Akshaya Patra wins EMPI Awards

							                      Akshaya Patra Bags EMPI-Indian Express
                       Indian Innovation Award for 2009-10

New Delhi, July 14, 2010: The Akshaya Patra Foundation received the distinguished Indian Express
Innovation award in the category ‘Scalable, technology driven kitchen model’ from EMPI Group of
Institutions in association with The Indian Express Group at an awards ceremony in New Delhi. The
citation that described Akshaya Patra as “a role model for the mid-day school meal programme”
was given away along with a Gold trophy by Dr. Nandan Nilekani, Chairperson, Unique
Identification Authority of India.

The objective of this award is to identify and promote innovative organizations and organizational
innovations in India who have introduced breakthrough changes in the Indian context and can
become role models for others to emulate across fields such as Business Model, Strategy and
Policy, Management of Accountability and Performance, Human Resource Management,
Communication Processes, Involvement of Community/Stakeholders, Reaching the un-reached
Population and others.

The awards programme was initiated in 2005 as the nucleus of ‘Mission Innovative India’ by the
President of India Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam. For the past two years, EMPI and Indian Express annually
recognizes organisations operating in India through these awards aimed at promoting a ‘culture of
innovation’ in India by showcasing their innovative initiatives.

While receiving the award Sri. Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation
said, “Akshaya Patra is very humbled and honored on being conferred the distinguished Innovation
Award. This recognition is considered to be the blessings of millions of children we feed through
Akshaya Patra.”

The Honourable Jury for the third EMPI-Indian Express Indian Innovation Awards comprises of
eminent personalities like Prof. M G K Menon – Chairman, Advisor, ISRO, Arun Maira - Chairman,
The Boston Consulting Group (India), Ashok Mishra - Chairman, Intellectual Ventures (India), D V
Kapur - Founder Chairman, NTPC & Ex. Secretary, Govt. of India, Inder Sharma - Chairman, Select
Holiday Resorts Pvt. Ltd., Lalit Bhasin - Director, Lalit Bhasin & Co., N R Madhava Menon - Member,
Commission on Centre-State Relation and N P Singh - Director, The Indian Express, P S Bami-
President, Energy India Forum & Former Chairman, NTPC, Tara Sinha - CEO, Tara Sinha Associates,
Udai Pareek- Distinguished Professor, IIHMR, N Vittal - Former Chairman, Telecom Commission,
Govt. of India, Yash Pal - Former Chairman, University Grants Commission, Gurnam Saran -
President, EMPI Group of Institutions

The awards distribution was followed by a panel discussion on “Innovation journey”.
About Akshaya Patra:

According to Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007, UNESCO about 13.5 million children
in the age group of 6-13 years are out of school in India? Despite the trillion-dollar economic
growth, a large chunk of India’s younger generation does not have access to schools because of
hunger and poverty. Their inability to access even one nutritional meal per day is severely limiting
their capacity to concentrate in the classroom and receive a proper education, which could
otherwise lift them out of the cycle of poverty.

Striving to end hunger of the economically challenged children in the 6 to 16 years age group and
facilitate their education, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a not-for-profit, Bangalore-based secular
trust, evolved a noon meal program in schools in the year 2000. What started as a pilot project in
five schools in Bangalore, feeding 1,500 children, has now grown into a mammoth endeavor
reaching out to over 12 lakhs children in about 7700 government, government aided schools and
anganwadis (day care centers) in 18 locations, across eight states in India, day after day. Akshaya
Patra is now the world’s largest NGO-run school meal program.

Currently the Foundation reaches to the underprivileged children in Bangalore, Hubli-Dharwad,
Bellary, Mangalore and Mysore in Karnataka, Jaipur, Nathdwara and Baran in Rajasthan, Vrindavan
and Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh, Puri and Nayagarh in Orissa, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and
Baroda in Gujarat, Hyderabad and Visakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and
Guwahati in Assam.


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