NEW DELHI: The Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. (APSEZ), India’s leading port operator was felicitated with the ‘Honorary Special Mention’ award at the first ever National CSR Award ceremony organised by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in New Delhi.
Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, and Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs presented the award to Malay Mahadevia, Group President, Human Resources of the Adani Group, Rakshit Shah, Executive Director, APSEZ and Avinash Rai, COO, APSEZ.
APSEZ was recognised for ‘CSR in Challenging Circumstances’ in the western region and creating sustainable impact on incomes and overall living standards of the fishermen community in Gujarat.
Since 2010, Adani Foundation, the CSR arm of the Adani Group, has worked on behalf of APSEZ on the project called ‘Transforming Lives and Livelihood Provision to Fishermen Community’ in six core areas including livelihood, women’s empowerment, quality education, skill training, health and infrastructure development for communities in the vicinity of Mundra and Anjar towns of Kutch districts in Gujarat.
In line with the Adani Group’s principle of ‘Growth with Goodness’, the project has ameliorated living conditions and created sustainable impact in the lives of 6067 fishermen and their families in seven villages of Gujarat.
Availability of off-season livelihood opportunities, alternative livelihoods and improved fishing techniques have resulted in increasing income of families. Quality healthcare services have reduced disease burden and enhanced savings due to lower out-of-pocket expenses.
In addition, education is getting a fillip with 1,780 children being enrolled in the Adani Vidya Mandir School at Bhadreshwar. Environment and biodiversity preservation was given a special focus with mangrove plantation across 2889 hectares providing protection against natural disasters and ensuring local employment.
The project has worked in tandem with other simultaneous programmes to create impact such as Vidya Deep Yojana for empowering Balwadis at fisher folk settlements, free education at the state-of-the-art Adani Vidya Mandir school, Machhimar Arogya Yojana for Mobile healthcare unit, financial support and senior citizen health card, Machhimar Kaushalya Vardhan Yojana for alternate skill training and Machhimar Shudhh Jal Yojana for potable water, among others.
The CSR Awards, instituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, recognises corporate initiatives in area of CSR for achieving inclusive growth and sustainable development.
Considered as the highest recognition in the domain of CSR by the government of India, an independent assessment of CSR experts shortlisted 19 winners and 19 honorable mentions across three award categories from over 500 entries.
The categories included Corporate Awards for Excellence in CSR, Corporate Awards in CSR in Challenging Circumstances and companies working on National Priority Schemes.
