ISSUE 38 | VOL 10 | 18 DECEMBER 2020 Vedanta Newsdesk AAF-BMGF PARTNERSHIP ROAD TO ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT RACE FOR COVID-19 CURE A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN TWO GLOBAL PHILANTHROPISTS It’s a new dawn for India’s social sector. Global philanthropists Bill Gates and Anil Agarwal have announced a new partnership to support the Government of India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) as it works to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. During a virtual meeting last week to discuss ways to work together, Bill Gates and Anil Agarwal expressed their shared belief that the future of children and women will be made more secure by eradicating poverty at the grassroots level. ANIL AGARWAL BILL & MELINDA GATES The collaboration between the two philanthropists will involve the implementation of best practices of Nand Ghar infrastructure and amenities along with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s systemic strengths to improve health and nutrition outcomes. The desired goal is to widen the spread and scale of Nand Ghars in identified districts of Uttar Pradesh to have deeper and large-scale impact. AAF JOINS HANDS WITH BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will partner with the Anil Agarwal Foundation and the MoWCD to set up 500 Nand Ghars in Uttar Pradesh over the next 12 months. Majority of the new centers will come up in the districts of Amethi and Varanasi in the first phase of this partnership. Nand Ghar and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will jointly fund the expansion program in a 50:50 ratio and help in the transformation of the Anganwadi ecosystem and strengthen nutrition interventions in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Project Nand Ghar, an Anil Agarwal Foundation initiative, in coordination with the MoWCD, is setting up model Anganwadis with modern infrastructure and focusing on services for eradicating child malnutrition, providing interactive education, access to quality healthcare, and empowering women by providing skill development. TAKING NAND GHAR TO BIHAR Nand Ghar, which is operational in seven states currently, is now working on a major plan to roll out the social impact project in Bihar. Studies have shown that more than 90 per cent of the children enrolled with Nand Ghars are found to be under the healthy category, with zero slippage into malnutrition. The Nand Ghar journey began in 2015, and now with the rollout of over 1700 centers, the project is now spread across Rajasthan, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Nand Ghar aims to change the lives of 8 crore women and 2 crore children at the grassroots level. SALUTING THE SPIRIT OF GIVE-BACK Vedanta group Chairman Anil Agarwal has already pledged that he will give away 75 per cent of his wealth to charity, which would make him one of corporate India’s biggest donors. This is part of his mission to give back to society and eliminate malnutrition, especially among women & children. AAF-BMGF PARTNERSHIP TO MAKE A LASTING IMPACT "The Government of India is committed towards enabling a healthy & well-nourished life for every child. The partnership of BMGF and Anil Agarwal Foundation to ameliorate malnutrition will surely have a lasting impact and further strengthen Honourable PM Narendra Modi’s vision of Suposhit Bharat." SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI - Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Women & Child Development ADVANCING INDIA’S HEALTH DEVELOPMENT GOALS "If I had a magic wand, one of the problems I’d fix is malnutrition. It devastates tens of millions of women and children around the world. Nand Ghar’s work is advancing India’s health and development goals in a meaningful way, and by working together, I think we’ll advance them even faster." BILL GATES -Bill Gates, Co-chair, Gates Foundation. TRANSFORMING THE ANGANWADI ECOSYSTEM We are delighted to partner with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the Nand Ghar project in state of Uttar Pradesh. We would be jointly developing 500 Nand Ghars in UP with focus on improving health and nutritional outcomes for women and children. Nand Ghar is a joint collaboration with Ministry of Women & Child Development, where we hope to transform the entire landscape of the aanganwadi ecosystem ANIL AGARWAL with focus on nutrition. -Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta VEDANTA – FUELLING THE MSME ECOSYSTEM Vedanta has been fostering the growth of MSMEs. As part of its plan to realise the grand vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat, the company has been working on a variety of initiatives to make a big difference to small and micro partners and help them reach optimum capacity. As part of its mission to work towards socio-economic growth and nation-building, Vedanta is committed to make a difference the fortunes of the MSME sector. PARTNERING FOR PROGRESS "India is the fastest growing country in the world and all eyes are