Working under one common umbrella Tata Trusts have funded an ambitious rural development project. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Trusts and the Andhra Pradesh (AP) Government concerns development of 264 villages around Vijayawada in South India where the two will work jointly in the areas of bamboo cultivation, fisheries, health and nutrition and village development. AP chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said "it is the first time that such a huge number of villages are being developed by a single institution or trust in the state,” according to a report in The Times of India (TOI) dated August 25, 2015.
The Business Standard of August 24, 2015 reports that the program will focus on promoting bamboo as a livelihood crop to improve the income of farmers and on marine fisheries, with a comprehensive aquaculture development model to be worked out. "The Trust will use the government programs like mid day meals and the public distribution system as delivery channels,” states the publication. The detailed scope and implementation strategy will be worked out jointly by the AP government’s planning department and Tata Trusts, according to the report.
Tata Trusts chairman Ratan Tata who was present at the signing of the MoU is reported in TOI to have stated that "at the end of my career, I realize that money can’t buy one thing...and that is to create an excitement in your life.” Speaking to industrialists on his views on start-up enterprises and the way he chooses to support them in the country, Tata is reported to have said that successful start-ups are those which strike a chord within India and overseas as well as reflect the confidence investors have in them.
Calling Tata a symbol of India and its industrial might, Naidu is reported to have said that "he has shown how to carry out ethical and moral business,” reports TOI. F. J.