Women, leading the way towards sustainability
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December 2019

  • Arshia khan
  • Event report, Our News Bureau
  • December 30, 2019

Women, leading the way towards sustainability


Women entrepreneurs have been in demand for skills galore. Right from being at the helm of affairs to micromanaging the house – you name the skills and they have it. When two or more women collaborate or engage in business the outcome will be plausible. To initiate a discussion on sustainability – the Qatar Professional Women Network hosted the first-of-its-kinds forum on What’s your environmental impact?

From L to R: Sze Wah Wan, Dr Shiban Khan and Sonali Raman

Qatar Professional Women’s Network (QPWN), launched in
2010 is an informal networking group for Qatari and expatriate professional
women. Its main aim is to inspire women to engage in a professional, diverse
and supportive network while expanding their skills and knowledge base.

According to a report on ‘Women in Business and Management Gaining Momentum in the Middle East and North Africa’ by the
International Labour Organisation, women in the Middle East and GCC countries report a weak presence as executives. Mercer, a global consulting company, conducted a survey in 2010 and reported a low proportion of women executives internationally, but more so in the MENA countries. Women executives accounted for 23 per cent in Morocco out of all executives, 17 per cent in the UAE, 16 per cent in Egypt and 7 per cent in Qatar. The highest rate reported globally was 33 per cent. QPWN in order to engage the working women community to collaborate and empower working women professional’s conducts discussion forums regularly.

The event saw the participation of both working and non-working women professionals from Qatar. The speakers included women entrepreneurs who have started their businesses based on reducing the environmental impact. Dr. Shiban Khan, Research, Sustainability Qatar spoke about how their organisation helps reduce carbon footprint through their #52weekchallenges and Young Ambassadors Programme. She spoke in detail about saving water, fuel and electricity. She also emphasised on carbon neutral football World Cup that will be hosted in Qatar in 2022.
Owner of One Goes Green Sze Wah Wan has her business set up on recyclable and reusable materials. Right from grocery bags to business cards, everything is made from environment friendly materials. Sze Wah Wan showcased her product range to the audience and discussed the challenges she faced while setting up her business.

Women at the discussion forum

The last speaker Sonali Raman highlighted how she designs sustainable yet relevant designs for her clients. Sonali’s brand also carries a line of handcrafted fashion jewelry using traditional craft techniques in contemporary designs.  The line of fashion ready-to-wear is a blend of modern silhouettes with natural fabrics and traditional embroidery techniques. This is an effort to keep the traditional crafts sustainable and yet relevant to the times. She works with craft persons and artisans to create these products.The event was an interactive and engaging one where the audience pointed to the fact the sustainability should also be a part of the curriculum – as these children will be our next generation. They would have it ingrained in them right from childhood.

QPWN recently hosted a discussion forum featuring distinguished guest speakers providing personal and professional insights on how they achieve a more gender-balanced world, promoting the IWD topic 2020 of #EachforEqual – An equal world is an enabled world. on International Womens’ Day at Marriott Marquis City Centre Hotel, Doha. Stay tuned for a detailed report.

By Arshia Khan

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  • Arshia khan
  • Our News Bureau
  • December 28, 2019

MEI goes green as part of their CSR initiative

Mitsubishi Electric India recently held a plantation drive where
around 200 trees were planted in Jaipur, Rajasthan as a part of their CSR
initiative that aims to attain UN Sustainable Development Goals. Ten employees
from the Mitsubishi Electric India and around 20 volunteers from different NGOs
participated in the plantation drive. The drive was aimed at conveying a
message of the company’s commitment to sustainable development and green
planet.

“By planting trees in the city, our company wants to convey the message that increasing the green cover of the city is of utmost significance. As trees not only provide cover from heat but also help in improving water levels. Our motto is to promote environmental conservation in every part of the country, and we want the citizens to relish and protect the clean environment,’’ said Katsunori Ushiku, Managing Director, Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd.

Source: CSR Box

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  • Admin
  • Our News Bureau
  • December 27, 2019

Dabur India to develop schools in Rajasthan

Dabur India Ltd has
adopted four public schools in Rajasthan as a part of their CSR drive where the
private firm would be spending on the school infrastructure creating an
amicable environment for the young learners to match up the pace of mainstream
education.

The four schools
adopted by Dabur India – two in Newai and two in Alwar- will have separate
sanitised lavatories for boys and girls besides having drinking water
facilities so that the students get all adequate facilities at the
school. 

“Dabur is committed to
making a positive contribution to a more sustainable future for India. As a part
of this mission, we have been working towards improving the learning
environment for children in backward areas across the country. We understand
that schools are foundations for imparting education to the younger generation,”
said, A Sudhakar, Head-CSR, Dabur India Ltd.

As
per the Companies Act 2013, the private firms are required to shell out a part
of their profits towards community development programs in order to tackle
escalating income gaps and making development more inclusive.

Read More
  • Arshia khan
  • Our News Bureau
  • December 24, 2019

Global Fund endeavours to eradicate diseases

The
Global Fund in its official statement has said that it would be allocating a
huge sum for certain eligible countries to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, and
malaria.

