Aditya Birla Education Academy Launches PG Diploma In Global Education In Association With B. K. Birla College

* The unique online course helps educators and working professionals from other sectors to upskill themselves to make a career in International Education

Aditya Birla Education Academy (ABEA), India’s leading professional development institute for teachers, today launched a Post Graduate Diploma in Global Education (PGDGE) in association with B. K. Birla College of Arts, Science, and Commerce (Autonomous), Kalyan to provide educators with an opportunity to carve a career in international education through a blended learning curriculum that integrates rigorous and contemporary academics with the application through school-based practice.

The goal of this course is to help educators develop teaching skills and knowledge in accordance with best global practices and become more effective teachers. This online program also provides an opportunity for working professionals to transition into the education space and make a smooth career switch. As the course is developed and delivered by globally renowned academicians, it promises academic excellence. The salient features of PGDGE are practicum based teaching and learning, internship opportunities in reputed Indian schools, and campus placement assistance.

Commenting on the launch of PGDGE, Mrs. Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson, Aditya Birla Education Trust said, “The pandemic severely disrupted everything including the education system. While teachers were not ready for the unexpected shift to online, they ensured that learning doesn’t stop for their students. Educators today need to be equipped with a teacher-training-program that is more hands-on in its approach to tackle the dynamic landscape in international education. With this aim in mind, we are happy to announce the Post Graduate Diploma in Global Education in association with B.K. Birla College (Autonomous), Kalyan. It is an absolutely remarkable step for us to be able to provide this platform for teachers and help them acquire practical learning and teaching skills within a global context.”

The participants from PGDGE will be able to develop their skills and learn to teach with the best global methods, acquire relevant experience through internships to operate in institutions, learn the use of educational technology in teaching and learning and, bring in reflective practices for self-development. The course structure consists of 8 modules of 12 hours each. There is action research-based work in every module. While the course allows the participants to access study material online, post queries, and practice their skills at their convenient time, it requires attendance at scheduled sessions or classes. At the end of every session, non-graded assignments are conducted, and at the end of every module, graded assignments are conducted.

The course offers an internship program in reputed schools across the country and offers campus placement assistance towards the end of the academic year. At the end of the course, final examinations are conducted to test the learnings inculcated from the program. The online classes are held on weekends for this year-long PGDGE that commences on 15th April 2021. To be eligible for the course, the applicant must be a graduate in any discipline. The course fee is Rs. 75,000 (inclusive of taxes) payable in 3 installments and merit-based scholarships are available. 

About Aditya Birla Education Academy

Aditya Birla Education Academy is India’s leading professional development institute for teachers. Aditya Birla Education Academy aims to engage educators in the new-age global processes of education and empower them to evolve into the best knowledge-givers they can be, as they nurture young minds and contribute towards shaping the future. Aditya Birla Education Academy is providing a platform for educators to further their professional development through relevant and uniquely structured courses that meet their needs across the spectrum of education.

About Aditya Birla Education Trust

Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET) is an organisation committed to the cause of education and mental health, with an objective to nurture young minds. Right from establishing the Aditya Birla World Academy, an International School with an Indian soul, to The Aditya Birla Integrated School, which acknowledges the need to cater to children with different learning needs, ABET has always prioritised the importance of a child’s overall development. Further under the aegis of ABET, the Aditya Birla Education Academy provides professional development opportunities for educators, and engages, empowers and equips them to contribute towards shaping the future of young minds. In an endeavour to stamp out stigma surrounding mental health concerns, ABET has established Mpower, a holistic mental health care initiative, which has become the pioneer of mental health awareness in the country. Aditya Birla Education Trust runs under the zealous leadership of its passionate and committed Founder & Chairperson, Mrs. Neerja Birla.

