Category: Health

The five-month project aims to improve nutritional and health status of the targeted children through nutritious food

Vedanta Ltd has joined hands with the Uttar Pradesh government reaffirming its commitment to combat and eradicate malnourishment from the state by the year 2024.

  Vedanta’s philanthropic arm, The Anil Agarwal Foundation plans to end all forms of malnutrition, including stunting and wasting in children under five years of age, and address the nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women through its flagship CSR Project Nand Ghar, an official statement said.

  Nand Ghar has partnered with Mealmile Nutrients, as a part of its thematic interventions on the right nutrition. Initiating a pilot project, the partnership is targeting to improvise the nutritional levels of 3000 malnourished children in the Araji line block of Varanasi.

  Under the pilot, a Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) in the form of a paste, manufactured by Mealmile Nutrients is being distributed by the district administration to each of the household having malnourished children in Varanasi.

  The project aims to potentially improve the nutritional and health status of the targeted children by ensuring access to nutritious food. The ongoing pilot project is five months long and should be eventually assessed by the district administration.

  On the occasion, Vedanta Resources Director Priya Agarwal said: “Project Nand Ghar is committed towards PM’s vision of a malnourishment-free India. It is our chairman’s dream to see no child goes to bed hungry. This partnership with the Government of Uttar Pradesh will strengthen our commitment to combat malnourishment among children and ensure a healthy future for them.”

  The District Magistrate of Varanasi, Kaushal Raj Sharma said: “Malnourishment suppresses the development and growth of children. Our primary focus is to provide the necessary nourishment to the children so that they get the opportunity to grow to their full potential. With this partnership we shall ensure proper nourishment for the holistic development of the children, hence the nation.”

  Currently, there are 950 Nand Ghars in the state of Uttar Pradesh, directly impacting the lives of 40,000 children and 30,000 women.

This collaboration is a step toward impacting the female workforce participation within Quess, enabling awareness of sustainable products as well as facilitating a safe and hygienic work environment for all gendered employees and their families.

Quess Corp, India’s leading business service provider, has entered into a corporate partnership with Sustainable Menstruation Coalition (SMC), a global coalition aiming to eradicate period poverty.

  The partnership aims to positively impact over 400,000 plus Quess associates, 3000 plus corporate clients, 7000 plus core employees, and two million plus employee family ecosystem through company-wide menstruation awareness campaigns encouraging behavioural change and education on a wide scale.

  The Sustainable Menstruation Coalition is a strategic alliance of companies and NGOs that uses innovative financing and on-ground activation to empower menstruators to choose sustainable menstrual hygiene products that benefit their health and wellbeing. Through this collaboration, Quess Corp and SMC will together tackle workplace stigma and taboos and promote sustainable menstruation practices among the workforce and their larger ecosystems to impact health, sustainability goals, and gender parity at the workplace.

  Quess aims to become a Period Victory workplace which provides access to sustainable menstruation products and celebrates dignified menstruation free of shame or stigma. This collaboration is a step toward impacting the female workforce participation within Quess, enabling awareness of sustainable products as well as facilitating a safe and hygienic work environment for all gendered employees and their families. Further, this partnership extends to schools and educational institutes as part of Quess Corp’s CSR arm, Careworks Foundation (CWF).

  Lohit Bhatia, President of Workforce Management, Quess Corp, spoke on the partnership and said, “We believe that social security can only be achieved through formal employment. This is what workers of all classes need, including women. One of the biggest deterrents for women entering the workforce is the discontinuation of education when they hit puberty due to a lack of toilets in public schools or access to hygienic menstruation products.

  Something as natural as periods cannot put a girl child’s access to education and future employment at risk. We are confident that through this partnership, we should be able to make a difference in the lives of several little girls who aspire for a financially secure future.”

  Reports maintain that 64% of Indian women do not have access to menstrual hygiene products, while 23 million Indian girls drop out of school annually after they start their period. It is also estimated that women in India miss 50 days of work a year due to their menstrual cycles. The scale of unawareness and lack of access to hygienic health accessories contributes to the low participation of women in the workforce as these factor into the education of girls and, consequently, the employment of women in the workforce.

