Women’s World Banking And Bank Of Baroda Report Recommends

 Women’s World Banking And Bank Of Baroda Report Recommends
‘Jan Dhan Plus’ To Catalyse Formal Savings Behaviour In Women Jan Dhan Customers

Banks could potentially attract Rs. 25,000 cr. (250 billion) in deposits by serving
10 crore (100 million) women Jan Dhan customers

Women’s World Banking, a global non-profit committed to giving low-income women access to financial tools for their financial security and prosperity, and Bank of Baroda, among India’s largest Public Sector Banks (PSBs) today unveiled a new report ‘The Power of Jan Dhan: Making Finance Work for Women in India’. The report estimates that by serving 100 million low-income women, Public Sector Banks in India could attract approximately Rs. 25,000 crores (250 billion) in deposits while financially empowering 40 crore (400 million) low-income Indians.

The report highlights the importance of savings as a powerful tool to help low income women, and their households, build financial resilience. Providing in-depth insights into the savings behaviour and financial inclusion barriers of women, the report also provides recommendations to PSBs and policymakers to successfully empower the account holders of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the government’s flagship financial inclusion scheme launched in 2014.

According to the Global Findex Report 2017, 77% of women and 83% of men in India own an account, and the gender gap between make and female account ownership has dropped to 6% (from 20% in 2014). Today, 23.73 crore (237.3 million) women have Jan Dhan accounts. However, the report makes the distinction that having access to a bank account does not mean it is being used, which is a critical determinant of full financial inclusion.

Women’s World Banking and Bank of Baroda designed a pilot product specifically to encourage greater account usage among women Jan Dhan customers. Jan Dhan Plus is a solution that combines a Jan Dhan account with an incentive to deposit Rs. 500 over four months. In return that account holder receives a Rs. 10,000 credit/overdraft facility. This has several benefits – women account holders engage more with banks and build skills and trust, while the bank learns more about an important customer base and how to address it with products and services. The women and their households not only develop a body of savings to support them in times of economic hardship, such as Covid-19, but they also have access to an overdraft facility, providing both an emergency fund, and a credit footprint for them to potentially access loans and other services in the future.

The pilot was conducted with 101 Bank of Baroda branches across Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai and over 300 Business Correspondent points between February 2020 to August 2020. During this period, nearly 50,000 men and women customers signed up for Jan Dhan Plus. 32% of women who visited the Business Correspondent points enrolled in the scheme within the first two months of the launch.

Offering the keynote, Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Government of India said, “Women’s financial inclusion requires a more gender-inclusive financial system that addresses the specific demand and supply side barriers women face and leverages a partnership-led approach to address existing gaps. It is heartening to witness the collaboration between Women’s World Banking and Bank of Baroda whose innovative Jan Dhan Plus package showcases an opportunity to bring more low income women customers into formal banking, and highlight their potential as valuable customer segment for banks and financial service providers. I invite more banks to engage women Jan Dhan customers and share their success. I also would like to invite organisations working in this area to collaborate with the Women Entrepreneurship Platform, a NITI Aayog initiative with the aim to overcome information asymmetry, showcase such initiatives and enable women to avail of their benefits.”

“COVID-19 has exacerbated income gaps and disproportionately affected women, particularly low-income women. Enabling them to view formal savings as a viable financial tool is important to help restore their financial resilience. Women’s engagement with financial institutions and their ability to access credit from such institutions can also increase their social capital.”, commented Sriraman Jagannathan, Executive Vice President, Asia, Women’s World Banking. “Through Jan Dhan Plus, piloted with Bank of Baroda, we were able to study women’s savings behaviour and perceptions closely, which allowed us to design a product that caters to their unique needs. Our study underscored the need for sex-disaggregated data to design products for women that make them confident and comfortable in engaging with banks. We believe that if financial service providers adapted the features of Jan Dhan Plus at scale, it could become the product that transforms women’s savings habit.”, he added.

Shri Sanjiv Chadha, Managing Director & CEO, Bank of Baroda said, “Financial inclusion has always been acknowledged worldwide as a key driver of economic growth and a critical factor to dissolve gender inequality and engender social transformation. Jan Dhan Plus, created in collaboration with Women’s World Banking, showed us that with the right encouragement and environment, women strive faster for financial independence and resilience. Such a meaningful engagement between women and financial institutions can increase the latter’s social capital and contribution towards building a more stable nation. I urge financial institutions to recognise women customers as an emerging and distinctive segment. They hold the key to not only empowering millions of households in India, but their long-term formal savings habit can create tremendous value for the banking sector.”

