The Andhra Pradesh chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) has decided to go beyond its normal activities of networking and liaising among its members and help society as part of its corporate social responsibility.
"Though the chamber is formed like any other industry associating to liaise with the state and central governments and bring cohesion among its members, we realised that what we are today is because of government help and cooperation from the rest of society. Hence we decided to give back to society a part of what we are earning," J A Chowdary, CEO of Portal Player India and president of the American Chamber, Hyderabad chapter said.
Amcham is an association of American owned Indian companies. Its Hyderabad chapter has 38 members while the national membership is about 300. Most of the Hyderabad members are in the IT sector.
"We chose primary education for the poorest of poor as one of the first areas to help society, after which we plan to embark on primary health. We tied up with Naandi, a well established non-government organisation set up by all big corporates in the state including Dr Reddy