  “Even in our workforce, we have been striving to improve women’s participation and seeing a quarter-on-quarter increase in their enrolment. To continue this momentum till it reaches the desired level, steps like creating awareness and giving access to hygienic menstruation products will go a long way”, added Bhatia.

  The Sustainable Menstruation Coalition (SMC) aims to empower menstruators in India to gain awareness of menstrual hygiene practices by adopting sustainable menstruation products. The coalition intends to positively impact the reduction of waste and greenhouse gas emissions to provide sustainable menstrual products to 100 million menstruators across India by 2030.

  Imran Wali Ahmad, Managing Director, TrueFootprint & Founding Member, SMC, added, “As the non-profit Project Drawdown highlights, one of the most impactful solutions for climate change lies in girls’ education; one of the biggest barriers identified is poor menstrual hygiene practices. We are hopeful that with the support of like-minded institutions like Quess, we should be able to reach our common goal of providing sustainable menstrual products to 100 million women and girls across India in the next seven years, in alignment with the UN’s 2030 SDG targets.”

  As part of the initiative, SMC has actioned a baseline survey with female employees at Quess to understand their comfort level, menstrual knowledge, and access to period products. An awareness program specialised in the survey findings will be undertaken to sensitise menstruators about period hygiene and introduce them to sustainable/alternate products.

  All genders of the workforce will be a part of this program to encourage continuous learning of the menstrual landscape and normalise the phenomenon. Further, knowledge dissemination through sensitisation seminars, workshops, and donation campaigns will also be undertaken to aid menstruators outside the company.

SBI Foundation partnered with Borderless World Foundation to provide primary, preventive, diagnostic, curative and referral health services at the doorstep of the communities in the remote villages of Bandipore and Kargil districts.

The SBI Foundation’s mobile medical unit project, SBI Sanjeevani – Clinic on Wheels, will soon service Bandipore, Jammu & Kashmir and Kargil, Ladakh. This has become possible after SBI Foundation partnered with Borderless World Foundation to provide primary, preventive, diagnostic, curative and referral health services at the doorstep of the communities in the remote villages of Bandipore and Kargil districts.

  The mobile medical units, funded by SBICap Securities, were flagged off by Bhagwat Karad, Union Minister of State for Finance in the presence of Amitava Chatterjee, CGM, SBI Delhi Circle, Lalit Mohan, President and COO, SBI Foundation and officials from Borderless World Foundation and SBICap Securities.

  SBI Sanjeevani – Clinic on Wheels is currently being implemented in 21 States and Union Territories in our country, covering over 400 remote villages and serving a population of close to 5 lakh.

  These mobile medical units are equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities and accompanied by a dedicated medical team consisting of a doctor, lab technician and pharmacist. Along with the clinical facilities, these units will also run specialised health and awareness camps in these remote villages. This project also leverages collaborations with the state and local health departments/medical colleges for support.

  Speaking at the event, MoS Finance Karad said, “The SBI Sanjeevani – Clinic on Wheels is a unique initiative where the state and local health departments, local NGOs and SBI Foundation work in unison. I am grateful to SBI Foundation, SBICap Securities and Borderless World Foundation for these efforts to serve communities in the most remote areas of our country, specifically in Bandipore and Kargil.”

  “Serving rural communities is one of the core ethos of the State Bank of India. As a corporate citizen, SBI is undertaking various CSR initiatives, thus helping nation-building.” Amitava Chatterjee, CGM, SBI Delhi Circle, said.

  Lalit Mohan, President and COO, SBI Foundation, shared, “Our SBI Sanjeevani initiative makes primary healthcare services accessible to our rural and remote population and improves the health status of villages and induces behavioural changes in health, hygiene and sanitation practices within the community. Shortly, we further look to extend this initiative to all states and union territories in our country, to serve our rural and remote communities.”

