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Orange City has ‘Best Practices’ among 63 global companies
MUMBAI: Orange City Water (OCW) has brought laurels for the city of Nagpur as well as added another feather in its cap when it was rewarded with two most coveted “Best Water Management Practices Award” for their Water Management of Nagpur 24×7 project and ‘Best Peoples Initiative in the Year” by World Water Leadership Congress and Awards at the World CSR Day programme at Mumbai.
Both the awards “Best Water Management Practices” & ‘Best Community Water Project” recognizes the contribution of every member of OCW team in implementing 24×7 Water Supply Project in Nagpur, as well as managing water supply to almost 3.25 lakh connections (27 lakh population) of the city and integrating information of various divisions and communicating with key stakeholders.
OCW CEO Sanjoy Roy & Director (HR/PR) KMP Singh received the awards. Water Management Companies from almost 63 countries across the world participated in the Congress for various awards. World Water Leadership Congress and Awards recognizes outstanding work done by organisations in Water sector and also innovations and excellence in technology of water projects.
The “Best Water Management Practices Award “identified specialized Water Sector companies who have brought extraordinary changes in the water sector as well as bear the responsibilities and expectations of the various stakeholders. Orange City Water’s (OCW) is known for its successful implementation and progress towards NMC’s ambitious 24×7 Water Supply Project in Nagpur, which provides water to almost 3.25 lakh HSC’s (27 lakh population) of the city and progressing towards providing uninterrupted, pressurized supply of water at every tap.
Initiated by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Nagpur was the first city of its size in the country to outsource water supply to a private operator under the PPP model. Under the scheme the main objective was to provide 24-hour 100% safe drinking water to everyone including slum dwellers within five years.
“This is biggest ever her achievement for Orange City Water and our people who are committed to provide clean, sufficient water to all citizens,” said Roy. “Nagpur’s 24×7 Water Supply Project on PPP model is now has become a case study for the smart water management and entire World is looking towards its success. This project is not just technical projects, he added: “it is more of a socio-economic project involving change in the mindsets, habits and lifestyle of people. People participation has to be ensured right from project development phase to ensure transparency in the contracting process. People representatives endorsing the project provide much needed confidence to the citizens.”
Nagpur 24×7 Water Supply was earlier recognized as the ‘National Best Practice in Urban Water Supply’ in India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at launch of AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) and Smart City initiative in June 2015.
It must be mentioned here, OCW has undertaken various initiatives to spread awareness on the important subject of 24×7 water at every tap like Mohalla Sabhas (community interaction), Consumers as ambassadors (Water Friends), School and College awareness programmes (Jal Samvad), toll free consumer helpline, NGO networking and health check-ups. These innovative initiatives have helped OCW in establishing a strong bond with the people. OCW has also joined hands with UPAY- Under Privileged Advancement by Youth, an NGO working for education of underprivileged children by starting its first Reach & Teach Center at Laxmi Nagar Zone.
Earlier, OCW has earned various prestigious accolades in the past like Special Recognition in SAP, Special Achievement in GIS, Best Practice Award at IUKAN 2013 for ESR Cleaning, Utility Best Practice Award, Global Water Intelligence’s Water Deal of the Year 2013 and, most importantly, the Best PPP Operator Award by The Water Digest. ‘National Award for Excellence in Corporate Communication’ by 6th World CSR Day & National level Award for its social communication initiatives at the 6th Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Award 2016
At the launch of AMRUT mission, Modi declared the project as a National Best Practice in presence of 500 mayors and municipal commissioners from across the country.
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Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
