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State-promoted Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (GNFC)’s innovative Neem project, that provided livelihood to many rural women and landless labourers for the last two years, has been lauded by the University of Chicago, USA.
Rajiv Kumar Gupta, Managing Director of GNFC, was invited by the university to make a presentation about the Neem project, as a model to be emulated in shared value creation.
It recognises the company’s contribution to upliftment of women and girls by developing and implementing such a sustainable and pragmatic socio-economic programme. Incidentally, ex-Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Dr Raghuram Rajan, teaches at the University of Chicago, GNFC said in a release here on Tuesday.
Attended by around 100 faculty, researchers, students, and staff from the economics department and the law, policy, and business schools, the one-hour presentation explained the genesis and peregrination of the Neem project, and concluded by elaborating on its replicable model.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy mandate of Neem-coated urea was planned and implemented by GNFC which used established community structures in rural Gujarat to build linkages within its supply chain network for Neem seed collection.
The project has been active in 22 districts across 4,000 villages in Gujarat. In the last two years, over Rs. 25 crore ($3.9 million) worth of income has been generated for 2.25 crore women. An additional 75,000 people have benefited from indirect employment.
GNFC's approach had earlier been lauded at the UNDP Impact Assessment Survey which concluded that there has been a significant decrease in domestic violence, increase in asset creation and education expenditure. It has been hailed as an example in community-led transformation by laying a strong foundation for community building and cohesion.
The Neem project has won nine awards, including Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility 2016, the SKOCH Blue Economy Platinum Sustainability Award 2016, and Global CSR Excellence Award.
Gupta, too, was awarded the ‘SKOCH Blue Economy Person of the Year Award’ for conceiving, designing and managing the Neem project.
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