About B. K. Birla College of Arts, Science and Commerce (Autonomous), Kalyan

B. K. Birla College of Arts, Science and Commerce (Autonomous), Kalyan affiliated to University of Mumbai was established in 1972, by Kalyan Citizens’ Education Society with the blessings of Late Syt. B. K. Birla ji and Late Smt. Sarala ji Birla. The college has accomplished a spectacular growth over the last four decades and grown as a multi-faculty premier institution of higher learning with an enrolment of more than 11,000 students (7,000 plus students for UG, PG and Research Programmes and 4,000 plus students in Junior College). The college is reaccredited by NAAC (3rd Cycle) and awarded ‘A’ Grade (CGPA - 3.58) in 2014. The College has been granted ‘College of Excellence’ status (2015 - 2020) by UGC, New Delhi. The College has been certified with the ISO 9001: 2015. The college has been awarded the ‘Best College Award’ (in the Urban category) by the University of Mumbai (2009). The College has also been awarded the ‘IMC - RBNQ Performance Excellence Trophy - 2011’ in Education. B. K. Birla College has a vibrant work-culture with holistic approach to education. The teaching - learning process is supported using ICT, interactive exercises, projects, assignments, etc. in addition to traditional teaching - learning method. The college has been granted ‘Autonomous Status’ by University Grants Commission and University of Mumbai from the Academic Year 2018 - 19. This autonomy has enabled the college to enhance the quality, innovation in curricular content, pedagogy, evaluation methods, etc in order to make students globally competent, more skilled and job-ready. Under Autonomous Status the college has introduced M.Sc. in Data Science and Big Data Analytics and M.Sc. in Finance in the academic year 2019-20, and M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence and M.Com. Accounting Finance in the academic year 2020-21. These courses have been envisaged to cater to the diverse needs of the market. B. K. Birla College stands committed to the cause of higher education, catering to the diverse needs of the students and enabling them to develop as intellectually alive and socially - responsible citizens ready for continuous and professional growth.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Registers 92% Growth In Domestic Sales In January 2021

* Clocks total sales of over 50,000 units of Toyota & Suzuki Alliance models, ever since its first launch in India

Toyota Kirloskar Motor today announced that the company sold a total of 11126 units in the month of January 2021, thereby clocking a growth of 92% in domestic sales, when compared to its wholesales in the month of January 2020. For reference, TKM had sold a total of 5804 units in the domestic market in January 2020.

Wholesales January 2021 2020 Month on month Growth

Domestic 11126 5804 92%

Commenting on the month’s performance, Mr. Naveen Soni, Sr. Vice President TKM said, “The new year started on a positive note for us and our sales growth stands testimony to the same. Our wholesales have been very encouraging and the booking orders have also witnessed a significant rise. We launched the new Fortuner and Legender in the New Year to cater to the growing aspirations of our loyal customers who are seeking more style, comfort, and performance. We are humbled by the tremendous customer response for both the models, which shows in the continued trust and confidence in the Fortuner, which has been the segment leader since its launch more than a decade ago. Moreover, the new Innova Crysta launched in November last year, has also received an overwhelming response from the market.

Last month, we also achieved a significant milestone of clocking total sales of over 50,000 units for the Toyota-Suzuki alliance models, Glanza & the Urban Cruiser, ever since the launch of Glanza in June 2019. Both the models have proved their popularity in their respective segments and have also allowed us to welcome many new customers into the Toyota family”, he concluded.

Airtel Announces Success 5G Service Ready Network In Hyderabad

 

In a major landmark, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier communications solutions provider, announced that it has become the country’s first telco to successfully demonstrate & orchestrate Live 5G service over a commercial network in Hyderabad city. 

Airtel did this over its existing liberalised spectrum in the 1800 MHz band through the NSA (Non Stand Alone) network technology. Using a first of its kind, dynamic spectrum sharing, Airtel seamlessly operated 5G and 4G concurrently within the same spectrum block. This demonstration has emphatically validated the 5G readiness of Airtel’s network across all domains - Radio, Core and Transport.  

Airtel 5G is capable of delivering 10x speeds, 10x latency and 100x concurrency when compared to existing technologies. Specifically, in Hyderabad, users were able to download a full length movie in a matter of seconds on a 5G phone. This demonstration has underlined the company’s technology capabilities. The full impact of the 5G experience, however, will be available to our customers, when adequate spectrum is available and government approvals received. 

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel said: “I am very proud of our engineers who have worked tirelessly to showcase this incredible capability in Tech City, Hyderabad today. Every one of our investments is future proofed as this game changing test in Hyderabad proves. With Airtel being the first operator to demonstrate this capability, we have shown again that we have always been the first in India to pioneer new technologies in our quest for empowering Indians everywhere.”  

“We believe India has the potential to become a global hub for 5G innovation. To make that happen we need the eco system to come together – applications, devices and network innovation. We are more than ready to do our bit.” added Gopal Vittal.                   

About Bharti Airtel 

Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its mobile network covers a population of over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated telecom provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. At the end of September 2020, Airtel had approx. 440 million customers across its operations.  

