OREANDA-NEWS. May 11, 2012. Upholding its philosophy of improving quality of life of communities living in and around its area of operations, Tata Power, India’s largest integrated power company, inaugurated 'Gramin Swavikash Kendra’, a village resource centre at Tiruldih, Jharkhand.

For villages around Tiruldih, which lack even basic facilities, the resource centre will act as a service and information hub, catalysing the developmental process. The centre will play a multi-faceted role for different sections of the community, facilitating exchange of information and providing the following services:

Information centre: Through this centre, villagers will be able to access information about new advancements in agriculture, price of their produce in different market, monsoon, etc and also information pertaining to various government schemes, developmental models, etc.

Capacity building: The centre will be used for capacity building training, and entrepreneurial and livelihood promotion. All the intervention activities viz meeting on different issues, trainings, etc will also take place at this centre.

Contact point: The centre will act as a major point of contact between communities, CSR teams and other developmental agencies. This centre will also educate the communities on various issues, such as gender sensitivity, women empowerment, Aids awareness among others, through display of campaign material such as posters and pamphlets.

Education: A reading room / library in the kendra (centre) will further contribute to the ’Education Excellence Programme’ and will help students from highschool and intermediate college, to prepare for competitive examinations and excel in their studies. This will also host career counselling sessions for youth.

Speaking on the occasion, D Santra, head, Tiruldih project, said, “The key to all development activity lies in information accessibility. The centre is established to facilitate the flow of information to community meetings, their developmental needs and catalysing the process of improving their lives.”

The initiative has received appreciation from community leaders, who have pledged to contribute and take a leading part in making the centre fully operational and drive development in the area.