Recommendations for Indian financial service providers and policymakers

1. Create relevant and simplified products for women by offering Jan Dhan Plus to mobilise savings, overdraft for loans, and launch (Unified Payment Interface) UPI-Receive only handle for ease of receiving payments into their Jan Dhan Accounts.
2. Promote awareness & nudge customers to save at the Business correspondent touch points. Explore low-cost mediums to reach women and build awareness using communication hooks specially designed for her, and nudges to trigger behaviour change.
3. Strengthen the Business Correspondents network to make them relationship managers who can help branches minimise low-value transactions and assist PSBs to engage the growing PMJDY segment.
4. Track data at a sex-disaggregated level and monitor portfolio data. Understanding the differences in women customer behaviour will help financial institutions and policy makers succeed in their efforts to advance financial inclusion.

Notes to the Editor

The report’s key findings about women Jan Dhan customers

Why India’s PSBs must prioritise women savers Women are loyal customers. Once women become familiar and comfortable with using a financial service, they tend to be more loyal customers of financial institutions than men. Women are more active and committed savers than men. 70% of the women Jan Dhan customers surveyed save “small” amounts of money by curtailing their expenses. Women can influence the saving habits of family members, as well as act as brand ambassadors in their communities. Women have a favourable credit repayment behaviour. Barriers that women face in saving formally Women do not see banks as a familiar or trusted place to deposit their savings. Intimidated by negative experiences and often hard-to-understand banking terminology, leads women to save money via informal and familiar channels. 45% of women prefer to save spontaneously when the opportunity arises. As they do not consider banks to be amenable to depositing small amounts, they reserve bank deposits for larger transactions. The need for instant access. Women do not find banks to be a viable option in saving money that they may want to access instantly for emergencies. Awareness about the value of a local Business Correspondent is low to absent. Consequently, women who are not comfortable travelling a long distance to their local bank branch, choose to save informally.   Women’s World Banking and Bank of Baroda’s Jan Dhan Plus solution, has inspired long-term savings behaviour in women via formal channels: The robust potential for banks to redirect women’s small savings. Of the women that were educated about the small savings scheme, 50% expressed interest in depositing savings. 34% of the women visited the Business Correspondent channel as it was either conveniently located or were considered helpful and trustworthy. The Business Correspondent’s ability to engage efficiently with women is also reflected in higher cross sell penetration. The Jan Dhan Plus appealed to women and proved relevant, resulting in 32% Business Correspondent walk-ins enrolling to start small savings. Despite COVID impacting the pilot, 18% of participants managed to save and completed four account deposits of Rs 500. Women who started saving with Bank of Baroda have proved to be valuable, as they grew their balances 1.5 times compared to customers who did not enroll. Even women whose bank accounts were inactive for a year found the scheme to be relevant, changed their savings behaviour and grew their balances by over 90%.

India's 1st ever public cloud storage Digiboxx hits

India's 1st ever public cloud storage Digiboxx hits
1 million users in 6 months

Digiboxx’s value proposition makes it the most affordable option for 500 Mn Indian Smartphone Users looking for a smart storage solution

Digiboxx looks to double its user base in the next 6 months as major cloud service storage providers withdraw free access to users

Digiboxx was launched by Shri Amitabh Kant IAS, CEO, NITI Aayog on 22^nd Dec’20 for Indians to store data up to 100GB at INR 1 per day

 

India’s first and only Swadesi public cloud storage DigiBoxx™ announced that it has acquired over 1 million users within six months of its launch. The platform witnessed over 16% users being active on a daily basis. Launched in December 2020 by Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, the platform is an Indian digital file storage, sharing and data management SaaS product that provides storage options for individuals and SMEs who wish to store their personal and work data.

The easy to navigate and pocket friendly storage solution is available in monthly and yearly plans starting at INR. 30 per month. For individuals, there is a free account that comes with 20 GB storage, a 2GB maximum file size, and Gmail integration. For SMBs, the INR. 999 plan includes up to 50TB storage and a 10GB maximum file size. True to its ‘Swadesi’ philosophy, Digiboxx is available in Android, iOS and a desktop version currently supporting 8 Indian languages. Digiboxx also plans for launching in other regional languages in its efforts to cater to 700 Mn Indian Internet users across the nation.

