elevator, Public Address System, Fire Fighting & Fire Alarm System, Flight Information Display System (FIDS), CCTV, Baggage scanners and Car parking etc.

Coal India’s 40th Annual General Meeting was held in Science City Auditorium, Kolkata on 10th September 2014. The meeting with the shareholders of the company, chaired by Dr. A K Dubey, (IAS), Chairman CIL was attended by Functional Directors of Coal India, Shri R Mohan Das, Director (Personnel & Industrial Relations); Shri N Kumar Director (Technical); Shri B K Saxena, Director (Marketing) and Shri A Chatterjee, Director (Finance). Smt. Sujata Prasad, (IAS), JS & FA, Ministry of Coal, also attend the meeting.

To begin with Chairman, CIL enumerated the performance of the company for the fiscal 2013-14, highlighting the important issues. In the subsequent question hour there were many queries expressed by the shareholders of company on various issues, which were replied by Chairman and other Directors of CIL.

CCL felicitates widows, family members of martyrs

NSIC sets up Vocational Training Centre in Gambia

Central Coalfields Limited felicitated widows and family members of martyrs to mark the ongoing celebration of 70 years of Indian Parliamentary Democracy here at Mahatma Gandhi Kridaangan, Gandhi Nagar Colony, Ranchi. The company has organised a five-day long “Exhibition cum seminar” on 'New India- We Resolve to Make' in association with Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, supported by DAVP and Song & Drama Division (Ministry of Information & Broadcasting).

Director (Pers), CCL RS Mahapatro was the Chief Guest on the occasion. Chief Medical Services (CCL) Dr. R R Sinha, Dr. R K Singh, Dr. C P Dhan, Vinita Sharan, Sunita Mehta and others were present during the felicitation ceremony.

The widows and family members who were felicitated include Shushma Shukla, mother of Lt Colonel Sankalp Shukla; Urmila Kerketta, widow of Praveen Nayak Vishwa Kerketa; Bablu Marandi, brother of martyr L. Nayak Bihari Marandi; Suchita Tirkey, widow of martyred Havildar Prabhu Sahay Tirky, Goreti Tirkey, mother of Saheed Kuldeep Lakra; Anastasia Horo, widow of Saheed Francis Horo.

NSIC has successfully set up a Vocational Training Centre and Incubation Centre at Banjul, Gambia and handed over to Ministry of Trade, Industries, Regional Integration and Employment (MOTIE), Govt of Gambia on 12th September, 2017.

The project was handed over by A. K. Mittal, Director (Finance), NSIC to Her Excellency Madam Isatou Touray, Hon’ble Minister of Trade, Industries, Regional Integration and Employment in presence of Madam Naffie Barry, Permanent Secretary – MOTIE; T. Baskaran, Counsellor, Embassy of India; Binod Kumar, Chief Manager, NSIC and Officers of Gambia Technical Training Institute & Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Additionally, NSIC also organized a nation-wide campaign beginning from 15 Sept.2017 at all the #NSIC offices across the country. Shri Ravindra Nath, #CMD, NSIC administered a “Swachhta Shapath” (Pledge) to the employees. Ravindra Nath, CMD, NSIC stated that each one of us knows about the importance of cleanliness and Hygienic work environment which can improve the productivity considerably. www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 15

CSR/NGO

HCL Foundation begins ‘My School’ Project’ with Gautam Budh Nagar district administration

HCL Foundation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the District Administration of Gautam Budh Nagar for ‘My School’ Project – a unique initiative by HCL, to improve the quality of education in 35 government schools of Noida.

This MoU is a long-term commitment towards provision of quality education to children studying in these schools. Implemented under ‘My School’ banner – it is a model project where HCL Foundation and District Administration work together to achieve the larger goal – Quality Education for All! Sh. Pankaj Singh, Member of Legislative Assembly, Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar said, “We need more such projects that focus on strengthening the quality of education in our schools in my constituency. I am confident that this programme will be a unique model of its kind, where government and corporate will work together to achieve standards of holistic education for children coming to state schools.”

Infosys Foundation signs MoU with VJNNS

Infosys Foundation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Visakha Jilla Nava Nirman Samithi (VJNNS) to construct 100 gravity fed water supply systems in tribal villages of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The endowment of INR 5.92 crore will be used to promote good sanitation practices and create efficient water management systems in all target villages.

VJNNS an NGO in Andhra Pradesh, aims at making potable drinking water available to remote tribal villages in the districts of Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam. Through this partnership, Infosys Foundation intends to provide an impetus to VJNNS’s objective of constructing a gravity fed water supply system that will help 100 tribal villages and 40,000 beneficiaries using pipelines. This will not only help enhance health but also aid in reducing water-borne diseases.

Speaking about the MoU, Sudha Murty, Chairperson of Infosys Foundation, said, “Drinking water supply and sanitation in India continue to be a key concern. The Foundation endeavors to promote good sanitation practices and aims to train local communities to effectively manage water supply systems through workshops. Under this project, local communities will also be taught to manage a village development fund.”

16 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

Dreamz Foundation arranges for a meeting of young cancer patients with TV actress

Dreamz Foundation, a KGK initiative has created the opportunity for cancer-afflicted kids to meet Balika Vadhu fame actor, Smita Bansal.

When Indian Television and Bollywood film actress, Smita Bansal met child cancer patients, there was a smile on their faces and glow in their eyes. The actress reached Bhagwan Mahaveer Cancer Hospital to meet child cancer patients who are being treated there. The actress spent quality time with the kids and fulfilled their wishes that brought happiness to their faces.

Seeing Smita Bansal the child cancer patients were very excited and overjoyed. Some of them asked for a selfie and also took her autograph.

Seeing the enthusiasm of the children, Smita Bansal said, “We should learn from these children that how they scatter happiness around the world with taking a positive shape in life and with a smile on their face even after fighting against a dreadful challenge in their lives on daily basis. These children spread a positive energy.”

Vodafone Foundation Instant Network Team deployed in areas devastated by Hurricane Irma

Vodafone Foundation Instant Network team is preparing to deploy Instant Network equipment in Guadeloupe to connect rescue workers and to enable affected families to contact their relatives. The deployment of Instant Network 3G will provide connectivity, supporting the humanitarian relief programme, while Instant Charge will provide free mobile charging to

communities in areas with no power. The Vodafone Foundation Instant Network is being taken to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe to provide communications support in the areas worst affected

by Hurricane Irma.

The Instant Network team will offer support to local operators and will work alongside Télécoms Sans Frontières to help re-establish mobile communications, helping aid workers communicate during the relief effort and enabling people to contact their loved ones following the devastating hurricane.

NEWS/Urban Development

Smart cities to rise to a new level New PPP policy for affordable of monitoring Housing announced

Smart cities in the making are set to rise to an entirely a new level of monitoring and delivery of civic services through digitally integrated Central Command and Control Centres, said Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary (Housing & Urban Affairs), Government of India. He said so while inaugurating a day long ‘Learning and Experience Sharing Workshop on Digitally Integrated Command and Control Centres under Smart City Mission’ in Mumbai.

Shri Mishra further said that these centres would serve as the ‘brain centres’ of smart cities for ensuring effective coordination in the functioning of various agencies of urban local bodies resulting in improved monitoring and delivery of services to citizens. He said that with these centres based on a host of censors connected to a central server function as the ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ of cities as well by enabling monitoring of garbage collection and it’s transportation truck-wise, filling and emptying of garbage collection bins, traffic and red light violation, noise pollution etc.

Central Government has announced a new PPP Policy for Affordable Housing that allows extending central assistance of up to Rs.2.50 lakh per each house to be built by private builders even on private lands besides opening up immense potential for private investments in affordable housing projects on government lands in urban areas.

Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs Shri Hardeep Singh Puri announced this policy that gives eight PPP (Public Private Partnership) options for private sector to invest in affordable housing segment. He was addressing the ‘Real Estate & Infrastructure Investors Summit-2017’ organized by real estate body NAREDCO in Mumbai. Shri Puri explained that this policy seeks to assign risks among the government, developers and financial institutions, to those who can manage them the best besides leveraging under utilized and un-utilized private and public lands towards meeting the Housing for All target by 2022.

Andhra Pradesh to be declared ODF by March 2018

NBCC bags Rs 3,200 crore project in Mumbai from Finance Ministry

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri N Chandrababu Naidu, announced that Andhra Pradesh will be declared ODF by March 2018. This was announced during a Collectors’ Conference in Vijaywada, as a part of the Swachhata Hi Seva Campaign.

