In a bid to renew its CSR focus and vision for supporting education and child healthcare, Huawei India has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Akshaya Patra Foundation at the Huawei R&D Center, Bengaluru. Huawei will support Akshaya Patra with their mid-day meal programme for over 15,000 children, besides supporting Akshaya Patra with food distribution vehicles and a kitchen upgrade programme.
According to Jay Chen, CEO Huawei India, Huawei strives to bridge gaps, both in the regions where it operates and within the organization, thereby establishing itself as a responsive and a responsible organization. “With this MoU, we strive to align ourselves with the Government of India’s vision. We believe that an enterprise can survive, sustain its growth, and contribute to society only if it consistently aligns its core values and operational responsibilities with its social responsibilities. Along with financial support, we also aim to encourage our employees to be a part of this programme,” he said.
Shri N Sivasailam, Additional Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, said, “This partnership reflects the commitment of Huawei as a global corporate citizen, to support the Government’s initiative. We look forward to creating a win-win industry ecosystem that promotes the sustainable development of the economy, society and environment.”
Shri MadhuPanditDasa , Chairman Akshaya Patra who signed the MoU on AkshayaPatra’s behalf said, “The Akshaya Patra Foundation is pleased to partner with Huawei in this endeavour. We feel that this collaboration will add huge impetus in our effort to feed 5 million children by 2020. Such partnerships enable us to progress in our initiative to end classroom hunger.”
As per Mr. Ramu Patchala, “As leading ICT solutions provider, we believe that fulfilling corporate social responsibilities everywhere we operate is crucial to maintaining Huawei’s sustainable development and promoting harmony in the natural environment, the industry chain, and among our employees and communities. We define CSR management as a strategic priority and have strengthened our efforts to fulfill the commitments we have made to customers, caring for our employees, bridging the digital divide, protecting the environment, pursuing technological innovations, adhering to ethical principles regarding procurement and business, and giving back to society.”
This MoU is the latest in a line of Huawei’s attempts at promoting harmonious social development in India. Prior to this Huawei has worked on projects such as the E-hope programme, through which it digitally equipped rural schools in India and aid in bridging the digital divide by providing access to information technology and computer systems. By providing computers and promoting equal access to connectivity, the program contributed significantly to narrowing the gap between the digital ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. The program was launched across India in phases with an objective to build a knowledge network of 1,000 schools.
A firm believer in skilling the youth, Huawei in the past has instituted several programmes like Huawei Maitree Scholarship Programme as well.
“Huawei Maitree Scholarship Programme” was initiated to aid Indian students who wish to pursue higher studies in China. The Huawei Excellence Award Scholarship Program has also been initiated to award engineering students.
Huawei is also a proud member of the UN Global Compact and is committed to fulfilling its responsibilities as a good corporate citizen. The company is actively involved with trying to promote equal access to telecommunications and in helping to bridge the ‘Digital Divide’ between developing and developed nations. In addition, Huawei continues to implement its flagship CSR program, Seeds for the Future, to facilitate global knowledge transfer, support local training, and increase digital inclusion. Thus far, Huawei has partnered with more than 150 universities to implement the program in 67 countries. About 15,000 students from five different continents have benefited from the program, including more than 1,700 who studied at Huawei’s headquarters in China. The most outstanding participants have since joined the ICT industry, and are actively contributing to its development.