Reports suggest that clicking selfies and taking videos are now considered a daily ‘ritual’ for the Indian youth with an average age of 23, they click a minimum of 7 selfies a day. The number can go up to even 100 during festive times and special occasions. Such drastic increases in mobile usage behavior have resulted in storage space becoming a real problem for smartphone users in India and the demand for free and reasonably priced space is ever increasing. With dominant players in the cloud storage services ending free storage for their customers, Digiboxx is the only platform that provides 100GB of storage at INR 1 per day and free storage for all users up to 20GB.

Commenting on the success, Shri. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog said, “Touching 1 million lives in just 6 months is a notable achievement, especially for a bootstrapped firm. DigiBoxx has progressed well and has taken calculative steps to reach this stage. India needs more such home-grown technologies to fulfil our vision of an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat.’ As the global tech COS move away from providing the public cloud access for free, DigiBoxx is poised to step into this vacuum, with its aggressive pricing and free storage options for individuals, businesses and academics.”

On the occasion of hitting 1 MN subscribers, Arnab Mitra, CEO, DigiBoxx said, “Launched last year in December, Digiboxx is already being used by over a million users across the country. Together we want to build a Digital Storage facility for the people of our country. Our target is to provide a simple to use, comprehensive solution around storage in 8 Indian languages available in all devices especially to the Indian residents. We are confident of reaching 2 million by the end of this year and the discontinuation of free storage by the tech majors is an opportunity for us.”

Digiboxx offers intuitive services at a lower price, compared to the competition. The swadesi platform offers a search function by keyword, location, or name. Using the app is easy – just drag-and-drop files in, that is encrypted and uploaded on the go. It’s a relatively simple but effective service which makes cloud storage accessible and secure by syncing files between all the devices.

Apart from this, it's possible to share important files with other people even if they aren't DigiBoxx users. InstaShare™, a file-sharing feature allows them to share large-size documents, high-resolution images, videos, PDFs in real quick time with anyone. It has free 2GB storage space and the file shared stays for 45 days in DigiBoxx.

Hitachi’s Social Innovation Forum 2021

Hitachi’s Social Innovation Forum 2021:
A trusted partner to India’s digital transformation journey

Encompassing Urban Transportation, Information & Technology, Energy, Payments,

e-Governance, e-Education, e-Health and Agriculture, as part of the Connected Citizen Ecosystem

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501; "Hitachi") and Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd. successfully concluded the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum 2021 INDIA ONLINE today. The virtual forum brough together business leaders from varied business backgrounds and subject matter experts to discuss digital solutions and innovations that can pave the way towards a sustainable future. With a combination of 14 business sessions and virtual exhibition showcasing, how technology could enhance operational efficiencies and create a sustainable society in the long term, for India.

The forum was graced by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Chief Guest for the event. 

The two-day virtual event witnessed an amalgamation of bureaucrats, government officials, heads representing Innovation and Technology fields, industry-best minds & leaders from key industries including Railways, IT, Payment, e-Governance, Healthcare, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Energy, and Infrastructure including city gas distribution. Backed with insightful keynotes, the industry leaders and subject matter experts shared their unparalleled industry knowledge and experience on digital transformation and delved upon enhancing the Environmental, Social and Economic values of citizens and society at large.

Commenting on the event, Mr. Bharat Kaushal, Managing Director, Hitachi India said, “Hitachi has been a trusted partner to the Indian government for more than eight decades. We have been offering our technological prowess to accelerate innovation. There has been an increased impetus placed on streamlining digital transformation by the Indian government. We at Hitachi, are actively partnering with the Government of India to hasten its digital journey, leveraging our vast experience in OT X IT to pioneer Social Innovation Business solutions that empower millions to lead a better quality of life, thus realize the vision of an AatmaNirbhar Bharat, a digitally empowered India.”

The forum transformed as a unique 'Collaborative Creation' platform for collective thinking and discussion that can lead the way to build and realize a sustainable society under the new normal.

Eminent speakers accentuated on intervention and upscale of digital technology, while also sharing insights, and ultimately explore pathways for the New Normal way of conducting business.