Adding momentum to this drive more than 2 lakhs toilet pits were dug on 17th September in Madhya Pradesh.

These are targeted to be converted into one lakh toilets by 2nd October.

In Maharasthra, the focus has been on Shramdaan and IPC, during the week. In J&K, the administration and masses came together to make their areas swachh.

Cleanliness Drive was carried out in important and iconic places and Solid and Liquid Resource Management activities were undertaken in Mizoram. Solid and Liquid Resource Management was also the key focus in Chhattisgarh.

State-owned construction firm NBCC said that it has bagged Rs 3,200 crore project from the Union Finance Ministry to develop a residential-cum-office complex in Mumbai.

In a BSE filing, NBCC informed that it has got LOI (letter of intent) from Department of Customs and Excise for "planning, designing and construction of office complex and residential quarters at Wadala, Mumbai amounting to Rs 3,200 crore on self-revenue generation model".

NBCC has an order book of Rs 75,000 crore at present and hopes that the figure will reach to Rs 1 lakh crore soon.

T h e company, which is under the administrative control of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, is present in three main segments - Project Management Consultancy (PMC), Real Estate Development and EPC Contracting. www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 17

SPOI corporate

Neo Natal Intensive Care (NICU) at Pune S

ector in which the Project is covered - Finolex Industries Limited (FIL) conducts its CSR activities in sectors of Healthcare, Education, Water Conservation and Community Welfare with its CSR partner Mukul Madhav Foundation (MMF). Upgradation of Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) facility at Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) was one of the biggest project undertaken in FY16-17. This project was covered under the Healthcare Sector.

Geography of the Project - Upgradation of Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) facility at Sassoon General Hospital (SGH). This project is one of its kind because for the very first time a corporate joined hands with a government hospital for such a noble initiative. Sassoon General Hospital is one of the most popular and the busiest hospitals in Western Maharashtra.

Though t h e

18 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

project has no geography limits, people in and around Maharashtra avail these free services.

Implementation Partner (whether direct implementation or through an implementing agency) - It was a project between Finolex Industries and Mukul Madhav Foundation and Sassoon G e n e r a l Hospital which was

implemented directly.

Project Budget - A total of 3.8 crores were spent on this project.

Project Duration - The project was initiated in November 2016 and concluded in the month of April 2017.

Modalities/Procedures adopted for selection of the project Mukul Madhav Foundation and Finolex Industries responded to an appeal received from the Dean Dr. Chandanwale of Sasson General Hospital to help upgrade its 35 bedded under equipped NICU. Having received this appeal, teams from Mukul Madhav Foundation did a thorough verification of this situation and a project report prepared revealed that not only there was a requirement to upgrade the 35 bed NICU but also to add more number of beds. Additionally, facilities for comforts of mothers, rest room for doctors and a milk bank was also attached to this ward.

Sassoon General Hospital is the only urban tertiary care referral center in Pune and areas around Maharashtra. It is the only center with multi-specialty services and lifesaving equipment. Choosing this center was due to its connection to BJ Medical College which speaks of quality and availability of doctors’ / nurses 24/7.

The commitment and cooperation by Dr. Chandanwale and his team’s swiftness made it easier to work and complete this project within a span of 7 months and the NICU was up and running within 7.5 months with the state of the art infrastructure and equipment.

Details of Base Line Survey/Study conducted if any - According to the data provided by Hospital authorities, on an average there were 900 deliveries per month. It is important to note on average 15% of these new born require special support and assistance at birth and this is where the need was felt to commit to this project. Therefore, its commitment to upgrade and uplift the number of beds at Sassoon General hospital was inevitable.

Grounds for selection of beneficiaries

- It is a government hospital / institution where the authorities of the hospital are in-charge of verifying and checking backgrounds. Proofs like ration cards are vetted to proceed with admissions and concessions.

Procedures adopted for monitoring of the project Mukul Madhav Foundation (MMF) and Finolex Industries Ltd. (FIL) have signed an MOU with Sassoon to have monthly committee meetings to review the functionality of this ward. These meetings have data of admission, procedures and mortality. Before the inauguration, 60 nurses from this ward were sent to 2 institutions viz. KEM under the able guidance of Dr. Umesh Vaidya and Dr. Pradip Surywanshi at Bharti Vidhyapeeth for training in their specialized NICUs. This was an initiative of MMF and a requirement mentioned in the MOU. MMF made a commitment that 50% remuneration of neonatologist will be paid by MMF and FIL and 50%

by SGH. All these steps are an initiative to show its ongoing commitment and involvement into the project. This shared vision for a better society doesn’t stop at funding. They take control of the reins and steer forward amidst a transparent system.Mukul Madhav Foundation has identified the true pain points of society and has fervently worked to cure the same. Focussed on the causes

The NICU facility at Sasoon General Hospital inaugurated by Smt. Mukta Tilak, Pune Mayor; Shri. Dilip Kambale, State Minister for Social Justice Maharashtra; Ritu Chabria, Managing Trustee, Mukul Madhav Foundation; Shri. Girish Mahajan, Minister for Medical Education and Water Resource, Maharashtra; Shri. Anil Shirole, Member of Parliament; Shri. Ashok Godse, President, Shreemant DagdusethHalwai Ganpati Trust, Pune; Shri. Girish Bapat, Minister for Food and Civic Supplies Maharashtra , Guardian Minister Pune of health, education and empowerment of the unprivileged; it envisions expanding and reinforcing the efforts in future.

With its incredible consistency of efforts, regular and dedicated follow-ups and transparent practices it has laid a path for

Prakash Chhabria, Chairman Finolex Industries; Shri. Ashok Godse, President, ShreemantDagduseth Halwai Ganpati Trust, Pune; Mrs. Ritu Chhabria, Managing Trustee, Mukul Madhav Foundation; and Dr. Ajay Chandanwale, Dean of Sasoon General Hospital

philanthropy Assessment / Evaluation conducted by the company Monitoring and Evaluation can help in enhancing the ability to consult, coordinate and engage. As a corporate a well-structured monitoring and evaluation process leads to identification of relevant issues in a time-bound manner which in turn can enhance the ability to address the issues through proper performance indicators of CSR activities.

Finolex Industries is also working with various authorities in Pune and Satara to upgrade services at PHC levels so that they can deal with the issues locally and they don’t have to rush to cities. It is also in the process of equipping 108 BVG ambulances with neonatal consoles to transport infant babies which will be safer and of great support for its survival. These consoles are seen and verified by doctors and are logistically allocated in and around Pune. l

www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 19

COVER STORY

Sushma, Smriti, Sitharaman (3S) The strong pillars in Modi Government "Success of democracy is impossible without participation of the people," said Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. It is true that India is the largest democracy in the world and citizens here are highly enthusiastic to be a part of governance."

In a recent development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the formation of a five-member panel to advise him on economic issues as he faces a slew of provincial elections in the coming months and a general election in 2019. He also unveiled a $2.5-billion programme to ensure electricity for all households, which may help boost the rural economy.

The significance of the current reshuffle is the rise of women power in the Modi Cabinet. The Ministries of External Affairs, Defence and Information & Broadcasting are the key departments in governance. The Modi Government has six women with charismatic persona in its Cabinet of 27 ministers, including two – External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Smt. Sitharaman – in the powerful Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). The other women ministers in the Cabinet are Maneka Gandhi, Smt. Smriti Irani, Uma Bharati (all from BJP) and Harsimrat Kaur Badal (SAD MP).

Six women in the Cabinet are a record and it is a strong message of women empowerment to the world, and the Modi Government won’t shy away from giving important portfolios 20 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

Shri. Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India to women. Textiles Minister Smt. Smriti Irani, who was recently given an additional charge of the all-important I&B Ministry, is considered pitch-perfect for spearheading the government’s information machinery ahead of the 2019 elections and countering the Congress attacks. Smt. Sushma Swaraj continues to be an asset to the government with her citizen-centric handling of the External Affairs Ministry and political pragmatism she brings to the CCS. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all praise for External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj’s sterling achievements and her Ministry has set an example of effectively using social media to deliver good governance and help Indians in distress in any part of the world. Social media has become very powerful.

“The External Affairs Ministry and Smt. Sushma Swaraj has set the best example of how a government department can be strengthened through its use,” Prime Minister Modi said in his address to the Indian diaspora during a community event in Virginia.

