An education centre for underprivileged girls has been opened in Pune,
near Mumbai, by National Grid, Britain’s biggest utility company, and
its three main information technology suppliers in India.
The centre, named Muskaan, which is the Hindi word for smile, is offering education to 60 girls every year.
National Grid, which is one of the world’s largest utility companies,
combined two years ago with the suppliers – Tata Consultancy Services,
Wipro and Zensar Technologies – to create Global Spirit, a project to
promote education in India. So far the project, under which the new
centre has been set up, has raised £90,000 ($175,000), including
contributions from employees and suppliers and £40,000 donated by
National Grid.
Global Spirit is part of National Grid’s corporate responsibility
activities and its policy of building relationships with its main
suppliers. It is thought that a British company has never previously
supported an Indian school in this way.
The school is being run by Akanksha, a non-profit Indian group
dedicated to providing education for less privileged children and
enabling them to improve their prospects.
Denise Wilson, National Grid’s director of shared services, said:
‘Working together with our key IT suppliers to this end has helped to
make our already strong relationship even stronger, and – who knows? –
maybe one day a child educated at this centre could end up working for
National Grid through one of these suppliers.’
