Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently launched The Village Buddha project, a unique programme that aims to build a strong relation between business and society, to create a win-win situation for both. At the launch of Village Buddha Project, Ajay Shankar, Member Secretary, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Govt of India averred that unless we transform the way, where economic activities are undertaken, we cannot transform the quality of life. “This would be a real challenge”. However, he expressed hope that with the help of technology and IT in particular, a dramatic transformation at village level can be achieved.
Against the backdrop of the Visionary leadership for Manufacturing Programme (VLFM), Venu Srinivasan, chairman VLFM initiative and past president, CII said that the VLFM initiative has snowballed across institutions and today a force of 1,100 committed managers have emerged from this program. Though a challenging task, Srinivasan expressed hope that the program will cover 1,00,000 students in the next two years. Village Buddha is based on the fundamental truth that business and society are, in reality, interdependent and interconnected.
The project is an integrated package of skills/methods, systematic approaches and mindset to engage with the community for building a better and happier society. Through this process, organisations will explore and enhance their capability to develop new businesses and offerings for the emerging markets, namely, in the rural and urban fringes of India and where significant growth is expected in the coming ten years. Village Buddha is founded on VLFM wisdom that of building a mindset around developing skills through the principle of ‘do and demonstrate’.