Achievements

Smt. Sushma Swaraj Minister of External Affairs of India “The objective is to achieve peace, tranquility through diplomacy,” External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj said in a press conference on the key initiatives of her ministry in three years of the Modi Government. She also described the proposed changes in H-1B visa as a "matter of concern". She said the Government was engaged with the Donald Trump administration, as well as US Congressmen on the issue, and was "alert" to any possible negative impact.

India-US ties are progressing under the Trump administration as they were during the Obama Presidency, and the pace has not slowed down.

Smt. Sushma Swaraj further added, “80,000 Indians, stranded in foreign countries, have been rescued in the last three years.” She would like to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and her deputies Shri M.J. Akbar and General V.K. Singh for her ministry’s achievement. “I bifurcated the work after deep introspection. I assigned field work to General (V.K. Singh) and dialogues to journalist (M.J. Akbar),” Mrs Swaraj said.

She further rejected Trump’s allegations that India will receive benefits by signing the Paris agreement. “India did not sign the Paris agreement under duress or for monetary benefits,” Mrs Swaraj said. By speaking on the Kashmir issue, Mrs Swaraj said there was no flip-flop on the part of the government in handling Pakistan. “Pakistan cannot take Kashmir issue to the

• I would like to thank the Prime Minister. Because of his efforts, other nations have become so willing to stand with India and be there for India when the need arises.

• India's relations with nations from around the world have improved significantly. We have closer ties with almost every nation, than what we used to have till a few years ago.

• Today, Indians settled abroad are proud of their country of origin. Their confidence is at an all-time high.

• Indians who are travelling abroad have their trust and confidence that the Indian high commissions, embassies and officials will be there for them in a time or situation of need at the click of a button or a phone call.

• Our government believes in effective diplomacy, efficient delivery. We have proven it.

• We have come a long way in the process of issuing passports.

• Under Trump administration, India-US relations are growing at the same pace as the Obama Administration.

• There has been no change in that. India and the U.S. have a relationship of mutual benefit.

• PM Modi has spoken to President Trump thrice.

Our officials have also had talks with theirs on many occasions. Every interaction has been positive and good.

• U.S. is India's major defence partner. And there has been no intimation from their side that might suggest diluting this special relationship we share.

• India has signed the Paris accord because of Indian culture and ethos. India and Indians have had oneness with nature for thousands of years. So for some to say that India has signed the agreement because of being pressured or because of greed for foreign aid in this endeavour is completely baseless and unfortunate. I would like to officially make this clear.

• India has always respected, even worshipped nature. We will be committed to the Paris agreement irrespective of what the United States decides.

• Many said that this government will face a lot of difficulties in keeping good relations with Muslimmajority countries. It is time they see the reality.

• Our relations with countries in Asia are at an all-time high. Saudi Arabia and UAE – countries that were believed to be close to Pakistan, now share a very special and close bond with India.

• Palestine and Israel, which have many disagreements and disputes, look at India as their friend. Recently, the President of Palestine wanted India to mediate talks with Israel.

• Closer home, India has close relations with Afghanistan and Iran.

• India is a responsible and trustworthy nation that will do its best to ensure that the Middle East, South Asia and Asia-Pacific regions are peaceful and flourish in trade. www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 21

COVER STORY International Court of Justice. The Kashmir issue can only be resolved bilaterally,” she said. She was replying to a question on the reported remarks of Pakistani law officer that Islamabad will take the Kashmir issue to ICJ. “We want to resolve all the issues with Pakistan bilaterally, but talks and terror cannot go together,” the Minister said.

“Good governance is fundamental and eGovernance is instrumental. Smt. Sushma Swaraj strongly believes in giving a ‘human face’ to diplomacy and effectively using of social media in delivering good governance. The External Affairs Ministry is now connected with the poorest of the poor in the country. He praised Swaraj’s habit of promptly responding and acting on tweets by Indians in distress anywhere in the world. Lastly, if any Indian in distress tweets from anywhere in the world to the External Affairs Ministry, even at two in the night, within 15 minutes External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj replies to it and the Government takes prompt action and delivers results. This is good governance,” Prime Minister Modi said.

Minister Narendra Modi was a big bang. With Smt. Sushma Swaraj as External Affairs Minister, the two together make up half of the all-powerful Cabinet Committee on Security.

Defence Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has been working proactively in an innovative way by visiting the Army bases for reviewing on defence preparedness, by meeting the armed forces chiefs regularly to expedite defence procurement procedures. On taking steps towards modernization of the Army State-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) which has been nominated for the project, L&T, Reliance, Tata Motors, Mahinda, and Tata Power SED-Titagarh Wagons had responded to the EOI (Expression of Interest) in the deal in 2015. Now comes her first major move.

By giving a push to the long-awaited project held up for over a decade, she signed a $12-billion project to procure 2,300 Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicles (FICVs) for the Indian Army.

“The Modi Government has taken significant steps to modernize the Armed Forces with modern weapons, ammunition and vehicles. In a historic decision, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that the Army will soon introduce women in the corps of Military Police. The plan – being seen as a major step towards breaking gender barriers in the force – is to induct approximately 800 women in the Military Police with a yearly intake of 52 personnel,” Adjutant General of the Army Lt. Gen. Ashwani Kumar said.

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister, and James Mattis, her US counterpart, on Tuesday held comprehensive talks on deepening bilateral military ties, including supply of advanced defence technologies to India. Mattis also emphasized on enhancing maritime cooperation between the two nations (India and U.S.).The two leaders agreed to explore additional and specialized exercises between the militaries of the two countries.

The armies of the two countries are currently participating in the joint military drill Yudh Abhyas 2017 and their navies recently concluded in the Bay of Bengal, the 2017 edition of Malabar, a trilateral exercise between India, the U.S. and Japan.

The US (Trump administration) wants to sell F-18 and F-16 fighter planes to India under the scheme of Make-in-India campaign, built by American companies Boeing and Lockheed Martin, respectively. Both companies have offered to assemble these planes in India. However, there is no specific defence trade deal which was announced during Mattis' India visit, along with efforts to identify new projects under the ambitious Defence Technology and Trade Initiatives (DTTI).

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman Minister of Defence Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman geared to transform Indian Defence Sector The appointment of Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman to the Defence Ministry as the only second woman after Indira Gandhi by Prime 22 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

“India is also keen on buying drones and Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) from the U.S. We also discussed the ways to further deepen the robust defence trade, technology collaboration between our defence industries. We look forward to assuring some of our most advanced defence technologies through the Defence Technology and Trade Initiatives (DTTI)," Mattis said during a joint press briefing after his talks with Smt. Sitharaman.

“The US is now a leading supplier of state-of-the-art defence equipment to India. I appreciated Secretary Mattis' willingness to share further cutting-edge platforms which would enhance India's

Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister, and Jim Mattis, USDefence Secretary, during a delegation- level meeting in New Delhi defence preparedness to meet current and emerging threats," Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said. “This move will provide further energy and momentum to our collaboration on defence technology and manufacturing,” she further said.

Smt. Smriti Irani, Union Textiles Minister, and Smt. Vasundhara Raje Chief Minister of Rajasthan, inaugurated the 6th edition of the four-day International Textile and Apparel Fair, “VASTRA” at Sitapura Industrial Area in Jaipur. Mrs Irani said that concerted efforts were being made for creating employment opportunities in the textile sector.

The textile industry in the country is growing exponentially with the Foreign Investment (FDI) having tripled in three years by touching the figure of US$618.95 million in 2016-17.

"There is still a huge potential for further growth in the sector for which multifarious efforts are being made by the Centre as well as different states," said Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister of Textiles & IB, while inaugurating the International Textile and Apparel Fair, Vastra at Jaipur.

In her speech, Smt. Smriti Irani complimented the efforts of the Rajasthan Government to create a hub in the state and spoke about the employment of 45 million directly and another 20 million indirect jobs in the textile sector which is the second-largest workforce in the industry. It seems there are ample opportunities to complement the vision of Prime Minister's under the umbrella of “Make in India”.

The Government is providing skill opportunities as well as incentives to give an impetus to the industry. The financial support to the weavers under the “Mudra Yojna” has documented evidence of increase in the incomes of weavers to the tune of 50–60 per cent.

About VASTRA 2017

Smt. Smriti Irani Minister of I&B and Minister of Textiles Textile Sector records tripledigit growth in 3 years

VASTRA 2017 is a famous event on textiles and apparel presenting a fusion of the finest and the latest in textile products.

