Bandhan plans to set up hospital, university: Chandra Shekhar Ghosh

Bandhan-Konnagar, a not-for-profit organisation, is currently working towards establishing a university for higher education and a hospital which will cater to all kinds of general requirements but focus more on diabetes.

“The Bandhan University will aim at creating future leaders and policymakers who will be equipped with all the skills and knowledge to create large scale social impact on the ground by serving various communities,” said Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, founder and mentor, Bandhan-Konnagar.

Ghosh was speaking at a webinar, organised by Bandhan, as it celebrated its 20th anniversary on Sunday. Through its two decades of existence, Bandhan transformed from its original avatar Bandhan-Konnagar, an NGO, to an NBFC, and finally to a pan-India universal bank, called Bandhan Bank.

“At Bandhan, we are also working towards establishing a hospital which will cater to all kinds of general requirements but focus more on diabetes.

Initially, the hospital would cater to out-patients including complete diagnostic facility, along with daycare services,” said Ghosh, adding with experience and with demand, there was a plan to expand it to a 200-bed hospital in about five years.

Bandhan-Konnagar still exists as an NGO and is committed to running developmental interventions across healthcare, education, livelihood promotion, financial literacy and employment generation. Currently, it runs programmes across 12 states in India and employs more than 3,000 employees.

Nobel Laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, who has been associated with Bandhan for the last 15 years, spoke about his work with the organisation to assess how the latter’s Targeting the Hardcore Poor (THP) programme helped uplift the poorest of the poor by giving them access to economically productive assets. “… Thanks to Bandhan, we have been able to build a global tool for fighting poverty,” Banerjee said.

ITC chairman & managing director Sanjiv Puri said Bandhan’s journey over the last two decades embodied the true spirit of an enterprise, which should serve not only an economic purpose but also a social purpose.