Mumbai, 22nd August 2022: “Charity should be self-sustainable. That is, it should create more wealth rather than perpetuating the cycle of poverty and dependence. In this sense, the best form of charity would be providing quality education for children and more importantly, building a good character in them,” said Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Taking inspiration from the above quote, Shahani Academic and Global Empowerment Foundation (SAGE Foundation), the CSR arm of The Shahani Group, signed an MoU with Sri Sri Rural Development Programme Trust, part of The Art of Living Foundation to provide certified online and offline training, for unemployed graduates, in the Banking and Financial Services (BFSI) sector.

As a part of the partnership, Sri Sri Rural Development Programme Trust will mobilize candidates and provide the infrastructure required for offline training, whereas SAGE Foundation will provide certified training to these candidates. In addition to the training, SAGE Foundation will also provide employment assistance to the trained candidates, for placement in the BFSI industry. The online training will be available for candidates from across India, while the offline training will be provided in Rajkot, Gujarat and Dharwad, Karnataka.

Commenting on the partnership, Dr. Akhil Shahani, Managing Director, The Shahani Group, said, “Studies have demonstrated that a large proportion of Indian graduates do not possess the skills necessary to be employable. We believe that this also contributes to our country’s unemployment problem, and we are committed to bridging this gap to ensure sustainable livelihoods for Indian youth. The economically-disadvantaged youth of our country also lack access to quality skill development training which, in turn, hampers their prospects of obtaining white-collar jobs that could help them support their families in a more stable manner. With the blessings of Gurudev, we hope to train and place about 10,000 low-income students over the period of next two years.”