The event is jointly organized by the Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investments Corporation Limited and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry and is supported by the Government of Rajasthan. More than 50 countries and 13 Indian states are participating in VASTRA 2017. This year, Vastra has witnessed participation by over 250 exhibitors from 13 states, around 300 overseas buyers from more than 50 countries and about 200 representatives from around 100 Indian buying houses/agents. l www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 23

FACE TO FACE

Google empowering small businesses with the power of Internet Google is been deeply committed in partnering with small businesses and addressing their issues by enabling them to use the power of technology to grow.

Throwing more light on this, Shalini Girish, Director - Google Marketing Solutions, Google India talks about the various initiatives that it has started to empower these businesses in the country India has the second largest Internet user base in the world with 400 million connected users. The country has an incredibly healthy and growing digital ecosystem with huge potential for scale as India is expected to hit 650 million Internet users by 2020. Smartphone adoption in India has also grown rapidly reaching over 300 million Indians.

“Over the last year, we have seen significant changes in our broadband infrastructure - both wireless and wifi - leading to unprecedented growth in internet consumption,” points out Shalini Girish, Director - Google 24 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

Marketing Solutions, Google India.

“The growth brings with it huge opportunities for the start-ups to get onto the digital platform and reach to a larger target audience across the country.”

Google’s mission in India is aligned with the vision of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “Digitizing India” which aims to build an inclusive internet - for everyone, whether it’s a small sari shop owner in Chandni Chowk or a web or app developer working from a room in their house. But across all these initiatives, Google’s underlying objective is to overcome barriers that hinder Indians from getting the full value of internet.

In a joint study done by Google with KPMG to find the impact of internet and digitization on SMBs in India, it found out that 68% of the 51m Indian SMBs are still offline. It also reiterated that digitally engaged SMBs grow twice as fast compared to offline SMBs. The report also revealed that, digitally engaged businesses are able to grow their customer base significantly with 52% catering to customers beyond their home city versus only 29% offline SMBs. Highlighting the macro-

economic impact of the internet, the research found that rising penetration and greater uptake for digital by SMBs could help increase their contribution to India’s GDP by 10 percentage points, taking it up to 46-48% by 2020. The report cites the lack of understanding of the benefits of digital technologies and technical skills as the essential reasons for being offline.

“One of the main reasons for only 32% of small businesses in India leveraging the power of digital to reap the benefits of the digital economy is simply because there is a lack of understanding of the benefits of digital technologies and technical skills amongst the start-ups of the country,” says Shalini. “This is why Google is investing in ecosystem initiatives of training SMBs through “Digital Unlocked” campaign and helping start-ups to solve for the needs of Indian users by providing them the best of Google tools, platform and mentoring.”

Google-RailTel Publicwifi project...

However access to the internet is at

the core of this digital growth. Google understands that creating abundant access to the internet is important part of bringing the Internet alive for lndia.

Towards this goal Google has partnered with RailTel and Indian Railways to create an unparalleled public WiFi infrastructure and experience for users across 400 Railway Stations.

To implement this project, Google has developed Google Station a technology stack which enables any venue owner to deploy public WiFi services. In many ways, this project has revived the importance of investing in high speed public WiFi infrastructure in the country and is a shining example of what can be accomplished with public private partnerships to reach the digital India vision. “Most importantly, today, our RailTel project is live at 150 stations and 6.5 million Indians use the service every month,” says an exuberant Shalini. l

Google's initiatives for small businesses and start-ups Training

Digital Unlocked is a learning program for business owners across India, to help them fully understand the what, why and how of digital. Businesses can choose a learning format that works best for them - online, through Google website or through its mobile app or classroom training sessions across India. These sessions are held in partnership with FICCI. Google further plans to host 5,000 workshops will across 40 Indian cities, over the next three years. Since launch, over 500,000 individuals have engaged with Google’s skilling platform and 15,000 businesses are now certified.

Tools

Primer, a free mobile app delivers lessons in a fun and interactive format. The apps also work offline. In a span of 8 months of the apps’ launch, Google has received 2.5 million downloads of Primer.

Website with Google my business, a free tool to help local businesses showcase their unique offering on Google Search and Maps. 270,000 Indian businesses are already using Websites with Google My Business and are finding newer ways to connect with consumers. It recently announced a new feature in Google My Business that allows business owners to manage their business listings right from Google Search.

Recognition

Google discovers and recognizes SMBs that are successfully using digital to unlock growth in three categories - Business Innovation through Digital, Impacting Change through Digital, and Woman Business Leader.

Philips Lighting opens Global Customer ROC in Bengaluru Philips Lighting has announced the opening of its Global Customer Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Bengaluru, India. Equipped with the latest network monitoring technology and data analytics software, the new center will enable Philips Lighting to provide its professional connected lighting customers with a range of services from predictive fault monitoring to in-depth consultancy services based on data insights. The ROC will help its customers to increase their operational efficiency and save costs on energy and maintenance.

Sumit Joshi, CEO South Asia, Philips Lighting said, “As the global leader in connected lighting, we strive to offer the best possible level of service backed by strong innovation. Through our advanced operations center, we can provide customers with real-time data analytics and insights into their connected operations that will help them to improve their business.”

The ROC has the capability to monitor and analyze data from connected lightings systems, including Philips CityTouch for street lighting, Philips ActiveSite for architectural lighting and Philips InterAct Office for office lighting.

Kurt De Ruwe, Chief Information Officer, Philips Lighting says, "Bengaluru’s large software talent pool makes it the ideal place to base a Global Customer Remote Operations Center to serve Philips Lighting’s customers globally. Establishing this center is an important milestone and further strengthens our leadership position as the lighting company for the IoT. We are playing an important role in the world of connected lighting through data-enabled services by creating valuable insights for our customers.“ Currently, around 15% of global electricity demand is for lighting and a global transition to LED and connected lighting technologies, where LED lights are connected and controlled wirelessly via cloud-based software systems, will

reduce electricity consumed by lighting to 8% by 2030. The benefits of such a ROC, catering exclusively for connected lighting systems, include faster identification and rectification of potential problems leading to increased uptime and ultimately savings in operational costs.

This ROC will offer significant business benefits to clients, including remote monitoring, diagnostics and performance management. The biggest value addition will be system optimization through predictive maintenance and benchmarking, enabling users to optimize their energy metering and performance.

Philips Lighting has partnered with HCL Technologies, a leading global information technology services provider, to develop this ROC on a build-operate and transfer basis.

Ashish Gupta, Corporate VP & Head - EMEA, HCL Technologies said, “We are delighted to partner with Philips Lighting in this initiative, helping them service their connected lighting customers across the globe. As the world becomes smarter and connected, automation will enable companies to deliver enormous benefits to their global consumers.” www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 25

SPOI ANALYSIS

Ambuja creating a sustainable society on the back of strong partnerships When Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF) was established in 1993, when CSR did not even exist as a concept, ACF came into existence as a result of the visionary leadership of its parent company – Ambuja Cements Limited. Sharing more about its CSR initiatives, Pearl Tiwari, Head Ambuja Cement Foundation recollects how it has evolved in terms of its activities and the learnings it has gained in more than 2 decade long existence -

Could you trace the journey of Ambuja Cement Foundation and how instrumental has been your role in its day-to-day operations?

ACF’s journey since inception has been rather evolutionary. The founders of the Company firmly believed that with business’ growth, our neighbouring community should also prosper. In the absence of limited best practices, systems and protocol in CSR, we experimented and incorporated learnings as we moved along. However, our commitment towards people’s growth and empowerment was as robust as it is now. Witnessing ACF’s 26 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

dedication and enthusiasm, several organisations partnered with us which further helped us streamline our processes and systems.

In this journey, my role has also significantly changed. During the initial phase, when the team had to be built and ACF was still establishing its identity, I played a hands-on role as we grew and was closely participating in almost all the processes – both program related as well as related to organisational development.

What are the loopholes that hinder the growth of CSR in the country according to you? How

far do you feel govt. intervention is necessary?

The advent of The Companies Act, particularly schedule VII, has provided immense opportunities for corporates to adopt CSR in a systematic manner. In fact, most companies are embracing it very positively. However, in areas material to them, corporates definitely need a direction for better utilisation of resources in order to achieve the best results. In the current scenario, many companies are still grappling with the idea of strategic project planning and implementation.

Government has put a law in place and

can continue supervising its adoption and adherence by corporates.

Another big opportunity is encouraging corporate partnerships wherein companies can pool in resources and create a larger impact in the society. Currently, due to limited corporate partnerships, companies continue working in silos and the CSR pool has yet not reached its full potential.

