MVSTF signs MoUs with eminent corporates and philanthropists in presence of CM

·       MVSTF signs key MoUs in the presence of Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis 

·       Strategic partnership to empower development of rural Maharashtra 

Maharashtra Village Social Transformation Foundation (MVSTF) initiative with a mission to transform 1,000 villages across the state today signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with leading corporates and philanthropists in a bid to empower and push development work in rural part of the state.

   

In an effort to converge the developmental efforts between the Government of Maharashtra and Corporate India, MVSTF enables a public-private partnership in development work at grass root level. The partners provide financial resources to MVSTF, along with domain knowledge and expertise to bring about lasting change in key development areas. The MoUs were signed with the intent of furthering collaboration between the Government of Maharashtra & Corporate India.

The MoUs were signed in the presence of Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis and other dignitaries like – Smt. Rajashree Birla, Idea Cellular, Mr. Amit Chandra, ATE Philanthropic Foundation, Investor Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Mr. Radhakrishna Damani, Founder, D-Mart, Mr. Hemendra Kothari, Wildlife Conservation Trust, Mr. Vallabh Bhansali, Enam Financial Consultants Mr. Krishnan Dharmarajan, CDFI &  Mr. John Santosh, BillionLives, and Mr. Ramnath Subramaniam, CEO, MVSTF signed the MoUs on behalf of MVSTF. Also present at the occasion were Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister of Finance & Planning Forests, Girish Mahajan, Cabinet Minister for Water Resources, Pankaja Mundhe, Minister of Rural Development Women and Child Welfare Vishnu Sawra, Minister Of Tribal Development Mahadeo Jankar, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Development, Ranjit Patil, Minister of State Home(Urban),Urban Development, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Law & Judiciary, Parliamentary affairs Sumeet Mallik - CS- Government of Maharashtra, Praveen Pardeshi - ACS to CM.

Speaking on this occasion Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “The public and private sector partnership for village transformation brings responsibility towards delivering change in rural Maharashtra. The ability, technology, flexibility, knowledge and management skills of the private sector will change the lives of the people with greater speed by enforcing social schemes of the government.” He further added, “Our main focus is to solve the agrarian crisis through water conservation and tackle the problems of malnourishment in the tribal belt as well as to provide best education in the rural sectors of Maharashtra.”

Speaking at the event Mr. Ramnath Subramanian. CEO MVSTF, said “It is indeed very heartening to have people of great status and caliber as also corporates join hands with Government of Maharashtra, thereby endorsing their confidence on the vision and mission of Honorable Chief Minister. MVSTF looks forward to their active participation and guidance towards the transformation as also their support in roping in more philanthropists and corporate partners.”

Under the guidance and mentorship of Additional Chief Secretary Shri Praveen Pardeshi, VSTF is gaining rapid momentum with 310 villages already covered under the program and close to another 300 villages to be added shortly. His huge hands on experience, passion and commitment has resulted in convergence of various government schemes and innovative interventions by corporates. Secretary Rural Development, Shri Aseem Gupta is a Director on board of MVSTF.

MVSTF is a unique Public-Private Partnership in the country. MVSTF provides opportunity to the youth in the form of Chief Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship (CMRDF) programme. CMRDFs are assigned to a Gram Panchayat and work in close association with local administration to prepare and implement participatory development plans.

In the 1st phase, 143 Fellows have been on-board since April, 2017 to serve 310 Villages across 12 Districts of Maharashtra. The Fellows create community-led and participatory Village Development Plans (VDP), which have been approved in the Gram Sabhas. The Fellows are now working with the local administration and District Mission Council (DMCs) to implement the plans. Several initiatives, including setting up of solar electrification projects, last-mile digital connectivity, promotion of local Self-Help Groups, are being piloted in these villages.

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GST: Myths and Realities |A conclave of practitioners, academicians and administrators on Goods and Service Tax held at Symbiosis School of Economics

Symbiosis School of Economics(SSE) organized a conclave on the Goods and Services tax on 11^th December 2017 at Vishwabhavan auditorium. Dr. Jyoti Chandiramani, Director, Symbiosis School of Economics and Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Symbiosis said, “We have brought together a very diverse panel of industrialists, academicians and administrators to provide a wholesome picture of the impact of GST”. She further added that the early days of tax reforms in India date back to the seventh plan in 1985-86 wherein for the first time in India’s history the Government presented, what was then termed as the “Long Term Fiscal Policy” with the objective of bringing predictability and stability in the economic environment.

