Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata at the unveiling of the plaque for the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Cancer Care and Advanced Research in Tirupati on August 31, 2018. File
| Photo Credit: K.V. POORNACHANDRAKUMAR
The Tata Trusts, under the visionary leadership of Ratan Tata, had forged some valuable partnerships in Andhra Pradesh over the last decade in diverse sectors, and it was an irony that he passed away the same day (October 9) when Minister for Information Technology Nara Lokesh announced Tata Consultancy Services’s (TCS) commitment to set up a 10,000 seater facility in Visakhapatnam.
The foremost among the initiatives was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to work towards community empowerment and improve the overall quality of living through an integrated multi-thematic approach.
The programme was intended to implement interventions in the areas of bamboo cultivation, fisheries, nutrition and fortification, along with micro planning and village development, based on the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna. It was initially rolled out in 264 villages in the purview of the Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency in the first half of 2014-19.
Village Development Plans
Mr. Tata himself came down to Vijayawada and checked the progress of the Village Development Plans (VDPs). He then had fruitful discussions with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on extending a helping hand to the government in implementing various social sector initiatives.
Mr. Naidu had then said that the government was keen on working with the Tata Trusts in multiple areas for achieving the objectives, and the two sides gave shape to a few projects.
On the basis of the success of the VDPs, Tata Trusts extended the interventions across the State in the due course.
As part of its focus on healthcare, the Tata Trusts had set up a large hospital for cancer treatment in Tirupati with the support of the State government and Alamelu Charitable Foundation.
Besides, the Tata Trusts played an instrumental role in supplementing public healthcare by providing telemedicine facilities, mostly in Krishna district, and organising mobile medical units and lab services for nominal charges.
Further, the Tata Trusts carried out capacity-building exercises for more than 13,000 Anganwadi workers and refurbished more than 250 Anganwadi Centres in four districts of the State.
The Tata Trusts also helped in the creation of a new channel of income for the farmers by training them in new avenues such as bee-keeping and turmeric cultivation under the ‘Lakshadhikari Rythu’programme.The ‘Chittoor Honey’brand jointly evolved by the district administration and the Tata Trusts was a notable achievement.
Digital literacy
A staggering 4.20 million people were trained in digital literacy by the Tata Trusts, which also extended Internet services to the rural areas in collaboration with Google under the ‘Internet Saathi’ programme.
Mr. Tata had offered support to the YSR Congress Party Government in tackling the coronavirus pandemic, and Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekharan met then Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and expressed his wish to invest in the State.
Published – October 10, 2024 06:56 pm IST
