Saturday, October 16, 2010

Vedanta earmarks around Rs 500 crore for community projects

The Economic Times, Oct 14, 2010
JAIPUR: The Vedanta group has earmarked around Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) for community development projects in India in fiscal 2011.

The group has adopted more than 3,000 Anganwadi centres to provide nutrition to over 120,000 underprivileged children in rural areas of Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Orissa.

"Vedanta has put heart and soul in its all child welfare projects — Vedanta Anganwadi Programme, Mid-Day Meal and Computer Education Programmes are giving fantastic results. We want to cover as many children across India as we can under these programmes," Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

Vedanta officials said the group is targeting to adopt 10,000 Anganwadi centres and take care of 500,000 children.

The group, which is providing mid-day meals to over 250,000 children in government-run schools every day, is planning to reach one million children.

The group provides computer education to almost 140,000 children. Recently, it signed a memorandum of understanding to provide computer education to 50,000 school going children in Rajasthan.

Vadanta is also planning to set up a medical college and research centre in Rajasthan's Bharatpur at an estimated cost of Rs 175 crore (Rs 1.75 billion).

The group has an ultra modern Vedanta Hindustan Zinc Heart Hospital in Udaipur.

It is setting up a 360-bed, ultra-modern cancer hospital in Raipur, Chattisgarh at an investment of Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.5 billion).

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