The keynote speaker for the event was Dr. Kavita Rao, Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), Delhi. The program was moderated by Ms. Manasi Phadke, Economist. The other eminent speakers for the day were:

Ms. Shilpa Pophale, Managing Director of Electronica Finance;

Mr. Ranjit Naiknavare , Director, Naiknavare Developers ;

Mr. Raju Kalera, Chief Financial Officer, Zuventus Healthcare Limited;

Mr. Deepak Mohoni, Indian Stock Market Analyst;

Mr. Rajendra Khadilkar, Director, Ameya Management Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. Kavita Rao opined that while it was early to give a verdict on the impact of GST, she said the abolition of Central Sales tax will help firms streamline their operations. She was critical of the many slabs and exemptions to GST. “Exemptions are apologies of the government for being unable to provide equitable access to goods. Direct benefit transfers or other expenditure methods should be relied on for equity and not a distortion of taxes”, said Dr. Rao.

Ms. Shilpa Pophale who has a large client base of MSMEs said that although there were initial hiccups for the proprietors in this sector, there is an increasing acceptance of the tax. Everyone wants to get into the tax system today learning from Demonetisation and GST.

Mr. Ranjit Naiknavare said that Demonetisation and GST have been double blows to the real estate sector dampening demand in the sector. He said that the initial impact of GST in India has been inflationary quite similar to how it has been in other nations when GST was implemented, but a tax slab of 28% is very high as compared to GST rates elsewhere.

Mr. Raju Kalera shared the experiences of his firm and the tremendous amount of background work that had to be done to get GST compliant which helped them to transition smoothly. He said that the pharmaceutical sector had gained from this unification of taxes.

Mr. Deepak Mohoni said that while demonetization was expected to negatively impact the financial market, it increased liquidity by channeling a lot of money into the sector. And if GST was perceived to bring positive change in the stock market, it at best did nothing. The markets find it hard to react as GST rates are dynamic and its long term impact is not clear.

Mr. Rajendra Khadilkar appreciated how GST reduced the firms’ interface with tax authorities but raised many loopholes that need to be ironed out in the coming days. He particularly mentioned Section 17(5) and Section 42 of GST Act relating to Input Tax Credit as contentious and said that more than 80% of legal disputes regarding GST will be on these two areas.

Ms. Manasi Phadke added that India did face a slowdown of growth but is currently in the recovery phase and the growth rates will only improve in the years to come. While GST will have a positive impact on growth, the magnitude of the impact wouldn’t be too large. She concluded that while many academics are lauding the change, practitioners are having trouble adjusting to it. But in the long run, it will pay out dividends.

A documentary prepared by the students of Symbiosis School of Economics on the perceptions of GST was also screened.

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deAsra Foundation helps entrepreneurs to ‘Go Digital’ and increase the marketing potential of their business.

deAsra, an organization aimed at empowering budding entrepreneurs, recently organized a workshop to help entrepreneurs understand digital media and bring their business online.

deAsra is trying to address the growing need of businesses that are suffering from a loss of customer's who now prefer to buy goods and services online. Statistics show that 65% of people in India did all their festive shopping online. This was a big hit for traditional businesses.

Conducted by Miss. Neha Sarwal, Marketing Head at deAsra Foundation, the workshop was a big success. entrepreneurs were shown how to Go Digital by using social media, online marketplaces such as Amazon and websites to build their businesses.

“Digital marketing is about connecting to your audiences in real time and making them the hero of your activity.” said Miss. Sarwal.

She also added that, “Before entrepreneurs ‘go digital’, they should be prepared with the message they want to send and strategies on how to engage with their prospective customers.”

The other key takeaways shared, covered ways to register and operate social media and online sales channels. Tips and tricks to increase reach and engagement of the audiences. And how to generate leads from online channels and sources. All these takeaways helped the audience walk away with easy and actionable ideas to start and grow their online business activities. Additionally deAsra also shared useful Social Media Marketing Checklists with those present at the workshop which was held at Morya Hall, Pimpri Chinchwad.

