London School of Economics partners with Tata ISES

The London School of Economics, UK, has joined hands with Tata International Social Entrepreneurship Scheme-2010 to enable its students to be part of this distinctive corporate sustainability internship programme, which runs for two months. Started in 2008, Tata ISES also has successful affiliations with the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and the University of Cambridge, UK.

Says R Gopalakrishnan, executive director, Tata Sons, "In its third year now, the Tata ISES (international social entrepreneurship scheme) continues to build a strong and genuine commitment to sustainability and development among outstanding international students. They experience grassroots realities by way of practical experience and through endeavours that sensitise these future leaders to the imperative of community development in any wider vision of business. At the same time, this cross-country exchange has helped Tata companies get new ideas and perspectives on their existing community development initiatives, thus enabling them to enhance their efforts to serve their communities better. This year, the London School of Economics has joined the Tata ISES programme and we look forward to a mutually beneficial association."

The primary objective of Tata ISES is to provide students from leading foreign universities an opportunity to work on the community initiative projects of Tata companies in India, providing them grassroots exposure to India while bringing international perspectives and practices to these projects and promoting international understanding.

This year's programme will witness 13 scholars from these renowned universities undertaking summer internships with six Tata companies- Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels, Tata Power, Tata Motors and Tata Teleservices - to gain firsthand knowledge of social and community development issues. Six of the interns are from the University of Cambridge, four are from the University of California and three are from the London School of Economics.