Reliance Foundation (#RF) enters its fifteenth year!

On August 30, 2010, the #Reliance #Foundation was established, marking the beginning of a remarkable journey under the direct leadership of Smt. #Nita #Ambani and Shri #Mukesh #Ambani. It is such a privilege and honour for me to be part of this remarkable journey from the very ideation and inception. Built upon the foundation of many diverse #CSR initiatives of the multiple Reliance companies and trusts, it very soon became the convergence of all philanthropic activities of Reliance as a whole.

Reliance is firmly driven by a purpose rooted in our 'We Care' philosophy. It makes us so proud and inspired that as RF, we have touched the lives of 77 million people across all states and 56,000 villages in India! With a consistent track record of the largest #CSR budget in #India with current annual spend of ?1,592 crore ($190.9 million) on CSR (FY2023-2024) - a number which is only growing each year!

So it gives me immense joy and satisfaction to see that what we started together as a small "bij" is today a big rural transformation initiative touching the lives of over 20 million and covering agriculture, livelihood, water conservation and climate resilience.

What started with the first initiative as 'Rural Transformation', soon followed with many initiatives in Education, Health, Sports for Development, Women Empowerment, Disaster Management, Arts, Culture & Heritage and Urban Renewal.

Some of the other key milestones along this journey are:

• Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital completes 10 years this year!
• Under RF ESA, 23 million children in area of education and sports were supported.
• Hosted 141st International Olympic Committee Session in Mumbai.
• Art comes alive @ NMACC - Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre.
• Setting up of Nita Mukesh Ambani Junior School & Early Years Campus.
• Vantara, to Swadesh, to Scholarships, to extending Jio to help in education and so much more!

In this decade and half, there are so many people closely involved that the list is very long and so my apology in advance if I have inadvertently left out anyone:

RF Team (in no particularly order): Nita Ambani, Mukesh Ambani, Isha Piramal Ambani, Manoj Modi, Nikhil Meswani, Hital R. Meswani, Jyotindra Thacker (JT), Srinivasan B , Jagannatha Kumar , Raghunath Mashelkar , Parimal Nathwani , PMS Prasad , Sudheendra Kulkarni , Shrinivas Shanbhag , LV Merchant , Avani Mehta , Nilesh Modi , Sudarshan S , S Senthilkumaran , Vamsee Jasti , Sandeep Sabharwal , DP Singh , Srinivas HSD, Ravinderjit Singh , Mendu Srinivasulu, Sushil Borde, V P Joy , Kaushik Roy, Dr. Sanjay Masand, abdul khan, Saket D. Gadkari, Vivek Bhandari, Umesh Upadhyay, Devang Bhimjyani , Hoshedar Gundevia, Palak Sheth, Sandeep S Joshi, Maya Sheth, Keith Monteiro, Jasbir Ladi, Jerry Johnson , Tushar Pania , Nupur Bahl , Nikhilesh N, Chandrika Bahadur, Jitendra kalra, Garima Dutt, Sejal (Sage) Mody, Shailesh Naik, Karuna Sapru, N Ganga Vidya PhD, Lokesh Kapse, Shiv Singh, Sunil Kumar Shrivastava, Manvendra Singh, neha huddar, Sanjay Joshie, Siddharth Tripathy, Taslim Arif, Vijay Khanna, Srinu babu, Bharath Kumar, Deepa Moni Tripathi, Devendra Patel, JP Tripathi, Pramod Jain, Mouparna N Dasgupta, and many many more...

In this journey, there were so many collaborations such as Teach For India ( Shaheen Mistri / #Anu #Aga), India Meteorological Department (IMD), National Skill Development Corporation , #LiftEd and many more.

Various support was provided such as:

• Mummy: The Inside Story visiting exhibition with the British Museum, CSMVS and BP.
• Ustad Zakir Hussain's concert 'Abbaji', dedicated to the memory of his father - the legendary maestro, Ustad Allah Rakha Khan.
• Real Heroes - social initiative by CNN-IBN & Reliance to honour Indians for their contribution to society.
• Elephanta Festival - Organized by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), held at Elephanta Island in Mumbai, next to Elephanta Caves (a UNESCO World Heritage Site).
• Project ASMAN - a partnership between Reliance Foundation, TATA Trusts, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID & Govt.
• Reliance Drisht - India's first national Hindi periodical in braille.

Understandably, there are so many people & projects that the list is extremely long and so my apology in advance if I have inadvertently missed out anyone (please share in the comment and I'll try and correct if LinkedIn permits).

#RF won many awards and recognition such as, Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar, Golden Peacock Award, Porter Prize, India CSR Award, First ICSICSR Excellence Awards, mBillionth Award South Asia, entry in Guinness Book of World Record and many more. Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation grants for school children and now Reliance Foundation grants for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

In the words of Smt. Nita Ambani, "As we enter the fifteenth year of Reliance Foundation, our resolve becomes deeper and stronger, to create even greater impact and help uplift millions of Indians towards a brighter, safer, greener, more equitable, compassionate, and prosperous future." Shri Mukesh Ambani said he would be devoting more time & energy for Reliance Foundation setting higher and bigger goals. He said he is "Especially committed to empowering India's 300 million children!"

With so much of passion, time, energy and resources, Reliance Foundation is bound to make a transformative impact in the life of all Indians.

Links to sites:

1. Reliance Foundation on LinkedIn
2. Reliance Foundation Website
3. Reliance Foundation X/Twitter
4. Reliance Foundation Facebook
5. Reliance Foundation YouTube