City raises Rs 8.05 crore for Charity through SCMM 08

Mumbai, Apr 11 (UNI) The commercial capital of the country once again demonstrated its strong social conscience when a cross section of its citizenry came together in a selfless exercise to raise a whopping sum of Rs 8.05 crore for charity through the 5th edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2008 (SCMM 08).

This was announced at a special function held to felicitate the highest charity raisers at the Trident here, which was attended by PWD Ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Anil Deshmukh, Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Pathak, corporate czar Kumaramangalam Birla, Neeraj Swaroop of Standard Charttered Bank and Jayant Pendharkar of TCS.

The unified efforts of people from the corporate world, television, film personalities and the ordinary Mumbaikars resulted in Rs 6.75 crore being raised in clearly-tracked funds through GiveIndia, the official Charity Partner. This figure is Rs 28 lakh more than the 2007 figure of Rs 6.47 crore in clearly tracked figures.

Budgeting for the fact that a lot of small organizations would have raised funds through the event directly, along with contributions from event sponsors and partners, the final total is Rs 8.05 crore.

The amount of money raised makes the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon the single largest charity generator in the country.

GiveIndia's Dream Team runners, consisting 59 high achieving personalities, raised a total of Rs 2.03 crore. ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth President Dr Nachiket Mor, raised over Rs 38 lakh to be the highest individual pledger, while 14-year-old Aaran Patel raised more than Rs 1 lakh for the second consecutive year.

More than 115 companies participated in the Corporate Challenge and of these, 48 companies raised pledges to the tune of Rs 74.82 lakh. Twenty NGOs used the event to raise Rs 10 lakh or more for causes of their choice, while amongst the NGOs which raised the most funds were Childline Foundation with Rs 54 lakh and the Indian Council for Mental Health (Hygiene) with Rs 48 lakh.

On the occasion the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon Photography Award winners were also declared with A Srinivas from The Indian Express winning the first prize of Rs 30,000, while Anshuman Poyrekar from DNA won the first runner up award and received Rs 20,000. Swapnil Sakhare from Yuva won the second runner up award and received Rs 15,000.

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