The Himalayan state of Uttarakhand is famous across the country for the pilgrimage sites, beautiful and holy rivers and significance of spirituality. The state is also often in news for various natural calamities because of its tricky terrain and peculiar climate. Additionally, the state also has economic importance for its contribution to Agriculture and Tourism. The unique conditions of the state and its proximity to the national capital has made it an attractive destination for various CSR projects.
Top CSR Projects in Uttarakhand
Relaxo Foundation’s Initiative for Redevelopment of Primary Schools
Relaxo Foundation, the CSR arm of Relaxo Footwears Limited has signed an MoU with the School Education Department of Haridwar District for the redevelopment of the 32 primary schools of Khanpur Block, Haridwar to develop them under the Parivartan model school project in the next 3 years.
On the MoU signing Gambhir Agrawal, CSR Head of Relaxo Foundation said that “Under Parivartan model school project, Relaxo Foundation will develop infrastructure part of each school, equip all schools with Digital Learning concept, convert the existing building in Building as a Learning Aid (BaLA) concept, build new toilets, kitchen gardens, improvement of playgrounds with sports materials, installation of water purifying system. Relaxo foundation has already been working on the redevelopment of 13 Government primary schools of Khanpur block, Haridwar district from January 2018 under Parivartan model school project”.
Further, he added, “Relaxo Foundation will ensure the training of Teachers of Joyful Learning, BaLA concept, Child-friendly assessment and punishment free schools. Training and meetings of School Management Committees (SMC’s) over their rights and responsibilities, developing School Development Plan and ensure interface in between SMC members, Teachers and Parents. For children, the foundation has planned training to develop their leadership skills and develop them as a caretaker of their own school facilities to spread awareness about WASH, hygiene etc by forming Bal Mantri Mandal in each school. “
Through this program, Relaxo Foundation is envisaging the school led comprehensive development in the next 3 years.
PSUs Contribution of Rs. 245 Crores for Development of Badrinath
In order to develop Badrinath as Spiritual Smart Hill Town, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of Rs 19 Crore was recently signed between Secretary Uttarakhand Tourism Dilip Jawalkar on behalf of Shri Kedarnath Utthan Charitable Trust (SKUCT) and Director (P and IR) Coal India Limited (CIL) SN Tiwary. As per the MoU, the amount is being granted under a CSR Initiative of Coal India Limited. It will be used for the road construction work in Badrinath.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary Tourism Shri. Dilip Jawalkar said, “We are actively working to develop Badrinath as Spiritual Smart Hill Town. As a result, various Public Sector Units (PSU’s) are coming together and initiating to do the same under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.”
Adding further to this he said, “We recently signed an MoU with Power Grid Corporation of India Limited and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL) for the development work in Badrinath. We are also going to sign MoU’s with Tehri Hydro Power Complex (THDC), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and National Hydro Power Corporation Limited (NHPC) of Rs. 245 Crore for Badrinath development work.”
Hewlett Packard Enterprise to launch Centre of Excellence for skilling in IoT based healthcare
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA) – a society registered by the Government of Uttarakhand, to set up an Internet of Things (IoT) Center of Excellence (CoE) in Dehradun. The CoE is designed to provide a platform to train underprivileged students with technical backgrounds to develop computer applications in the field of healthcare to improve access of healthcare programs to the people.
The fully-equipped CoE will be a green facility. HPE will provide the standard medical, IT and networking equipment, access to Electronic Medical Record (EMR) 2.0, and data hosting. Additionally, HPE will provide students the training on HPE hardware, operating systems, EMR and medical equipment. The IoT CoE will be run and managed by ITDA.
“Today, technologies such as IoT are enabling us to increase the efficiency, quality and sustainability of various services in different areas including healthcare,” said Som Satsangi, MD – India, HPE. “We are happy to partner with ITDA, Uttarakhand to launch this Center of Excellence (CoE), which will help students harness the benefits of IoT to develop and implement innovative applications.”
Plastic Express by Nestle India and Gati Foundation
Nestlé India in collaboration with Gati Foundation, a Dehradun based environmental action and advocacy group, had launched the Plastic Express project in Dehradun and Mussoorie in 2019 for effectively managing post-consumer plastic waste.
Recognizing the fact that there is a need for an organized waste management system around the “MAGGI points” on the Dehradun- Mussoorie highway and around the tourist points in Mussoorie, a mobile van named, Plastic Express travelled around these shops collecting MAGGI wrappers and other dry plastic waste from these outlets. The dry waste collected was disposed of responsibly by Nestlé India. Working towards the ambition that no waste should end up discarded in the environment, the project was aimed at engaging around 200 ‘MAGGI Points’ in the hill towns for collecting and disposing of plastic waste responsibly.
