India CSR Network
BHUBANESWAR: Governor of Maharashtra Shri Vidyasagar Rao on Jan 21, 2017 visited GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the GMR Group, at Rajam, Srikakulam District in Andhra Pradesh.
Accompanied by Shri GM Rao, Group Chairman, GMR Group, the Hon’ble Governor took a tour to GMRIT Campus, GMR Varalakshami CARE Hospital and Vocational Training Institute. He also spent time with the underprivileged gifted children. Later, he addressed over 4,000 students of GMRVF run Engineering College, GMR Institute of Technology and other institutes.
Shri Vidyasagar Rao highly lauded GMR Group for its keen endeavor to develop social infrastructure and enhance the quality of life of communities around the locations. He stressed upon requirement of such social works that GMR has been doing selflessly for years together.
Addressing the gathering, Shri GM Rao, said, “It is indeed an honour for us to showcase the activities of GMRVF related to Education, Health, Hygiene & Sanitation, Empowerment & Livelihoods and Community Development to the Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. GMR Group believes Corporates have a special and continuing responsibility towards the society. The grim reality in India is that millions of people still do not have access to basic amenities and live in abject poverty – a situation that cannot be redressed by the Government alone. The business sector needs to understand its corporate-social responsibility and work towards making a difference to society. I personally feel that social development initiatives should be carried out professionally, sustainably and with a focus on outcomes. Keeping this in view, the GMRVF was set up as a not-for-profit company over a dozen years ago, and has its own professional staff drawn from top academic institutions.”
Social Responsibility is one of the seven values of GMR Group and all employees are expected to live the value. The Vision of GMR Group’s CSR activities is “to make sustainable impact on the human development of under-served communities through initiatives in Education, Health and Livelihoods”.
The CSR initiatives of the GMR Group follow an empowerment driven approach, and this led to the initiation of vocational training centres to provide quality vocational training and placement facilitation to under-privileged dropout youth. The Foundation is actively involved in running 12 state-of-the-art vocational training institutes which have provided trainings to about 40,000 under-privileged youth so far and close to 80% of them have been settled and are earning their livelihoods through the technical skills they have learnt.
Education is another area of emphasis. Apart from running quality educational institutions in under-served areas, the Foundation works with about 350 government schools, and is also working with thousands of children of pre-school age. The Foundation is also supporting about 200 gifted children for their entire education, from standard 1 to their professional qualifications.
The Foundation also runs hospitals in under-served areas. Mobile medical units are also part of the initiative for providing better & proficient treatment to the rural areas.
The Foundation is also involved in various livelihood development activities such as supporting women groups for income generation, farm and non-farm rural livelihoods development etc. The Group started sanitation programs 10 years back and till date has built toilets across nine States of India and supported more than 450 families to build individual toilets. All these have resulted in improving health and hygiene for various underprivileged sections of the society.
