EDITORIAL September 2019 Tata Trusts Horizons 3 2 EDITORIAL September 2019 Tata Trusts Horizons 3
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2 EDITORIAL SEPTEMBER 2019 TATA TRUSTS HORIZONS 3 2 EDITORIAL SEPTEMBER 2019 TATA TRUSTS HORIZONS 3 EDITORIAL roviding adequate and nourishing food to all Indians, particularly the country’s children, is more than a need — it is a necessity and Pit is immediate. The Horizons cover story on nutrition highlights how this is happening, the different means through which the effort is being executed and the partnerships that are making it possible. The Tata Trusts have pitched in with support and The India Nutrition Initiative, or TINI, is a reflection of their commitment to what is surely a national and noble cause. On the TINI menu are a variety of large endeavours: enhancing child- care centres in different parts of India, placing preraks (motivators) with district administrations to help implement government projects in nutrition, the fortification of staple foods, and more. Add it all up and TINI’s impressive contribution to the National Nutrition Mission becomes clear. Nutrition for the mind is the quest in Udaan, the subject of this edition’s special report. A one-of-its-kind project to address shortfalls in the treatment of India’s mentally disabled, Udaan swears by a ‘reform and transform’ approach to enable an overhauling of institutional care in the country. Dignity for the mentally ill is at the centre of everything done by Udaan, which is also in the process of creating a collaborative, community-based blueprint of care and treatment with its ‘district mental health programme’. A diverse mix of social development stories populates our features section: rural women being taught about the internet in record numbers; ‘friends’ delivering job opportunities to young people with limited employability quotients; a programme to lift the gloom enveloping agriculture and those dependent on it; a plan and a process to create model villages; an attempt to make the public healthcare setup accessible and effective; the rehabilitation of runaway or missing children; and a remarkable crack at minimising the incidence of, and deaths caused by, malaria. Also in Horizons this time are interviews with Shawn Baker of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and with Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath, outstanding neuroscientist and founder director of the Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. In perspective, Kartick Satyanarayan, the chief executive of conservation nonprofit Wildlife SOS, pleads the case to protect the wild animals of India. Cheers and happy reading. We hope you will help us make Horizons better with your valuable feedback. Please do write to us at [email protected]. CONTENTS VOL 2 | ISSUE 3 | SEPTEMBER 2019 NEWS COVER STORY CENTRE STAGE INTERVIEW 06 INNOVATION PUSH FOR AGRICULTURE Plus, Help in Hyderabad 24 for silvers; Partnerships get 08 HEADS UP resources and a boost; Hockey FROM FOOD TO LIFE Compassion and quality in centre in Bhubaneswar; and The India Nutrition Initiative the care and treatment of the Development bond to promote is pitching in with support on mentally disabled underpin a captal idea multiple fronts to help central Udaan, a programme that and state governments realise places its faith in institutional the goals of the National reform and community Nutrition Mission awareness 30 ‘EvERY DAY IS A NEW JOURNEy’ Dr Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath, founder director of the Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science, speaks about brain disorders, mental health and the state of neuroscience research in India EDITOR EDITORIAL TEAM EDITORIAL EDITORIAL ADVISORS Christabelle Noronha Philip Chacko COORDINATORS Debasis Ray Email: [email protected] Gayatri Kamath Kainaz Mistry Laxman Sivasubramanian Shubha Madhukar Sonia Divyang FEATURE STORIES SHOWCASE PERSPECTIVE 35 52 SKILLED IN SEEKING CHILDHOOD OUT JOBSEEKERS REGAINED ‘Skill mitra’ puts disadvantaged SATHI’s mission is to reunite youngsters on the path to long- missing and runaway children term employment with their families 76 ANIMAL SPIRITS NEED 39 57 NURTURING MODEL MAKEOVER A HELPING HAND FOR The call from India’s wild is An initiative in 265 Andhra HEALTHCARE loud and clear: greater effort Pradesh villages has benefitted Plugging the gaps in the public 65 and awareness are needed to more than a million people health system in Telangana and WAVES OF WEAVES protect — and celebrate — the Andhra Pradesh creatures in our midst 43 Antaran works to conserve the 60 tradition of handloom weaving DIGITAL GOES RUSTIC in India and preserve the FIGHT AGAINST THE Internet saathi has been a craftsmanship of artisans DEADLY BITE voyage of discovery for rural A community-led effort in women learning about the web Odisha aims to minimise the INTERVIEW 47 deathly damage of malaria THE WILL, THE WAY 70 Sukhi Baliraja focuses on ‘nutrITION NEEDS A tackling the agricultural crisis in VOICE AT THE TABLE’ Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region Shawn Baker of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on the challenge of undernutrition, and what India can do to better in the fight against it Cover image: A mother and her child in their home in a village near Bikaner in Rajasthan; photograph by Iulian Ursachi / iStock (Getty Images) DESIGNED BY DESIGN CONTACT DISCLAIMER The Information Company Shilpa Naresh Tata Trusts All matter in Tata Trusts Abraham K John World Trade Centre 1 Horizons is copyrighted. 