Our projects aligned with nation-building: Priti Adani

The Adani Foundation, in collaboration with the National Skill Development Council, has so far skilled more than 35,000 youths, and is now training 8,000 Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes people across Gujarat, its chairperson Priti Adani said.

The Adani Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of the Adani Group, is working across 18 states in areas of education, community health, livelihood, conservation of natural resources, besides working with the marginalised and farmers, she said.

In 2017-18, the group's CSR activities had a budget of Rs 95 crore, which rose to Rs 125 crore in 2018-19 and stands at Rs 128 crore for 2019-20, according to its official figure.

During an interview at her Ahmedabad office recently, Adani said the group's guiding principle of 'Growth with Goodness' is guided by the philosophy of "trusteeship" and is aligned with "nation-building".

"When we talk about wealth, if you take yourself not as owner but trustee and how you can share it with others. That encompasses the philosophy of growth with goodness. Our's is a group growing at a very fast pace. It's a very dynamic group. You will notice that most our projects are aligned with nation building. There is employment generation, development of areas which were remote, inclusiveness of marginalised communities...different segments of society have joined this growth saga," she told PTI.

"Ever since participation with the NSDC, we have so far trained over 35,000 youth and placed them," she said.

"The foundation recently worked with a batch of widows in Kutch, successfully training and placing them as general duty assistants in hospitals in and around Kutch. We also worked with differently-abled people who are now working at various locations. Now the focus is on skill training of 8,000 people from the SC/ST communities across Gujarat," Adani added.