  SBI Foundation is the CSR arm of the State Bank of India. True to its tradition of service beyond banking, the foundation currently works in over 27 states and union territories of India on rural development, healthcare, education, livelihood and skill development, youth empowerment, promotion of sports, and more.

The plant has been set up in Sambalpur with a capacity to supply up to 100 beds in the hospital and aims to fulfill the critical need for medical-grade oxygen in a hospital.

Bayer, a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition, on Friday unveiled an oxygen plant with 500 LPM capacity, at SDH Rairakhol in Sambalpur district of Odisha, as part of its CSR initiative focusing on strengthening healthcare facilities in rural and underserved parts of India.

Apart from the Sambalpur district of Odisha, Bayer is also setting up oxygen plants in the Raichur district of Karnataka, Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh, and Guwahati in Assam.

 Inaugurating the new plant, Sambalpur District Magistrate and Collector Dibya Jyoti Parida said: “The private sector can play an important role in supporting the government to strengthen health facilities across the country. We thank Bayer and LobourNet for taking up the initiative of setting up this plant.”

The plant has been set up in Sambalpur with a capacity to supply up to 100 beds in the hospital and aims to fulfill the critical need for medical-grade oxygen in a hospital, the company said in a statement.

The pressure swing absorption (PSA) Oxygen plant will generate, supply and store 93-95 % Pure Medical Oxygen for about 100 Oxygenated beds. This will allow the hospital to also run coronary care units (CCU), intensive care units (ICU) and Operation Theatres (OT) in the future.

The sub-divisional hospital currently has a 100-bed capacity and the newly installed oxygen plant is scaled to serve over 400 patients in need of oxygen support every month.

The dedicated oxygen plant will ensure a steady and stable supply of oxygen to the needy patients in the hospital, a critical factor in saving lives.

Speaking on the launch, Rachana Panda, Vice-President, and Country Head- Communications, Public Affairs, and Sustainability, South Asia, Bayer said, “The recent pandemic has highlighted the need to upgrade our health infrastructure, especially in the hinterland. …It is always our endeavor to provide better nutrition and healthcare facilities to the local communities and I hope that this plant will be an important step in that direction.”

The hospital caters to a population of almost 70,000 residents in the area and with the activation of the oxygen plant, critical patients in need of oxygen will get the much-needed supply directly from the plant.
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Mitsubishi Electric India donates air conditioners to Polytechnic Industrial Training Institute

Mitsubishi Electric India has donated and installed air conditioners in two labs of the Polytechnic Industrial Training Institute located in Manesar, Gurugram, as part of its CSR initiative.

Air conditioners have been installed in Highway Engineering Lab and Soil, and Foundation Engineering Lab of the institution, the company said in a statement.

The objective is to support the infrastructure of the Government Polytechnic Industrial Training Institute and help it excel so that students can get a comfortable environment to study and progress, it said.

A similar activity will be carried out by the company in 10 cities to support educational and health institutions, it added.

The company’s CSR activities include Skill Development, Community Development and Climate Action.

Commercial vehicle financer Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC) on Tuesday said it has partnered with Skill India to train 1000 drivers to ensure seamless and accident free transportation of oxygen tankers. With an objective to streamline Liquid Medical Oxygen

Commercial vehicle financer Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC) on Tuesday said it has partnered with Skill India to train 1000 drivers to ensure seamless and accident free transportation of oxygen tankers.

With an objective to streamline Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) Tankers supply chain amidst the pandemic, STFC has launched a CSR initiative — Shriram Seva Sankalp LMO Driver Training. The campaign aims to upskill 1000 experienced heavy and medium vehicles drivers to carefully handle and transport Cryogenic LMO Tankers.

According to STFC, over 500 drivers have successfully completed their training in January 2022, the company aims to certify the remaining 500 drivers by March 2022.