It is incredible to note that many organisations, who have put in sincere efforts to achieve development objectives, have accumulated wealth of experience and knowledge. What we need is more authentic forums to share our experiences and learnings and explore better opportunities to collaborate. In the absence of this arrangement, corporates have to generally rely on external consultants and management groups. In the last few years, we have seen too many consultant organisations having cropped up to devise strategy, which could be done more efficiently if experienced organisations come together, brainstorm and devise solutions.

What is your CSR vision for the year 2017?

Instead of an annual plan, Ambuja Cement Foundation rolls out its strategic plan which is a 3 to 5 year rolling plan.

ACF’s vision is to create a sustainable, prosperous society built on long-term partnerships. To achieve this, we have adopted an integrated approach to fulfil livelihood needs of the community. By working on all inter-related aspects in livelihoods that includes social, financial, natural, physical and human capitals; ACF strives to build people’s collective capacity for ensuring sustainable prosperity.

Drawing our objectives from the vision, in 2017, ACF would be focusing on strengthening partnerships to expand our work. We would continue building village level institutions and enhance their capacity to experiment, innovate and contribute to the sustainability of our initiatives.

How has the CSR mandate in the Company’s Act changed the way you plan your CSR programs?

CSR has been an integral part of ACL since inception. ACF realized its

responsibility to co-exist peacefully with the host communities, much before the Section 135 of the New Companies Act was introduced in 2014. The company has made conscious efforts to involve communities in its development journey with a CSR spending of more than 2% since many years. This is the reason ACF was already well aligned with the requirements of the new mandate and has easily attained immediate compliance.

Today ACL is proud to have achieved complete compliance and beyond with reference to section 135 of the Companies Act.

Could you share the major learning from your years of running successful CSR initiatives?

Success is a relative term and its definition can change with one’s perception and outlook. At ACF, we define success by program impacts and its sustainability. Unless an initiative has developed mechanisms that would ensure long-term impacts, it is not worthwhile investing in the project. However, at the same time, it is crucial to maintain the appetite to experiment new ideas and customise solutions as per the need.

In our experience, bottom-up approach works very well when working with community. We have consciously worked in consensus with the locals and executed programs with their support.

We believe that people are capable in achieving their dreams. What they actually need is support and guidance.

What are some of the challenges faced while running some of your CSR campaigns and how do you address these issues?

Initiating a project in new locations is not very easy. People are apprehensive and usually take time to understand your intentions while organisation is still identifying community’s requirement. The first phase of mobilising people is usually the hardest and most sensitive. Another challenge is to instil project ownership in people and encourage them to form institutions.

ACF adopts a participatory approach in implementing all its projects.

Community is an important stakeholder and plays an active role in all projects,

right from the beginning. Be it need assessment, prioritisation, planning and implementation, our communities closely participate all the phases. ACF also has developed a detailed review mechanism where stakeholders including community review project progress and make suggestions.Our holistic model has been to energise, involve and enable communities has ensured people’s participation in cocreating solutions, its execution and driving it through village level institutions.

Another major challenge that we have faced is finding and retaining competent professionals in underserved geographies.

To address this challenge, we have nurtured our teams with patience. ACF’s team has competently handled each and every challenge on the way. As much as funds are needed to drive is project, so is the importance of a great team, which could only be achieved by consistently nurturing them and believing in their capacity to handle the most difficult situation. ACF has invested in building its teams’ capacities so that they develop leadership skills and embrace organisational spirit in its truest sense.

While the team remains our most important resource, ACF also endeavours to groom community members as extension volunteers, who are today driving our programs with equally strong enthusiasm.

Do you also seek co-operation or participation from other NGOs for running your programs?

Yes. ACF strongly believes in the power of partnerships. ACF, in last 25 years, has been considerably successful in moving closer to realising its vision of building prosperous communities. We owe this success partly to our partners who have supported us not only financially but also with technical knowledge and inputs.

Since there are several organisations (government, civil societies, development agencies and corporates) working with strong commitment and integrity for community development, there is a huge scope of pooling in resources, sharing knowledge and best practices and upscale projects for larger impact. We are definitely open to strengthening our partnership base and utilising our implementation skills in expanding outreach. l www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 27

SPOI CORPORATE

Aricent contributing to the technical-based economy through sustainable programs As a part of its CSR programs, Aricent has chosen ‘promoting education’, including ‘special education and employmentenhancing vocational skills especially among children, women, elderly and the differently-abled, and livelihood enhancement projects. Ashwani Lal, Chairman - CSR Board - Aricent tells SPOI of how the company has been working holistically for promoting quality Engineering education and about its initiatives it has undertaken with NASSCOM Foundation -

What are Aricent’s views and vision for CSR and Sustainability, and how will the CSR mandate of the Company Act, 2013 impact the way in which Aricent plans its CSR program?

Aricent’s vision – ‘Engineering the future’ – leads us towards transforming lives through innovative product engineering services. Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) intervention is an extension of this goal. With the advent of the Companies Act, 2013 and Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014, the Company started using 2% of accruing benefits to reach out to those who belong to the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid.

We have been in the IT domain for over 25 years and have deep domain knowledge of the industry. We decided to leverage this expertise for bridging knowledge and skill gaps existing in the Engineering domain.

Hence, ‘Engineering Excellence’ has been consciously chosen as a thematic base for our CSR program. This program is based on the skill development requirements to meet India's global competitiveness in the Engineering domain. We all know that India's transition to a knowledge and technology-based economy requires a new cadre of educated and skilled engineers whose ability to create, share, and use knowledge effectively will determine the country’s competitive edge globally.

Aricent Employability Enhancement Program’ was recently christened as Arise

by Aricent. The objective of this program is to create an Engineering workforce empowered with the necessary wherewithal 28 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

and who are equipped with upgraded skills, knowledge and nationally recognized qualifications to gain access to decent employment. Quality and relevance of skill development are key success parameters of this program.

Could you please share some of the recent initiatives of Aricent and how they are shaping the path of CSR in the Company?

The CSR program of Aricent has been conceptualized towards filling the demand and supply gap that currently exists in the IT-ITeS sector, as substantiated by various analyses and studies of the labour market.

This flagship CSR program provides a platform for engineering students to enhance their employability skills,that are relevant to the IT-ITeS sector, through rigorous intervention and training which is provided both online and on-campus.

The specific skills to be developed, are identified through studies/advices by the country’s leading technical institutions such as Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and IT-ITeS Sector Skill Council – SSC NASSCOM. Beneficiary students and participating colleges for ‘Arise by Aricent’ are carefully selected to ensure that the program reaches young marginalized students of Tier-2 and Tier-3 Engineering colleges of even remote areas, with special focus on women Engineering students. For a wider geographical reach, the program runs in two modes – online and on-campus.

Arise by Aricent online is in partnership with IIT Madras and Arise by Aricent oncampus which is running in a multifaceted manner share partnership with NASSCOM

Foundation.

What is your mantra for running a successful CSR program?

There isn’t a ‘single’ mantra; however, whichever program we have designed, we try to remain focussed on reaching out to the beneficiaries who really need our support. Also, the program can’t remain static, so we have been evolving our CSR programs year after year,continuously refining, consolidating, and organically evolving itbased on the outcomes/results, reviews, learnings, and resolutions. While designing and implementing the program, we also try to maintain aholistic approach, inclusivity and sustainability as the prime focus so that the program is not a BandAid solution, rather it is to do with more sustainable solutions to a problem plaguing the sector/theme.

What is your roadmap in terms of creating a positive impact on both society and environment?

We have chosen a theme carefully, which is aligned to our vision. We wish to continue in this field itself. Though we continue to get inputs/suggestions to explore and venture intomany other areas as there are severalissues which need our attention, and we do acknowledge that those are very important and pressing issues,but we want to continue focus in just one area so that we can add value in the long run.

Since we are in the Engineering domain, we understand it very well, and thusgive rise to an increasing number of skilled engineers who are employable and can grow faster in

“We should identify the areas where the maximum requirement and need exist and where we are sure about bringing an all-out impact / change – the area that matches our expertise and ethical values.

As systemic change is always built on an integrated approach, to work on all possible supporting/ challenging factors so it is essential to leverage and influence available resources so that change is more real and sustainable.” their role while working in the organization.

We aim to continue working in the same software skilling area going forward and reaching out to the maximum number of people through our sustainable programs.

However, beneficiary profiling may change based on the needs and organic evolution.

Please elaborate on the recent initiatives you are undertaking along with NASSCOM Foundation, and how as a program you want to execute it?