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Stuart Kippelman Joins the Advisory Board of SRKay Consulting Group to Help Accelerate its Global Footprint

Florida & Pune, 21^st December 2017: SRKay Consulting Group, a London-headquartered private equity venture of the multi-billion dollar SRK Group, announces the joining of Stuart Kippelman on its advisory board. Stuart is a highly acclaimed business and technology leader in the U.S., and is the former Senior Vice President and Global CIO at Platform Specialty Products, based in Florida.

Stuart has an illustrious track record receiving multiple industry awards including Top 100 CIOs in STEM 2015, Computerworld's 2014 Premier 100 IT Leader Award, and the CIO Top 100 Award in 2012, 2013 and 2014 in areas such as business and ERP transformation, cloud migrations and business intelligence. Stuart has been a WSJ guest columnist, and a featured blogger on Computerworld.com. He is an author, and holds multiple patents in data mining, and business intelligence. As an accomplished speaker, he has frequently presented at many major industry conferences.

Stuart is actively engaged in helping and guiding the next generation of IT leadership and serves as a career mentor both for Columbia University's Executive Master of Science in Technology Management program, as well as the CIO Executive Council Pathways program.

Prior to joining Platform Specialty Products, Stuart was SVP & CIO at Covanta, and held many leadership, technology engineering and research roles of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson.

"With SRKay actively looking at expanding its global footprint with its innovative products & services ventures, we are lucky to have someone like Stuart to guide and advise us to help us succeed in new global locations like the U.S., Australia and Europe with its ventures," said Alok Kumar, Partner and Founder of SRKay Consulting Group.

"Our upcoming data sciences venture will benefit a lot from the knowledge Stuart brings in the field of data sciences with a practical business outlook," said Kesavan Srinivasan, Chief Data Scientist and CTO of SRKay.   

Since its inception in September 2016 by Alok Kumar, a leading name in the technology industry, who started SRKay after his tenure as the Managing Director of Sears India, the group is leaving no stone unturned to build the best leadership team and advisory board. Recently, SRKay announced the appointment of Vinit Teredesai, ex-Global Head of Finance, HSBC GLT's as Advisor Finance & Global Strategy for the group and Stuart adds a technology dimension to the board.

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HAHA with RiteBite Max Protein, Harley Davidson Bikers, and MS Dhoni’s Seven ride for Charity

HAHA (Happy and Healthy Aadmi) is a one of its kind event, multiple companies Ritebite, Seven Island HOG and Rhiti Group’s lifestyle brand Seven and fitness brand Fit 7 have come together to bring in a wishful Christmas 2017. These 100 Bikers from Harley Davidson will ride 200 kms on their bikes to an Old Age Home in Lonavala named Awaas Seva Sadan and spend time with the residents there. Ritebite Max Protein will be organizing this entire event and Seven and Fit 7 are the official event sponsors. While Seven is the official apparel sponsor for the event, team Fit7 will be conducting a warm up fitness session for the   Bikers, followed by post ride fun fitness activities for both riders and the elderly.  Ritebite Max Protein team will give a session on Nutrition and Protein.

There will be a lot of fun activities for the Riders as well as the residents and lots of assured gifts and goodies will be distributed throughout. All the present members will get to munch on some delicious Protein bars and chips from Ritebite Max Protein. Breakfast and refreshment will be served to everyone. To keep up the merry making and Festive vibes of Christmas, themed decoration and Christmas Jingles will seen and heard in plenty with Santa Claus adding to overall fun of the event.

As a token of appreciation and loving gesture, goodbye gifts will be distributed with the Old Age residents as well. The entire event will be well captured with help of notable videographers and will be available to watch on Ritebite Max Protein’s, Seven’s and Fit 7’s official Facebook page.

The spokesperson from these teams have shared their excitement with us and we are looking forward to get more details on this event as well.

While speaking about the association, Chairman and Managing Director of Rhiti Sports, Mr Arun Pandey expressed happiness.

 “Rhiti Charitable Trust is actively involved in CSR initiatives, we look forward to our association with HAHA and making this joyous festival a memory for the old age home people,” said Mr. Pandey.

Also, Mr. Vijay Uttarwar the Managing Director and CEO of Naturell (India) Pvt. Ltd. (RiteBite Max Protein Brand) was ecstatic will talking about this initiative. Mr. Vijay feels that such events bring out the best vibes amongst the participants and create a Healthy and Happy environment which is why the event is named as HAHA.

