The CSR Journey

With an intent to uplift the society and the community at large, Tata Power has always been instrumental in driving activities which impacts the community and other stake holders and help them develop themselves. As a part of my ACE development progress, I got an opportunity to contribute in this field in the form of CSR Projects at Jojobera and Kalinganagar.

The journey of CSR started with Jojobera where the target was to complete 2 Projects – To revisit the Community Engagement Index (CEI) and test it by implementing it on one of the intiative; and to implement the ‘Swachh Bharat – The Tata Power Way’ initiative at Jojobera. After the CEI was finalized in consultation with Prof. Madhukar Shukra, Professor – XLRI, Jamshedpur, the task was to test the Index on one of the initiative. Under one of the thrust areas of CR – VIDYA which aims at augmenting rural primary education system with emphasis on girl child education, the CR Team at Jojobera have undertaken several initiatives to improve the quality of life of people through education. The CEI was calculated on the basis of 3 factors – the feedback from the community, the feedback from the volunteers of Tata Power and the Outcome of the initiative. The CEI score obtained at the end of the initiative was 90.2%. The second part of the project was on implementing the Swachh Bharat initiative at Jojobera. A competition was rolled out among all the departments of Jojobera where each department nominated one ‘Swachhta Sutradhar’ from their department for whom a training was conducted on ‘5S’ by Mr. Supratik Mukherjee. Each department engaged themselves for a period of 3 days to clean their workstations in line with 5S principle. A jury comprising of external and internal members audited each of the department and Safety Department was crowned as ‘The Most Swachh Department’ of Jojobera.

After completing these two projects at Jojobera, the destination shifted to Kalinganagar to complete the third and the final project of CR Stint. This time the project was on ‘Community Need Assessment’ for IEL – Kalinganagar. There are 12 villages identified as the scope of the community at Kalinganagar which comprises of approximately 2,918 households and 11,273 people. The objective was to meet these people and study their current situation and understand their immediate and long term needs and also prioritize the needs of the community and recommend the key initiatives to be undertaken to improve the overall scenario. After conducting a detailed community need exercise some of the key needs which emerged were to ensure clean drinking water for the community members as the water at Kalinganagar has very high iron content; to sensitize people to develop Rural Toilets at their homes which will help in making the community Open Defecation Free; To sensitizing the Parents on Importance of Education (primary as well as higher education) and at the same time improve Functional Literacy of Parents and improving involvement of students through Summer Camps, Competitions, etc.; Training the youth on Skill Development and Re-starting the SHG’s and arranging work for them such as Papad making, mushroom cultivation, Agarbatti, etc and Integrating the services in IEL Premises for Market Linkage

The overall experience has been full of learning and the exposure of having spending time with the community members has made an important impact on my approach to look at any situation in life. I feel each and every employee must undergo a CSR stint in their life. This would help each one of us to become a complete professional.   

Letter to the Chief Minister of Delhi

Dear Chief Minister Ji,

I hope that this email finds you in best of health.

I am writing this email to congratulate you on nearing the completion of 6 months in office by your government. The last 160 days of journey has been through thick and thin. Many commoners (including me) believed that your government has taken some crucial steps which have helped the people of Delhi. However, then there are also people (who admire you) who have said that the Government of Delhi could have lived up to their expectation in a far better way.

Almost, all of us have gone through the TV Ad's, Newspaper Ad's, Hoardings in the city and other forms of advertisement made by your government. While the advertisement is informative on the actions and steps taken by your government in the last 160 days, but I believe that it at the same time a costly affair. With the increase in frequency of ad's it has started ringing bells in my mind that is it still the 'Aam Aadmi Ki Sarkar' which the people voted for. I am certain that the amount spend on these TV ad's could have been better utilized (May be in paying the amount due to the 3 Discoms in Delhi; or May be to install some roof top solar panels on Government Building; or May be in deputing some female commandos in Delhi as a step towards security). I have always believed that Success of any Government is measured by which people living under the government say and not what the TV Ad's or the News paper Ad's say.