The intuitive platform revolved around some of the most vital topics in the realm of digital transformation. Hitachi strongly believe in weaving together a collaborative network of partners, business leaders, stakeholders and government leadership to strive for the common goal and support in enhancing India’s position to a global pedestal aligned with the government’s Make in India and Digital India initiatives.

Topics including Artificial Intelligence in post-COVID India, how cash and digital economy go hand in hand in a developing economy, Re-imagining mobility in the aftermath of Covid-19, shifting to electric vehicles (EVs), necessity of integrated renewable energy significance and potential of technology in key areas like manufacturing, e-education, healthcare, agriculture etc. were deliberated upon.

The virtual exhibition canvas offered visitors a real-life experience. Features like Meet Our Team, Resource Centre etc. brought dynamism to the entire exhibition. The audience were able to interact actively by utilizing the chat and polls options, engaging with the thought leaders.

Hitachi, through its Social Innovation Business Solution, is actively partnering in reformative schemes proposed by the government to provide technological expertise in areas such as education, agriculture, and healthcare. Aligning itself and contributing to government’s vision, Hitachi is also supporting the ambitious program of the prime minister’s Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Abhiyan and the National Health Digital Mission (NHDM) scheme under Ayushman Bharat, that pledges to offer a Healthier Environment, focusing on tele-medicine and offering health services by providing primary healthcare to all bridging the rural-urban connect.

Hitachi’s comprehensive urban mobility solutions are empowering citizens and are enhancing the environmental value of customers. Contributing to the expansion and modernisation plan of the Indian Railways, Hitachi is partnering in evolutionary high-capacity, high-speed infrastructure projects. It is also working on significant metro projects which includes Noida Metro (DMRC), Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), and Navi Mumbai Metrorail by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), thereby creating new benchmarks for India’s urban transportation system.

Enabling greater financial inclusivity, Hitachi is disrupting the payments landscape of India. Aimed at customer convenience, and its commitment to building a robust and secure payment infrastructure for India, Hitachi with its comprehensive range of cash and digital payment solutions, is bridging the gap between urban and rural India, further expanding the payment ecosystem in the country.

Committed to the government's vision of a knowledge-based economy, Hitachi is emerging as an ideal partner in offering e-Education to millions, utilizing its ICT solutions that ensures that children who enter the most crucial part of their learning do so with tenacity and the required support. This is tremendously supporting the Government of India’s National Education Policy (NEP) covering the remotest area within the country.

Digital transformation is also appreciating the customer's economic value as it is resulting in optimization of resources and higher network capability to serve more consumers, amounting to higher revenue at lower cost.

Hitachi’s seamless cross-platform solution capabilities are supporting the government in its quest for reviving the country’s infrastructure which is a major driver of economic growth. Realizing the importance of adopting low carbon footprint energy solutions for sustainable living, the Government has recognized the huge potential of natural gas as a low polluting urban utility. Being aligned to this vision, Hitachi fully leveraged its expertise to devise robust and comprehensive operations automation solution for one of India's leading natural gas distribution companies through its city gas distribution network.

Adoption of latest technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) enabled water monitoring and control systems will go a long way in optimizing the available water supply. Hitachi, with its intelligent, IoT-driven Water Environment Solutions, is actively partnering with the Government and local bodies in meeting the nation's ever-growing water requirement, equitably and sustainably.

Hitachi will continue to partner with the Government of India in digitally transforming the social infrastructure & enriching citizens’ lives through collaborations with stakeholders and partners.

 

Microsoft collaborates with FICCI to launch whitepaper

 Microsoft collaborates with FICCI to launch whitepaper
on inclusion of persons with disabilities

 Highlights the enabling role of technology for greater inclusion of persons with disabilities (PwD) in the economy and society

• Shares recommendations for creating an ecosystem for accessibility and assistive technology

Microsoft in collaboration with FICCI released a whitepaper, ‘Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities through Information and Communication Technology (ICT)’, with knowledge support from DEOC, a social enterprise. Unveiled at a virtual conference with members of the government and industry, the whitepaper underscores the potential of technology in accelerating inclusive growth for India, with a focus on enhancing accessibility for persons with disabilities (PwD).

