What is the reason L&T's AM Naik was motivated to give reasonable medical care and skilling to India's oppressed.

What is the reason L&T's AM Naik was motivated to provide advanced healthcare, education and skilling to India's disadvantaged?

 

Addressing Social Story, AM Naik, Group Chairman, Larsen & Toubro, discusses what propelled him to serve others and how concern should be converted into action and action into results. 

 

 

Like every high-spirited schoolboy, Anil Manibhai Naik was playful and mischievous. He was also a film buff, frequently watching three motion pictures a day. That left him little time for studies. When his father Manibhai Naik got to know of his son’s escapades, he was concerned. But his concern was expressed in a unique way.  He simply wrote a letter to his young son, saying that he was confident that Anil would not forget the main purpose – the ‘mukhya dyaya’ of his life.

 

"That line transformed me.. For the next few weeks before the examinations, , I shut myself in my room in the hostel, and  studied – long, hard and continuously. Well, when the results were announced, I came out with flying colours.

 

After graduation, I concluded that the time for fun and games was over. I now had to work with missionary zeal,” says Naik, who is the Group Chairman of Larsen & Toubro Limited 

 

Community Service

 

Naik says his family has a long history of service to community and country.  "My role model is my father. He was a freedom fighter  and a genuine Gandhian. Heeding Gandhiji's message that the real  India lives in its villages, my father chose to leave Mumbai, where he was a teacher at one of the best schools in the city, and decided to relocate to his roots in rural south Gujarat.  He became the principal of a village school which had a number of students from the disadvantaged sections. My father devoted the rest of his life in service of the poor," says Naik. 

 

Naik says, "I come from a family of teachers – ‘Master kutumb’ as they say in Gujarati. My grandfather was the head of a village gurukul , and my father  was the head of a  school at Kharel. My elder sister was also a teacher all her life.  So education, or more specifically, teaching of the downtrodden was part of the family tradition.”

 

Healthcare

 

While the motivation for service came from my father, the direction towards healthcare came from my granddaughter - Nirali. Her unfortunate demise in 2007 prompted me to set up the Nirali Memorial Medical Trust in 2009. 

 

"She was just two when we lost her to cancer. My grieving family chose to turn their misfortune into a mission that would benefit thousands of people. . My focus for community work is on South Gujarat, my janmabhoomi, and Mumbai, my karmabhoomi." 

 

"Our goal is to give the best medical care to the largest number of people," he says. 

 

In 2009, he organize his philanthropy a more structured manner. . "I set up two trusts – the Nirali Memorial Medical Trust to channelise my commitments to the medical services area, and the AM Naik Charitable Trust to help in education and skill building," says Naik, adding that both two trusts are connected to life – one protects life, the other transforms it.

 

The trusts primarily work in south Gujarat and Mumbai. "We have set up hospitals in Navsari, Mumbai, Surat and Kharel.  We run mobile medical units which take healthcare to far away villages. Our office in Powai has served more than 75,000 individuals since its inception in 2017. We give 19 fortes (?), including cardiology, nervous system science, urology, and spine at a nominal charge of between Rs 200 and Rs 300. We charge just Rs 750 for a dialysis meeting. We have additionally performed more than 1,500 medical procedures.. Our cancer hospital is operational in Navsari.

 

Skilling the future 

 

In 2018, the Government of India appointed Mr Naik Chairman of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). 

 

"As Chairman of the NSDC, I have been instrumental in executing the skilling agenda of the Government through programmes like the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). Through this programme, we have trained over more than one crore youth. The plan has benefitted many and enhanced skill levels," says Naik. 

 

The Naik Charitable Trust has set up the Anil Naik Technical Training Centre in Kharel, Gujarat to offer skill training  in nine trades for boys and girls. "The only qualification to get admission to this training centre is that you should have no qualification! School dropouts and those who couldn't finish their schooling for whatever reason, can get themselves trained and get the opportunity to change their lives," he says. 

 

Naik has likewise introduced similar training techniques to  L&T. The Skill Training Academy (STA) at Madh Island, Mumbai, set up in 2021, will equip technicians with the abilities needed given the skilling environment in the country. 

 

"We will build a talented labour force that can meet the needs of India, and in addition meet global needs. ." 

 

"For quite a long time, we have been engaged with offering the disadvantaged an opportunity to acquire the skills that will make them employable and improve their way of life. While in countries like Japan, Russia, and Germany, there is enormous interest in skilled and talented workmen, no one is prepared to accept untalented and semiskilled labour in India and devote resources to training them. . This is a gap that we need to fill at the earliest. " 

 

Combating Coronavirus

 

 

Anil Manibhai Naik, Group Chairman, Larsen & Toubro

 

 

Talking about the assistance extended by L&T to those affected by the pandemic, Naik says: As a conscientious corporate citizen, we have contributed in monetary and material terms to meet the challenges posed by this humanitarian crisis. In addition to the donation to the PM Cares Fund at the onset of the crisis, the L&T  Group has also supplied test, medical and PPE kits to locations around the country. When the second wave threw up the unexpected challenge of an acute shortage of oxygen, we responded by activating our global procurement arms, and commenced delivery of oxygen generators to various hospitals in India.

Our construction business has converted many hospitals to Covid Care Centres. We have installed smart technologies in over 20 major cities to help state governments and local authorities to contain the spread of the virus. The Company’s public-spirited initiatives have been widely acknowledged by multiple state governments.

 

PERSONAL MOTIVATION

Talking about what drives him, Naik says, "I believe in results, in outcomes that are tangible. It's not enough to say that you are concerned about the problems facing the disadvantaged.  Concern should be converted into action, and action into results. It is up to you to ensure that you are making a difference to people’s lives."