Kotak Mahindra Bank joins hands with Ratna Nidhi to support #MissionMillionBooks

Mission Million Books Project ​​to distribute 1 million educational books to 10,000 low-income schools and colleges in India by 2018

Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited, a banking company registered under the companies Act, 1956, has partnered with Ratna Nidhi Trust to support its #MissionMillionBooks project.

“Kotak is desirous of providing CSR expenditure to Ratna Nidhi Trust, which shall be used to build capacity for logistics and operations of the book collection drive and for book distribution. The project aims to donate 1 million books to 10000 schools and colleges in India for free of cost” said a representative from Kotak Mahindra bank.

Google.org supported Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust, a disability empowerment not for profit organization based out of Mumbai had earlier appealed to over 500 publishing houses to donate educational books to help low-income schools and colleges in various districts across Maharashtra.

“Mission Million Books is a pan-India initiative aimed at providing the underserved with access to quality educational materials for their growth and advancement. Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust aims to gather educational books, picture books, children’s storybooks, blank painting books, dictionaries, atlas, Indian comic books etc.” says Rajiv Mehta, trustee, Ratna Nidhi.

In 2016, Ratna Nidhi in association with Alibaba Group and Crossword bookstores launched the Mission Million Books project. The Mission Million Books initiative is also expected to organize book donation exhibitions in Pune, Baroda, and Ahmedabad over the next few months.

The first such book exhibition was organized on September 29 - 30 in Mumbai. The exhibition experienced a good response and close to 105000 books were donated to 535 schools and colleges who had actively participated in the drive.

About Google.org supported Ratna Nidhi Trust

Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust is a registered charity that was established in 1990 by Mr. Mahendra Mehta, declared Humanitarian Rose by the US Senate, the personal beneficiary of the World Bank with a special consultative status at the UN was a rare individual. He was born in Antwerp, Belgium.

It was set up in order to tackle the problems of poverty in Mumbai, especially amongst young children. From its humble origins as a family institution, it has grown rapidly and now its projects cover a wide range of activities across the world.

Eminent personalities like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Anna Hazare, Dalai Lama and Shri Ratan Tata have supported their work. Some highlights of Ratna Nidhi’s work.

1- In just India, Mahendra Mehta is credited for helping over 2 million children through an assortment of educational, medical, developmental and various other initiatives
2- Ratna Nidhi has helped tens of thousands of children in Kenya, Afghanistan, Burundi, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic.
3- Ratna Nidhi is one of the largest donors of orthotics and prosthetics in the world.
4- They feed 4500 children in Mumbai every morning- over the last 15 years, this would amount to about 2.3 crore free meals.
5- They have distributed over 2.48 lac mobility aids, like Jaipur foot, polio callipers, wheelchairs and crutches.
6- They have distributed over 1.10 million garments to the poor and needy.
7- Ratna Nidhi is also an integral part of the Mission Million books, in association with Alibaba, Crossword Bookstores etc;