1. Pravasi Bhartiya Divas 7th -9thJanuary 2008
2. India Development Coalition of America (IDCA) Conference- 10thJanuary 2008
3. ASSOCHAM Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility- 31stJan-1stFebruary 2008
4. Kisan Mela organized by Krishi Vigyan Kendra- 12th February 2008
5. International Convention on Globalization and Rural Development (ICGRD)- 11th -12th February 2008
6. Development Alternatives of India Society Conference- 5th February 2008
7. Capacity building workshop by Youth reach and International Youth Foundation-11th -14th February 2008

REPORT

Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD): Pravasi Bhartiya Divas is an annual celebration by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) to strengthen its ties with the Diaspora. It is one of the most awaited events in the NRI community. The event brings overseas Indians from all corners of the globe and provides a platform to interact with the government, business and civil society leaders. This was the 6th edition of Pravasi Bhartiya Divas.

Sehgal Foundation at PBD: The Sehgal Foundation had put up its stall on all the three days of PBD to showcase the rural projects by the founder, Dr. Sehgal and the way forward with Institute of Rural Research and Development (IRRAD). It talked about all the interventions undertaken in 17 focused villages and gave us a chance to strengthen the visibility of IRRAD among the Indian and overseas community.


Indian Development Coalition Of America (IDCA): IDCA organized its Fourth International Conference on the theme ‘Transforming Development to Alleviate Poverty and Climate Change’ at Indian Medical Association. The Sehgal Foundation supported IDCA to conduct this conference. The conference was conducted with the aim to Promote Cooperation, Networking, Learning, Volunteering and Giving within the communities and act as a catalyst for Sustainable Development in India.

The conference was a success as lot of speakers from diverse backgrounds shared their experiences on the subject. To name a few keynote speakers, we had Popat Rao Pawar, Hiware Bazar, Maharashtra, Dr. Narendra Kale, SVJC Trust, Nandita Pathak, DRI Chitrakoot, Dr. Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives, Anjali Makhija, Sehgal Foundation and Ram Krishnan, Akash Ganga Trust. A group of 20 students from St. Catherine Minnesota headed by Prof. Deep Shikha Gupta also took part in the conference. There were four parallel sessions under Water, Livelihoods, Education and Health with experts addressing the audience followed by lively interactions with the speakers.

Dr. Archana, Program Leader, Rural Health gave a presentation on “Improving Health in Rural Haryana”. The presentation shared the Foundation’s experience in Mewat & Kurukshetra using the “Community Health Volunteers’ approach and the behavioral change brought about therein. Pawan Kumar, Program Leader, Income Enhancement presented in the rural livelihood session at the IDCA conference. His presentation shared the various agricultural interventions done in the villages.

ASSOCHAM Summit on Corporate Social Responsibility: The first ever International Summit on CSR was organized by ASSOCHAM with KPMG as the knowledge partner. The theme of the summit was Sustainable Actions. The event was also marked by the release of CSR Compendium and Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam’s address to the gathering.


The main topics covered by the conference were:

• CSR, A Sustainable Strategy for Business Success
• Seeking harmony between Business and Society
• Trends and future of CSR and strategies for stakeholder’s engagement.

Jay Sehgal, Executive Director, Sehgal Foundation was one of the invited speakers on the first day on the topic; Role of Corporate Foundation’s in India’s Inclusive Growth Agenda with other speakers from the corporate sector like Jindal Steel, DLF, Tata Power, Development Alternatives, Modi Care, Ranbaxy who put forth the varied perceptions of CSR and the kind of projects they undertake.

Kisan Mela: The foundation participated in a Kisan Mela to directly connect to the farmers and tell them about the technological improvements and products available to increase the crop productivity. This mela was organized by Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Shikohpur, Gurgaon. Our stall depicted the interventions undertaken in our laboratory Mewat like drip irrigation, nutrients, chiseling, vegetable growing techniques.

The inauguration was done by the Director of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Dr. S A Patil. Dr. Patil visited the Sehgal Foundation’s stall and appreciated the foundation’s work. Almost 1200 farmers visited the stall. Others present from the field staff of the foundation were S A Mishra, Arshad Khan, Balram, Imran and Sahjad.

International Convention on Globalization and Rural Development (ICGRD)

International Convention on Globalization and Rural Development (ICGRD) was organized by a Nagpur based NGO called Protsahan. The convention had following sessions:

1. Causes, consequences and challenges of Rural Urban Migration
2. Rural youth & need for life skills and Income Generation Activities
3. Farmers Empowerment through agriculture technology and rural natural resource management
4. Rural population and socio economic sustainable development
5. Convergence of the corporate sector and civil society in rural development
6. Micro credit movement tackling poverty one and tiny loan at a time
7. Are NGOs and government taking sustainability seriously in a global frame?

Anjali Makhija, Group leader, Programs and Training was invited as a speaker on the topic “Rural youth & need for life skills and Income Generating Activities”. She presented on the needs and aspirations of youth, theme areas of National youth policy, our LSE program, VC concept and IRRAD

There were participants from CSOs, government, academicians and PhD students. Most of the presentations concluded with policy level issues.

Development Alternatives of India Society Conference:

Pawan Kumar, Program Leader, Income Enhancement got the opportunity to present about the foundation and the ISVD model was in the workshop on “Strengthening the capacities of NGOs and SHGs” organized by Development Alternatives of India Society on 5th February, 2008.

Capacity building workshop by Youth Reach and International Youth Foundation:

The Foundation was invited to share its experience on Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health in a country specific capacity building workshop for Planning for Life: Mainstreaming Adolescent Sexual/Reproductive Health and Family Planning’ in New Delhi from the 11th to the 14th of February 2008; organized by Youth reach and International Youth Foundation. The purpose of this workshop was to increase interest in youth reproductive health and family planning among youth organizations in India. Dr. Archana Chowdhury, Program leader, Rural Health presented the program approach & results achieved so far and participated in a panel discussion on best practices of integrated approaches to youth reproductive health and family planning.

ABOUT THE SEHGAL FOUNDATION:

Tel:	+91-124-2397621, 2397622, 5010426
Fax:	+91-124-2346733
Email:	smsf@smsfoundation.org
Website:	http://www.smsfoundation.org