The Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has extended support to the Aditya Jyot Foundation for an initiative called 'Twinkle Little Eyes'. The aim is to undertake awareness and eye-screening camps for underprivileged children, mainly in the rural and urban slum areas.

Sidbi will extend support towards conducting 70 such camps this year, benefiting close to 3,000 underprivileged children.

Sushil Muhnot, CMD of SIDBI, said, “Sidbi is planning to work for slum children and parents in Maharashtra and create awareness about avoidable blindness. There are three growth models: primary, affordable and luxury, in the eyecare industry and finance from institutions can flow into the industry provided there is a business model with an appropriate revenue stream.”

He added that the proposed Government plan to impose 2 per cent compulsory spending on corporate social responsibility activities would make it easy for non-Government organisations to augment financial resources for social services.

Earlier, Sidbi partnered with the West Bengal-based Glocal Healthcare Systems to set up corporate hospitals in rural areas through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) route. It has also launched a programme 'Samridhi' for promoting microfinance and impact investment.

Under the programme, the UK-based Department for International Development had sanctioned a monetary grant of GBP 65 million (nearly Rs 500 crore) to fund inclusive growth projects in Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

amritanair.ghaswalla@thehindu.co.in

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