26th Floor, Cuffe Parade Material published in it PRINTED AT Mumbai 400 005 can be reproduced with Sahaya Print Services India permission. To know more, please email the editor at [email protected]. 6 NEWS SEPTEMBER 2019 TATA TRUSTS HORIZONS 7 NEWS Agricultural innovation on the agenda he Tata Trusts are set to partner tute of Technology, Kanpur. farmer-focused technology solu- T the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun- Also collaborating in the tions. The goal is to help small and dation to establish the India Agri- venture are Social Alpha (a technol- marginal farmers increase produc- tech Incubation Network (IAIN) ogy incubator supported by the tivity and profitability. and launch the ‘Social Alpha quest Trusts), Collectives for Integrated As part of IAIN, a physical for agritech innovations’. Livelihood Initiatives (an associate incubator will be set up at IIT IAIN is envisioned as a network organisation of the Trusts), and the Kanpur to provide laboratory infra- of incubators across the country to Uttar Pradesh government. structure, venture-building promote innovations that can The Social Alpha quest for agri- resources, financial support and benefit farmers with small land tech innovations is aimed at ena- access to farmers. This will provide holdings. The first hub for the bling an ecosystem for innovators technology and business backing to network will be at the Indian Insti- and entrepreneurs to develop 60 enterprises over five years. n Help in Hyderabad for silvers he Vijayavahini Charitable more than 1,000 seniors. TFoundation (VCF), an associ- The system is being imple- ate organisation of the Tata Trusts, mented by VCF and it has on its has joined hands with the Telanga- side different arms of the state na government to create a first–of- government: the police, the health its-kind connect centre for senior department, the district adminis- citizens in Hyderabad. tration, legal services experts and The ‘elder spring response civil society organisations. system’, operational since April Advice, solutions and more 2019, provides information, guid- are offered once a call has been ance, and emotional support to registered on the response system, senior citizens. It is accessible which is operational every day of through a toll-free number (14567) the week between 9:30am and and it has, thus far, responded to 5:30pm. n 6 NEWS SEPTEMBER 2019 TATA TRUSTS HORIZONS 7 Partnerships get resources and a boost he Tata Trusts have forged Ttwo new partnerships in the social development sphere, with IndusInd Bank and with the Na- tional Stock Exchange Founda- Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik with guests at the centre’s inauguration tion (NSEF). The joining of hands with Hockey centre in Bhubaneswar IndusInd Bank will lead to support being lent to a spring he newest arm of the Naval three regional development water conservation and manage- T Tata Hockey Academy, this centres (RDCs) for hockey, which ment project in South Odisha one in Bhubaneswar, was inaugu- are proposed to be set up in the and a girls hockey excellence rated on August 13 by Odisha Chief sports hostels in Bhubaneswar, initiative, also in Odisha. Minister Naveen Patnaik. Sundargarh and Rourkela. The The collaboration with Established as a high-perfor- RDCs, for their part, will scout NSEF, which will run over a mance training centre to groom for talent from 10-12 upcoming three-year period, will provide hockey talent, the academy is a col- grassroots centres. financial backing for water and laborative venture involving the The three components of the sanitation projects in schools Tata Trusts, the Odisha govern- pipeline are under the Tata Odisha and elderly care and education, ment and Tata Steel. Hockey Programme, a joint initia- both in the Nandurbar district The Academy will absorb tive of Tata Steel, the Tata Trusts of Maharashtra. n players emerging from the state’s and the Odisha government. n Development bond to promote a capital idea ollectives for Integrated Live- small and marginal farmers in Clihoods Initiatives (CInI), an Jharkhand, Gujarat and Odisha. associate entity of the Tata Trusts, The Lakhpati Kisan bond will will be the implementation partner fund interventions in the areas of in a $15-million development capacity building, land and water impact bond being launched by management, high-value agricul- Mumbai-based wealth advisory ture development, yield enhance- firm Waterfield Advisors. ment and the creation of additional The bond — called Lakhpati livelihood opportunities. Kisan — will provide capital to a CInI has, down the years, Tata Trusts initiative of the same enabled the well-being of more than name being implemented by CInI 25,000 families and nurtured 250 since 2015.