Ritebite Max Protein – Naturell (India) Pvt. Ltd. is a visionary healthy lifestyle company, today also known as protein company. Naturell’s vision is to provide the finest nature-based products that will help consumers adopt a healthier lifestyle. Your busy hectic life can easily make your health take a back seat, Naturell offers a wide range of Ritebite premium products to keep up your energy levels. Naturell provides nutritious superior quality products that please your taste buds. Ritebite comes in a convenient pack; so wherever you go, whatever you do, we make it a perfect on-the-go snack.

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Annapurna Pariwar Celebrates Baldin

Annapurna Pariwar recently celebrated Children’s day with slum children in Pune. A children’s day is celebrated in December every year to showcase the talents of these young children and to spread awareness about child rights to improve their welfare.

Annapurna looks after over 600 children under their ‘Vatsalyapurna’ project. It runs a unique chain of low cost Day Care Centre’s for children of poor working women. Annapurna Pariwar has been working for the empowerment of slum women since last three decades. An early childhood development intervention for slum children has thus become the focus of Annapurna.

A variety entertainment programme was organised for the kids from every centre to display their skills and enjoy by singing and dancing to the tune of local songs. In last 14 years Annapurna has set up 16 Day Care centre’s in 14 slums in Pune and 4 Day Care centre’s in Mumbai and has given an opportunity to 40 women to have self-employment. These centre’s today look after more than 600 slum children in Mumbai and Pune.

Dr. Medha Purao-Samant, MD Annapurna Pariwar said, “Slum children are almost always left unattended when parents are at work or are looked after by their eldest sibling. Children thus miss out on their childhood as a result of poverty. Poverty deprives them of the capabilities needed to survive and develop.”

She further stated that, “Around the world, poor girls and boys are victims of sexual abuse and are deprived of education. We are therefore working everyday on all fronts to provide long-term, sustainable and positive change for children, to ensure their protection, to end violence against children and to provide them with their right to education and offer good prospects for the future.”

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14th Convocation Ceremony at Symbiosis International (Deemed) University

“We need to unleash our energies as far as education is concerned. Once we liberated human energies, restrictions were never helpful. As long as we were restrictive, we grew very moderately. “, Shri ArunJaitley.

Symbiosis International (Deemed) University, held its 14 th Convocation ceremony on December 17th ,2017 at their Lavale campus. Shri Arun Jaitley Hon’ble Minister for Finance, Government of India graced the event as the Chief Guest.

“Today the world is highly competitive. The survival of the fittest, where what background or status you belong to does not matter. India is today highly aspirational, it’s becoming impatient. And therefore, that itself is now compelling governments and regimes to act. In twenty years from now, if we continue to grow at a pace of 7.5% growth which is our normal potential, India is yet not a satisfied nation. It wants to grow faster.”, Arun Jaitley.

Dr. Prof. S.B. Mujumdar, Chancellor SIU, talked about the inception and the journey of Symbiosis, from Cultural Centre to Educational Centre and now an International University, with its objective to bring Indian and foreign students together.

The prestigious D.Litt. degree was conferred upon Mr. Rahul Bajaj, politician and chairman of Bajaj Group and Prof. Philip Altbach, a leading global scholar in higher education with a nuanced ability to interpret Indian higher education to the rest of the world.

Vice Chancellor, Rajani Gupte, presented the annual report, revealing Symbiosis’ ranking 61st amongst the top 100 Universities in the National Institutional Ranking Framework 2017. She also mentioned SIU’s latest patents and its association with an International project- Erasmus+ programme. SIU ranked 144 among BRICS Universities by the QS World University Rankings.

During this convocation ceremony, over 5000 students were conferred diplomas, undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate degrees. In addition, 12 gold medallists were bestowed for academic excellence. The prestigious Prof. S.B. Mujumdar ‘Outstanding Foreign Student of the Year’ award was established last year. In continuation of his life long mission to offer learning opportunities to foreign students in India. This unique award and a prize money of Rs. 1 Lakh from his personal  savings is a recognition of the exemplary achievements of students, studying anywhere in India. This year it was presented to Mrs. Marzia Rahmanyar, Afghanistan. She studied gender, culture and development studies at Savitribai Phule, Pune University.

Pro Chancellor, Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar thanked the guests, and on behalf of the students. The

convocation ceremony concluded with caps tossing high.

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