SOUL CURRY: Sab kuchh badal gaya!

EVENTS: Health Conference and CSR Liveweek...

THROUGH THE LENSRF Information Services Programme

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What’s New @VOL 1 ISSUE 4 DECEMBER 2013

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Launched in January 2013, RF-IS uses various

communication and technological channels to

provide information relating to rural developmental

and livelihood security issues to farmers, fishermen

and livestock owners, as a neutral service provider.

The team delivers timely, context-specific advisories in

local languages in a sustained manner.

Not only does RF-IS collect information on rural

community needs, but it also builds value-added

content through partnerships with universities,

a farmer growing chillies of rare species using seeds

from his produce every year, in the family tradition.

Delayed rains of late have hampered his yield. This

problem is compounded by pests that proliferate in a

dehydrated atmosphere and damage the crop. This

phenomenon was also destroying 70% of the seed’s

protein. When he reached RF-IS for help, not only did

he rescue his yield with a timely advisory but he also

learnt from the team the rare nature and worth of his

research institutions, extension departments, experts,

policy makers, traders and financial institutions. RF-IS

also provides mobile-based vernacular audio/text

advisories; live phone-in-programmes; audio

conferencing between two or multiple locations; cable

TV-based live phone-in-programmes; wireless-based

public address system; SMS-based electronic display

boards; posters; and reaches user communities

through vans and fortnightly vernacular journals.

Thanks to intelligent use

of technology, RF-IS is

now ab le to reach

customized information

to the in fo rmat ion -

deprived in every nook

and corner, on land and

at sea.

Besides saving lives,

these services have

already benefitted over a

million people such as

R a j a r a m o f

Rameswaram. Rajaram is

An intangible key to sustainable development

t was October 11, barely 15 hours before the Phailin cyclone was to make a landfall. A rough sea, high waves and violent winds were threatening Pappala Mohan and his team,

adrift on a trawler, miles off his path. He asked trawlers passing-by for directions to get home and they, in turn, called the Reliance Foundation Information Services (RF-IS) Ihelpline number. Barely 30 minutes later, a motorboat carrying Andhra Pradesh Marine Police had reached his trawler and they were safely escorted and handed over to the

Odisha Marine police within six hours. Just one phone call to Reliance Foundation Information Services helpline had kept Mohan and his team out of danger. Thanks to RF-IS,

timely information can even save lives! Joystu Dutta reports...

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A farmer interacting with an expert through the helpline

Audio Conference on livestock issues: Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu

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chilli seed, which was almost on the verge of

extinction. He has now become an ambassador of RF-

IS programme and keeps sharing his experience and

knowledge with local farmers.

Similarly, the information has been of immense benefit

to fishermen such as Appalaraju of East Godavari

district. His aging father was overwhelmed with joy

when he landed his first big catch using the potential

fishing zone (PFZ) information provided by RF-IS,

especially as he was not able to pass on traditional

fish-sighting knowledge to his children due to his

failing eyesight.

In fact, the RF-IS programme is opening the eyes of its

pest on his field and send it as a video clip to seek an

advisory! Imagine again that RF-IS experts and RF-IS

artificial intelligence knowledge base could provide

him with real-time inputs via video conferencing to

help him solve the problem within hours! The dream

may sooner be a reality than most of us imagine it to

be. With 4G services in the offing, information

revolution for the digitally deprived development

sector will soon be upon us.

beneficiaries in many ways. As

availability of information becomes

critical to all sustainable development,

RF-IS programme aims to cover the

maximum number of people in the most

cost effective way possible to help them

reap the power of information to their

advantage. The programme is now

expanded to cover healthcare too. For

instance, RF’s mHealth, an advisory

p r o g r a m m e ,

f o c u s e s o n

a d d r e s s i n g

materna l and

child health. It aims to modify

c r i t i ca l behav iou rs t ha t

contribute to poor health habits

through short, specific and

targeted mobile messages to

decision-makers and family

patriarchs. Supporting audio

messages a l so p rov ide

va luab le in fo rmat ion on

prevention, identification and

treatment of malnutrition.

The future heralds even better

outcomes. Imagine a farmer

who could simply photograph a

Knowledge on wheels - pest and disease management in banana cultivation: Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu

Audio conference with the fishermen: East Godavari

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ntil yesterday, Magan Bai (58) of village Bhanpura of Agar Cluster was struggling for survival. Widowed eight years

back, she has two sons. She once owned five acres of un-irrigated land, most of which her alcoholic husband had Usold off, leaving her behind with barely one acre. To worsen her woes, she has also ended up mortgaging 80% of

this land to meet her basic needs. Her sons, 33 and 28, are alcoholics too, and unmarried.