Airtel’s portfolio includes high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1Gbps, converged digital TV solutions through the Airtel Xstream 4K Hybrid Box, digital payments through Airtel Payments Bank as well as an integrated suite of services across connectivity, collaboration, cloud and security that serves over one million businesses.   

Airtel’s OTT services include Airtel Thanks app for self-care, Airtel Xstream app for video, Wynk Music for entertainment and Airtel BlueJeans for video conferencing. In addition, Airtel has forged strategic partnerships with hundreds of companies across the world to enable the Airtel platform to deliver an array of consumer and enterprise services.  

Tata Motors Launches The Limited-Edition Tata Tiago; Celebrates 1st Anniversary Of Tiago Refresh Range

Keeping up with the brand promise of offering consumers the ‘New Forever’ range, Tata Motors, India’s leading automotive brand, today announced the launch of a limited edition Tata Tiago at a price of INR 5.79 Lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). This launch will commemorate the first anniversary of Tiago Refresh and its success in the hatchback market.

Building on the XT variant, the Tiago Limited Edition will be available in manual transmission, with three single tone colours - Flame Red, Pearlescent White & Daytona Grey. Additional features include:

·         New 14-inch Bold Black Alloy Wheels

·         5-inch Touchscreen Infotainment by Harman, consisting of:

o    3D Navigation through Navimaps

o    Reverse Parking Sensor with Display

o    Voice Command Recognition

o    Image & Video Playback

·         Rear Parcel Shelf

Commenting on the launch of this new variant, Mr. Vivek Srivatsa – Head - Marketing, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors said, “Since its launch in 2016, the Tiago has been very successful in its segment and has been appreciated by all. Following the same, the product’s BS6 version was introduced in 2020 which also received a 4 star safety rating by GNCAP at launch, making it the safest in its segment. With more than 3.25 lakh happy customers on the road, the Tiago has evidently received tremendous market response. We are confident that through the introduction of this limited period variant and in alignment with our New Forever philosophy, we will continue to bring excitement in this space while catering to the ever evolving demand of our consumers.”

Brookfield Launches Rs 3,800-Cr IPO For Its Real Estate Investment Trust From February 3-5, 2021

* Investors will be able to buy a unit of the REIT in the band of Rs 274-275, valuing the trust at Rs 8,327 crore at the upper end of the band, Ankur Gupta, managing partner, real estate said, adding that the net asset value (NAV) per unit is Rs 311.

Alternative asset manager Brookfield on Friday announced its Rs 3,800-crore initial public offer (IPO) for its real estate investment trust (REIT), giving investors a share of over 1.4 crore square feet of its commercial properties across the country.

With the IPO coming amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the global asset manager said there is no data to suggest that work from home is the new normal and exuded confidence that benefits like closely working together for productivity purposes will eventually get teams to work from offices.

REITs are a relatively newer platform in India and so far two REITs have been listed.

The issue will open for subscription on February 3 and close on February 5, and bids can be made for a minimum of 200 units and in multiples of 200 thereafter by bidders other than anchor investors.

Investors will be able to buy a unit of the REIT in the band of Rs 274-275, valuing the trust at Rs 8,327 crore at the upper end of the band, Ankur Gupta, managing partner, real estate said, adding that the net asset value (NAV) per unit is Rs 311.

Gupta said hybrid models of working from home or from outside office spaces were already in place even before the pandemic and added that when the economy is firing on all cylinders, 'we need to see how efficiently we deliver on services and products,' he noted.

'As long as the economy is doing well, commercial realty has a very strong reason to do well,' he told reporters in a virtual press conference ahead of its IPO.

Admitting that tenants were looking at consolidating their presence very early into the pandemic, he said leasing prospects look robust now.

Brookfield is offering 1.4 crore square feet of its portfolio in the REIT and proposing to reduce its shareholding in the same to 54 per cent post-issue. The proceeds of the issue will be used for de-leveraging, Gupta said.

The REIT is on the lookout for adding another 1.5 crore square feet of space in the next few years and investors in the REIT will stand to get returns in the form of dividends from the long-term leasing out of the commercial properties.

Bulk of the commercial properties are buildings leased out to technology, finance, financial technology, media and other service-sector players, especially multinationals, for long term leases, Gupta said, adding that they have over 90 per cent occupancy at present.