I am not writing this mail to highlight to you your short-comings. I also intend to share with you some of the suggestions (mentioned below) which I feel that the government would like to act up on to make Delhi a harmonious place to stay:

1. The Government plans to launch Wi-Fi in all Rural Areas. There is an interesting data which I would like to share with you: 56% Children living in Slums and un-authorized colonies defecate in the open due to lack of Community Toilets (Source: Hindustan Times). In my opinion, these Rural Areas need Toilets more than Wi-Fi.
   
2. The launch of E-District Service deserves a round of applause. At Home Ministry of Delhi level, the data coming out of it should be analyzed atleast on a half-yearly level. May be the trend analysis can help us predict and catch-hold of the corrupt to prevent corruption at a faster rate
   
3. The government plans to give subsidy to the owners of newly purchased Battery operated 4 wheelers and 2 wheelers vehicle: I think the government should rather invest in the Automobile Labs of Engineering Colleges in Delhi and let students make and design Battery Run Vehicles which can be used to commute within the offices in Delhi. All the vehicles which the students will make will be procured by Govt. of Delhi.

I feel a good government is one which measures the progress in terms of target achievement rather than monitoring the money spend on any initiative. Going forward, while announcing our Annual Budget for Delhi, if we can also share the target for each line-item, I am certain that the people of Delhi will like you more for that.

With a hope that some of my suggestions and feedback will be acted upon. 

With Best Wishes,

Varinder Singh

Delhi

A big Hi-5 to KIIT Hostel

Is it the 2:00am Maggie? Or the never ending late night parties? Or the hurry to copy the assignment from the ‘Chatur Ramalingham’ of the class? Ask the students staying in the KIIT Hostels and they will say that it includes all of them. They would also say that its little more than this – the walks around the corridors of the hustling bustling building to notice the ‘recently fallen’ love-birds talking whole night over the phone. The four years of my hostel life at KIIT helped me derive a mathematical formula which says that the intensity of the love affair in which a boy is, depends upon the mode of tele-communication he is using while talking to a girl. If someone uses Rs. 399/- Reliance to Reliance free phone, it means the proposal has been accepted and if he is found smiling while reading the text messages which keeps on pinging whole night, it’s an indication that he is trying to get into one. [PS: For the students who are currently staying at Hostel, the formula has been upgraded. SMS has changed to Whats App and Reliance has lost the race while Vodafone is leading it].

Each moment that one spends in the King’s Palace unfolds an interesting story. King’s Place gave the students something which we all are striving for at this age – Independence. It not only provided a space to the KIITians but at the same time filled the rooms of happiness, fun, joy and excitement. Going to bed at 10 at night was a signal that a boarder was sick. One of the moment which helps me recollect a memory was the one I lived during ‘Karmanya’ – The hostel fest of Kings Palace – 5 in the year 2009. I still remember those words of a learned man which are still safe in my memory and conscience. I shall not distort the words otherwise it will take the spirit of the man away. He mentioned, “If a person hasn’t stayed in Hostel in his life, his life is 50% incomplete. And while staying at Hostel, if he hasn’t made a Girl-friend, his life is 100% incomplete.” Today, when I look back to those instants, I feel the words were not false.

The life at KIIT Hostel guaranteed Crazy Incidents and Wild Experiences. The actual fun happened at 12:00am at night when it would be your friend’s birthday and your run fast to ensure that you do not miss out giving him birthday bumps. But the actual pains of these moments were felt while it was your turn to be there on the receiving end. It was never unwise to hit people on 364 days in a year and receive all of it together on that one day.

You would always come across a bunch of students who will knock your door at 1:30 at night to ask, “Bhai kuch khaane ko hai kya? Bahut Bhook Lagi hai..!” and your reply would be, “Kuch hai to nahi par agar kahi se mile to bulana jarur.” Unfortunately you would end up having Kissan jam, Dabur Honey or Jaljeera because it was difficult to hunt food in a jungle where all of them were hungry for years. As the time passes by and you grow from 2^nd to 3^rd year and from 3^rd to 4^th year, the wants get upgraded from ’Khana’ to ‘Cigarette’. If the Reading Room of your hostel falls on the way to the mess, god save them who go there every day to study.

