New Delhi, 27th June 2019: AISECT, which is India’s leading Social Enterprise working to bring about an inclusive change in the semi-urban and rural areas of the country, has won the prestigious Asia Responsible Enterprise Award (AREA) 2019 in the Social Empowerment category at the recently held International CSR Summit 2019 in Taiwan.
The award was presented to AISECT’s Executive Vice President Mr Siddharth Chaturvedi by Tan Sri Dr. Fong Chan Onn (Chairman, Enterprise Asia) and Naoki Adachi (Founder and CEO, Response Ability Inc. ; Executive Director of Japan Business Initiative for Diversity). AISECT was recognized for its pioneering Multipurpose IT Centre Model, which aims to bridge the urban and rural divide by bringing skill training, financial inclusion initiatives and other necessary G2C and B2C services under one roof.
Organized by Enterprise Asia, Asia’s leading Non-Government Organisation for Entrepreneurship, AREA recognizes and honours deserving Asian businesses for championing sustainable and responsible business practices in the categories: Green Leadership, Investment in People, Health Promotion, Social Empowerment, Corporate Governance and Responsible Business Leadership.
AISECT, along with the winners of the other categories, was chosen out of over 200 submissions across 16 countries. The organization was recognized at this prestigious international platform owing to the innovative ICT and skills based products, services and solutions that it has introduced to empower people in semi-urban and rural parts of India. Last year alone, AISECT imparted skills training to approximately 1.4 lakh students across the country. Furthermore, in 2018 it added around 700 village level entrepreneurs and opened nearly 500 banking kiosks to boost financial inclusion in the country. By bringing a number of skill development programmes and G2C and B2C services under one roof, AISECT has been able to benefit all sections of the rural communities and help them become financially independent by raising their socio-economic status.
Talking about the honour, Siddharth Chaturvedi, Executive Vice President, AISECT, said, “It is a huge honour to be recognized by Enterprise Asia for our Multipurpose IT Centre Model, which has been crucial in empowering a vast number of rural youths in India. We pioneered the model to help bridge the urban and rural divide in the country to address the multifaceted challenges plaguing the rural communities by creating a self-sustainable framework. Being recognized at such a big platform is a testament to our commitment and the effectiveness of our model. As far as the future is concerned, we are determined to establish more multipurpose centres in the remotest corners of India.”
Launched in 1985, AISECT has over three decades of experience of working in the areas of Skill Development, Higher Education, Financial Inclusion, e-Governance and other ICT-based services. The organization has been tirelessly working at the grassroot level to empower people, generate employment for the youth and create entrepreneurial opportunities. AISECT has a strong presence nationally with a network of over 20,000 centres in 475 Districts, 1500 Blocks and 7200 Panchayats across 29 States and 3 Union Territories. Till date, it has imparted skills-based training to over 20 lakh people, created employment opportunities within the AISECT network for more than 75,000 people and empowered the lives of over 50 lakh people through various innovative products and services.
