YLP, India programme: Gir project
The Young Leaders Programme and its project in Gir in rural western India are being highlighted on the homepage of the Clinton Global Initiative, to which GIFT has made several performance commitments.

The Gir project is the second of the continuing YLP, which seeks to affect a change in corporate executives’ thinking towards more sustainable business, encompassing governance, environmental, and social considerations. The life-changing experience at the heart of its strategy brings executives and NGOs together with rural communities to help them work for a better life for themselves – as is happening with the Gir project.

The field project makes up the second module of the YLP. The first module is a rigorous classroom introduction to issues of business practice that are absent from regular MBA courses: governance, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, the roles of government and of civil society, and the impact of globalisation on Asia.

The output of each project is a business plan, simple and effective, for the communities to use to bring them better prospects. The YLP’s third phase involves financial investment in the subject villages by corporations.

The CGI feature appears here (scroll down to the "Featured Commitment" box on the right of the page.)

A GIFT founder and chief executive Chandran Nair made several commitments to the CGI in September 2005, when he was invited to attend the inaugural event in New York.

The Gir project is one realisation of these pledges. The third phase of the first project with Haitang Administrative Village in Yunnan is well underway.

The Clinton Global Initiative is a non-partisan project of former US President Bill Clinton through his William J. Clinton Foundation. Launched in 2005, the Initiative is described on its website as "a catalyst for action, bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges".