Creating Sustainable Value

Restoration of Chengalpet Medical College Lake at Chengalpet District of Tamil Nadu

CAMS during the year supported the efforts of Environmentalist Foundation of India for restoring a lake located inside the Chengalpet Medical College campus in Chengalpet,Tamil Nadu.The water body for years has been a barren land and lacked structural integrity and being in a region that has rapid urbanisation in the past few years, faced threat of misuse and exploitation.

The lake measuring about 5 acres was deweeded. An average depth of 8-10 feet of silt was excavated from the storage point of the lake and 3-4 feet depth from the sedimentary region of the lake. Excavated silt was used to construct bunds in the water body. Offshore Dual Embankment: 19 feet high from storage point Foreshore Embankment: 8 feet high from lakebed. A total of 6 sedimentary pits were established with 5 pits on the West side of the Lake, and 1 pit on the East side of the Lake. Peripheral trenches have been established in the western and eastern axes of the water body to improve flow of watering to the Lake. The trenches also help in treating water before it enters the main holding area and provides a boundary to the water body.

The water holding capacity has been increased by 100% and will benefit about 6,000 beneficiaries in the region.

CAMS IIT- M Fintech Innovation Lab (“CIFIL”)

The CAMS IITM Fintech Innovation Lab (CIFIL) is an initiative by Department of Management Studies, IITM to set up a lab for R&D in the area of Fintech. The lab aims at enabling the researchers to devote time to interdisciplinary challenges thereby establishing IITM as a thought leader and knowledge powerhouse in this domain. The Fintech Lab is keen to build strong ties with the industry through consultancy work with a focus on industrially relevant solutions. The Lab will also focus upon futuristic advancements in terms of technology and adoption by domain and scaling up to the masses. The Lab would also engage in activities that would increase the adoption and implementation of the financial technologies throughout India as well as abroad.

The lab was inaugurated by Honourable Union Finance Minister in December 2022.

eVidyaloka

CAMS partnered with an NGO for providing digital classroom programme, which benefited more than 1,500 children in rural India. The initiative carried out through eVidyaloka connected passionate volunteer teachers from across the world with Government Elementary schools in remote and rural villages in India. eVidyaloka focusses on children in the age group of 10-14 delivering live interactive classes in the local medium, through a powerful partner ecosystem. CAMS has supported 10 rural centres in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Chudar

CAMS has enabled setting up of village centres in 45 villages and in three urban locations where children are provided with innovative educational content in Mathematics, Science and English, with a focus on Classes 6 to 8 benefiting about 1,500 children. The tutors travel to the villages to take the classes. There is also variation from village to village on how the model is operated and there is no “fixed” centre in these villages.

In some villages, students gather in open public spaces while in others, they gather at the temple or at some government building that is made available. In some cases, where none of these options exists, students gather at individual houses. Recognising the ease of use of WhatsApp as a technological tool, the Chudar team has created WhatsApp groups for villages. Students access the educational content from these groups and participate in activities through voice notes and images captured and shared. This content helps children assimilate skills and concepts as opposed to rote learning. As the children truly understand instead of memorising, they become confident learners.

As part of Community-Learning-Program (CLP) courses are conducted during weekends to engage with more children in the community who may not come every day to the centres. The children have an opportunity to learn Creative Design, Art, Creative Writing, Math and EVS through fun and interactive teaching and activities. This initiative was carried out through Chudar. CAMS has also set up library for these centres.

Sankara Nethralaya

CAMS supported Occupational Optometry Services wing of Sankara Nethralaya in conducting 37 camps in different parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. A total of 3,272 unorganised sector workers benefited from the services. Among these workers, 2,570 were prescribed new glasses which also includes refractive safety eyewear, tints, and coatings to manage various occupations hazards. Totally 710 employees were referred for further examination to the tertiary eye hospital. The workers covered people from wide range of occupations including welders, sculptor, saltpan workers, fishermen, and painters/carpenters who are exposed to hazards like flying particles, radiations, and saw/stone dust were prescribed safety eye wears. This safety eyewear incorporated with refractive correction for the better visual performance and safety at the same time.

United Way of Delhi

CAMS partnered with United way of Delhi for providing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for school children in Pune. The primary goal of the project is to promote equitable and gender-responsive education in STEM by encouraging greater participation of students especially girls in grades 5th to 7th.

The STEM is collectively considered as the keystones of an advanced society. One of the innovative and effective methods of teaching STEM Education is through Electronic Building Blocks, Robotics & 3D Printing. Exploratory learning experience to the students and at the same time help to improve their analytical and problem-solving skills.