The recent initiative which we have undertaken is the Arise by Aricent Master Coach program which is to impact a whole ecosystem of Engineering education.

We have integrated this new Training of Trainers- ToT Project in the Arise by Aricent on-campus program. The project, launched last year, is supporting identified teachers and educators across five colleges in Delhi NCR and Bangalore for shaping up their professional growth curve and using relevant teaching tools with a target to ultimately impact students’ learning outcomes. Based on the learning needs emerging from the grassroots operations,

this new CSR program is consolidating our efforts to actualise our vision of Quality Engineering Education.

Also, we have also identified close to 100 engineering girl students who will begoing through advanced computing language program based on Android. This project is in association with NASSCOM Foundation and with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) which is a national initiative of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeiTy), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MC&IT), Government of India.With this program, we are promoting women engineers to excel in IT-ITES sector in India in the long term.

What was the main objective of this initiative?

The first objective was to create a sustainable program as we want to reach out to more engineering colleges and students, and work for the quality enhancement of engineering education. The Talent Supply Report 2020 by NASSCOM is taken as the need analysis for the Arise by Aricent

program which presented appalling figure of the depleting engineering domain. If we train 100 teachers instead of training 5000 students, then these teachers can further train students as per industry expectations, andwe can reach out to more and more students. That was the objective of the initiative.

How do you plan to position your company in the area of CSR and sustainability?

We have been working for quality Engineering education in a holistic manner and recently expanded our footprints in the area of women engineers’ empowerment and training of teachers, with long-term impact and sustainability in mind. We understand that there are many people in India who need this kind of support, who need to be skilled specially.We can only address a set of people ata time, but to make sure that we reach out to the maximum number of people,we have to create more coaches, mentors and more such sets of people who can further impart this knowledge to more number of people who require it. l www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 29

SPO FOUNDATION

NASSCOM Foundation along with Mphasis launch the NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum N

ASSCOM Foundation in partnership with Mphasis has announced the launch of the tenth edition of the NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum (NSIF) – a platform to foster innovative use of technology to create sustained social impact. The program instituted since 2008, identifies, honours and supports, innovative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) based projects, products and solutions that have the potential to address critical gaps in key developmental areas and contribute to inclusive growth.

Building on the solid foundation from the last nine years’ triumphs and learnings, NSIF is inviting entries from a diverse range of social innovators across NGOs, Social Enterprises and Social Start-ups.

With support from our donor partner - Mphasis, NSIF will award catalytic grants of INR 10 Lakhs each to the strongest tech innovations that are creating radical social impact in areas of Financial Inclusion, Healthcare, Environment, Education and Accessibility.The grants will be given to winners from across these thematic areas.

The projects will also be provided with a 12-month support to scale mentoring by experts in the industry as well as access to NASSCOM Foundation’s network of tech for good leaders in the country. The Forum aims to drive CSR capital to encourage and scale innovations across relevant and topical themes in the country.

Srikanth Karra, Chief Human 30 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

Resources Officer, Mphasis Limited said, “In the last 3 years of Mphasis support to NSIF, the program has scaled significant heights not only in terms of geography and number of applicants, but also in terms of high quality innovations being recognised, receiving follow-on funding and catalysing bigger social impacts. Mphasis is happy to have been part of this journey so far and hopes that the initiative will continue to gain further momentum this year again.“ Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation said, “With active engagement NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum 2018 Total Grants available: INR 10lakhs each + Mentoring Support Funding Partner: Mphasis Edition: 10th, one of the oldest and most trusted social innovation ecosystem support programs Grants to be given out to social innovations in the areas of: - Financial Inclusion - Healthcare - Environment - Education - Accessibility Last date for application: 31st Oct 2017 Last Year’s responses: Received interest from 1300+. 11 projects awarded and 4 projects were given catalytic grants

with over 2000 innovators across sectors/ verticals, from 25 states in the country, the NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum has become one of the strongest ecosystems encouraging tech-aided development in the country. As the NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum enters its 10th year, our goal is to become a driving force for technology for good and add momentum to the change-inspiring work of social innovators around the country. We are glad to continue our partnership with Mphasis to help us in our journey to solve the some of the most difficult social problems that currently plague us, thus improving the social fabric of our nation."

Applications for NSIF are open from 21stSeptember 2017 till 31stOctober, 2017.

Once the applications are received, they will undergo a carefully designed 3 stage, shortlisting process with jury members consisting of the leaders from across industries. The winners will be announced and felicitated at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum – NASSCOM’s flagship event.

To celebrate NSIF’s 10th year of supporting tech for good solutions, NASSCOM Foundation will also be hosting a special Innovation evening in March 2018 to share impact stories of technology as a transformative force across social areas and get insights from industry leaders on further driving technology revolution for good. l

FACE TO FACE

NXP Semiconductors helping the society for a real cause Sanjay Gupta is the Vice President and India Country Manager at NXP India Pvt. Ltd. Sanjay is responsible for leading NXP’s business in India and ensuring local compliance with government and corporate programs and policies. He also leads Methodology, Quality and Culture for the Automotive Microcontrollers & Processors (AMP) R&D in the organization. He is also the Chairperson for Innovation board (Methodology, flows and tools) for BU Automotive across organizational units. He is leading three diverse R&D locations (Noida, Bangalore and Hyderabad) consisting of nearly 1,800 employees representing all NXP product groups.

NXP Semiconductors N.V. enables secure connections and infrastructure for a smarter world, advancing solutions that make lives easier, better and safer. As the world leader in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, NXP is driving innovation in the secure connected vehicle, end-to-end security & privacy and smart connected solutions markets. Built on more than 60 years of combined experience and expertise, the company has 31,000 employees in more than 33 countries and posted revenue of $9.5 billion in 2016.

CSR is something that is a part of NXP’s way of life. Going by the govt. mandate, NXP has 3rd party collaborations, through which it has selected 10 NGOs because it is not authorised to take up projects on its own. “We feel that it is the right place to work,” says Sanjay Gupta, Vice President and India Country Manager - NXP Semiconductors. “We have the list of different proposal every year and we select that with the focus on blind schools, children and girl child education.

We want to focus on old people too as they get no support. So every year we choose a few projects and we continue to focus on this. This year primarily we are

Sanjay Gupta, VP and India Country Manager - NXP Semiconductors tells SPOI of the kind of CSR activities that the company is engaged with... focusing on youth and to educate them.

There are lots of schools in Bangalore and Hyderabad where we are providing underprivileged kids ICT education. If we take example of Noida there is a school called “SHAKSHAM” in sector 31.

We are also connected with IIT DELHI where we are working on this technology where these blind kids are helped to become independent and grow on their own. There is a walking stick that they use that has sensors. So even if any obstacle comes in, the sensor is going to beep and that will alarm them.

They are going to understand on the intensity of beeping. We are also working on the touch screen mobiles for them with special sensors and speaking ability.

So whatever they touch they can feel it.

So this is the technology that NXP is working on.”

NXP is funding the NGO Shaksham where they are providing a collaboration model to develop the technology. The NGO has further tied up with 3rd party organizations and IIT engineers to design products like these and for outsourcing the technology NXP is taking help of

companies like NXP. NXP is also working with Concern India because it wants to make sure that the funding goes to the right hands.

“As a corporate we are spending a lot on CSR and every year we change the theme. We have also associated with “NAI DISHA”. The school that we are associated in Noida is almost for a decade now and we have a computer lab built there. It really gives a good direction and in early age if you can direct children to this level it really helps. I think if one family member changes, it change the entire family. Fortunately, the person before me has also been very active in this area and since then we have been engaging into these activities. We also do the blood bank camps in every 6 months and lots of other things which are driven for the society. In Diwali we give lots of gifts to the under privileged kids and we collect it from the office NXP office as we have so many employees over here.

And we were having special stores where some of these people were coming to our office to give gifts like lamps and diya’s and buy our Diwali stuff from there,” concludes Sanjay. l www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 31

lead STORY

For Indian IT organizations, CSR is a bigger gain

Corporate Social Responsibility is not a new concept in India, however, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, has recently notified the Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 along with Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 "hereinafter CSR Rules" and other notifications related thereto which makes it mandatory (with effect from 1st April, 2014) for certain companies who fulfil the criteria as mentioned under Sub Section 1 of Section 135 to comply with the provisions relevant to Corporate Social Responsibility As mentioned by United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), CSR is generally understood as being the way through which a company achieves a balance of economic, environmental and social imperatives ("Triple – Bottom – Line - Approach"), while at the same time addressing the expectations of shareholders and stakeholders.

