The Trustees of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Allied Trusts
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Determined to be a part of the education process largely due to the efforts of Nalanda, young girls file up at a madrasa in Barabunki, Uttar Pradesh THE TRUSTEES OF SIR DORABJI TATA TRUST AND THE ALLIED TRUSTS SIR DORABJI TATA TRUST Mr RN Tata, Chairman Dr MS Swaminathan Mr NA Soonawala Dr (Ms) Amrita Patel Ms Deanna Jejeebhoy Mr RK Krishna Kumar Mr AN Singh, Managing Trustee JRD TATA TRUST Mr RN Tata, Chairman Mr NA Soonawala Mr AN Singh, Managing Trustee JAMSETJI TATA TRUST Mr RN Tata, Chairman Mr NA Soonawala Mr RK Krishna Kumar Mr AN Singh THE JRD AND THELMA J TATA TRUST Mr RN Tata, Chairman Mr RM Lala Dr (Ms) Suma Chitnis Dr (Ms) Armaity Desai Mr AN Singh RD TATA TRUST Mr RN Tata, Chairman Mr NA Soonawala Mr RK Krishna Kumar Mr AN Singh TATA EDUCATION TRUST Mr RN Tata, Chairman Mr RK Krishna Kumar Mr AN Singh TATA SOCIAL WELFARE TRUST Mr RN Tata, Chairman Mr RK Krishna Kumar Mr AN Singh Dr JJ Bhabha, was Vice-Chairman and Managing Trustee of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Trustee on all other Allied Trusts until his demise in May 2007. The Trusts’ appreciation of his contribution was recorded in the previous Annual Report 2006-2007. 5 MANAGEMENT TEAM AND STAFF Secretary & Chief Accountant Sarosh N Batliwalla (up to September 2007) Rukshana F Savaksha (from March 2008) Program Leader Sanjiv Phansalkar Institutional and NGO Grants Accounts Program Team Kamal Titina Nayantara Sabavala Sorab Bulsara Jasmine Pavri Meher Rupa Ratna Mathur Benaz Avari Sugandhi Baliga Pranita Rane Nayana Chowdhury Bhaskar Mittra Administration Archana Nambiar Eruch M Patel Tasneem Raja Fershoger J Guard Biswanath Sinha Yezad Siganporia Shernaz Vasunia Kashmira Meherji Niloufer Randeria* Bhikhu Billimoria Ashok Patel Finance and Budgets Kirti Mistry Kumar Chaitanya Bapsy Daruwalla Registered Office Adi B Siganporia* Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street Ashwini Mukherjee* Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Secretarial Staff Bankers R Hariharan ICICI Bank Ltd, Mumbai Dolly Irani Standard Chartered Bank, Mumbai Support Staff Calyon Bank, Mumbai Sharad Mahadik American Express Bank, Mumbai Saby Mathias Ajay Prakash Legal Advisors Messrs Mulla & Mulla, Craigie Blunt & Caroe, Individual Grants Mumbai Leela M Karkaria* Eruch A Mahernosh Auditors Perrcis R Majoo M/s Jayantilal Thakkar & Company Kumudini Todankar Chartered Accountants, Mumbai Martha Ferrao Amee Master* Support Staff Arun Arolkar * Have left the Trust during the course of the year 7 NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS This thematic area has emerged by merging the on more backward regions materializing in the two thematic areas of Management of Natural form of new partnerships. Resources (MNR) and Livelihoods as were A total of 109 new grants were made during the conceived of earlier, upon recommendation of year for a total sanction value of Rs 940.00 the external consultants who reviewed the million. Of these, 37 were small grants (grants themes in 2006-2007 and accepted by the Trusts. with a sanction value of less than Rs 0.50 Considering that a bulk of the rural people at any million). The emphasis on working in backward rate derive their livelihoods by carrying out their areas is evident from the fact that over 86 of these production and collection activities interacting new grants have been made to partners in with the natural resource base, this merger makes Eastern, North-Eastern and Northern India, thus imminent sense. The thrust areas are: sharply reducing the prominence of Western and • Food security at the household, meso- and Southern regions. Civil society organizations in macro-level. While food security at the Eastern, Northern and North-Eastern regions do macro-level results from augmenting food not seem to have achieved the degree of maturity production; food security at the household and technical as well implementation level can come from both increasing competence seen in other regions. As a result, the household food production as well as by proportion of amounts in these sanctioned grants increasing the household income through continues to show a somewhat higher share for expanding and strengthening other livelihood the Southern and Western regions. options and improving market access to the Food Security produce from households. Augmentation of food production in turn occurs through Viewed in the broader sense as elaborated improving productivity of land through earlier, projects working towards food security watershed development, irrigation, formed the largest single group. Together, improvement in agronomic practices and these projects aim to reach out to over three introducing new crop combinations and hundred thousand households. An important cropping techniques. initiative on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was