Nandurbar, a district in the wester state of Maharashtra, has one of the lowest Human Development Index in India. It has been identified as one of the Aspirational District in need of urgent attention from the Government, businesses, civil society and other stakeholder.

 

Within Nandurbar, the geographically isolated blocks of Akrani (Dhadgaon) and Akkalkuwa with 99% Tribal population, are marked by high levels of poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy and ecological degradatiNandurbar, a district in the wester state of Maharashtra, has one of the lowest Human Development Index in India. It has been identified as one of the Aspirational District in need of urgent attention from the Government, businesses, civil society and other stakeholder.

 

Within Nandurbar, the geographically isolated blocks of Akrani (Dhadgaon) and Akkalkuwa with 99% Tribal population, are marked by high levels of poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy and ecological degradation.

 

Lakhpati Kisan - Smart Villages Program was launched by Tata Trusts and Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI) in 2015 in Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The same year, Tata Communications Transformation Services Limited (TCTS) and CInI partnered to implement the program in Nandurbar.Lakhpati Kisan - Smart Villages Program was launched by Tata Trusts and Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI) in 2015 in Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The same year, Tata Communications Transformation Services Limited (TCTS) and CInI partnered to implement the program in Nandurbar.

Created: 4/15/2020 1:39:02 PM

Lakhpati Kisan - A story of People, Planet and Prosperity

In a remote village, at the foothills of Sahyadri mountain range is where Bharati lives. She could study only up to 10th standard. After being married at an early age, Bharati’s life was a daily toil of doing household chores a well as working on the farm.

 

Bharati Uttam Shinde says - ‘After 10th, there was no facility in our village for further studies. In those days, parents would not allow girls to go far for studies. So after my 10th, I was at home for 3 years. After 3 years, I got married.’

 

Today, Bharati is the Chairperson of the ‘Maval Dairy’, Maharashtra’s first All Women Farmer Producer Company with 1200 women members including 12 Directors.

 

Like Bharati, there are hundreds of women in remote villages whose lives were stuck in various circle of unemployment and poverty. Realising that women are the true pillars of the community development, Tata Power has initiated flagship projects for women empowerment. With the focus on natural resource management through locally available schemes and Integrated Dairy development project was found ideal to engage and empower women from the villages.

 

Tata Power engaged ALC India as a development partner. an inept feasibility study was conducted in 20 villages. The Tata Power team began organising women’s group. Every village is represented by two prompters as local response persons. These women from rural background where given elaborate training in leadership skill and enterprise management.

Created: 4/15/2020 2:28:55 PM

Empowering rural women through micro-enterprises - an initiative by Tata Power

There is a story behind every village. A story of both tribulations and joy. The ones near Narsipatnam, Andhra Pradesh are of no exceptions. Located at the foothills of the Eastern Ghats, these quaint villages have no water problems. The elixir of life flowing down in abundance from the spring located atop a nearby hill. The chuckle of young girls filling their buckets speaks about the long gone days when water was a luxury.

 

Seendari Kamala, Village Resident says - ‘We faced a lot of hardship earlier. It took us a lot of time to bring water from the spring. We had to go into the forest and come back. We used to fall often. We also had to carry multiple pots and take along our children. We used to make 5-6 trips and it would take us a total of 10-11 hours to bring water.’

 

Residents of the village have abundant of water today, a dream that came true by the initiative taken by Vikas Jilla Nava Nirmana Samithi with support from Infosys Foundation. They devised gravity-fed water supply system where water from the natural springs be brought down to support the water started villages.

Created: 4/15/2020 2:35:51 PM

Infosys Foundation - Making Water Available to the Remotest Part of the Country

As the country prepares for another two-week of lockdown, Google India on Monday said it has ramped up actions to help bring authoritative and reliable information to people, and provide features across its products that can be helpful during these trying times.

The company said it has started indicating the locations of hundreds of food and night shelters set up by the government across the country, accessible through Google Maps, Search, and Google Assistant.

“To date, this includes more than 33 cities with over 1,500 food and night shelters identified. Users can query in both English and Hindi, and efforts are on to bring this to other Indian languages over the coming weeks, as well as adding additional shelters in more cities across the country,” Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Payments and Next Billion Users at Google, said in a statement.

Google India said it has upped its work to curb misinformation across various platforms and prominently surface the latest updates and health advice from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and international health authorities across Search, Maps, YouTube and the COVID-19 Spot on Google Pay.

“On Search, when a person launches a query for Coronavirus they will see a page with consolidated information including the top news stories, links to MoHFW resources, as well as access to authoritative content on symptoms, prevention, treatments and more,’ added Sanjay Gupta, Vice President and Country Manager, Google India.

Google-owned YouTube has also launched a Coronavirus News Shelf on the YouTube Homepage, which provides the latest news from authoritative media outlets regarding the outbreak.

“In addition to elevating authoritative sources, we are also quickly removing reported videos that violate YouTube’s community guidelines, including those that discourage people from seeking medical treatment or encourage the use of unsubstantiated remedies to treat COVID-19,’ said the company.

The COVID-19 India website that Google launched last week is available in English, Hindi and Marathi for smartphones, and in English and Hindi via Google Assistant for KaiOS feature phones. It will be rolled out soon in several other Indian languages, said Sengupta.

“We have introduced Ads grants, Google Maps Platform Crisis Response credits and are offering our support for the APIs and SDKs that are most commonly used for crisis response implementations,” he added.

Google has laos launched the COVID-19 Spot on Google Pay that aggregates all pertinent information on the topic, sourced directly from the MoHFW.

“Donations to PM-CARES on Google Pay have thus far collected over ?105 crore and continue to grow,” said Gupta.

Additionally, on Google Pay, Nearby Spot has been introduced to help users see local stores providing essentials like groceries, which are currently open.

NGOBOX India