While proposing the Corporate Social Responsibility Rules under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, the Chairman of the CSR Committee mentioned the Guiding Principle as follows: "CSR is the process by which an organization thinks about and evolves its relationships with stakeholders for the common good, and demonstrates its commitment in this regard by adoption of appropriate business processes and 32 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

strategies. Thus CSR is not charity or mere donations. CSR is a way of conducting business, by which corporate entities visibly contribute to the social good. Socially responsible companies do not limit themselves to using resources to engage in activities that increase only their profits. They use CSR to integrate economic, environmental and social objectives with the company's operations and growth.”

As per regulations of the Companies Act 2013, companies having a net worth of Rs 500 crore or more or a turnover in excess of Rs 1,000 crore or net profits of Rs 5 crore or more are required to mandatorily spend 2% of their profits on CSR programmes.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a recent speech at a CSR event of Axis Bank said that corporate social responsibility spending by large business

houses could go up to Rs 14,000 crore, giving a boost to the government's social sector initiatives. “Now, over the last three to four years that we have seen it function...if you look at India’s large corporates with profitability of Rs 500 crore and above, you have a potential of about Rs 14,000 crore of CSR activities,” he said. Citing some of the examples, Jaitley said corporates can take up jobs in difficult terrain.

Rs 14,000 crore makes a significant amount if added to the government's initiative towards social sector, he said, adding that this is the amount which is going to increase annually. He exhorted companies to take up challenging areas for spending their CSR fund.

When the CSR clause was put in the Companies Bill, there was opposition from the corporate. Some provisions were diluted and a few dispensations

Santhosh NS Head of Marketing & Communications – Fujitsu were given for special reasons when the bill was before the House.

CSR spending in India...

The corporate social responsibility movement began as a response to advocacy for corporations to play a role in ameliorating social problems due to their economic power and overarching presence in daily life. Governments of different companies are now modifying their laissez faire approach and considering legal rules.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission, for instance, has moved beyond its mandate as a market regulator to issue rules on conflict minerals, resource extraction payments and gender diversity. And, in 2014, the European Union issued a directive on disclosure of non-financial and diversity information.

Similarly, Australian companies are required to disclose how they will manage their environmental and social sustainability risks.

A study by professional services firm KPMG showed that India’s top tier companies’ allocation of Rs 7,300 crore in fiscal 2016 to corporate social responsibility initiatives exceeded regulatory requirements.

Actual spends on CSR activities by Nifty 100 companies that the KPMG survey included were more than Rs 6,500 crore for financial year 2016 versus a little over Rs 5,000 crore a year ago. Research showed that India Inc had been slow to warm up to new rules on

Srihari Palangala Director, Marketing, India - Dell EMC corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending, with only 14 Nifty companies managing to spend the mandatory 2% of net profit towards social causes in FY15.

As per Ministry of Corporate Affairs data, around 5,097 companies in India has invested corporate social responsibility (CSR) spend of Rs 9,822 crore for FY 2015-16 vis-a-vis 7,334 companies spending around Rs 8,803 crore for FY 2014-15. In FY 2015-16, the CSR spend has seen a jump of 11.6 percent thanks to strict compliance of CSR budget by corporate entities.

In terms of vertical, the Top 5 sector contributes round 87% of the total expenditure. The top sectors in CSR are: Health/Eradicating Hunger/ Poverty and Malnutrition/Safe Drinking Water/Sanitation; Education/ Differently Enabled/Livelihood; Rural Development; Environment/Animal Welfare/Conservation of Resources and Swachh Bharat Kosh.

CSR spending by IT corporate...

The Fujitsu Group is member of the United Nations Global Compact.

By upholding the Global Compact's ten principles in the four areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, as well as actively implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, Fujitsu is promoting responsible management as a global company while contributing to the building of a sustainable society

Vishal Parekh Marketing Director, Kingston Technology & HyperX – India “Fujitsu India believes that a large transformation is underway as people and companies seek innovation in country. To lead the growth of the world economy, the younger generation is tasked with generating innovation by starting new enterprises and transforming existing companies. Fujitsu India is identifying individuals every year who have a.

Capability to act quickly to environmental change b.

Capability to identify a social good and ensuring its realization c.

Capability to innovate d. Capability to connect local and global knowledge e. Capability to distribute leadership in an organization And sponsoring them for a free scholarship program in multi campus environment where the selected participants will visit four countries; Japan, Hawaii, Singapore and Thailand.

We had minimum 2 participants selected from India every year for last 4 years and post the scholarship program the candidate have published articles as well,” says Santhosh NS, Head of Marketing & Communications – Fujitsu.

Dell EMC’s CSR initiatives adhere to a larger global framework known as the 2020 Legacy of Good goals which outlines Dell’s long-term commitment to society, team members and the environment. “We report our progress towards achieving these goals on a yearly basis and this year we reported the first 2020 Legacy of Good update that recognizes key CSR achievements for www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 33

lead STORY

Bhaskar Choudhuri Director- Marketing, Lenovo India the combined company following Dell’s merger with EMC. Some key highlights include contribution of over 1,05,000 hours of volunteer time by the India team members, engaging with 1,175 non-profits working in the areas of education, environment sustainability, women empowerment, people with disabilities etc. In total, the Dell India team members have volunteered 4.5 Lakh hours of their time since 2013-14.

Our work done as part of the Dell Youth Learning program is also noteworthy we engaged with a broad spectrum of 13 non-profits to use Dell - technologies and expertise to improve learning outcomes in government schools, impart digital literacy skills, increase curiosity and foster innovation, develop life skills and provide environment and civics related education to underserved youth. With our support, these partners collectively reached out to 1.86 Lakh youth directly and 1.26 Lakh youth and community members indirectly.

On the environment front, at the end of FY17, 97% of our Delloperated facilities in India had at least one active sustainability initiative in one or more of our eligible categories: equipment or building upgrades, renewable energy use, on-site services, water conservation, and employee engagement,” states Srihari Palangala, Director, Marketing, India Dell EMC. He continues further, “These are only a few of the many initiatives that we achieved in FY 17 to demonstrate how we have built on our strengths 34 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

Parag Amalnerkar Marketing Leader, India & South Pacific – NetApp As per Ministry of Corporate Affairs data, around 5,097 companies in India has invested corporate social responsibility (CSR) spend of Rs 9,822 crore for FY 2015-16 vis-a-vis 7,334 companies spending around Rs 8,803 crore for FY 2014-15. In FY 2015-16, the CSR spend has seen a jump of 11.6 percent thanks to strict compliance of CSR budget by corporate entities

and use technology to make a positive impact.”

Bhaskar Choudhuri, DirectorMarketing, Lenovo India states “I strongly believe that CSR can be strongly woven into a brand’s inherent persona, and it is the CMO’s responsibility to integrate topicality and CSR into a marketing campaign. Our most recent #giftthembelief campaign takes an emotional message to parents with kids who are writing exams. There is tremendous pressure on students to perform well and secure exceptional scores to make the cut for their choice of college. Unfortunately, the majority of students don’t manage to get in their choice of college. Through this film, we urge parents to support their children through this challenging phase and give them what they need most – the belief that there is a world full of opportunities and technology can enable one to seize these opportunities. Lenovo has always

Amit Gujral Chief Marketing Officer LG Electronics India believed in the power of contextual story-telling to influence mindsets and the response we’ve got to this film is a testimony to our endeavour.”

NetApp firmly believes in giving back to the society and encourages every employee to take some time off to volunteer for several social initiatives. “Our CSR focus covers a range of issues- from working with the disabled, to providing food regularly to the under privileged, our organization and employees are out there making a difference every day,” asserts Parag Amalnerkar, Marketing Leader, India & South Pacific – NetApp. LG on its part has a remarkable record when it comes to initiating CSR campaigns with a difference. “Our CSR campaigns have always gotten an overwhelming response from the consumers. We aim to partner with them to bring hopes and happiness into the lives of fellow Indians. Some of our leading CSR initiatives are the #Kar Salaam Campaign, which was a unique endeavour to reach out to our brave Armed Forces. The citizens participated in this campaign to express their gratitude to the soldiers and sent in their good wishes to them, for which LG broke the Guinness World Records. The campaign also included a donation of 1 crore INR to the CRPF Welfare Fund.

This campaign is very close to LG and was truly one of its kind in India,” says Amit Gujral, Chief Marketing Officer LG Electronics India LG’s The Hunger Free India

B S Rao VP – Marketing CtrlS Datacenters Campaign is a renewed approach towards fighting the menace of hunger and food wastage in the country. It will bring hope to the hungry and a more food secure India, and set an example that must be followed by our youth.

