(THE NEWSMAN OF INDIA.COM)
New Delhi, March 28: Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers & Chemicals Ltd
(GNFC) won the prestigious India Pride Award in the domain of Corporate Social
Responsibility for its approach to planning Shared Value Creation oriented CSR activities. The award recognizes the company’s contribution in uplifting of
downtrodden women and girls by developing and implementing transparent, sustainable and pragmatic socio-economic programs such as the Neem Project. Fulfilling the vision of  Prime Minister for 100% Neem coating of Urea, GNFC pioneered the innovative Neem Project that has provided livelihood to rural women and landless labourers, by organising Neem Seed Collection. The project has been active in 53 districts across 5000 villages in six states of India. During the last three years, by collecting over 45,000MT of Neem seeds, more than INR 45 crore income has been generated for around 4.5 lakh rural women. GNFC & 39s approach has been lauded in the UNDP Impact Assessment Survey which concluded that there has been significant decrease in domestic violence, increase in asset creation and education expenditure.

DB instituted ‘India Pride Awards’ as a tribute to honour and recognise the contributions made and excellence achieved in public services, especially by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). The award is unique and one of its kind. The entries underwent a stringent selection process by the jury, which included Ms. Sumita Misra IAS, Joint Secretary (Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council),Balvinder Kumar IAS, Ex-Secretary (Ministry of Mines), Mohan Tiwari, Ex-CMD (IRCON), Dinesh K. Sarraf, Chairman (PNGRB) and Ex-CMD (ONGC), Dr. A K Manocha, Ex-CMD (IRCTC), etc. The award was supported by data and recommendations from Knowledge Partners “ICRA”. GNFC was selected as the winner for the outstanding practices displayed in its CSR activities.

This grandiose award ceremony took place on 28 th March 2018 at The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi. Chief Guest Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas; Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship presided over the event,along with Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Communications and Minister of Railways was also present Dharmendr Pradhan and Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave away the award to senior officials of GNFC. The Neem Project has been appreciated by the Prime Minister in numerous forums for its positive impact on the rural people of Gujarat. Prior to the India Pride Award, it was awarded the ‘Porter Prize’ by the eminent Harvard Business School Professor, Prof. Michael E. Porter, ‘CII-ITC Excellence in CSR.