Aug 15, 2025: The 79th Independence Day of our great motherland and its entry into the 80th year of independence, was celebrated with patriotic pride and enthusiasm in all the operational areas of BAIF in the country.
The flag hoisting ceremony at the BAIF Head Office in Pune, was marked by a ceremonial guard of honour followed by the unfurling of the national flag at the hands of Dr. Bharat Kakade in the presence of Mr. Shrinivas Kulkarni, Dr. Avinash Deo, Mr. Mukul Baviskar and the Administrative and Programme staff and their children. Dr. Kakade called upon the need for streamlining women through entrepreneurship development, innovations, skilling, promotion of technologies in rural areas and their greater role in sustainable development. He also emphasised on the role of rural youth in the development of the country and their active involvement in the programmes of BAIF and especially through social enterprises. He highlighted the outreach of BAIF which is 4 million families at present and cumulative 7 million families and BAIF’s Vision 2030 which aims at bringing about a positive change in the lives of 10 million rural families and our alignment with Viksit Bharat@2047 for unprecedented prosperity and sustainable development. Mr. Shrinivas Kulkarni expressed the need to focus on People’s Organisations, FPOs, SHGs, innovations, role of social enterprises which has emerged as a strong pillar of BAIF and promotion of the products of our SHGs for their empowerment. He along with Dr. Deo made a plea to promote swadeshi products and to initiate this at the home, local community and at the society and organisational levels. Others who spoke on the occasion included Mr. Baviskar, Prashant Dudhade and Sucharita Dhar.