LG extended the brand’s commitment to the environment by launching a massive Tree Plantation Drive across 41 Indian cities in association with various NGO’s, schools, institutes and colleges. All the employees along with the senior management and LG customers planted 20,000 trees across multiple cities and took the pledge to protect the environment and make eco-friendly choices to contribute to a greener world. With this activity, LG once again reinforced its commitment towards maintaining a cleaner and greener environment.

“LG has a practice to grow in a socially and environmentally responsible way and ensure that development is sustainable in nature. LG is dedicated to this cause with a line of energy efficient products in place, that comprise of the unique inverter technology for home appliances like Air conditioners, Refrigerators, Washing Machines etc., and we shall continue to serve society by bring Health and Hygiene conscious products which in-turn conserve energy as well and directly protect the environment via reduced electricity consumptions and surely save money for consumers. In short, it's Life's Good with LG for our consumers and environment,” says Amit.

Prasenjit Roy Senior VP & CMO – Netmagic (An NTT Communications Company) “At CtrlS, we strongly believe in giving back to society. Our CSR initiatives are focused on serving the under privileged (bottom of the pyramid) and rural youth skill enhancement. CtrlS CSR Core Committee oversees the initiatives and a passionate team of volunteers work earnestly in helping us achieve our CSR Goals and impact the society in the desired manner,” says B S Rao, VP – Marketing, CtrlS Datacenters.

Netmagic has been assisting several NGOs working for various social causes, by offering them hosting services at a zero-profit fee.

“We have been a certain amount of budget earmarked for all our CSR activities. Our key target through these efforts is to create a deeper and sustainable societal impact with better education – • We support ‘Teach for India’, that is, part of global ‘Teach for All’ network – they recruit promising college graduates and high performing young professionals to serve as full-time teachers in low-income schools for two years.

• A portion of our CSR deployable funds go to Nanhi Kali NGO which facilitates education for underprivileged girl children in India.

• Sponsor CRY initiatives • Helping in the education of underprivileged children • River rejuvenation project in

Bidisha Nagaraj Chief Marketing Officer, Schneider Electric India India,” says Prasenjit Roy, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer – Netmagic (An NTT Communications Company).

“A brand is a part of the larger ecosystem it operates in a manner which includes the larger community,” says Bidisha Nagaraj, Chief Marketing Officer - Schneider Electric India. “This is the essence of our CSR initiatives that lies at the core of the Schneider Electric’s culture and strategy. Currently, we are doing a rural electrification program called, “Access to Energy”. Through this program, we have touched about 400 villages till date. With the strong willingness to involve local communities and local stakeholders, the programme addresses critical issues to provide sustainable access to electricity.”

Schneider Electric’s CSR projects are spread across skill development, teachers’ training, employment support, entrepreneurship development, rural electrification in off grid areas through green energy, Conserve my Planet programme which it runs among the schools in India to create green ambassadors.

But there are some companies that take up CSR activities but do not like to publicize them. Says Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology & HyperX – India, “We undertake several CSR programs which can do good for people, planet and better tomorrow. However, we do not publicize about it.” l www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 35

SPOI GOVT.

PM Modi's initiative “Saubhagya” to electrify Indian households

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has launched a new scheme “Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – “Saubhagya” to ensure electrification of all households in the country in rural and urban India.

The total outlay of the project is Rs.16,320 crore, while the Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) is Rs.12,320 crore. The outlay for the rural households is Rs.14,025 crore, while the GBS is Rs.10,587.50 crore.

For the urban households, the outlay is Rs.2,295 crore, while GBS is Rs.1,732.50 crore. The Government of India will provide funds for the scheme to all States/ UTs. The States and Union Territories are required to complete the work of household electrification by the 31st of December, 2018.

The beneficiaries of the scheme would be identified by using Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data.

Uncovered un-electrified households under SECC data would also be provided electricity connections under the scheme 36 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

on a payment of Rs.500 which shall be recovered by DISCOMs in 10 instalments through electricity bill. The solar power packs of 200 to 300 Wp with battery bank would be given to un-electrified households located in remote areas along with Five LED lights, One DC fan and One DC power plug. It also includes repairs and maintenance for 5 years.

The expected outcome of the Scheme would be different, such as, environmental upgradation by substitution of Kerosene for lighting purposes, improvement education services, better health services, enhanced connectivity through radio, television, mobiles, increased economic activities and jobs, and improved quality of life, especially for women.

For easy and accelerated implementation of the scheme, modern technology shall be used for household survey by using mobile app. Beneficiaries will be identified and their application for electricity connection along with applicant’s photograph and identity

proof shall be registered on spot. The Gram Panchayats in the rural areas may be authorized to collect application forms along with complete documentation, distribute bills and collect revenue in consultation with the Panchayat Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies.

The Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) will remain the nodal agency to execute the scheme throughout the country.

Electricity in each home would provide improved access to all kind of communications like Radio, Television, Internet, mobile, etc, through which everyone would be able to access all kind of important information available through these communication mediums.

About 1,000 lakh man-days work would be generated for implementation of the scheme.

Total 250 lakh households in rural areas and 50 lakh in urban areas are expected to be covered under the scheme. l

www.spoindia.org September 2017 | 37

MOVEMENT Dr. Asha Ram Sihag, IAS (HP:1983), Secretary Coordination, Cabinet Secretariat, as Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry in the vacancy caused due to superannuation of Shri Girish Shankar, IAS (BH:1982) on 31.08.2017.

Shri Rajiv Kumar, IAS (JH:1984), Special Secretary & Establishment Officer as Secretary, Department of Financial Services in the vacancy caused due to superannuation of Smt Anjuly Chib Duggal, IAS (PB:1981) on 31.08.2017.

Smt. Surina Rajan, IAS (HY:1985), Additional Secretary, Department of Defence Production as Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards, in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to Government of India.

Dr. Inder Jit Singh, IAS (KL:1985), Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce as Additional Secretary (Coordination), Cabinet Secretariat, vice Dr. Asha Ram Sihag, IAS (HP:1983) on his appointment as Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry.

Shri Surendra Nath Tripathi, IAS (OR:1985), Additional Secretary & Development Commissioner, Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises as Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare vice Shri Sunil Kumar Singh, IAS (BH:1983).

Dr N. Baijendra Kumar, IAS (CG:1985), presently in the cadre as Chairman & Managing Director, National Mineral Development Corporation, Ministry of Steel.

Smt. Veena Ish, IAS (AP:1985), Member (Administration), National Highways Authority of India as Additional Secretary, Department of Land Resources.

Smt. Rajni Sekhri Sibal, IAS (HY:1986), presently in the cadre as Director General, Employment & Training, Ministry of Labour & Employment, in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to Government of India Shri Pradip Kumar Tripathi, IAS (JK:1987), Additional Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training as Establishment Officer & Additional Secretary vice Shri Rajiv Kumar, IAS (JH:1984) on his appointment as Secretary, Department of Financial Services.

Shri Rajesh Bhushan, IAS (BH:1987), Joint Secretary, Department of Rural Development as Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat vice Shri Alok Tandon, IAS (UP:1986), on his repatriation to the cadre.

Shri Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi, IAS (MP:1987), Chairman, Central Board of Secondary Education as Director General, National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to Government of India.

Shri Satyajeet Rajan, IAS (KL:1987), presently in the cadre as Director General, Tourism in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to Government of India.

Shri Rameswhar Prasad Gupta, IAS (GJ:1987), MD NAWADCO as Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog. The officer will continue to hold additional charge of the post of MD, NAWADCO until further orders.

Shri Ali Raza Rizvi, IAS (HP:1988), Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce as Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting vice Shri Subhas Sharma, IAS(BH:1984). The earlier order appointing Shri Rizvi as CMD, NMDC stands cancelled.

Shri Apurva Chandra, IAS (MH:1988), presently in the cadre as Additional Secretary, Department of Defence Production vice Smt. Surina Rajan, IAS (HY:1985) on her appointment as Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards.

Smt. Anita Karwal, IAS (GJ:1988), Additional Secretary, Ministry of Human Resources Development as Chairperson, Central Board of Secondary Education vice Shri R.K. Chaturvedi, IAS (MP:1987) on his appointment as DG, NSDA. Shri Vinod Kumar Yadav, IRSEE (1980), presently in the cadre as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

38 | September 2017 www.spoindia.org

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