After her husband’s death, she has been cultivating barely 0.2 acres of land. In 2011-12, her land yielded only 2 quintals of

soybean. With some labour work thrown in, the total annual income of the family was barely INR 24,000. Rain-fed farming,

deteriorating soil health and low capital investment were contributors to this nightmarish existence.

Things started changing when Magan Bai joined the VFA set up by RF-BIJ in 2012-13. The VFA encouraged her, as well as

her two sons, to get their land back. She could revoke the mortgage by paying off her debt of INR 20,000 soon and brought

the entire one acre under cultivation for the first time in 2013.

The VFA also helped her carry out activities such as land cleaning, bunding, diversion drain creation and deep

ploughing, besides helping her construct a farm pond to receive irrigation support, including pipelines, worth INR

57,250. This helped her farm yield two crops for the first time. Her Kharif harvest consisted of seven quintals of soybean,

15 kg of black gram and 15 kg of green gram. In the Rabi season, her farm produced 6 quintals of wheat and 6 quintals

of gram.

By offering excess water from her farm to other farmers, she also earned three quintals of gram in kind and INR 1500 in

cash, leading to a family income of INR 58, 500. This represented a sharp increase of INR 34,500 within one year and

she has managed to clear all her debts. A confident Magan Bai now wishes to cultivate vegetables this summer, as

water availability is not a problem anymore. She has also developed an orchard of 200 orange plants in her land.

“Maine kabhi nahi socha tha ki is prakar kheti kar paoongi par thodi si himmat aur Reliance Foundation ke sahyog ne sab

kuch badal diya! (I never thought I could ever cultivate my farm this way but a little will power and support from Reliance

Foundation has changed everything!),” says Magan Bai.

Sab kuchh badal gaya!

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n the eve of Children’s Day in

India and with less than 750 Od a y s t o t h e M i l l e n n i u m

Development Goal (MDG) deadline,

business and health leaders called on

companies to accelerate their efforts,

initiatives and investments in women and

children’s health, water, sanitation and

hygiene. At a day-long business forum

entitled ‘Reaching the Health Millennium

Development Goals: The Critical Role of

India’s Business Sector’, more than 250

attendees gathered to discuss ways to

mobilize India’s corporate sector to save

the lives of millions of women and children.

GBC Health and the MDG Health Alliance,

in association with Reliance Foundation

organized the forum.

The Millennium Development Goals are

specific targets the global community is

racing to reach by December 31, 2015.

These include significantly reducing

maternal and child deaths and improving

Conference on Millennium Development Goals

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sanitation. The forum featured more than 30 corporate, technical/academic

and government speakers.

Nita Ambani, Chairperson of the Reliance Foundation, opened the day-long

business forum by calling for increased private sector action in helping to

save the lives of mothers and children. “In India, a large number of maternal,

neonatal and infant deaths that occur are from preventable causes and can

be averted by timely interventions, not just by government but civil society and

the corporate sector too,” she said. “This will require forging smart, strong

and sustainable partnerships with each other and demolishing sectoral

barriers to act as one for the national agenda,” she added.

Jagannatha Kumar, Head of Reliance Foundation, spoke about the role and significance of affecting

behaviourial changes to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. He also spoke about the various

initiatives that RF had undertaken towards this in five states and its plans to scale up in many

more states.

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SR Liveweek, an

e v e n t b y CL i v e w e e k

Business, was held from

November 19 - 20, 2013

a t G u r g a o n t o

a c k n o w l e d g e t h e

contribution of India’s

strongest, sustainable

and socially responsible

brands, Corporations

and Foundations. More

than 300 delegates from

across corporate bodies

and NGOs attended

t h e t w o - d a y e v e n t

deliberating on building

sustainable business

through CSR. The event,

which also included an exhibition, was attended by more than 700 visitors, 16 CSR departments of corporate houses and 50 NGOs. Reliance Foundation (RF) co-hosted the

event. At the request of the event organizers and publishers, Nita Ambani, RF Chairperson also contributed a prologue to the CSR Good Book. The CSR Good Book is a

collection of various CSR initiatives across India.

