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| Charity: A way of life |
| To K S Narayanan, charity is second nature. In fact,
he is so sensitive to the needs and feelings of those he helps that
the very word charity is something you would expect him to abhor.
To him it is his bounden duty to help his fellows – he neither
wants credit for his acts of generosity nor does he seek any publicity
for deeds that come straight from the heart. |
| People who know him well have described him as being
generous to a fault. His involvement with several charitable causes
has endured over decades, and continues in the Sanmar group’s
commitment to the needs of society – whether through enlightened
employee relations policies or through funds and assistance to a number
of educational and welfare institutions. Education in particular,
is a cause that he holds dear. |
| Not surprisingly then, his Sanmar group is a compassionate
and concerned employer. Factory workers in particular enjoy a fine
package of benefits: medical facilities, children’s education,
housing, subsidised lunch, and recreational facilities. The group
also supports co-operatives designed to meet the employees’
daily needs. |
| Public causes have always been close to KSN’s
heart. And this is reflected in the commitment the group has shown
to constantly improve the quality of work life of its employees and
their housing conditions. Whether provision of water supply and street
lights in Mettur or emergency and disaster relief, the group has always
sought to strengthen the hands of government agencies in executing
welfare schemes. The Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children
in Chennai is one of the group’s pet projects and through it,
hundreds of special children and their parents have benefitted from
enlightened care and education. The Sankara schools in Chennai and
elsewhere, are models of excellence in education, with both teachers
and management dedicated to high quality education. |
| KSN always felt that there was a need to train
more young people to enter business by providing them sound
commercial education. Even brilliant students, he knew, were
sometimes not able to gain admission into B Com courses after
high school. Out of this concern was born the Academy for the
Promotion of Educational Excellence (APEX), a training institute
for students who enrol in correspondence business courses. APEX
provides training in every subject that the University requires
for a business student, ensuring at all times that the centre
has a highly qualified and motivated faculty. The centre encourages
students to read in the library and exposes them to modern-day
issues in economics by inviting speakers from industry. Today
students from APEX are doing very well both in India and abroad. |
| KSN’s vision is thus being fulfilled
every year, as a fresh batch of students goes out into the world
of commerce, rather more prepared to face real life than their
counterparts from many regular full-time colleges! |
| All his life, KSN has found it impossible
to say ‘No’ to worthy causes. “Same as last
year”, was his standard riposte to appeals for advertisements
and sponsorship in aid of such causes. Education was a prime
concern and KSN could never turn anyone away when in need of
help to finance his/her studies. |
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| True to KSN’s core belief in giving back to
society several fold from the fruits of one’s labours, he and
the Sanmar group have over the years contributed wholesomely to the
growth of several institutions playing vital roles in health and medicine,
charity, education and rehabilitation of the unfortunate. Among those
who have come under the group’s benevolent umbrella are: Sankara
Nethralaya, Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu, Cancer Institute, Adyar,
Vaishnav College for Women, Stella Maris College, Children’s
Garden School, Polygon Creche, Bala Mandir, and many more. |
| A Birthday Gift |
| To commemorate the special occasion that
the 80th birthday is in a man·s life, donations amounting to
Rs.80 lakh were announced for a number of deserving causes,
on the occasion. |
| The beneficiaries are: |
Kalavai Guruparampara Veda Vidya Trust
Missionaries of Charity
Avvai Home for Girls
Udavum Karangal
The Banyan
National Association for the Blind
Medical Research Foundation
Brahmana Samajam
Iswari Prasad Dattatreya Orthopaedic Centre
Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children
and
The Indian Education Trust |
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