The paper outlines the role of technologies like artificial intelligence and its role in creating societies and economies that allow full and equal participation of all citizens. Especially in a post pandemic world, technology has served as a great enabler and equalizer for persons with disabilities, creating greater possibility of an inclusive workforce.

Some of the key recommendations of the whitepaper include standards for public procurement for persons with disabilities, setting up an accessibility commission board, accessibility of product and services, online education and digital literacy. It underscores the need for representation of PwDs in the workforce and consolidated efforts towards data collection for PwDs. In its recommendations, the paper also outlines the need for creating an ecosystem for assistive technology, a universal design institute and the formation of a sub-group on accessibility of ICT by the FICCI Task Force on D&I.

Launching the whitepaper, Anna Roy, Senior Advisor, NITI Aayog said, “The narrative should not be about technology, but about how technology could help us in achieving our goal of inclusivity”. She further added, “Inclusivity is so important, and it is the PM’s key agenda too. In the area of frontier technologies, AI is important. This report is a timely initiative.”

Keshav Suri, Co-Chair, FICCI Task Force on D&I and Executive Director, Lalit Hotels and Founder, Keshav Suri Foundation, said, “COVID has taught us to come together to be able to communicate with each other through ICT.” He further added, “Information and Communication Technology can act as a great enabler to open the road of opportunities for persons with disabilities across sectors – education, health, social, commercial, government sectors and more. Without access to ICT, people with disabilities are not able to get equal access to potential opportunities in these areas.”

Committed to supporting this journey, Keshav Dhakad, Group Head and General Counsel, Microsoft India, said, “Today, accessibility is not just a responsibility, but also an opportunity. When a culture of disability inclusion that powers accessibility, is coupled with technology, it leads to break-through innovations. Investing in AI and other emerging technologies can improve the way persons with disabilities interact with and leverage technology in their daily lives – how they access education, new skills or employment opportunities. We see this at Microsoft every day, where accessibility is built in by-design into our products, helping persons with disabilities unlock their full potential at work, school, and in daily life. If embraced as a movement that draws on the collective capabilities of organizations, governments, civil society and experts, the potential for India’s development is tremendous.”

Rama Chari, Founder and Director, DEOC and Member, FICCI Task Force on D&I, presented key insights from the whitepaper on inclusion of persons with disabilities through ICT. She said, “Technology has revolutionized the world – online meetings/online medical advice etc. But it could be a barrier if not accessible. It is not just software but also hardware like coffee vending machines which are not accessible. AI apps that are being developed must take into account the needs of PwDs.”

Ira Singhal, Joint Director, Department of Women and Child Development, Government of NCT of Delhi, gave a special address at the launch of the whitepaper, citing, “In India, disability is also a consequence of family income and it’s not yet about genetic disability.  For example, disability due to lack of nutrition, lack of rehabilitation etc. The connect between the inventor of accessible tech and the beneficiary is missing.”

Following the launch, was a panel discussion on the role of ICT in empowering persons with disabilities. The panellists were Nipun Malhotra, Founder, Nipman Foundation and Chair, Working Group on PWD, FICCI Task Force on D&I; Apoorv Kulkarni, Associate Director, Ola Mobility Institute and Member, FICCI Task Force on D&I; Nupur Srivastava, HR Director and D&I Leader, Intel India; Tom Clancy, Prosus and Anuj Jain, Executive Director, National Association of the Deaf

Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog on the launch of

Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog on the launch of DigiBoxx™ on 22^nd Dec’20

DigiBoxx is India’s first digital management provider. I am very glad on how this offering has evolved from a mere concept, just an idea to an actual product which will greatly benefit Indian citizens as well as private and government institutions, when it comes to providing digital storage and asset management services. The development of DigiBoxx, in many ways is a testimony to kind of impact the tech start-ups in India are making and kind of role they should play in enabling to make rapid technological advances in the post COVID era. I am very happy to know that DigiBoxx offers digital file storage and organization by providing an easy secured way to store data, all on an Indian digital storage cloud. The development of DigiBoxx is also in line with a mandate of storing data within the country and therefore ensure data sovereignty and security. 

We have been working with the private sector to develop cutting-edge security products which would enable our country to lead in the post COVID era. Working with the private sector, we were able to develop several products which address themes ranging from financial inclusions to making higher education accessible to all. Therefore, I am indeed very proud when I see young technopreneurs taking the lead and working towards solidifying India’s future as the product, artificial intelligence and technology lab of the world. With over 600 million connections, India is the largest consumer broadband in the world. 500 million + are using smart phones. 