The shortlisting of experienced heavy motor vehicles (HMV) drivers to enroll for the capacity building training program was conducted at the approved training centers funded by STFC at multiple locations including Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

The Holistic Cryogenic Medical Oxygen Tanker Driver Training Program will offer the trainees a deep-dive into the theory, hands-on practice on simulators, handling of hazardous cargo tanker and in-plant LMO loading and unloading along with all other safety precautions to be taken.

This will help in creating a pool of skilled drivers to transport cryogenic medical oxygen tankers owing to its growing significance in medical management of COVID-19 across hospitals.

Post the successful completion of the training program, the drivers will be awarded with a certification by the Logistics Skill Council.

Speaking about the initiative, STFC Vice Chairman and Managing Director Umesh Revankar said: “The need for skilled drivers to operate oxygen tankers was felt in 2021 owing to the acute shortage of oxygen in the country.”

As India braces towards meeting challenges of the third wave of the pandemic, Revankar said the company’s endeavor is to once again provide continuous support to the society.

“Thus, we have stepped up to the opportunity and decided to work together with the government to avert a similar situation in the future,” he said.

Since the start of the CSR training program, over 10,000 candidates have been trained to drive heavy and light motor vehicles with ease, he added.

Skill India is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in 2015 with an aim to train Indians in different industry-related jobs. The Ministry is responsible for coordination of all Skill Development efforts across the country, removal of disconnect between demand and supply of skilled manpower, and building the vocational and technical training framework.

STFC through its partner DB Skills is working in collaboration with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to upskill drivers.

Recently, STFC Ltd had also organized a vaccination campaign for truck drivers titled ‘Highway Heroes’ in collaboration with TV9 Network and Apollo Hospitals.

The month-long campaign initiated to vaccinate 6000 drivers was inaugurated in Chennai and executed in transportation hubs in five cities including Chennai, Hyderabad, Nalagarh, Kolkata and Dharuhera.

Doctors For You (DFY) has established 5 COVID hospitals across India to help deal with the third wave of COVID-19. As part of what is being termed as the Crypto Relief initiative, 1000 beds, with 70 ICU beds and 130 pediatrics beds, have been put in place

Doctors For You (DFY) has established 5 COVID hospitals across India to help deal with the third wave of COVID-19. As part of what is being termed as the Crypto Relief initiative, 1000 beds, with 70 ICU beds and 130 pediatrics beds, have been put in place.

A collaboration has been formed with the district administration in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The doctors who would help treat patients at these designated locations are Tau Devilal Stadium, Gurugram, Public Hospital, Lucknow, Patliputra Stadium, Patna, SRA, Mumbai and KPCL Hospital, Bangalore.

The intervention encompasses strengthening the health institutions with the required infrastructure, expert workforce, and other essential resources. This includes providing health establishments with necessary facilities, including HDU and oxygen beds. The current staffing is equipped to handle Pediatric cases, which are the critical concern under Omicron pandemic spread.

Talking about this initiative, Sandeep Nailwal, Founder of Crypto Relief, said, “Amid 3rd wave of COVID, we are closely working with the group of health institutions to provide healthcare needs during this surge. The infrastructure provided by CRF will help with quality healthcare services and aid relief from the major health crisis.”

In addition, Nailwal’s Crypto Relief fund was instrumental in building rural and tribal district’s capacity in 6 districts for the COVID current wave, where far-flung communities such as Pulwama, tribal areas such as Lasadiya and aspirational districts such as Nuh have been provided necessary medical capital equipment, medical personnel and capacity building to support healthcare services to impact health outcomes directly and additionally adding 500 more COVID beds in remote Areas.

MedEngage Scholarship program has been announced by Metropolis Healthcare, India’s leading diagnostics service provider. Aimed to nurture medical students and help them contribute to healthcare research, the service provider helps medical students financially

MedEngage Scholarship program has been announced by Metropolis Healthcare, India’s leading diagnostics service provider. Aimed to nurture medical students and help them contribute to healthcare research, the service provider helps medical students financially.

Dr Sushil Shah, Metropolis Chairman, had floated the idea in 2018 and is aimed to be a holistic academic program for medical students that includes Scholarship, Observership, Academic Research discounts, and certificate courses.

