HCL Foundation signs MoU with NCUI to train over 5,000 women & youth from marginalised communities

New Delhi: National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) and HCL Foundation signed an MoUfor building in presence of Dileep Sanghani, Chairman, NCUI.

The MoU was signed by Dr. Sudhir Mahajan, Chief Executive, NCUI and Dr. Nidhi Pundhir, Vice-President, Global CSR and Director, on behalf of HCL Foundation. Centre for Entrepreneurship Development & Cooperation (CEDC) of NCUI wereworking closely with the HCL Foundation to finalize areas of collaboration for thepast two months. Through the collaboration, HCL Foundation has joined hands withNCUI to develop training infrastructure, market platforms and branding support toSHGs and cooperatives across India.

To begin with, the CEDC, NCUI and HCL Foundation will work together to establishworld-class livelihood-cum-entrepreneurship development centre at the newlyconstructed Skill Development Centre of NCUI at Sector 80, Noida. Over the courseof the next three years, more than 5000 participants, including women, youthandartisans from marginalized communities will be mobilized for sustainable income- generating opportunities and 90% of the trained youth will be placed in private sector and other relevant organizations.

In addition to this, HCL Foundation will work closely with NCUI for achievingshared goals like replicating NCUI Haat and Incubation Centre projects in many states, mobilizing communities and forming SHGs and cooperatives and providing branding, IT and promotion to the artisans and cooperatives across India.

He highlightedtherole of private sector and social organizations for empowering the needy sections of society. Dr. Nidhi Pudhir shared the different projects carried out by HCL Foundationfor empowerment of artisans, SHGs and needy communities across India. She also talked about the My E-haat initiative of HCL Foundation for Showcasingour country’s rich heritage and finest handicrafts, and enabling thousands of artisans, especially women, leap over exploitative systems and connect directly with customers.

The initiative engages artisans/primary producers in skill buildingopportunities, equips artisans with adequate market driven knowledge – technical andnon-technical to improve their products, nurtures entrepreneurial talent and creates market linkages. Dr. Pundhir stressed on the need to empower the artisans by forming their cooperativesocieties and empowering them through technology and livelihood interventions.

Sheexpressed hope that the collaboration between NCUI and HCL Foundation will goalong way in reaching out to the artisans and youth and women fromunderprivilegedsections of society across India and developing successful models of enterprisedevelopment through cooperative entrepreneurship.

She also offered to support theongoing projects of NCUI through branding and market linkages of the products andother interventions. Dr. Sudhir Mahajan congratulated the team of HCL Foundationfor theb path-breaking initiatives and asked the CEDC team to chalk-out a roadmapfor future action.

Dileep Sanghani  thanked HCL Foundation for coming on board and said this will strengthen the efforts of NCUI to realize the vision of ‘Prosperity throughCooperatives’ of the hon’ble Prime Minister. Sumit Singh thanked Dr.Pundhir and his team for their efforts to formalize the collaboration. Immediately after theevent, he had a meeting with  Gaurav Mazumdar, Vikas and the other members of HCL Foundation team to prepare an Action-Plan for the next two weeks too.