on India. India is the place for opportunities and entrepreneurship, and I would invite MSMEs to make the most of it. India is the only country where you can both produce and sell. Consumption in India is growing in double digits and offers a great opportunity. Vedanta was an MSME which has grown to become a large company. We work very closely with 3000 SMEs, and around 500 of them are from abroad.” -Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta, while speaking at the Pravasi Bharaitya Divas Convention on 'Targeting US $5 Trillion Atmanirbhar Bharat economy by boosting MSMEs' THE ROAD TO ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT Swarajya is organising a 10-part webinar series titled 'The Road to Atmanirbhar Bharat' which will focus on various sectoral themes including energy self-sufficiency, agriculture, defence manufacturing, metal & minerals and electronics. Union Cabinet Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, delivered the keynote address at the inaugural webinar on 'The Vision and Philosophy of AatmaNirbhar Bharat'. Vedanta is the main sponsor of the webinar series. Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel, Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Coal & Mines and Parliamentary Affairs and Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog were the other featured speakers at the webinars so far. “The government’s focus is on leveraging Free Trade Agreements with countries with whom we have a transparent trading mechanism, working with transparent business systems, whom we can engage with from a position of strength for certain products.” - Piyush Goyal, PIYUSH GOYAL Union Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry “India’s energy consumption is projected to grow at 3 per cent per annum up to 2040, faster than all major economies. India’s share of total global primary energy demand is said to roughly double to about 11 per cent by 2040 driven by strong economic development.” DHARMENDRA PRADHAN - Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel “Several policies and reforms have been undertaken that are aligned with our vision to unleash the mining potential of the country. We are on our way to transform this sector. We have taken an all-out approach to making mining industry not only self- sufficient but also to enter in other industrial activity.“ PRALHAD JOSHI - Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Coal & Mines and Parliamentary Affairs “It is not possible to become a great manufacturing nation without exporting. This requires some very radical reforms in terms of labour law, in terms of agriculture reforms, in terms of mining, in terms of coal. All these reforms, hard reforms were held up for an inordinately long period.” AMITABH KANT - Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog RACE FOR COVID-19 CURE The wait for the Covid-19 vaccine just got a bit longer for India as two key players were told on Wednesday that their clinical trial data was inadequate for a fast-track approval. At a virtual review meeting, spread through the day, the subject expert committee (SEC) asked vaccine makers Bharat Biotech International (BBIL) and Serum Institute of India (SII) to come back with more data for getting an accelerated marketing authorisation. (Business Standard) As the Centre starts provisioning for one of the largest Covid-19 immunization drives in the world, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate seems to be an outlier, at least for now. Senior government officials have indicated that India may not procure the mRNA vaccine, which American major Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech have developed, for the immunisation drive. The higher cost of the Pfizer vaccine, already approved by the UK and the US regulators, is among the primary reasons why other options may be preferred by India. (Business Standard) The US has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on an emergency basis, with the first shots set to be given within 24 hours. The Food and Drug Administration’s decision has been one of the most politically fraught of the pandemic, which has claimed more than 280,000 lives in the US. (Financial Times) The third interim data on Sputnik V vaccine’s phase 3 trial in Russia has shown that the adenovirus vector jabs were 91.4% effective at preventing covid-19, its co-developer Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Monday. The interim analysis of the phase 3 trial was the last one before the trial is completed in May, when the vaccine developer would conduct a final analysis to determine the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, a company spokesperson said. (Mint) PEERS INSIGHT In a boost to its efforts to disinvest stake inAir India, the Centre said Monday that it has received “multiple expressions of interest” for the debt-laden airline. These include bids from the Tata Group and a consortium comprising several of the airline’s employees and a US-based investment firm, sources told The Indian Express.