The Clean India call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of Red Fort in his maiden Independence Day speech has drawn corporate queue up to commit funds.
IT major TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), telecom service provider Bharti, and public sector Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) have stepped in quickly to announce fund support for setting sanitation facilities for girl students. IOB was the first to respond. It said it would finance construction of toilets in 59 schools across the country.
“The decision of this CSR initiative to construct toilets in one school in each of the 59 regions of the bank was taken at the bank’s board meeting held on August 16,’’ said a release.
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On Monday, TCS and Bharti, too, joined in. TCS said it would earmark Rs.100 crore to finance sanitation facilities for girl children across 10,000 schools in the country.
In a statement, N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and Managing Director of TCS, said provision of hygienic sanitation for girl students “will have tangible impact on the level of education achievement and development of India’s next generation.’’ The telecom major said Bharti Foundation, a development arm of Bharti Enterprises, would invest up to Rs.100 crore in construction sanitation facilities for girls in Ludhiana over the next three years.
“It is our commitment that no single household or school in rural Ludhiana will be without a toilet by the end of this tenure,’’ a release quoted Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of the Foundation, as saying.
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With top-notch firms such as TCS and Bharti leading the way, the Prime Minister’s ‘Clean India’ is expected to see India Inc step in a major way.