All thanks to NABARD, Ambuja Foundation has received a sanction to train 125 youth in Assistant Electrician course in 5 batches at SEDI Bathinda. This sanction is part of NABARD’s ongoing efforts in fostering Skill Development and Rural Entrepreneurship Development initiatives in rural areas.

On 29th April, 2017,Mangi Budruk village was declared a Smart Village and awarded a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh by the Govt of Maharashtra. Yet a little over a decade ago, barely 10 of its 234 households even had a toilet.

Throughout the world, people want the same things - access to clean air and water; economic opportunities; a safe and healthy place to raise their kids; shelter and a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

"Whenever we have enabled communities to chart their own progress, they have reached far greater heights," points out Pearl Tiwari - CEO of Ambuja Foundation in this riveting interview with Thrive.

By building people's institutions, Ambuja Foundation generates a multiplier effect- empowering men and women to run their own Federations or Farmer Producer Organisations and kickstarting a movement in the process.

Ambuja Foundation's rigorous programme monitoring process is helping get 'more bang for buck' per project, by harnessing qualitative and quantitative data to monitor each project and identify ways in which we can improve our work and generate multiple impacts.

Most countries have a singular objective when it comes to economic growth - to improve the lives of its citizens. But, regrettably, India's strong economic growth in the past has consistently excluded the rural poor, which constitutes approximately 71% of our population.

One of our earliest learnings at Ambuja Foundation, was that to tackle poverty in rural India, we needed to build the livelihood capabilities of rural people.

The 2019/20 Annual Report was launched in September, highlighting the achievements of the Foundation over the last 12months, and once again an e-version of the report was distributed online to all key stakeholders.

Chandrakant Kumbhani - GM-Community Development at Ambuja Foundation is a seasoned professional in Rural Development with more than 20 years of experience under his belt.

PROSPERITY: True prosperity is a total picture, and includes health, joy, service, social status and material abundance. Prosperity involves feeling fulfilled and living a life of meaning, not just having a certain amount of monetary wealth.

The rural economy is overdependent on agriculture employing over 60% of the total populace yet contributing to under 17% to GDP.