Annapoorna conducted a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Event jointly with Indian Electronics and Semi-Conductor Association (IESA) to bring together Corporates, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and the Government on a common platform focused on rural transformation and uplift. The motivation driving this first of its kind CSR Event was to form a consortium of like-minded organisations that can collectively channel their CSR efforts to promote holistic development of rural communities.

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It was quite heartening to see the Event attracted over 100 esteemed guests from diverse backgrounds which added tremendous value to the interactive dialogue all through the session.

 

The event brought together three key sets of organisations:

(i) NGOs whose volunteers are active in the field, working on rural transformation
(ii) Companies who have to meet the CSR mandate of Nation building
(iii) Representatives from the Karnataka State Government.

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The NGOs shared results from their rural projects in various sectors such as Nutrition, Education, and Healthcare, while the Corporate speakers described specific CSR rural projects utilising their technology and knowledge base. The Event was honoured by the presence of Dr Shalini Rajneesh, Principal Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education, Karnataka State. She emphasized the importance of the collaborative platform of “Government + NGO + Corporate” to achieve the required impact in rural development.  Over 40 organisations, including prominent technology companies were represented at this inaugural CSR Event.  

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Following the series of NGO and Corporate presentations, the floor was open for discussion on collaboration and networking between various NGOs and Corporates to find ways of moving ahead on the most critical CSR Initiatives focused on Rural Development, namely, Nutrition to cover 0.5 Million children in 2019, Health screening of schoolchildren and rural communities, setting up of ten Ideal Villages, launch of tele-education and tele-medicine across 12 rural campuses in Karnataka and so on. Attendees were provided hard copies of the Needs covering these projects, so they could respond back with their indication of interest in partnering / sponsoring the initiatives as part of their CSR efforts in 2019.  There was a productive exchange of ideas and a couple of “instant collaborations” took place where the needs and partners were matched up during the open session.

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Annapoorna felicitated the speakers as well as the key corporate partners who have consistently supported Annapoorna’s expansion of the Nutrition program in 2018.