Among all these, there was a desire to share and live, a wish to help others, an aspiration to fuel the friendship with which each one of them lived their life. Hostel Life teaches you not only to live life independently but also to become a human being – something which we all want to be today in the race of life. The entire staff members and wardens at the Hostel may sound rude to you sometimes but they are the actual guardians who are there to water you to grow from a seed to a tree and at the same time hold your hands when you fall.

Today, its been more than 3 and ½ year that I have left back the KIIT Hostel but the memories which I could make them is still alive and green in my brain and shall always be. I wish I could a be student again to live there and this time for a even longer period. 

Letter to The Minister - Food & Processing, Govt. of India

Date: 5th June 2014

To,

Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal,

Honourable Minister - Ministry of Food Processing Industries,

Government of India

New Delhi.

Dear Mam,

First of all, a hearty congratulations to you for becoming the Minister for Food and Processing and taking up this huge responsibility of leading the nation in the area of Food with utmost dedication and commitment. Being a proud citizen of the country, I now feel that the responsibility has gone to the safe hands and on to the strong shoulders. 

I am writing this mail to enumerate to you few problems which our (your's and my) country is facing. I would not limit myself here, rather I would also like to present to you few suggestions which I feel will help me see many of my brothers and sisters sleep with two meals a day. 

Who would know better than you that a considerable part of India's population sleep hungry everyday. Moreover, the number is more when we talk of people not getting hygienic food. Under your able leadership and guidance, I am certain that the 100% of India will sleep without being hungry everyday. Here are few suggestions, which I would like to outline to you and your team:

• Technological Advancements in Food Industry: Of late, there hasn't been much innovation in the food industry. I hope with proper investment in the field of research and technology in the food and processing industry, we will be able to extract much from the available.  
• Empowerment of teams working on Waste Food Collection: It's not necessary that only human-beings should get meals. As per British Institute of Mechanical Engineers' Report 2013, nearly 50% of food got wasted in 2013. If we can utilize this food to feed our animals, our country would have healthy animals and at the same time be clean and green
• Improvement in the ranking of GHI: India ranks 63 out of 88 countries on the 2013 Global Hunger Index (GHI). I feel you should strategize all possible measures to improve our ranking in next 2-3 years

I also hope that you have a great team to work with you on this and you must be receiving several suggestions on this as well. I am also confident that you are equally concerned about this as much I am or we are. My best wishes to you and your entire team. I know the journey is not easy but when we have leaders like Madam Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Shri Narendra Modi Ji, then Waheguru will also come down to Earth to make India a HEAVEN.

Best Wishes, Regards and Jai Hind,

Varinder Singh

A proud Citizen of India

It's beyond the MALE Gender

“International Women’s Day is our opportunity to reflect as women on how far we have come and what more we need to do to make sure women everywhere have the opportunity to write their own story.  Changing the world, like living your own life well, requires a sense of purpose, the courage to pursue it and the preparedness to risk the most public of failures. Nothing big was ever achieved by cowering.” 

             – Hon. Julia Gillard, 27th Prime Minister of Australia.

Madam Julia Gillard generously shared these words on the eve of International Women’s Day on 7^th March 2013 at Canberra in Australia. She wanted to communicate the message of empowerment of women on a day on which much more needs to be done than to just say that men and women are alike. As Australia’s first female Prime Minister and a law student, Julia believed that she had much more in her bags than just documents or few copies of affidavits. She had a dream to courageously spread the message across the world that women at every stage are as strong and resilient as men. She is one who stepped out of her comfort zone many times, which made her a role model. But, the sad part of the story is that there aren’t many successors to Julia. There aren’t many women to sit at the decision making tables.  

With women occupying just 17% Fortune 500 board seats, only 19% of parliament seats worldwide, earning less than 10% of world’s income and forming only 22% of the workforce across the world, the gender gap is still far too broad. Women start careers in business and other professions with the same level of intelligence, education, dedication and commitment as men. Yet comparatively few reach the top echelons. There’s been a lot of talk in the past about why more women don’t become leaders and what our society needs to change to produce more female leaders.

It’s a fact that if we account the amount of work women do at their homes, our economy will triple. The world has been successful in developing women leaders who lead a team as big as 10,000 or more workforce. We must appreciate them because they are the ones who took a brave decision to deal with their life in somewhat different way than others of their breed. But the number of these women is very less.

