On Sunday, Mr Raymond Bickson, Managing Director, Indian Hotels Co. Ltd., will run for a cause with hundreds of other employees from the company.
All this to support physically challenged Uzma Sharifi and many others like her who dream to be a part of mainstream society. With a cause in mind and an aim to raise money for charity, more than 150 corporations will be sending their contingents to take part in one of India's largest charity events — The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2012.
Top honchos will be seen guiding their teams along Mumbai's streets for the ninth year in succession. Nearly 1,500 employees from Tata Consultancy Services, 600 from Standard Chartered and 700 from the Taj group will participate in the marathon.
“TCS has an average age of 27 years and wellness is an important part of our corporate culture. We are eagerly looking forward to the Mumbai marathon, with over 1,500 TCSers participating across various categories,” said Mr N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD, TCS.
Employees of the Taj will run to support DEEDS (Development, Education, Empowerment of the Disadvantaged in Society) — an NGO that works with the hearing and speech-impaired.
“Our team's participation in the marathon is to ‘Walk an Extra Mile' to focus on the otherwise invisible disability of hearing and speech impaired and provide timely, customised training and medical assistance to those affected by it,” said Mr Raymond Bickson.
For Edelweiss, over 40 employees will be taking on the challenge of running the marathon to support various causes. The employees will be supporting EdelGive Foundation, a philanthropic arm of Edelweiss. The company has raised close to Rs. 35 lakh that will support EdelGive and other NGOs.
Asset finance company Magma Fincorp is also one of the corporations participating in the marathon. Mr Sanjay Chamria, Vice-Chairman and MD, will run the half marathon with 24 other employees from the company. Magma Fincorp employees are running to raise money that will be donated to an orphanage run by the Philanthropic Society of The Orthodox Church, Kolkata.