An event organized by Ambuja Foundation and Apparel Made-Ups & Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council organized an event in August for the women of Virasat to foster continuous improvement and excellence in the workplace.

Ambuja Foundation celebrated Independence Day with gusto this year, and was lauded in a number of locations for its work and impact:

Ambuja Foundation, in collaboration with Idobro Impact Solutions and Samhita-CGF, launched the CSR PACT recently - an initiative for CSR leaders to come together and discuss four strategic pillars: Policy, Action, Capacity and Transformation. After a decade of CSR law, there was a felt need to relook at CSR strategy and impact, and to bring together leaders from the space to collaboratively discuss the decade gone by. An invite- only forum, CSR PACT will be organized every quarter, and invites leadership to discuss challenges, share experiences and explore opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

In a district of Saurashtra, Gujarat, select villagers are of a princely lineage – being direct descendants of small-scale princely states that once ruled the lands. Here, women are considered so ‘royal’ that they are confined to the four walls of their house compound to prevent them from ‘mixing with commoners’ – their faces never seen by others, forbidden to travel and unless a person is of a particular caste, they can never enter their homes.

Ajija Bibi (35) was just 12 years old when she rolled her first bidi (cigarette). She grew up, and today lives in Murshidabad, West Bengal, which has emerged as a prominent centre for the bidi industry in India. Women in every household spend their days rolling bidis and have become so proficient at the task, that they can roll up to 3000 bidis a day!

The lanes and backyards of Lakhamapur Village, Chandrapur, are, literally, teeming with goats. Families here are busy expanding their herds and growing their small, but thriving, backyard businesses – the incessant song of bleating goats rings through the air at every turn...

When Ambuja Foundation, Ashok Leyland and Hinduja Foundation joined forces to improve the water situation in 5 villages of Alwar, Eastern Rajasthan, the men of the village denied that water was a problem. Tubewells used for irrigating crops had a 300-400 metre water accessibility and so they felt water was not a high priority.

In 2023-24, the women of Maa Santoshi Swayam Sahayta Mahila Self Help Group ventured into the farm machinery business - capitalising on the high demand for cotton shredding machines among farmers, to shred left over crop residue like stalks, once cotton has been picked.

Touseef Ahmad is no ordinary trainer at Ambuja Foundation’s SEDI. An ambitious risk taker, he has helped facilitate the international placement of almost 30 students in jobs in Gulf countries, in the highly sought after trade of Refrigeration & Air Conditioning (RAC).

A grassroots movement is underway in Punjab! Women from the districts of Bathinda, Kotbhai and Rajpura are honing their skills, reviving traditional handicrafts and becoming breadwinners in their families – all via the Virasat- E-Malwa collective. And one of the driving forces behind it, is Karamjeet Kaur.

To those who once knew it, Mohi Kalan is almost unrecognisable! Once a ‘dumping ground’ for household rubbish, today village streets are squeaky clean and ponds are a thriving oasis for birds and other local animals – a transformation that has earned them not one, but 3 awards for being the ‘Cleanest Village’.

Rajeev Gautam is a stalwart of India’s education system, having served as a teacher and principal for over 35 years. As the Principal of the Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS) in Darlaghat, he is passionate about education, and a testament to this is the fact that his own son has just been accepted at IIM Ahmedabad.