All the properties have been working through the lockdown, collections have been over 98 per cent and 5 lakh square feet of space has been re-leased during the pandemic, he said, adding it has a leasing pipeline of 16 lakh square feet where conversations with prospective clients are on.

Kaku Nakase, president and country head of Bank of America, one of the lead managers, said this is the first REIT in Asia for Brookfield and added that the pandemic has made India more important for multinational companies. 

Maharashtra Tops Justice Delivery In India, Southern States Dominate Ranking :India Justice Report

The second edition of the India Justice Report, India’s only ranking of states on delivery of Justice to people, announced here today, ranks Maharashtra once again at the top of the 18 Large and Mid-sized states (with population of over one crore each), followed by Tamil Nadu (2019: 3rd), Telangana (2019: 11th) Punjab (2019: 4th) and Kerala (2019: 2nd). The list of seven Small States (population less than one crore each) was topped by Tripura (2019: 7th), followed by Sikkim (2019: 2nd) and Goa (2019: 3rd).

The India Justice Report (IJR) is an initiative of Tata Trusts in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and How India Lives. The maiden IJR was announced in 2019.

Through a rigorous 14-month quantitative research, the India Justice Report 2020 once again tracks the progress states have made in capacitating their justice delivery structures to effectively deliver services to all. It takes account of latest statistics and situations as they existed prior to March 2020.  It brings together otherwise siloed statistics

from authoritative government sources, on the four pillars of Justice delivery–Police, Judiciary, Prisons and Legal Aid.

The Report highlights stark conclusions, when aggregated for an all-India picture. Women comprise only 29% of judges in India.  Two-thirds of the country’s inmates are undertrials. In the last 25 years, since 1995, only 1.5 crore people have received legal aid, though 80% of the country’s population is entitled to.

Each pillar was analysed through the prism of budgets, human resources, personnel workload, diversity, infrastructure and trends (intention to improve over a five-year period), against the state’s own declared standards and benchmarks. Basis these themes, the Report assesses how all the 29 states and 7 UTs have capacitated themselves and, out of them, ranks the 18 Large and Mid-sized states and 7 small-sized states introducing a spirit of competitiveness.

Pillar-wise performance

Commenting on the Report, Justice (retd.) Madan B. Lokur, said, “While ranking states, the Report does not play up one state against another—it merely highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each pillar in each state thereby encouraging internal assessments for introducing positive changes in the delivery of justice. The Report fosters competition between states but more importantly, places the state in competition with itself to provide its people with the best possible justice delivery.”

Mr. N Srinath, CEO of Tata Trusts, said, "The India Justice Reports of 2019 and now 2020 make a significant contribution to laying the evidence base for policy makers and civil society to initiate early improvements for the benefit of us all."

Ms. Shloka Nath, Head – Policy and Advocacy, Tata Trusts, said, “The India Justice Report assesses all the pillars of justice delivery– Police, Judiciary, Prisons and Legal Aid—as one system.  The justice system in India is overburdened and stressed making it difficult for most people to access justice services. The Report demystifies the system as a whole through statistics across the four pillars. We hope that like the first report, this second edition too, fosters a more informed discourse and perhaps most importantly, serves as a tool for policymakers, and other stakeholders to identify areas of quick repair."

Ms. Maja Daruwala, Chief Editor, India Justice Report 2019, said, “The justice system has been neglected for too long. It entered the pandemic era with co-morbidities—underfunding, large vacancies, poor infrastructure and inadequately trained personnel at all levels. It must be designated as an essential service and be equipped as a first responder to provide the public with its services in every situation especially emergencies and certainly in the on-going pandemic.”

Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, has said, “Justice delivery is an underlying essential service upon which rests the success of other development goals. I commend the India Justice Report team for bringing out the second edition of the report. At NITI Aayog we have been striving to foster wider discussions on improving overall justice delivery. The IJR 2020 will help the states to identify areas of immediate improvement and the rankings will hopefully give them an incentive to do better."

Note to editors:

1.     For key findings on each pillar, please refer to the Key Findings document

2.     For further details and perspective please refer to respective pillar backgrounders or visit:

3.     For an interactive web-visualisation to compare and assess states, please visit:

4.     The India Justice Report 2020, national factsheet and an interactive web output will be available at www.tatatrusts.org

5.     The IJR 2020 uses the latest official data available at the time of going to press:  for the police it is 1 January 2020; prisons 31 December 2019; judiciary uses data from 2018-19, 2019 and 2020; and for legal aid 2019-20 and March 2020. Population figures are sourced from the National Commission on Population 2019 and budget figures rely on Comptroller and Auditor General reports for 2017–2018.