Jagannatha Kumar, Head of Reliance Foundation, addressed the gathering as a special speaker and distinguished guest. He said, “Every business is a social business when

CSR Live Week

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it is inclusive. Businesses operate,

grow and prosper within a society

w h e n t h e r e i s c o n t i n u o u s

engagement and synergy between

the two at all levels.” His words

echoed the philosophy behind the

formation of RF. “A nation’s overall

development and prosperity cannot

be achieved without an active

engagement of all stakeholders. It is

a movement in which all of us have to

come together to accelerate

p r o g r e s s a n d t a k e I n d i a ’ s

development on a fast track.”

Sudarshan Srinivas, Head, Rural

Transformation, part of the panel on

Community Investment for a

Sustainable Development, provided

a perspective of RF-BIJ through a

film and discussions. Srinivas

Hundy, Head, Health Outreach

P r o g r a m m e , p a r t o f t h e p a n e l o n E m e r g i n g H e a l t h c a r e f a c i l i t i e s t h r o u g h C S R , p r o v i d e d R F ’ s i n i t i a t i v e s o n c o m m u n i t y

health care.

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eliance Foundation and National Basketball Association of India (NBA) jointly held the

first Junior NBA Programme City Championship from December 18-20, 2013 at RDominic Savio School in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai. Cardinal Gracias School of

Bandra won the title in the 5x5 format for boys and St. Anthony School of Andheri grabbed the

girls’ title in the first edition. The runner up in the boys category was the MCGM School in Pant

Nagar, Mumbai. This school did not have organized basketball prior to this programme. The

runner up title in the girl’s category was clinched by Mary Immaculate Girls High School, Borivali.

In the 3x3 format, the Ghatkopar YMCA boys and the Bandra YMCA girls won in their respective

categories. More than 60,000 children from 100 schools from the city have participated in the

programme since its launch. The City Championship is part of the partnership between RF and

NBA to launch a comprehensive school-based youth basketball programme in India.

Three times world basketball champion Swin Cash tipped off the event. “It is an honour to travel to

India on behalf of Reliance Foundation and the NBA to teach basketball to young boys and girls in

India,” said Cash. “It is exciting that the sport I love is taking off in India and I am looking forward to working

with these kids,” she added.

“We are very happy with the overwhelming response to the Reliance Foundation - Junior NBA Programme.

The programme has provided youth from communities across Mumbai the opportunity to learn from NBA

certified international coaches. This is an important step in Reliance Foundation’s efforts towards using

sports as a medium to tap the immense potential of youth and channel their energy in meaningful ways to

promote valuable life skills. We are looking forward to take this programme to various other cities in India and

reach out to a million students,” said Jagannatha Kumar, Head, Reliance Foundation. The programme is

currently operating in Mumbai and Kochi.

RF-Junior NBA Championship held in Mumbai

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On-field consulting on pest and disease

management in Paddy

T H R O U G H T H E L E N S 10

RF Information Services Programme

Field demonstration to farmers

Live phone-in programme on agriculture practices On-field training on pest management

Health awareness programme Expert consultation on disease management

in paddy

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W H A T ’ S N E W 11

he fisher women in coastal regions of Yetimoga and Uppada in East

Godavari district usually live in low hygiene conditions. To improve Ttheir living conditions, Reliance Foundation provided them with

information on health and hygiene, especially the pregnant women, through

Voice SMS. Neethu Prasad, District Collector inaugurated the programme.

Various officials from the health services ans rural development department

of the state attended the inauguration programme. During the launch, Voice

SMS were sent to several pregnant women. There was also a discussion on

the health problems where more than 300 participants expressed their

concerns on health issues. The RF-IS team and the experts informed the participants about

different women and child welfare schemes from the government and explained their benefits.

They were also told about related RF activities and the RF-IS helpline number which will give free

advisories to the local people on health issues.

Launch of Voice SMS programme for pregnant women in Kakinada

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Registered Office: 3rd Floor, Maker Chamber IV, 222, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021

Tel. No.: +91 22 4477 0000 • Email: contactus@reliancefoundation.org • Website: www.reliancefoundation.org • Designed by: Hiral Dave, Corporate Communications, RIL

Be amongst the first three to correctly answer these simple questions and get featured in our next issue!

Q. 1. Which is the longest highway in the world? What is the length?

Q. 2. Which is the largest coffee producing country in the world?

Q. 3. Which country is known as the ‘country of copper’?

Q. 4. Name the coldest place on earth.

Q. 5. What is the name given to the border separating Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Mail in your answers, feedback and suggestions to contactus@reliancefoundation.org

Answers to last issue’s quiz:

1. 1%

2. Surface water, ground water, desalinated water

3. 4800 people

4. 46%

5. 6 kilometers

E D I T O R ’ S D E S K 12

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