With a view to undertaking a profitable business along with contributing towards economic development and improving quality of life for society, Newgen Software believes that community involvement is the most important aspect for a change. To bring about a change, the company has initiated a lot of CSR initiatives like Sadbhavna programme, Digital Discovery Paathshala and SOS Children’s Village. The company also believes that, to foster a developing economy, education among all should be promoted. In a chat with SPO India, Priyadarshini Nigam, Head, CSR, Newgen Software Limited, has highlighted all the initiatives of the company, its views on CSR and plans for 2016.
Kindly share your views on ‘CSR as a Responsibility’.
Newgen’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility is deep and far-reaching. We manage our business to the highest ethical standards, and believe that community involvement is one of the most important catalysts for change. Newgen employees are passionate individuals with unique expertise and perspectives that collectively help define how the company operates and engages with communities worldwide. Together, we are continuing to grow and evolve Newgen’s CSR programs.We have always believed that to foster a progressive ecosystem for developing economies, ‘Education’ has to be promoted amongst all sections of the society.
With that objective in mind, Newgen started its ‘Sadbhavna’ initiative in 2006– An educational program for the children of our support staff which focusses on overall development of every child.After almost a decade, the program has been running successfully with more children joining by word of mouth.
Today, there are more than 100 children with us out of which 60 percent are outsiders (not children of Newgen employees) but from community around the Newgen Okhla office.
How do you position your company into the sector of CSR & sustainability?
Our primary focus is to run a profitable business that is also responsible. As an ethical organization we understand that businesses have a responsibility to contribute to economic development and help improve the quality of life for society at large. Our CSR vision therefore is based on this responsibility and we are committed to this cause.
Among your company’s recent initiative taken towards CSR, which one you consider to be making an enduring impact for the betterment of society?
We’re particularly proud of the strides we’ve taken to be a responsible global citizen – focusing on best practices to support our communities and improve the quality of life for future generations. In recent times, Newgen has undertaken many new initiatives towards CSR besides expanding the scope of its Sadbhavna program by including dedicated sessions on Digital Literacy and PDP (personality development) programmes..
With a firm belief to improve access to quality education for students worldwide using the combined power of network technology and human collaboration, Newgen’s Digital Discovery Paathshala is a specially designed program to develop e-learning skills amongst the students and to impart knowledge in the school by the use of web based technology.
Newgen has also adopted 3 families in the country’s oldest SOS Children’sVillage – an independent, non-governmental international development organization which works to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. In India, it has just entered the 50th year of its existence..
Family Based Care (PBC), a curative programme of SOS Children’s Villages of India, reaches out to over 6,500 once parentless or abandoned girls and boys in 32 SOS Children’s Villages across India. Each children’s village has 12-15 family homes, with every home consisting of 10 children on an average along with an SOS mother. At one such village in Green Fields, Surajkund, Newgen has adopted three families in 2014-15. All round development including education, nutrition, health and psychological development is taken care of till the children are settled in their lives.
Apart from this, volunteers from Newgen conduct monthly engagement programs with children of the SOS Village. Personality development sessions including English speaking, confidence building, managing stage fright, quizes based on general knowledge, sports day and other fun activities are conducted by our volunteers, who are determined to bring a noticeable change to the lives of these children.
Do CSR increases brand visibility for a company? If yes, how?
We believe we are duty bound to give back to society as best we can….as such we do not look at our CSR activities as serving us any other purpose.
What are your plans for 2016 with respect to making investment in CSR?
Besides continuing our efforts through Sadbhavna and SOS Children’s Village programs, in 2016 ourmajor focus will be around our government school project – Newgen’s Digital Discovery Paathshala.
An initiative that has emanated from the vision of our MD, the digital literacy program aims at stimulating the minds of the children through the use of modern day IT innovations such as tablets and internet.
Newgen conducts its ‘Digital Literacy Program’ with the children in the Youth Hostel of SOS Village, Green Fields during the weekends. With active participation on our Volunteers and trained Instructors, ‘digital literacy program’ has become an enriching experience for these children.
Any additional information, which you may like to share with our readers?
a. Newgen CSR programs include:
• Newgen Digital Discovery Paathshala at a Government Girl’s School
• Sadbhavna Program (weekly sessions on Digital Discovery, Monthly sessions on Personality Development, other vocational training and fun sessions)
• SOS Program (weekly sessions on Digital Discovery at Youth Hostel, Bi-monthly overall development sessions with SOS children, monthly Personality Development sessions at Newgen premises) + adopted 3 SOS families comprising of approximately 40 people
b. Newgen has appointed an expert external trainer each for weekly Digital Discovery session at Youth Hostel, SOS village and the monthly Personality Development Programme (PDP) session for Sadbhavna and SOS children. With Newgen volunteers present in each of these sessions to support these trainers.