About Tata Trusts

Since inception in 1892, Tata Trusts, India’s oldest philanthropic organisation, has played a pioneering role in bringing about an enduring difference in the lives of the communities it serves. Guided by the principles and the vision of proactive philanthropy of the Founder, Jamsetji Tata, the Trusts’ purpose is to catalyse development in the areas of health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, livelihood, digital transformation, migration and urban habitat, social justice and inclusion, environment and energy, skill development, sports, and arts and culture. The Trusts’ programmes, achieved through direct implementation, partnerships and grant making, are marked by innovations, relevant to the country.

An Enterprising Initiative Towards Securing The Future Of Sustainability In Sugarcane Supply Chain Sector In India

* Acclaimed international civil society organisation, Solidaridad, organizes a multi-stakeholder discussion and deliberates on the opportunities of the sugarcane industry in India and the ways to mitigate challenges facing sustainable transformation in the sector 

India is the world’s largest consumer of sugar. The country’s sugarcane industry, second only to cotton in size, relies on more than six million smallholder farmers and countless labourers to produce its sugar. However, sugarcane farming is highly water-intensive, and recent years have witnessed significant depletion of ground water resources—threatening food security, economic growth and livelihoods of the farmers. Solidaridad, along with its consortium of partners, brought together multiple stakeholders in a policy consultation event on Friday to deliberate on the moot issues and the way forward for sustainability in sugarcane farming in India. The diverse cross-sectoral participation led to a milieu of strategic discussions on creating an enabling environment for resource-efficient supply chains in the sugarcane industry. 

The virtual advocacy event was designed to facilitate exchange of thoughts and ideas amongst sustainability practitioners, sugar companies, sugar mills, local and state governments, financial institutions and civil society organisations from India, Netherlands and across different parts of the world, working on a wide range of issues related to sustainable development, agriculture, water efficiency and business responsibility in the sugarcane sector. The event centred around influencing, advocating and exploring business and policy action strategies for sustainable and inclusive development in India’s agriculture sector. The emphasis was on taking learnings from current sustainable initiatives in India to develop recommendations on various thematic challenges, such as: 

Income and food security of farmers in the context of water and climate change  

Use of inclusive technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture 

Access to finance for farmers to adopt mechanisation and water-efficient practices 

Issues and opportunities with sustainable certification in India  

The shared experience of implementing an FDW Sugarcane programme in India with a consortium of partners over the past years has led Solidaridad to take this step forward in building a platform to share the experiences and achievements from the programme. Supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Solidaridad launched the water-efficient sugarcane production programme during 2014-2015 in the states of Karnataka and Telangana in India. The FDW Sugarcane programme on increasing water-use efficiency in sugarcane farming in India was one of the first public-private partnership (PPP) programmes. It is currently running in its sixth year of implementation on the ground.   

Implemented by Solidaridad, the PPP programme comprises sugarcane companies, such as NSL Sugars Limited and Natems Sugar Private Limited and their respective sugar mills; knowledge partners Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) and Osmania University; and technological partner eLEAF, which facilitates satellite mapping of the sugarcane plots for information on water, crop, crop-water productivity through robust monitoring systems. 

The programme aims to address over-exploitation of groundwater resources and alternatively focus on water-efficient practices. The objective of the FDW Sugarcane programme is to create a comprehensive and powerful impact at the ground level to support 35,000 farmers in sustainable agricultural practices by providing regular agriculture and financial literacy trainings, exposure visits to different sugarcane growing states, support in the uptake of latest technologies, development of local entrepreneurs and building robust infrastructures. The programme has so far been able to increase sugarcane productivity, reduce production cost and raise the farmers’ income from sugarcane production in the two states. 

Solidaridad, along with its consortium of partners, organised this multi-stakeholder sugarcane and water event by bringing together various stakeholders from the water and sugarcane industry. Sugar mills, sugar companies, agricultural universities, local and state government, financial institutions and NGOs alike were present at the virtual event today to discuss the opportunities and possibilities of building a more sustainable and resilient sugarcane sector. The diverse cross-sectoral participation created a milieu of strategic discussions on the way forward to the creation of an enabling environment for a resource-efficient supply chain in the sugarcane industry. 

