The FT group believes in growth with a human face & in pursuing people centric development. We are a socially committed organization and a socially responsible corporate citizen. To make effective use of our resources, we have selected priority issues and key initiatives for investment.
Education Bridging the urban rural divide Investing in Society Awards
We believe that literacy increases awareness and facilitates a responsible action. Adult literacy empowers everybody and becomes a key palyer in economic development. We have made a commitment to provide technology access and skills training to people previously underserved by technology.
Pragati � empowerment through learning
Financial Technologies and MCX, in association of the Rotary International Club, have launched �Pragati,� a training program, to empower underprivileged communities with education and awareness.
The program, with the help of Rotary Club of India, benefits rural youth and farmers from the rapidly evolving commodity markets. They also get career opportunities in futures trading by mitigating to the price risk and sensitizing with the exchange disseminated spot and futures prices.
In the corporate social responsibility front, MCX aims to achieve an economic growth of the rural youth and create first-generation entrepreneurs with the right education in the existing agriculture ecosystem. The initiative shall drive awareness in opportunities in agribusinesses, economic significance of futures trading, dissemination of futures prices, scientific warehousing, warehouse receipts, warehouse receipt financing, grading, good agricultural practices, and quality standards.
MCX is also planning to introduce a three-month subsidized course for the Rotarians on commodity exchange. The trained Rotarian can then use his knowledge and skills to further train the rural youth/farmers to provide insights on commodity derivatives market and its linkage with the rural ecosystem.
Bridging -urban rural divide :
The Financial Technologies subsidiary company Multi Commodity Exchange (along with its associates and stakeholders) has started Gramin Suvidha Kendra (GSK), a joint initiative with India Post. Through this unique program, MCX aims to cater to the market information, warehousing, advisory, and agriculture input needs of the Indian farmers and traders through the widespread network (over 155,000) of India Post across the country.
Gramin Suvidha Kendra
GSK provides the farmers with the facilities such as expert advice on farming problems, better warehousing and market prices for their produces, finance against warehouse receipts, and quality testing and grading of produces. Besides providing infrastructure, MCX supplies computer terminals, the Internet access, printers, scanners, fax facility, webcam, and MCX commodity price ticker. In order to display the market information in villages, MCX also supplies blackboards to the branch offices. Computers setup at sub-post offices cater to all the needs of concerned branch offices reporting to it.
Farmers and traders in commodities can get accurate price information and answers to all their queries on support services directly from a central hub. Farmers can send their queries from their villages through the postal network to GSK, where India Post (as a MCX representative) will reply to the queries and procure the answers online. This reverse leg will again ride on the postal network. Besides specific queries, support information like prices, news, and agriculture inputs will also ride on this daily network.
The model is operational in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, Itarsi, MP & Unjha, Gujarat. Recently a second center in Maharashtra was started at Dhamangaon in Amravati. Once the model is commercially self sustainable, it will be implemented to the national level. It is envisioned that GSK will act as a single-window service for all the pre-harvest and post-harvest requirements of the farmers. This model will become the e-commerce network of choice for both input needs and output marketing that bring in the benefits of financial inclusion in the rural areas. This model will work as a marketing network for the agricultural input producers due to its wide coverage and the trust that India Post has in the rural areas.
The offerings
The deliverables, through the GSK platform, have been conceptualized in two phases. In phase I, the aim is to make farmers sensitive to the futures market prices of commodities relevant to them and empower them by providing with spot market information. The desirable state would be reached when the farmers start basing their cropping and selling decisions following the futures market prices.
Also, this stage would involve assessing needs to decide the future deliverables to make the GSK platform relevant to farmers to the maximum extent possible. Based on the information collected during the previous phase, in phase II, further services are provided.. GSK will help farmers get access to the institutional mechanisms providing marketing and input�supply services. In order to make the GSK platform usable towards that purpose, the efforts would encompass modifying existing systems or creating new systems altogether.
Investing in Society
Financial Technologies Group believes in creating value for the society, contributing to the development of the society by leveraging its strengths, and aligning the Group�s business operations with social values.
Disaster Relief Efforts
The Group has been in humanitarian and disaster relief efforts in India by providing cash assistance, rehabilitation to survivors, and funding the development of technology solutions to aid relief efforts.
Grants and Donations
Financial Technologies contributed to the economic and social well being of the socially disadvantaged people through grants and donations to community based organizations and NGOs. From time-to-time, the FT group actively contributes to qualified organizations in support of worthy causes and to make a positive impact on the society as a whole.
FT Cares � Employee Engagement Programs
FT Cares is an initiative by the employees of Financial Technologies, their family members, and friends who contribute to the areas of education, community development, and social development. The philosophy of FT Cares is to utilize the collective wisdom of the volunteers to bring long-term benefits and satisfaction to the community; as we believe that providing funds alone will not help the community.
Awards
On January 13, 2007, MCX was presented with the Rotary International CSR Award for helping integrate rural India with global markets by providing with an open and transparent platform for price discovery and hedging risks for commodities.
Contact Details
Phone no.: + 91 22 66497000
Fax no.: + 91 22 66497151
e-mail : vishal.mainkar@ftindia.com
Url : http://www.ftindia.com/about%20us/ft%20foundation/default.aspx