95 Charity With Alibaba Philanthropy!

On the UN International Day of Charity in memory of Mother Teresa, the Alibaba Foundation, a private charity fund established by Alibaba Group, jointly with UCWeb (‘UC’), a business within Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group, hosted the Global Forum of the XIN Philanthropy Conference 2018. It is the first conference of this kind to be held out of China.

Launched in 2016, the biennial conference is an important representation of Alibaba Group’s commitment to encouraging inclusive, universal and sustainable growth for businesses and communities alike – all for the greater benefit of people. The Global Forum held in Delhi under the theme of ‘Love and Infinity’ advocates for a wide public awareness and actions on Education, Children Protection and Women Empowerment. With global impacts and local insights, Alibaba Group regards India as a major part of its philanthropy roadmap, while UC’s philanthropic mission in India is to bridge the Digital Divide as much as possible.

Hosted by Indian actress and Founder of Col. Shamsher Singh Foundation Gul Panag, the Global Forum of Xin Philanthropy Conference has become a prominent gathering of Indian renowned philanthropists and public welfare advocates.

Popular Hindi film superstar Kangana Ranaut has joined the roundtable to share personal experience being a frontline advocate of women equality; outstanding speakers within the global welfare and business domains includes Robin Raina, the Chairman, CEO & President of Ebix Inc. and founder of the Robin Raina Foundation, Abha Singh, lawyer, social activist and founder of Rann-Samar Foundation, etc.

The current status of women equality and education, innovative solutions with “Internet plus philanthropy” model are discussed, given the trend that internet has brought disruptive change to every aspect of our lives. According to Alibaba’s philosophy of philanthropy, technology can help to lower the barrier for each individual to participate in philanthropy and unleash “The Power of Small” to drive big change for public welfare.

“As the world’s first Internet company that integrates philanthropy into its core strategy,” stated on the occasion by Shunyan Zhu, President of UC, Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group, “Alibaba’s philanthropy is without a border. That’s why we take the XIN Philanthropy Conference out of China for the first time, here in India. It shows the importance of India for Alibaba. This is also the first time our Internet plus Philanthropy Model has set its foot on the global path.”

Arunima Sen, Programme Analyst for Governance, UN Women India MCO, Meagan Fallone, CEO of Barefoot College International, Soha Moitra, Regional Director of Child Rights and You, Saurabh Jain, Vice President of Paytm and Head of Paytm Build for India Initiative and Alex Li, Managing Director of Alibaba Cloud India, joined Shunyan to officially kick off the 5th September Philanthropy Week during which different business units of Alibaba Group will have multiple philanthropic programs for public participation on a global scale.

A business within Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group, UC has rooted in India for 7 years, amplifying Alibaba’s charitable efforts with the global breadth and Indian depth along with its business influence and brand reputation. With its new mission of Bigger We-Media, Bigger You, UC Browser, a leading content platform with 130 million monthly active users, will work with Indian content creators to build a responsible content ecosystem.

“We will use Internet technology to bridge the inequality gap, and eliminate poverty with knowledge and information,” said Mr. Shunyan Zhu. 

Catch Up, Buddy!

Growth, be it personal or professional, is an individual's sole motive. On the personal front, it may be about maintaining amicable relations with near and dear ones, while on the professional front, it may be about realizing that we do not lead our lives as a black box, that we have to keep others in our tow and proceed towards the pinnacle of success - be it psychologically, emotionally, or even financially.

When it comes to one's bodily growth, it is not the unprecedented growth left, right and center, which concerns parents of adolescent or pre-pubertal kids who have turned couch potatoes, but it is the genuine scaling on the growth chart as per the standardized norms propagated by doctors worldwide, that causes anxiety to the parents of such kids.

While there may be many reasons to such a barrier uprooting a child's self-esteem, the most important and the one most overlooked, happens to be carelessness towards what's on a kid's plate conjunct with limited physical activity.

When I was a kid, we had ample green spaces to run around and play, oblivious to first-world issues but that isn't the case now. Today's kids have increasingly become lovers of gadgets of all kind and form, thus restricting their physical energies to one or the other smartphone or tablet, most often.

Not eating right - be it eating excessively or eating the least - affects the bodily rhyme and rhythm to growth and adversely alters the natural patterns to growing right. A balanced meal consisting of the right quantities of the six nutritional elements to the food pyramid - namely proteins, vitamins, minerals, fibre, carbohydrates, and fat - would contribute to the happy and healthy growth of a child, stage-wise, that is right as per the time duration attributed to each stage.

If all these growth patterns are thrown off their set rhythm it detrimentally impacts the child, not only physically, as is evident on the outset of it, but also emotionally, throwing their self-confidence and sense of self-worth off-track big time.

Hence, it is of utmost importance that a child does not lose out on, or imbalance his/her growth patterns, be it due to any reason whatsoever, as this issue would then, not remain confided only to the child themselves, but also reach out to their peers. Then, would be unleashed the real demon, as peer pressure would cave into the child, to upset him making him hollow from the inside.
This demon can then never be driven away, as it chooses to reside inside the child, developing in him, an inferiority complex forever.

Fortunately, I had attended the product launch of Horlicks Growth+ in May, this year, which helped me to realize that this issue impacts children all over the nation, and is very much prevalent.

Horlicks Growth+ as a product, was then suggested as a clinically tested solution to this problem, in the form of a flavored health supplement which was suited to help kids aged 3-9 years who were below tenth percentile as per the growth chart and standardized norms.

It also made me thank God that I was born and brought up in an environment which enabled me to keep the issue of catching up on lost growth at bay.