Shri
N. Sugalchand Jain hailing from Siyat village Sojat
Road in the
Pali District of Rajasthan has settled down in Tamil Nadu
for the past six decades. Having worked as an apprentice
under his father, Shri Sugalchand Jain took to business
as a duck takes to water and has not looked back since.
Either individually or in association with his partners
Shri Jain has started and developed a number of ventures
and made them profitable. Having developed these ventures
into successful ones within a very short time Shri Jain
turned his attention to diverting a part of profits earned
from these ventures for serving the weaker sections of the
community.
Contrary to the popular view that the average member of
the Marvari community confines his attention mostly to business,
Shri Jain has devoted a good portion of his time and resources
to serve the public at large both in Chennai and in major
cities of India including his native town of Siyat in Rajasthan.
His contribution in the field of social service can be broadly
described as under:
1. A very important contribution which
Shri Jain has made is in establishing Bhagwan Mahaveer
Foundation for identifying, nurturing and encouraging
individuals and institutions who are engaged in serving
their fellowmen without any expectation of rewards. So far
39 awards have been given away by the foundation for service
of high standard in the field of Non-violence & vegetarianism,
Education & Medicine, and community & social service.
Since inception the value of the award valued 2.15 crores.
Till recently, Mahaveer Award is the highest award given
away by an NGO. The awardees are decided by an eminent selection
Jury headed by Justice Shri M. N. Venkatachaliah,
Former Chief Justice of India..
2. Through the medium of Singhvi
Charitable Trust, over the years, he has been assisting
the weaker sections of the community particularly in the
field of medical assistance and education. More recently
the trust is concentrating on assisting the visually challenged
through the supply of medicines and spectacles entirely
free of cost through camps held at remote rural areas. During
the period from early 1997 till date the Trust have served
more than three lakhs people, in which 1,67,002 persons
have been provided spectacles, 64,453 persons have been
provided medicines and 35,636 patients have been referred
to premier hospitals in Chennai, 38,405 persons were given
dental treatment. Needless to add, that all these services
are provided by the Singhvi Charitable Trust entirely free
of cost.
3. The group of companies of which Shri
Jain is major partner has been providing financial assistance
to individuals and institutions rendering service to the
members of the poorer sections of the community. The assistance
was provided to such institutions and individuals all over
the country. The institutions include the Cancer
Institute & Sankara Nethralaya at Chennai,
the Dharmishila Cancer Hospital, New Delhi,
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, Institute
of Kidney Diseases & Research Centre at Ahmedabad
and Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Samithi, Jaipur.
The assistance thus made available to various institutions
engaged in serving the community during the past few years
is in excess of Rs. 10 Crores. More recently he has embarked
on a project to provide shelter to the patients of the cancer
institute who gather in the earlier hours of the day before
entering the hospital.
4. By associating Shri Jain with their
management, various premier institutions are engaged in
community service, such as the Shankara Nethralaya,
the Cancer Institute, Volunatary Health Services, Schizophrenia
Research Foundation, Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, Ahimsa Research
Foundation in Chennai, Mediciti and Mahaveer Hospital in
Hyderabad, Bharatiya Jain Sanghatna, Pune and Veerayatan,
Rajgir have availed themselves of the benefit of
his entrepreneurial skills.
