The Hindu Business Line : Tatas, Dr Reddy's Foundation join hands

At least 5,000 youth, belonging to the underprivileged sections of the society, could find employment in the Tata group of companies every year, thanks to their training from the Tata entities at the Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS) of Dr Reddy's Foundation (DRF).

Tata Projects would employ the trained youth in the field of welding, Voltas — in refrigeration and air-conditioning, CMC — in hardware and IT-enabled services (ITeS), Tata Teleservices — in business process outsourcing, Taj Group of hotels — in hospitality, VSNL — in Internet connectivity services and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) — in ITeS area.

The regional group of the Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) and LABS have on Wednesday floated a unique initiative called `NEEV (nurture, educate, empower and value) The Foundation' towards enhancing employability skills and opportunities for underprivileged youth.

The corporate social responsibility arms of the Tatas and Dr Reddy's would enhance the employability skills of youth through livelihood-advancement training programmes in and around Hyderabad. Following the suggestions of Tatas, the initiative would add new, market-oriented, demand-driven livelihood opportunity training programmes in the existing 85 LABS centres spread over 12 states across the country.

Addressing the media on the occasion, the Tata Projects' Guardian CEO and Managing Director, Mr K.P. Singh, said the Tatas would provide network and knowledge support to LABS through voluntary participation from employees in the classroom for guest lectures, participate in DRF's in-house training programmes for training the trainers, participate in the market research activities and focus group discussions through associated business partners such as authorised franchisees, suppliers and contractors.

Aimed at ensuring proper coordination and smooth functioning of NEEV, the regional group of TCCI would identify one person from each member company of the Tata group to anchor and coordinate with DRF for the specified activities.

According to the DRF Managing Trustee, Ms G. Anuradha Prasad, the Foundation would undertake market feasibility studies and conduct focus group discussions based on the recommendations provided by the TCCI in the existing as well as new sectors for implementation of the training programmes.