launched and it included 86 partners in • Ecological security, includes in particular, Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern states efforts at ensuring efficient and equitable use with 13 new project grants. Support to projects of water. Working towards ecological aimed at undertaking watershed development, security includes biodiversity conservation, strengthening technical and social measures for regeneration of fragile ecologies and contributing towards a more prudent and sustainable use of natural resources. The review referred to above had also noted that till 2005 much of Trusts’ grant making in the theme had occurred in Western and Southern India and stressed the need to increase the intensity of the Trusts’ engagement in this theme in backward and more needy regions. The year under review saw the Trusts’ attention Gharat — traditional water harvesting system — used by on giving concrete shape to the thrust areas and Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan, Uttar Pradesh 19 organization, other partners such as Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN), Bihar unit, as well as The Livelihood School would also be engaged in different aspects of capacity building of the fledgling NGOs, micro-finance institutions and SHGs, so that once strengthened, these could act as platforms for development initiatives in livelihoods, education, etc. Secondly, a Centre for Micro-Finance and Livelihoods in the North-East has been supported through a project grant to Grameen Sahara in Guwahati. The Centre will Land treatment model in West Bengal built by work towards capacity building of SHGs in Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) Assam and other North-East states on micro- developing sustainable agriculture and rearing finance and on livelihoods enhancement. livestock were other ways of addressing the food Low External Inputs Sustainable Agriculture security concern. Twelve projects aim to (LEISA) improve market access for poor producers for LEISA is particularly appropriate for poor produce which they farm or collect from farmers who have little working capital to use the commons. purchased inputs and live in areas where farm Noteworthy Initiatives Include: productivity suffers from external factors such Pan-India Program on System of Rice as floods or unpredictable rains. The work Intensification: essentially involves reducing dependence on external inputs which can happen only if seeds, With encouraging results from our partners in manure and other inputs are locally produced. West Bengal and Jharkhand in SRI, the Trusts have taken a proactive step to scale up the practice in various other states. Details are given in the separate note on this subject that follows in the Food Security focus area. Strengthening Self Help Groups While the Trusts do not aim to strengthen the micro-finance sector per se, it is realized that women self help groups (SHGs) are powerful community-based organizations which can act as useful platforms for anchoring a wide range of development initiatives, including livelihoods enhancement. Recognizing that many of the SHGs in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar and the North- East are at a nascent or fledgling stage and cannot shoulder additional responsibility, it was felt necessary to take steps to strengthen them before significant investment on other development initiatives were made through them. With this end, two significant steps have been taken. A project has been sanctioned to Mahila Abhivruddhi Society for strengthening the SHG and micro-finance institutions in Bihar and UP. Ahar pyne diversion-based irrigation system implemented by While the project would be anchored by the Satyapath in Bihar 20 This is a slow process so far as yield increase is concerned, but the reduction in cash expense in inputs starts helping farmers immediately. The Trusts support several projects towards this end in North India and one project in South India and the experience from these would be of immense value while programming for distressed regions such as Bundelkhand and Vidarbha. Stabilizing Agriculture in Flood Prone Areas As is well known, the terai regions and the alluvial plains in the middle and upper Gangetic plains as well as in the Bramhaputra valley are Yield from the horticulture project in Madhya Pradesh prone to standing floods for long periods of time of Self Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action (SRIJAN) almost every year. Even after the flood waters Ecology and Biodiversity recede, water logging plagues fairly large tracts of land rendering agriculture there difficult. The The engagement in the field of ecology needs to livelihoods of farmers living in these areas are grapple with the issues of identifying the key thus at regularly occurring risks and hence concerns of ecologically fragile regions, fragile. While the problem can