GramIT to become limited entity

GramIT, the rural business process outsourcing (BPO) initiative of the Byrraju Foundation, is in the process of becoming a separate entity under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956 before April 2009 “to make it a more sustainable charitable social enterprise,” said foundation’s lead partner Verghese Jacob.

Under Section 25, any association that has been registered as a limited entity for promoting charity or other useful objectives can collect revenues, but with a clause that it should not add the words ‘limited ‘or private limited’ to its name.

At present, GramIT operates four BPO centres – one each at Jallikakinada in West Godavari and Kazipally in Guntur and two at Athreyapuram and Ethakota in East Godavari districts – employing about 400 rural youth. These centres currently services around five clients including providing backend jobs like HR and accounting to Satyam. “The current Satyam crisis may impact our business a little as recruitments at the company have slowed down,” he said.

Byrraju Foundation, set up in the memory of Ramalinga Raju's father Byrraju Satyanarayana Raju in July 2001, till recently received half of its annual funds worth Rs 30 crore from the family members. The foundation, which runs 45 different charitable programmes in over 200 villages across East and West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Ranga Reddy and Visakhapatnam districts in Andhra Pradesh, had so far received Rs 300 crore from the Rajus.

The foundation requires about Rs 20,000 per village per month to carry out healthcare, drinking water, education and livelihood programmes, among others. However, given the current situation, it recently changed some charity initiatives into “nominal fee-based services” as “there was a gap to be met”.

“Last month, we appealed to all the leaders in the foundation to act as ‘social entrepreneurs’ to sustain themselves and their teams and address the needs of the programmes that they are taking care of by raising funds from potential donors,” he added.