New Delhi: CSR Times, a monthly English publication on Corporate Social Responsibility has instituted an award after one of the highly revered and educational revolutionists – Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya, aimed to recognize the untiring efforts of those who are contributing to improve the quality and state of education in India. The first Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya Awards for Best CSR Practices in Education, 2014 were given away at a full day event that included a symposium on the current status of education in India. The event took place at Scope Complex, New Delhi on June 6, 2014. The symposium-cum-award function started with a presentation on the current status of education in India, especially in the rural areas. Sessions were undertaken on impactful initiatives in promotion of education for deprived children, enhancing teachers’ skills and upgradation of schools by Vatsal Chaya, Tech Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki respectively. Other presenters included Amway Foundation, HPCL, Intel, ONGC and GAIL.
The jury panel included persons of high repute like Justice (Retd.) MSA Siddiqui, Chairman, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, Government of India, Mr Shakti Sinha, a prominent orator at IAS Training Centre, Policy Research Group (three times private secretary to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee), and Mr Harish Chandra, COO, CSR Times, who gave away the awards.
While GAIL and ONGC clinched a joint Gold in the category Corporate and Corporate Foundations, some of the recipients of the award in the Silver category were Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd, Oil India Limited, HPCL, Amway India Enterprises Pvt. Ltd and Tech Mahindra Foundation.
Essar Foundation won the award in the Bronze category for its project on ‘Technical education to empower rural youth’ in Telkoi, Keonjhar, Odisha. This is a major initiative for empowerment of the local community and to make the youth employable, under which Essar Foundation runs an Industrial Training Centre (ITC) in Telkoi. This ITC is an outcome of a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the state government of Odisha in July 2011. It is one of the most successfully managed initiatives in public-private partnership (PPP) mode to provide technical education to enhance employability of youth in one of the most under developed areas in the country.
Other winners in this category included Indian Oil Corporation (for offering scholarship to poor and meritorious students), National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (for building of institution and infrastructure creation), Steel Authority of India Limited (for supporting students of disturbed areas) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (for supporting higher education of girls).
