Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi, entered in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SwitchON Foundation, India for the next three years. Both the organizations under this MoU will focus on areas of Rural Development, Management, Health, Education, Women Empowerment and Gender, Environment, Climate Change and Research.

Dr Joseph Marianus Kujur SJ, Director, Dr Amar E. Tigga, Dean Academics, Dr Anant Kumar, HoD, Rural Management Programme, Dr Rajshree Verma, Dr Sourya Das from XISS along with Mr Vinay Jaju, Executive Director, SwitchON Foundation, Mr Uddip Nandi, and Mr Vivek Kumar Gupta from SwitchOn Foundation were present during the signing of the MoU.

Dr Kujur expressed his happiness over the collaboration and said that, XISS will immensely benefit with this collaboration with SwitchON Foundation in the areas of Rural Development, Agriculture, Policy Research, Women Empowerment and Gender, Environment, and Climate Change. He also stated that it was a wonderful opportunity for the students of XISS to learn and understand the ground realities of the development sector and faculties of XISS to engage more in applied research.

Mr Vinay Jaju, Managing Director, SwitchON Foundation during the signing of the MoU said that they are thrilled to partner with XISS, as it paves the way for impactful collaborations in various fields of rural development. SwitchON Foundation will collaboratively look into doing projects with the students and Studies and Research in the fields of sustainable agriculture, renewable energy environmental issues, air pollution etc to ignite positive change and create a lasting impact.

Under this partnership, XISS and SwitchON Foundation will establish channels of communication and co-operation to promote and advance their respective operations within the Institution and its related wings. The partnership will focus on tackling Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related challenges through a series of webinars and conferences. This will be followed by amplification of the learning through engagement with policymakers and media outreach ensuring a wider dissemination of knowledge. Other areas of collaborations are joint studies and development of proposals; helping in the curriculum design of XISS through guest lecture and summer courses, and helping in the summer internship and placement of students.

The MoU is set to span three years, during which both XISS and SwitchON Foundation commit to working closely together to contribute meaningfully to sustainable development initiatives.