Since its inception, over 500 institutes have reached and registered with the MedEngage program for several of its initiatives. More than 5000 students registered for Observership, academic research, and several courses that MedEngage offers.

Metropolis has successfully conducted the scholarship program for two consecutive years and has awarded more than100 students with scholarships worth up to 50 lakhs. This year 2022, it intends to reward 150 students from across India through this scholarship program.

The students can log on to www.med-engage.com to register and apply for the program. The applications will be checked by an eminent panel of jury members, predominantly from the healthcare fraternity and external bodies. The winners will be announced in February 2022, followed by a felicitation ceremony held in April 2022.

Building on its global expertise in the nutrition and wellness domain, Amway India, one of the country’s leading FMCG direct selling companies, celebrated World Health Day with a national webinar on building a better tomorrow with a focus on nutrition in children

Building on its global expertise in the nutrition and wellness domain, Amway India, one of the country’s leading FMCG direct selling companies, celebrated World Health Day with a national webinar on building a better tomorrow with a focus on nutrition in children. Organized in association with its NGO partner SRF Foundation, the virtual platform brought together policy experts, subject-matter experts, and industry leaders to discuss current challenges and opportunities in improving nutrition and health amongst children, especially those under 5.

As per the latest National Family Health Survey (NHFS), 18 of the 22 states and Union Territories (UTs) have recorded an alarming rise in the malnutrition condition of children under five. While each of the surveyed states and UTs reported 22 per cent or more stunted children, at least eight out of 342 surveyed districts registered more than 50 per cent prevalence of child stunting. Deliberating on such critical issues and the need to address inequities in access to health and nutrition, present at the conference were Ms Jyotika Kalra, Member, National Human Rights Commission, Mrs Rajbala Kataria, Joint Director, Women and Child Development Department, Haryana, Dr Sujeet Ranjan, Executive Director, The Coalition for Food and Nutrition Security (CFNS), Mr Ajay Khanna, Chief Marketing Officer, Amway India Enterprises Pvt. Ltd, Dr Sirimavo Nair, Professor in Foods and Nutrition, Faculty of Family and Community Sciences, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Mr Basant Kumar Dube, District Immunization and Child Health Officer, Nuh and Dr Y. Suresh Reddy, Director, SRF Foundation.

Speaking at the conference, Ajay Khanna, Chief Marketing Officer Amway India said, “The WHO theme* of World Health Day 2021 of building a fairer, healthier world is a clarion call to strengthen action in the best possible way to make lives healthier and better for every child in the country. Amway India is one of the foremost proponents of holistic nutrition and wellness. With our vision of helping people live better, healthier lives, we endeavour to make a tangible societal impact through multiple social initiatives. Aligned with the Government of India’s National Nutrition Mission, Amway had introduced its globally acclaimed campaign, ‘Power of 5’ aimed to raise awareness on the issue of childhood malnutrition and bring in the much-needed behavioural shift among mothers and communities at large. Leveraging the success of our pilot project in Kirari Village, New Delhi, we are launching the second phase of this project with SRF Foundation in Nuh district, Haryana. Under this two-year program, we intend to benefit over 51,000 people including 15,000 children in the age group of 0-8 years. I truly believe that with similar meaningful partnerships and collaborations, we can achieve the vision of a healthy India.”

Samsung Electronics is repurposing older smartphones to enable greater access to ophthalmic health care in underserved communities around the world. Samsung partnered with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and Yonsei University

Samsung Electronics is repurposing older smartphones to enable greater access to ophthalmic health care in underserved communities around the world. Samsung partnered with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and Yonsei University Health System (YUHS) in Korea to create medical devices that screen for eye disease by upcycling Galaxy smartphones that are no longer of use. This Galaxy Upcycling program is helping to address approximately 1 billion global cases of vision impairment that are preventable with a proper diagnosis.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 2.2 billion people have a form of vision impairment and almost half of these cases were preventable or have yet to be addressed. There is a large disparity in the prevalence of vision impairment depending on the affordability and availability of eye care services. This is estimated to be four times more common in low- and middle-income regions as compared to high-income regions.

