Natco Pharma Vice-Chairman & CEO Rajeev Nannapaneni has donated 1.5 lakh shares valued at ₹15 crore to the Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, the research arm of LV Prasad Eye Institute.

The objective is to find useful approaches to tackle the problems of blindness and visual impairment in children that can benefit India and other developing countries.

He joins a long list of corporate honchos who have liberally supported the research and clinical work at the premier eye institute in the private sector over the year. It includes K Anji Reddy, founder of Dr Reddy’s Labs, GM Rao, founder of the GMR Group; BV Mohan Reddy of Cyient, and Tej Kohli of Kohli Ventures.

Accepting the donation, Gullapalli N Rao, founder and chair, LVPEI said, “It is exciting to see such spirit of generosity in youngsters like Rajeev and his wife, Swathi. This support will allow us to transform our efforts in children’s eye health and create a global resource centre with huge impact throughout the developing world. Millions of children will benefit from this act of generosity.”

In 2016-17, children constituted 18 per cent of LVPEI’s patient profile across locations.

The Child Sight Institute is a children’s eye health division of LVPEI. It operates in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka. Children’s eye problems are treated at the institute, irrespective of the person’s ability to pay, a press release said.

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