Two-wheeler maker Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd on Wednesday launched a unique training programme for women to make them capable of flying a commercial aircraft. Launched as ‘Sapno Ki Udaan’ under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the programme is targeted to provide 100 per cent scholarships to 20 female aspirants to become a commercial pilot.
The company has earmarked an amount of approx ₹ 80 lakh per candidate for the programme.
“The training of the candidates will begin by October after selection of the candidates. We are engaging with the flying clubs across India for their training tie-up and also engaging with public and private airline players for placement support,” said Harbhajan Singh, Director, (General & Corporate Affairs), HMSI here during the launch of the programme.
Termed as the biggest CSR project of the company, Sapno ki Udaan invites girls from Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Karnataka to apply. Honda will bear the entire cost of training right from their selection for the training period of 18 months at one of the flying schools. Honda will also assist them in securing a job with the airline operators.
“The final 20 girls will be selected based on an exhaustive selection process. The selection would happen taking into consideration the merit and income levels. Girls having scored more than 90 per cent in physics and mathematics in class 12-science under the respective State Education Board will be eligible to apply,” said Singh.
The submitted applications will be screened based on different parameters including achievements in co-curricular activities. This will be followed by a written test, medical test, psychometric test and a technical assessment to choose the deserving 20 candidates. The applications can be made online starting July 18 and closes on August 10.
Singh further stated that the company has a CSR budget of about ₹ 50 crore at the corporate level and last year it had spent about Rs 45 crore. In Gujarat, the company has invested over ₹ 1,100 crore to set up the total installed capacity of 1.2 million units per annum.
The company had earlier expressed its plans to expand the capacity of Gujarat plant by 0.6 million units to take the total installed capacity to 1.8 million by 2020.
Article Credit: thehindubusinessline