“People around the globe face barriers to accessing fundamental health care, and we saw an opportunity to engineer smart, innovative solutions that reuse products to drive more sustainable practices and make a positive impact in our communities,” said Sung-Koo Kim, VP of Sustainability Management Office, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “This program embodies Samsung’s belief that technology can enrich people’s lives and help us build a more equitable and sustainable future for all.”

In 2017, Samsung created the Galaxy Upcycling program to introduce innovative ways that Galaxy devices can make a positive impact. Through the program, an older Galaxy smartphone can become the brain of the EYELIKE™ handheld fundus camera, which connects to a lens attachment for enhanced fundus diagnosis, while the smartphone is used to capture images. The Galaxy device then utilizes an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze and diagnose the images for ophthalmic diseases and connects to an app that accurately captures patient data and suggests a treatment regimen at a fraction of the cost of commercial instruments. The unique and affordable diagnosis camera can screen patients for conditions that may lead to blindness, including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration.

“We were looking for an eye health diagnosis solution that was cost-effective to reach as many people as possible, and when we saw the performance of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones, we wanted to integrate their upcycling efforts into our research,” said Dr Sangchul Yoon of Yonsei University Health System. “The combination of using multiple optical technologies and artificial intelligence, coupled with camera performance of a Galaxy smartphone, created an affordable medical device that was just as capable as a fundus camera used by medical professionals. This not only solved a health issue but a growing environmental concern as well.”

Since 2018, Samsung has partnered with IAPB and Yonsei University Health System to benefit the lives and vision of more than 19,000 residents in Vietnam with its portable retinal camera. In 2019 alone, it supplied 90 portable ophthalmoscopes to health professionals operating in remote regions of the country without access to walk-in clinics. Now, Samsung has expanded the program to India, Morocco and Papua New Guinea. Samsung is also broadening its capabilities to new screening areas, including using upcycled Galaxy devices to create smartphone-based portable colposcopes to screen for cervical cancer and improve women’s access to quality health care.

SBI General Insurance, one of the leading General Insurance companies in India, has enabled the construction of 15 sanitation facilities for girl students in Wada and Chimur talukas in Palghar district of Maharashtra, thereby impacting lives

SBI General Insurance, one of the leading General Insurance companies in India, has enabled the construction of 15 sanitation facilities for girl students in Wada and Chimur talukas in Palghar district of Maharashtra, thereby impacting lives of thousands of girl students.

Under the CSR project, SBI General has funded the construction of 15‘safe space’ restrooms for girls around schools in rural districts of Maharashtra. These restrooms along with the 5 built last year will be used by over 10,000 girls in the coming five years. This will have a two-fold impact: not only will it create a sense of ownership and qualitative change in their hygiene habits, but also increase the attendance of girls at the schools thereby enabling them to complete their education. In addition to this, special workshops on hygiene and sanitation were also conducted for the girls. Going forward, the goal for SBI General and Learning Space Foundation is to ensure that every school in rural Maharashtra has a safe space restroom. SBI General Insurance has partnered with Palghar based NGO, Learning Space Foundation (LSF) for this project.

Shefali Khalsa, Head – Brand & Corporate Communication, SBI General Insurance said, “At SBIG, we follow a defined CSR strategy which focuses on various areas and segments. One of the key focus areas is education for the underprivileged. Contributing to this area aiming at girl students’ education, hygiene and wellbeing, we had initiated this project. In this region, what really stood out to us was the very high school drop-out rates of adolescent girls from agricultural and tribal communities. One of the main reasons for drop-out was the lack of sanitation facilities at Zilla Parishad Schools”.

She added, “We are hopeful that our contribution and this CSR initiative will support some bit of drop-outs and will enable girl students to continue their education.”

Besides giving access to sanitation facilities, through partnership, the girl students were also trained and encouraged to embrace menstrual hygiene practices.