India is world’s highest data usage for smart phone at an average 9.8 GB per month and the number is set to nearly double by 2024.  Not to forget the availability of mobile data at cheapest cost. There lies an opportunity to proliferate the citizens and ensure that the government services reach the last mile. In fact a lot of e-governance initiatives throughout the country have been deployed as cloud services at digital India programme and this is the growing need for cloud services in order to significantly improve infrastructural bottle lines.  The pandemic has further boosted the need for a robust and ubiquitous digital asset management services in India in the same way as monetization boosted digital payment. 

 Ladies and gentlemen, we will present here  today’s  testimony to the fact that NITI Aayog and the Government have been an active participant in enabling innovations and developing new frontier solutions.  

NITI Aayog, along with AWS has launched the frontier technologies, cloud innovation centre, a public-private partnership which would address societal challenges through digital innovations. At the same time, the government’s vision of cloud 2022  is aimed at making India a global hub for cloud storage, management and computing. To the team at DigiBoxx, we, at the Government of India, are indeed very proud of what you’ve been able to achieve. Start-ups such as yours will provide the boost for India to take the lead of post COVID era which will be driven by transformational technology solutions.  I would also urge people as well as institutions to try DigiBoxx, India’s fully homegrown data storage and asset management service. 

This prouduct is a great achievement for our country and entrepreneurs and we must not only support DigiBoxx but also search innovations which are unique to India and are driven by young and promising technology leaders. I would once again like to congratulate the DigiBoxx team and wish them all the best and all the success for their product. I am sure that the people will avail your service and give your product a try. I look forward to more innovative solutions from you and all the other start-ups of the country. We are all here to provide you all the support, assistance and hand-holding.  Thank you very much.

YAAP onboards new clients, offers appraisals and perks to

 YAAP onboards new clients, offers appraisals and perks to employees and continues
aggressive recruitment amidst the pandemic

The digital content company won over 20 new accounts during COVID and is currently hiring for more than 12 new positions across 3 cities

With its vision ‘Built For Now’, YAAP, a new-age specialized content design, discovery & distribution company, has won over 20 new businesses and 4 awards in the last few months. The clients onboarded are largely from BFSI, travel & tourism, government and gaming sectors covering names such as NPCI, Mobile Premier League, NITI Aayog, Meghalaya Tourism and Dubai Fitness Challenge. YAAP will be responsible for the content strategy & development, influencer marketing, media buying and social media of these new mandates.

Owing to the unpredictable market situation where industries are collapsing and employees are in continued distress due to pay cuts, YAAP continues to celebrate its employees’ efforts with no pay cuts and no layoffs. Moreover, appraisals have been conducted.

A company that is ambitious towards servicing its clients to the best, has opened 12 new positions across sales, creative, servicing and strategy. YAAP is looking for people who are striving towards a collective goal no matter the odds.

It is said that every new phase often comes with hurdles. With this, YAAP would like to announce that Irfan Khan has moved on from the company. He was a partner at YAAP where he was responsible for the influencer marketing vertical, new business development and overall operations of the company. Manan Kapur, partner at YAAP will be taking on the influencer marketing business.  

Sharing his views on the company's novel moves, Irfan Khan, Partner, YAAP, said, "In my time at YAAP, we achieved the growth trajectory few companies have, especially in the content and influencer marketing space. We successfully led some of the biggest content-led activations across India and the Middle East. It's always bittersweet to leave a place enjoyed and helped nurture, but today we have a solid foundation that has been set. I'm positive the team will take it to greater heights in the near future.”

Manan Kapur, Partner, YAAP, said, “The past year has seen a drastic shift in the status quo, and YAAP was no exception. This change meant we had to be more agile and adapt to the new normal while keeping our team, our clients & our partners as our primary priority. And now, as 2020 comes to a close, we have an ever-expanding team, we’ve forged many new relationships and we’re entering the new year stronger than ever, because of our unfaltering passion and our unwavering vision. I look forward to adding influencer marketing to my responsibilities and build on the strong foundation set by Irfan.”