The advocacy event was addressed by H.E. Marten van den Berg, Ambassador, Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands; Ms Ella Lammers Senior Advisor, Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO); Dr Pandith Madhnure, Director, Ground Water Department, Government of Telengana; Dr Bakshi Ram, Director, Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI); Dr. Shatadru Chattopadhayay, Managing Trustee, Solidaridad; Mr Shivajirao Deshmukh, Director General, Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI); Mr Roshan Lal Tamak, Executive Director and CEO, DCM Sriram; Ms Ritu Baruah, India Programme Manager, Bonsucro and Mr Manish Pandey, Director & Head -Project analysis, Quality Council of India (QCI), along with other relevant stakeholders of the sugarcane and water industry. 

Embarking on this initiative, Dr. Shatadru Chattopadhayay, Managing Trustee, Solidaridad said “Sugarcane is historically called 'honey without bee'. It is the crop of the future with many potential uses from food, bagasse, fuel, fodder to even paper providing income source to around six millions of small farmers in India. However, sugarcane sector faces significant sustainability challenges relating to water use, soil health, productivity, profitability and smallholder livelihoods. The situation is exacerbated by increased rainfall variability due to climate change, which may reduce sugarcane yields by up to 30%. Solidaridad works across the sugarcane value chain from farmers, mills to sugar buying companies and financial institutions to make sugarcane sector more sustainable. Solidaridad experts also demonstrate that farmers and mills can increase profit while taking care of the environment. So far, We have achieved an increase in farmers average productivity between 20 to 40 per cent while saving billions of litres of water.” 

A Noble Step towards Sustainable Agriculture 

India's sugarcane industry relies on more than six million smallholder farmers to produce its sugar. Due to small farm size and the associated inefficiencies, Indian productivity lags far behind other parts of the world. Solidaridad has been working with all the stakeholders of the industry to improve productivity, increase water efficiency and deploy climate-smart agricultural practices throughout the country. One component, the VSI training programme, prepared by Solidaridad with funding from PepsiCo, and supported by the International Finance Corporation and Olam, enrolled 400 women from the Kolhapur and Belgaum Districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka states. Sugarcane is a labour-intensive crop and more than 60% of that work is done by women. The curriculum emphasised on water management, soil health, pest control and fertiliser optimisation and other good agricultural practices, which prepared the women to improve farm productivity. This new-found knowledge had a significant effect on their roles within their families, leading to increased confidence and greater self-esteem for many of them. The ability to improve their family’s wellbeing through greater productivity of their farms has been empowering. 

India is reported to have the highest groundwater depletion rates in the world, and, in Northern India, it is at crisis levels. With agriculture as the dominant consumer of water, it is imperative that action be taken now, at a national scale, not only to reduce consumption but also to harvest rainwater. Solidaridad is expanding its sugarcane programme to address this crisis. But this effort needs the sustained support of the companies buying sugar produced by these farmers. The six million sugarcane farmers, the majority of whom are women, must be enlisted in this effort. The programme underway in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madya Pradesh is working with around 25,000 farmers. Other Solidaridad’s programmes in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere involve another 300,000 sugarcane farmers.  

H.E. Marten van den Berg, Ambassador, Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands “India and the Netherlands are committed to contribute towards global sustainable development thereby contributing towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We’re keen to work together with India on shared challenges and joint, innovative and cost effective solutions. Public-private partnerships between India and the Netherlands create win-win opportunities. In the field of water, several Dutch companies have been active in India for years who have reinforced several successful sustainable partnerships between India and the Netherlands.” 

About Solidaridad  

Solidaridad is an international solution-oriented civil society organization with partners all over the world. A journey spanning over five decades, Solidaridad has more often than not been the cradle of innovation in the sustainable development sector worldwide, pioneering several sustainable initiatives such as the global fair-trade movement among others. The organisation stands by its agenda of accelerating global sustainable and inclusive development through meaningful and strategic partnerships. Solidaridad’s mission is to ??bring together supply chain actors and engage them into?? creating innovative solutions towards improving production and ensuring transition to a ??sustainable and inclusive economy. Solidaridad aspires to ??transform production practices in a way that leads to fair and profitable livelihoods and ??business opportunities for the producers and guarantees them decent ??working conditions and a ??living wage, without depleting their land of its essential resources.