An
amount of $ 12.71 billion has been proposed for country allocations and an
amount of $ 890 million for catalytic investments to ensure the safety of 16
million lives by reducing casualties caused by AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria
by 2030.

“World
leaders came together at our Replenishment and made commitments to step up the
fight to end these epidemics by 2030,” Peter Sands, Executive Director of the
Global Fund was quoted as saying.

“Now
the real work begins. Our allocations will allow partners to expand programs
that work, and to find innovative solutions for new challenges. In addition to
more money, we need better collaboration and more effective programs.” Peter
Sands further added.

Read More
  • Arshia khan
  • Our News Bureau
  • December 24, 2019

Chhattisgarh CSR Leadership Summit to be held in February 2020

The
2nd Chhattisgarh CSR Leadership Summit is scheduled to be held on Feb 6, 2020,
in Raipur where politicians across parties, corporate leaders, CSR dignitaries
will meet to discuss issues concerning the growth of the state and the role of
CSR towards social welfare.

Organised
by India CSR, the gathering is also expected to discuss a host of contemporary
socio-economic issues confronting the state which would be attended by around
200 delegates from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.

Hosted
on August 24, 2018, for the first time, CSR Leadership Summit & Awards
endeavors to formulate a common aspiration among the State, NGOs and Corporates
to uplift the society economically and socially while keeping Sustainable
Development Goals on the agenda.

CSR
is a corporate ethic strategy where corporates are supposed to spend a part of
their profits towards philanthropic or charitable endeavors to uplift
marginalized sections of the society. The Indian companies are required to
undertake CSR activities as per the roadmap laid out for them in the Companies
Act 2013.

Read More
  • Arshia khan
  • interview
  • December 19, 2019

Bhartiyam: Inching closer towards sustainable environment

Bhartiyam, a not for profit entity was founded in 2016. Working on the issues of underprivileged sections especially women and children, Mr Rajeev Kumar, Founder, Bhartiyam also collaborated with like-minded individuals to work towards environmental sustainability through its flagship programme Mission100CroreTrees. He shares the goals of the organization in conversation with Abdullah

What is the focus of your NGO ‘Bhartiyam’?

Bhartiyam registered under the
Income Tax Act 80 G strives to promote financial self- sufficiency
of women through economic development. Our mission is to address
specific needs of women such as education, health care, and income
generation within the broad development framework. Besides working on Welfare
of women we also work for the cause of underprivileged ones through food and
clothes distribution campaigns.

Rajeev Kumar

Focusing on sustainable environment,
we also a have team of dedicated environmentalist bearing the torch of our
flagship programme ‘Mission100croretrees.’

Could
you elaborate on the mission of your flagship programme ‘Mission 100 crore
trees’?

Mission100croretrees
team aims to save the environment by planting trees to reduce pollution.
Besides, river cleaning has been at the forefront of our agenda so as to avert
further deterioration of water bodies. Through our plantation and clean river
campaigns, we have ensured that a good number of people are sensitised and
motivated towards environment and sustainable development.

How
do you acquire funds to run campaigns like ‘Mission 100 crore Trees’?  Have you sought any assistance from any govt
institution/ Corporate Houses?

Our team Mission100croretrees is
fully volunteer-based.  We don’t seek any direct monetary assistance from
any corporate house but we do collaboration with private companies such as
Pimcore, Noida for events and workshops on environmental sustainability and
plantation drives. The expenses incurred while undertaking such events are
borne by the private firms.

What
are the challenges you confront while undertaking afforestation drives? How do
you tackle them?                             

The biggest challenge is maintaining the trees post plantation like watering, protection from any kind of damage. We don’t get any support from the Govt. on this front. We manage on our own or seek help from locals to take care of the trees.

In the Fiscal Year 2017-18, total CSR expenditure on Environment, Animal Welfare and Conservation of Resources was estimated to be around 1361 crore. Do you think its ample amount spent towards environmental sustainability? What else could be done for sustainable development?

The corpus fund of Rs 1361 crore is a sufficient amount for environment if it is wisely spent on planning and execution to have visible changes in the environment sustainability. A good part of the amount should be doled out for awareness campaigns motivating people from semi urban areas and rural areas to join the cause of environment so as to make sustainable development a reality.

About Rajeev Kumar: Rajeev Kumar, founder of Bhartiyam, is a Digital Marketing Professional hails from Bihar, moved to Delhi about 10 years ago and was shocked to see the pace of city’s green cover area vanishing. Due to his love for nature, Rajeev soon started planting trees across the city during the weekends. In the span of three years he has planted over 35,000 saplings all over Delhi-NCR.

By: abdulla@kazisoftwaresolutions.com

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  • Arshia khan
  • Uncategorized
  • December 17, 2019

VCare: Making healthcare affordable, accessible

Catering to the healthcare needs of approximately 8000 people monthly, the Vcare centre saves Rs 2 crore of healthcare expenses spent by people. Equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities, VCare, also plans to fundraise Rs 2 crore for expansion of its facilities.
Operational under the banner of Falah-e-Aam Trust, VCare has become synonymous with model healthcare across Kalyan and adjoining areas where patients’ receive basic healthcare facilities at an affordable lower cost.