Central Square Foundation and Omidyar Network India Release

Central Square Foundation and Omidyar Network India Release
‘State of the Sector Report on Private Schools’

Report findings underline that the private school sector educates nearly 50% of India’s school-going children and the need to focus on improving their learning outcomes

Central Square Foundation, a non-profit organisation that works towards ensuring quality school education, and Omidyar Network India, an investment firm focussed on social impact, released the first-of-its-kind report today on the state of the private school sector in India. The report highlights the need to improve learning outcomes in private schools which educate nearly half of India’s school-going children.

The report is a comprehensive analysis of existing research and evidence on the sector. It suggests reforms to streamline the operations of private schools with a focus on improving student learning. It aims to be a ready reckoner for policymakers, academicians, researchers, philanthropists and educationists amongst other stakeholders associated with the sector.

About 70% children in urban centres and a quarter from rural households attend private schools. Over 50% students in 16 Indian states are enrolled in private schools. The increased enrollment can be attributed to the rising demand by aspirational parents. A large number of parents — about 70% — pay less than Rs. 1000 per month as school fees. The report finds that 73% of parents with children in private schools believe these schools provide a better learning environment. However, student performance in private schools is only marginally better than government schools after adjusting for disadvantages in student backgrounds. About 35% of rural private school students in Grade 5 are unable to read a basic Grade 2-level paragraph.

The report finds that parents lack the means to make informed decisions while choosing schools based on learning performance. Board Examinations, among the only few reliable and standardised metrics to assess learning, are held in the last few years of schooling making it difficult for parents to judge the quality of schools during the early years of education. Moreover, nearly 60% of the private schools across India do not go up to a Board Examination grade.

Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, released the report at a digital event and said, “An educated and literate India is not possible without the private sector working towards our nation building. We must pay attention to getting it right. We need to bring reforms using access, equity and quality as guiding factors. More importantly, we need to shift the focus from monitoring of inputs to monitoring of outcomes. Quality education has been this government’s priority and NITI Aayog is drafting a model regulatory act in consultation with all stakeholders. We believe we will see fruitful results based on the references and results underlined in this report."

Highlighting the fact that private schooling is not popular among the elite alone, Mr Ashish Dhawan, the Founder-Chairman of CSF, emphasised that many families from underprivileged households send their children to private schools as well. “Today the private school sector in India is the third-largest school system in the world. These numbers are mainly made up of parents from low- and middle-income backgrounds who believe their children will have better learning outcomes in private schools. It’s critical 

now to institute a system that will give parents assessment-based information based on key stage examinations at Grades 3, 5, and 8, as the NEP suggests. They can use this information to compare school quality and pick the best school for their child.”

And speaking about the creating a demand for quality education among parents, Roopa Kudva, Managing Director, Omidyar Network India, said, “We need to empower parents to make informed decisions based on learning quality when choosing a school. In the absence of meaningful information on how schools perform on learning, parents tend to give weightage to tangible parameters like school infrastructure or English as the medium of instruction. Philanthropy capital can play a vital role in setting the ground in three main areas: greater awareness building, increased transparency from the schools themselves and improving the quality of engagement between parents and the schools.”

Eicher Group Foundation and Metso India join Plan India’s ‘Project

Eicher Group Foundation and Metso India join Plan India’s ‘Project Suraksha’ to support children and girls in vulnerable families

Amidst the coronavirus (COVID-19) lock down and outcry from several poor and marginalized families, vulnerability girls and young women has come to the fore. Communities with scanty access to health and sanitation facilities for their girls in this time of crisis are facing the biggest hardships. In response to this, Plan India’s Project Suraksha aims to fight the COVID-19 crisis while working in close coordination with the Government, civil society organisations, corporates and donors to support weaker sections and communities in peril. In order to support Plan India’s cause by means of this project, Eicher Group Foundation and Metso India Pvt. Ltd have come forward to fulfil the organisation’s purpose and mission to provide gender sensitive public health and humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable families so that the impact of the crises on children, girls and young women is minimized and mitigated.

