Monday, October 2, 2000
The Hunger Project
By- Roshni Iyer Roshni Iyer is a Freelance writer from New York.
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Monday, September 25, 2000
The Hunger Project launched a South Asia Initiative for the empowerment of grassroots women's leadership in India and Bangladesh at a glittering ceremony on September 23 at the New York Hilton Hotel. An estimated 1,700 guests paid $500 per ticket for the event.
The new initiative is designed to empower the leadership of rural women in India and Bangladesh as representatives in local democracy and as change agents in their communities.
"The Hunger Project will ignite and sustain a coordinated strategic campaign of action to empower women as the key change agents for a new future. This initiative is built on the fundamental truth that women, who are the primary victims of hunger, are also the key to the end of hunger," declared Joan Holmes, President of Hunger Project.
The New York-based The Hunger Project is a global strategic organization that is committed to the end of hunger. In India, The Hunger Project is the most widespread movement working to end hunger and poverty. It works in more that 1200 villages across the 11 states that include 80% of the nation's population.
Lalita Banavali, Managing Director, The Hunger Project India, said, "India is the world's largest democracy but has the second highest rate of malnutrition. I am so proud to be an Indian. I have sacrificed my whole life to wipe out the cause but saddened at the widespread growth of hunger among people. The persistence of hunger is a cause of great shame to me."
Six grassroots women from India and Bangladesh were among the delegates who participated and spoke at the event.
"India made history in 1993 when it amended its Constitution to mandate that significant power and resources be put into the hands of elected village council known as panchayats. Most revolutionary of all: one third of the Panchayat members must be women," Holmes said.
"As a result, 5 million women have engaged in the political process by standing for elections. One million women have now become elected panchayat leaders. This transfer of power to more than one million rural women - many of whom are malnourished and illiterate, and who had never before stepped outside their homes - is in my view, the greatest social experiment of our age," she declared.
Madhur Bajaj, President of Bajaj Auto Ltd, Pune, India told SAWF, "We have six million members worldwide. We are working mainly in South Africa, India and Bangladesh. We are scheduled to take the Hunger Project to West Africa and South America shortly."
"We have made lot of progress. Hunger Project is giving leadership training to panchayat leadership. Elected leaders are trained to deal with men, and to cope up with the changing world. It is just a small beginning," Mohini Giri, former chair, National Commission for Women, India told SAWF.
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IIT Bombay Alumni Association of Greater New York - Annual Reunion Gala
Roshni Iyer Roshni Iyer is a freelance writer.
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Event: IIT Bombay Alumni Association of Greater New York - Annual Reunion Gala
Date: Saturday, September 23, 2000
Location: Trayes Hall, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901
Purpose:
- To re-establish contact with fellow IIT Bombay Alumni in the North East USA and form a network for professional and entrepreneurial advancement in the field of Technology.
- To rally together and support the Alma Mater professionally, financially, and intellectually.
Guests:
- Prof. M. G. K. Menon - Chairman, IIT Bombay Board Of Governors, recipient of Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan
- Prof. Ashok Mishra - Director, IIT Bombay
- Prof. S. L. Naryanmurthy - Dean of Resource Mobilization, IIT Bombay
- Prof. U. B. Desai- Dean of Student Affairs, IIT Bombay
- Prof. U. N. Gaitonde - Prof-in-Charge Alumni Affairs, IIT Bombay
- Dr. Hemant Kanakia - Founder and ex-CEO, Torrent Network Technologies
- Mr. Nandan Nilekani - Managing Director & COO, Infosys Technologies
- Mr. Raj Mashruwala, Exec V.P., Tibco Software
Chief organizers:
- Mr. Vikas Tipnis. (973) 763-1414 (days), iitb@att.net
- Mr. Jude Netto. (800) 800-5005 x2037 (days), valtony@aol.com
Event report:
The annual gala held as scheduled was a great success. Over 100 alumni and their families from the New York metropolitan region participated in the event.
Prof. Menon spoke about the manner in which IIT has transitioned from its roots in the 50s to the present day, while continuing to maintain its tradition of excellence. According to him, the decision to set up the IITs was an extremely farsighted one, and it is quite impressive that successive governments in India, irrespective of socio-political affiliations, have continued to follow a policy of support and non-interference in the IITs. He stressed the need for alumni to maintain links with their alma mater."
Prof. Mishra spoke of the goal of making the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, a world class institution. Presently it is ranked # 1 in India. In the Asia Pacific region it is ranked # 3, up from # 5 the previous year. An advisory council comprising of Administrators, faculty, alumni and other industry leaders has been formed to help formulate a vision and strategy to make IIT Bombay a world class institution. A major challenge in attaining this goal is to attract and retain top quality faculty. Good infrastructure like hostels, academic buildings, well equipped libraries and research laboratories for students and faculty, which requires tremendous resources, is an additional challenge.
IIT Bombay has instituted a number of joint efforts with industry for research in various disciplines. It is also inviting the alumni to contribute in various ways, financially, intellectually, by acting as guide and mentors to the students, and considering returning to the institution as faculty even if only as visiting faculty.
IIT Bombay also plans to forge links with regional colleges and act as mentor to help them raise their levels. Other plans include a new 1000 student hostel to meet the rapidly increasing enrollment and a lifelong email for students and alumni to help them remain in touch with IIT. Prof. Mishra highlighted the financial contributions made by alumni for the School of Information Technology, School of Management, improving infrastructure of hostels, auditoriums and laboratories etc.
Dr. Kanakia spoke of his experience in founding and growing Torrent Network Technologies, which was sold to the telecom giant Ericson. He mentioned that encouragement from a fellow alumnus, who was an experienced entrepreneur, was instrumental in his decision to form Torrent. He also mentioned that in order to attract venture capital a project or technology needs to have tremendous potential, capable of beating the current market-leaders. Marginal or limited potential projects or technologies are unlikely to do so.
Mr. Nandan Nilekani mentioned of the changes taking place in the Indian Industry in the last decade. While up until 1990 controls and regulations shackled entrepreneurs, the liberalization of the economy after 1990 has spurred entrepreneurs. Entry of foreign institutional investors and development of transparent capital markets have also aided in increasing the pace of growth. Today first generation entrepreneurs run 3 of the 5 top companies in India by market value.
Government and industry sources forecast that the boom in technology is still in its beginning stage and growth potential for India is tremendous. The challenge in meeting the tremendous growth potential is competition from abroad for manpower skilled in technology and development of adequate telecommunication infrastructure to meet the needs. Nilekani believes the future for India is knowledge-based industry and economy. This is least challenged by inadequate infrastructure like roads, power, airports, seaports etc. It is also an area that allows for the most efficient deployment of capital to create maximum number of jobs.
Among the strategies adopted by Infosys Technologies to grow rapidly and globally was adoption of International Accounting norms, international ISO standards, building and promoting the Infosys brand name, training its manpower and providing incentives like Employee Stock options, where Infosys has been the pioneer. Infosys has created the industry standard in the area of corporate governance, servicing customers, creating value for shareholders and employees.
Nilekani expects tremendous potential in India for entrepreneurs in IT as well as other knowledge-based industry in the next decade.
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