CSR: NIRED adjudged among top Rural Self-Employment training institutes

NIRED provides free vocational training to under-privileged and unemployed school or college dropouts. A total of 588 RSETIs participated in the ranking exercise

NEW DELHI: Nagavali Institute of Rural Entrepreneurship Development (NIRED) at Rajam in Andhra Pradesh, has been adjudged as one of the three best performing Rural Self-Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) in India by the Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India.

NIRED, jointly run by GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, the CSR arm of GMR Group, and Andhra Bank, has become the only RSETI to win this recognition for the second year in a row.

The objective of NIRED is to identify the unemployed school or college dropouts from under-privileged families from Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram and Visakhapatnam districts, and train them in vocational skills. They also get assistance in taking self-employment or jobs.

NIRED representatives received the award from Narendra Singh Thomar, Union Minister for MoRD & PR, and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State for Rural Development at the Awards Distribution Ceremony in Delhi on December 19, 2019.

Meena Raghunathan, Executive Director GMRVF said, “We are overwhelmed to receive the award for the second year running. This puts greater responsibility on us, and we will strive to reach out to youth in the most under-served areas, to put them on the first step on the ladder of a skilled vocation. NIRED’s focus has always been on systems and processes, and we will continue this in our quest for excellence in skill training.”

NIRED is a residential training facility with capacity to run six streams simultaneously. Candidates are provided in-house training in both technical and soft skills. Successful trainees are helped out with bank loans for starting their own enterprises, wherever required. Also, hand holding support is given for two years to the trainees, such as advice in setting up the enterprises, training in business development techniques, facilitating market linkages etc.

The Institute was established in January 2003 under the joint sponsorship of GMR Varalakshmi Foundation and Andhra Bank Rural Development Trust (ABRDT). Since its inception, NIRED has provided free training to about 16,500 unemployed youths of which over 13,000  are self-employed or working in their chosen field.

NIRED competed with 587 other RSETIs sponsored by various banks across the country. After reviewing the performance of all these RSETIs at various levels, as per the recommendations of the award committee, the Ministry of Rural Development selected NIRED among the top three best performing RSETIs in the country for the FY 2018-19.