Extending his gratitude towards the supporting corporates, Mohammed Asif, Executive Director, Plan India, said, “Plan India team is ever grateful for the support it is receiving from leading corporates, namely Metso and Eicher Motors, who have come forward to provide much needed humanitarian relief to some of the poorest and most vulnerable families and in particular the girl child. As a leading national NGO, working for social development and humanitarian causes, we are committed to promote awareness and sensitization in adolescent girls and young women on the ways to prevent the spread of Novel Coronavirus in India. Together, we are partnering the most vulnerable families and supporting their immediate needs of food and personal hygiene. Moving forward we will be working closely with the poor and vulnerable families to help restart education and learning for their children and promote skills and livelihoods in young women and men. While we are committed to our social development mandate, it is indeed encouraging to have socially committed corporates join hands with us to achieve the larger national development goals.”

Plan India’s humanitarian response aims to reach 2 lakh people on the ground with a focus on communicating public health information, distributing hygiene kits, dry ration kits and personal protective equipment (PPE) while ensuring that the needs and rights of girls and young women are addressed.

Eicher Group Foundation has donated to Plan India to provide dry ration and hygiene kits to daily wage workers, small vendors, pregnant and lactating mothers, orphans/abandoned children, primitive and nomadic tribes, families with disabled members, elderly headed household, female headed households, migrant laborer’s in Pune and Bhubaneshwar.

Mr. G Sekar, Director, Eicher Group Foundation, said, “We are committed to supporting the Government and various NGOs in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. We are working on several fronts to provide relief and support measures across various parts of the country. With Plan India and their on-ground partners, we plan to support 1500 families each, in Pune and in Bhubaneshwar.

In Alwar, Rajasthan, Metso India Pvt. Ltd. is supporting the most vulnerable communities affected by COVID-19 by providing dry ration, hygiene kit and personal protective equipment to doctors  and medical kits such as gloves, sanitizer, floor cleaner to the frontline workers (ANM, ASHA, AWW[1] & Lab Technician).

Commenting on the immediate action and commitment towards the crisis, Mr. Sanjar Sehgal, Senior Manager- HR and IR said, “We have been working globally with many not for profit organisations and here in India, we have joined hands with Plan India and hope to ensure that those in need have enough to eat and can protect their families during this lockdown due to COVID-19. This support will reach out to the daily wage earners, migrant labour and poor farmers meeting their day to day needs.” Metso aims to support more than 1560 most vulnerable and economically weaker families with dry ration kits and hygiene kit, 2395 frontline workers with medical and 131 doctors with PPE kit.

Plan India is also supporting the initiative of national agencies like Niti Aayog, National Disaster Management Authority and Ministry of Home Affairs to name a few. Simultaneously Plan India is engaging with local government agencies, civil society organisations, donors and healthcare experts to ensure that correct messages and immediate relief measures reach our beneficiaries to keep them healthy and protected during this pandemic.

Plan India believes that given the nature and scale of the crisis, it is of critical importance that governments, civil society organisations and corporates undertake strategic and collaborative actions spanning both, public health and humanitarian domains. Their focus must be on bolstering public health efforts to contain the COVID-19 disease; and minimising the disruptions and humanitarian fallout on poor people’s livelihoods, education of children, safety and protection of girls and young women and the healthcare of persons with HIV and other chronic illnesses.

Until 25^th April 2020, Plan India has distributed 22,066 + Dry Ration Kits, distributed 24,296 + Hygiene Kits reached 1071 + villages with COVID-19 messaging.

Dr VK Saraswat Inaugurates New Technology Pilot Plant for recovery of high value minerals from Fly Ash at Star Trace Pvt Ltd., Chennai

Dr. VK SARSWAT, full time member of Niti Aayog, Government of India and former Director General – DRDO and Secretary Department of Defence R & D, today inaugurated the Pilot Plant involving a path breaking technology at the premises of Star Trace Private Limited, at Red Hills, Chennai (STPL).  

This plant incorporates a cost-effective technology for reducing the volume of waste and recovering high value minerals, viz., aluminium oxide and iron oxide, major and minor elements including  barium (806 ppm), beryllium (5 ppm), boron (311ppm), cadmium (3.4 ppm), chromium (136 ppm), chromium VI (90 ppm), cobalt (35.9 ppm), copper (112 ppm),manganese (250ppm), nickel (77.6 ppm), selenium (7.7 ppm), strontium (775 ppm), thallium (9ppm), vanadium (252 ppm), and zinc (178 ppm). This technology involves physical separation of these minerals as well as toxic materials from the fly ash in the coal-based power plants and other coal using plants.