What are your views on India’s GDP spending on healthcare?
India being a developing country tagged as ‘Emerging Economy’ has been spending less than 2% of GDP on healthcare which is a miniscule proportion and far below when compared to other nations. India has to set its priorities right considering the state of malnutrition in general, stupendous population and its huge area. Though the government has taken measures from a prevention perspective, but help and assistance available for medical care is far below the requirement of such a huge country.

Mr Moin Don, Founder, Vcare

Do you think our healthcare spending, i.e. less than 2 percent of the GDP, is way too less and we need to dole out more to enhance public healthcare in India?
Definitely, we need to increase our spending in public healthcare especially since we have largest burden of malnourished and tuberculosis patients. Due to very low accessibility and affordability of healthcare services, people in India die of simple curable diseases like diarrhoea in rural area, which is unheard of in other comparable countries.

What are your views on privatization of healthcare in India? What are the pros and cons?
The private sector in rural areas, is no position to offer healthcare solutions and hence it’s completely dependent on the government. For ‘Preventive Medicine’ privatisation does not hold any promise to benefit for general public. But in urban areas with high disease burden, we see a possibility of the private sector to deliver. One needs to appreciate that government can provide preventive and basic health care but when it comes to specialty and super specialty segments (which require lots of funds and highly trained and skilled human resources), the role of private sector comes to the fore and is viable solution may be coupled with Health Insurance players in the market place. So in nutshell privatisation has good role to play in urban setting, however same may not be true for rural healthcare scenario.

VCare centre is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities; how do you source/fund the equipment while still maintain a cost effective / subsidized healthcare delivery?
Vcare is equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities and machines, which is completely funded by local population through donation. It simply works on the principal of healthcare for people by people. Vcare operations are self -sustainable as the property in which the centre is housed is owned by us, interest free purchase of all equipment (no bank liabilities) and economy of bulk operations (which cuts the operational cost by a great margin).
Vcare is ‘Not for Profit’ facility but, whatever little (surplus) revenue that’s generated after taking care of expenditure, is ploughed back for development, expansion and modernisation of the facility.

Vcare facility

Please share some cases as to how / where VCARE has created an impact on the lives of people.
In a very short span of time, VCare has become a milestone and a house hold name in Kalyan city and the peripheral areas. This itself demonstrates its impact on the social environment in general. Just to illustrate take an example of VCare Consultants’ OPD; today the total cost of visiting a Consultant (MD/MS) followed by investigation and prescribed medications cost an individual between INRs. 3000-4000; but this entire package in VCare cost an individual just INR 800-1000 with same or rather better quality of care.
People from Kalyan and all nearby villages (in the vicinity of Kalyan city) are thronging to VCare centre for all their all healthcare need. Today, we are catering to about 8000 patients per month. Such a professionally managed medical facility is open to all caste creed and religions. This initiative has created lot of ‘Good Will’ for the minority citizens of Kalyan.

A glimpse of patient footfall at the centre

On an average how many people would visit the centre. Are you planning to replicate this in other areas of Mumbai?
On an average 250-300 people visit the centre on daily basis for diagnostic n medical needs. About 8000 patients are being benefited by this centre every month. It is important to note that through VCare, the community is annually saving about 2 Rs crore of healthcare expenditure. Till date, we have performed over one lakh tests, 25,000 sonography and 30,000 X-rays in merely two years’ time. Currently it’s the largest non-government centre in Kalyan in terms of volume of footfalls.
It’s definitely replicable at other cities as well. We are planning to spread this model to other cities especially our pathology facility which is going to get NABL accreditation in few months.

Can you share details on nature of assistance provided by volunteers, sponsors and donors?
Ours is mostly locally funded organization but need more funds for upcoming projects like Vcare dental clinic, OPG, mammography, stress test, PFT and dialysis centre. Currently, we need around Rs 2 crore to complete our new projects on the anvil.

What is your opinion on approaching government for eliciting the CSR funds?
This is much appreciated indeed. The cash rich corporate sector can provide lot of assistance through CSR and contribute handsomely to the Indian Healthcare sector.

About Moin Don: Recipient of ‘Pharma Ratan 2016’ Award for Lifetime Achievement and for his contribution to Drug Safety & PV in India at the hands of Drug Controller General, India Trainer & Facilitator for; – FDA Inspector’s Training – Govt. of India’s DCGI /PVPI Pan India Training Program – UMC Asia Pacific PV Training Course – Ukrainian Health Authorities, Mr Moin has about 40 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacist by education, Moin is one of the most well-known ‘Pharmacovigilance Professionals’ in Asia Pacific. He has rich hands on experience of practically every facet of Industrial Pharmacovigilance, while serving reputed international pharma companies like Sanofi Aventis, Dr. Reddys, and his last assignment with Johnson & Johnson as Regional PV QA Director for Asia Pacific.

By: abdulla@kazisoftwaresolutions.com

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