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The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) is partnering with Muthoot Pappachan Foundation in what is described as the first corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative in private sector in the State.
Muthoot Pappachan Foundation is the CSR wing of the eponymous trade, business and diversified investment group based in the State.
The partnership also includes Rope, a global supplier of home décor and lifestyle products for international retailers and buyers, and Accion India, the Indian arm of a leading international NGO.
Rope enables marketing of products made by women entrepreneurs in international markets.
The four entities announced a strategic partnership here on Tuesday to promote women entrepreneurship in the State.
TRAINING PROGRAMME
Products manufactured under the new partnership would also be acquired by Rope through a buy-back option and supplied to international retail chains and Fabindia.
As part of the partnership, Muthoot Pappachan Foundation, Accion India and Nabard will organise a three-month training programme for 200 women entrepreneurs in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Alappuzha and Palakkad. Entrepreneurs trained under this programme will learn essential business and vocational skills for making eco-packs, handmade and paper bags, banana fibre products, jute products and dry flowers. Lessons in screen printing and embroidery will be imparted separately.
On Tuesday, the Chief General Manager of Nabard, Thiruvananthapuram, Mr K. C. Shashidhar, inaugurated the training programme at a function held here. Speaking on the occasion, he said that women entrepreneurs should ultimately aim at forming producer companies of five to 10 members and promote quality products.
Nabard would be ready to extend all possible assistance to these companies, he said. The entrepreneurs must also be able to develop their own brands out of the product range and vend them at specially formatted rural marts.
According to Mr Thomas Muthoot, Executive Director, Muthoot Pappachan Group (MPG), the Sthreejyoti training programme initiated in partnership with Accion India has already trained more than 16,000 women as on date. “We are happy to be taking our partnership to a larger platform with Nabard and Rope and open out to international markets,” he added.
Also present on the occasion were Mr Thomas John Muthoot, Chairman and Managing Director, MPG; Dr Usha Gopinath, Director - Client Education, Accion India; Mr N. N. Sreejith, Managing Director, Rope; and Mr Sadaf Sayeed, Chief Operating Officer, Muthoot Micro Finance.
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