"In recognition of the commendable work done” by him, industrialist and chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India (SII) Adar Poonawalla (pictured) has been nominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an ambassador for the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission. The nomination was received by him via a letter from the union ministry of housing and urban affairs dated September 5, 2017, reported The Times of India (TOI) on the next day. The chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India (SII) launched the "Adar Poonawalla Clean City Movement (APCCM)” in January 2016 with the objective of making "Poona one of the cleanest cities in India.” The Movement supports the municipal corporation of the city with infrastructure and management of solid waste, especially organic waste. The public-private collaboration covers over 300 km of roads across Poona (see "A clean collaboration,” Parsiana, January 21, 2016).
Calling him "perhaps the only corporate honcho in India who has taken up the cause of waste management” with his initial investment of Rs 100 crore for first phase in Poona, TOI pointed out that the APCCM is not funded by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spends of the SII, but by Poonawalla from his personal family funds. The industrialist told TOI that "the Movement’s long-term goal is to ensure that more and more cities adopt it and urban India becomes cleaner, greener, healthier and happier.” Poonawalla joints cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and M. S. Dhoni and film star Amitabh Bachchan as ambassadors for the Clean India Mission.
Launched on October 2, 2015, Swachh Bharat is a campaign by the government to keep the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country’s 4,041 statutory cities and towns and its rural areas clean. The Mission is bifurcated into sub-missions that cater to clean drinking water and sanitation.
"The project (of setting up museums to promote Indian art) has not yet been formulated and it would be premature to talk about it 
now,” Poonawalla’s office informed Parsiana’s representative on September 8, 2017 after news about his setting up of museums was broken by The Economic Times (ET) in a report dated August 30. Poonawalla had acquired a painting by the renowned Tyeb Mehta, an oil-on-canvas, at a recently concluded modern and contemporary Indian art online auction.
The ET report stated that the Poonawallas who have collected many important works by eminent Indian artists and European masters came up with the idea for the museum "after observing a seismic divide within the existing art infrastructure in India, the repercussions of which are borne by the masses, as they do not get the opportunity to view Indian art.” Poonawalla told the paper that "a city like New York has close to 100 art museums, private and government… whereas in India, the numbers are diminutive. The art museum will be my way of giving back to society and our people.” He added that Indian art is in its nascent stage and he intends "to facilitate art stemming out of our country and elevate its presence on a global scale.”
The website of AstaGuru, the online auctioneer that made the sale, states that the 1984-created 51’’ x 41.3” painting (pictured pg 16), which was expected to fetch between Rs 14 and 18 crores (USD 2.18 mn and 2.81 mn), was sold for Rs 17,75,02,500 (USD 2.80 mn). Earlier this year in July, industrialist and philanthropist Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, Adar’s father and chairperson of SII had acquired a pencil portrait of Mahatma Gandhi drawn from life by artist John Amshewitz at an auction conducted by Sotheby’s London (see "Gandhi and Poonawalla,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, August 7, 2017).