I have always considered ‘women’ as those creations of God, who are bravest at heart to love, strongest enough to rejoice and wisest enough to understand.

To bring a change, we need to change to change the mindset. We can achieve this through enlightenment and education. We need to design our curriculum and workplace in such a way that it should not discriminate against women, rather it should welcome them. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, let us appreciate the efforts of Women on humanity and pledge to make this world a harmonious place for them to live.

KIIT Alumni Meet at Mumbai

24^th November 2013 was a memorable day for all the KIITians based out of Western part of the country when about more than 100 alumni’s gathered under one umbrella to meet, share and revive the good old memories. KIIT has always been in the forefront in getting connected with its alumni and more so in giving an opportunity to the passed out student to develop an everlasting relationship with its alma-matar.

The meet started with a welcome address by Dr. Sucheta Priyabadini, Joint Registrar (Student Affairs), which was followed by the KIITians who introduced themselves one by one. Dr. Sucheta shared a wonderful coined term – ‘Student for few years, Alumni forever.’ It was indeed heartening to see that KIIT Alumni’s are elevating the KIIT flag high by showing their talent in different areas of their career. The grand moment of the entire event was yet to come. The crowd applauded Mr. Venkat Sastry – the person who has arranged bread and butter for many KIITians till date and is continuing to do so in various capacities.

Finally, the moment came when the torch bearer and the most beloved Dr. A Samanta came to the podium to address his lovable KIITians. The entire room was engulfed with silence as each one of them didn’t want to miss a single word which flowed from his mouth like perfume. He talked about the entire strategy which KIIT and KISS has together laid down to grab a place in the top 500 Universities in the world. Listening to him brought joy, happiness and pride in the KIITians. What touched everyone was his quote which read, “Strengthening Alumni, Strengthening KIIT.”

The event ended with a joint dinner and students left carrying a memento with them. A memento which they have always treasured – KIIT Review, a book which keeps them connected with KIIT 24X7. This day certainly marked a day in the calendar when all those who experienced it could walk down the memory lane and made it available to spend some quality time with their teachers, mentors, batch mates, friends and fellow KIITians.

KISS: A Revolution against POVERTY

The eminent policy makers, economists, politicians and now even the new governor of RBI is busy finding a solution to the never ending problem of our country – Poverty. There are many who believe that it has become a national joke, while there are few who have brought some changes in the country with their efforts. One such person is Dr. A. Samanta.

Most of the Corporate Houses in the country believes that Eastern India is a key potential area for Growth. One such state in this part of the country is Odisha – a state which has remained poor, even though the development has started in the recent years.  Dr. Samanta has faced poverty first hand. This was when he lost his father at the age of 4. It was during his childhood when he made it a mission to do something for the poor. He developed a vision that poverty can only be eradicated only through Education.

A man who started a small ITI Institute in the city of temples – Bhubaneswar with a small sum of Rs. 5000/-, has today made it become an educational conglomerate par excellence. It is called Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS). KISS started 20 years back as a modest residential school with 125 tribal children. Today KISS has become World’s Largest Tribal School, which takes the credit of providing free education and livelihood to more than 20,000 tribal children who come from 62 tribes of Odisha and nearby states. The uniqueness of this institute is that it has a zero drop our rate and a far better pass percentage. It doesn’t stop here. The students of this school have Won India Under – 14 Rugby World Cup in 2007. The students have represented not only India but also Asia in various international championships. Recently a 17 year old student of this school named Laxman Hembram was selected (the only youth from India) to participate in the Malala Day United Nations Youth Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York. The school not only imparts education but also teaches new skills to the students such as tribal arts, craft, horticulture, poultry farming, etc. While grasping this vocational training course, the students can earn some money by selling the products which they make and proudly send back this money to their family living in remote and poverty stricken areas.

The awards and achievements of Dr. Samanta and his KISS are enormous. The President, The Vice – President, The US Ambassador and many Nobel laureates, policy makers and international luminaries have visited this heaven on earth. The Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh and Delhi have invited Dr. Samanta to open a KISS in their state as well. This world class model is a testimony of the dedication, hard work and efforts of a man (Dr. Samanta), who himself is a bachelor and still lives in a rented house.

I feel proud to be a fan of Dr. Samanta, by choice.