Mumbai : IDFC Foundation has made an investment of Rs. 2.25 crore in Pipal Tree Venture Pvt. Ltd. a for-profit company engaged in providing vocational training for skills required in the construction industry to unemployed youth from rural areas.

IDFC Foundation, the development arm of IDFC, invests with the objective “to promote the inclusive and sustainable delivery of infrastructure services in India”, in line with its overall mission of nation building. This is its second investment.

Speaking on the occasion, Anupam Srivastava, Group Director – CSR, IDFC, said, “We are very pleased to partner with Pipal Tree Ventures in its social mission to skill unemployed rural youth to meet the huge shortfall in availability of semi-skilled workers in the infrastructure & construction sector. For us, this investment represents a perfect example of CSR, as we are enabling inclusive growth while at the same time meeting a critical need of our clients in the infrastructure sector.”

India’s construction sector is estimated to require as many as 33 million additional skilled workers over the next 10 years. With the backing and support of IDFC Foundation, PTVPL aims to train 100,000 rural youth from India’s most backward regions over the next 5 years and place them with construction companies. As one of the pioneers in the field, PTVPL hopes, with IDFC’s help, to catalyze the setting up of industry-wide standards for quality execution and productivity in the construction sector, thus benefiting labour through enhanced job mobility.