NEWS

Fortess Pune Networking Conclave -March 9th, 2024

Fortess hosted its 4th Networking Conclave in Pune, following Chennai, Hyderabad & Bengaluru on the 9th of March, and we can confidently say that these events are only getting bigger & better!  There were 75 participants in total, with more than 50 participants being non Fortess members. The event overall proved to be a grand success with the post-event buzz still ringing!  A few key factors which contributed to the success of the event were:

• The ownership and leadership shown by Kiran Deshpande, Dina and Prashant Likhite and his team to diligently follow up with every potential member as well as the existing members to invite them to the event.
• Participation by senior folks including Mr. Ramadorai, Mr. Mahalingam, Mr. LC Singh and Mr. R Chandra to travel for this event demonstrated the commitment to this noble cause.
• The speakers led by Mr. Ramadorai emphasized the importance of this association and urged everyone to contribute in any which way they can for the welfare of underserved student community was very well received.
• The examples of initiatives presented, such as the Computer Lab set up, the IIT Coaching program as well as the 14Treescommitment to reforestation were widely appreciated. These real-life examples were testimonial to the seriousness of Fortess in what they have set about to do for the social good.
• The importance of networking and meeting of minds was also an important aspect for the success of the event.
• Lata Prasad’s announcement at the end of the event urging people to join as Fortess members was critical.

The event accomplished 3 key objectives of having a Networking Conclave of this kind:

• Getting the people together in a city creates a community feeling and lifts the morale of the members and also motivates them to start thinking about how they can contribute.
• It encouraged new members to join this community to be able to contribute in any which way they can.
• Gave opportunity to people to share their thoughts and ideas with the leadership teams.

Mr. Ramadorai shared his vision about FORTESS, the journey so far from its inception to how it has chalked out a roadmap. He emphasised on the need to be active and start thinking of second innings much before retirement. He encouraged the folks to join Fortess and contribute to the mission.

An overview of Fortess by PRK – Presentation covered the detailed charter of Fortess and the four focus areas of Fortess including education, environment, art & culture and healthcare and the underlying theme being Technology to drive solutions in each of the verticals.

Updated the projects in the pipeline for the next quarter which were 

1. Supporting 15 students in Sevalaya School in Tamilnadu to prepare them for IIT JEE examinations. The program is branded as Propellors.  
2. We also provide Career Counselling, mentoring and English Communication skills, called XpressUrself, for more than 300 students in this school.
3. Supporting 10 schools down south in the district of Kumbakonam were we plan to provide a Computer Augmented Teaching for 3rd Grade t 8th Grade (branded as Early Start) using a Tamil App called Kalvi40. This program will start in June.
4. Executing a pilot program in Telengana in Adilabad district where we plan to set up a Computer Lab (branded as “SmartLabs “in one school. Based on the effectiveness of this lab usage we plan to expand to 10 schools. This should start in June end when the schools re-open.
5. We will be starting the Propellor program for 10 students in a school near Kolkota in April. We will also set up SmartLabs for this school. 
6. We also plan to expand the Propellor program to Karnataka identifying 5 students from a school in Bangalore.

The Operating model of Fortess was also explained where we will have NGOs and Educational Institutes as our partner to deliver the projects while the sponsorship would come from Corporates and Fortess Members. The beneficiaries would be students in the case of Education. The plan is also to expand our offerings to Health Care where the beneficiaries would be elderly care, child care and patient care.

Mr. Mahalingam shared his view of how such networking meetings and collaborative efforts can deliver better and higher outcomes.
He shared the Sevalaya example and how it has sustained and scaled over 3 decades and Fortess has been able to partner with them and deliver programs.

R Chandra shared his experience on the digital training he has set up in his school in Sirkazhi down south and how it can be made into a template to sell it to other schools and improve computer literacy in schools.

Dina shared an update on Pune level activities and the possibility of Fortess partnering with any of these organizations in the Education sector:

1. Partnering with IEEE could help Fortess leverage their reach and participate in their initiative like EuReka, Setting up Science Centres and the Chote Scientist. 
2. Partnering with TCS with their Academic Interface Program could be a stepping stone for reaching out to Colleges and Academic institutions for future programs.
3. Digital Impact Square in Nashik gives an opportunity to network with startup companies by students and focus on any initiatives by them which could align with the key focus areas of Fortess and we could leverage them for any technical help or extend support to them.

He highlighted about the plans in place to start a COE on Cybersecurity in collaboration with MCCIA. This could be of interest to Fortess where we could conduct a sponsored CXO Round Table Event on Cybersecurity and also use this platform to create skilled resources on Cybersecurity with the Engineering colleges in and around Pune.

He also highlighted the AI based automated sanitation inspection program in Andhra and the potential to shape up SwachBharat.ai across India.

Pravin Bhagwat shared his experiments at 14 Trees and the opportunities for a collaborative effort and various avenues to help his reforestation efforts. As a follow up, we can plan for FORTESS Pune folks to visit the 14 Trees site and also plan for a Fortess Grove.

One of the action items that came up was the financial literacy program leveraging the stock market for the low-income group.