Mukti-IMI-Wheels Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

On the 19^th of March 2025 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was executed to jointly develop a comprehensive course on sustainability. The three parties to the MOU were Mukti, International Management Institute, Kolkata (IMIK), and Wheels Global Foundation India (WGF). This partnership would facilitate knowledge exchange, field visits, grant applications and project collaboration, and workshops focusing on key areas such as Sustainable Healthcare (Telemedicine), Nutrition & Women Empowerment, and Agriculture. Principally, the MOU outlines the collaborative intent to enhance sustainable development in the Sundarbans region. The partnership aims to empower rural communities through education, field research, and capacity building while promoting innovative and sustainable solutions in key sectors.

IMIK is a business school in India offering PGDM (post graduate diploma in management) and FPM programmes (fellow programme in management) in addition to research, consulting and outreach activities. The IMI Kolkata campus, founded by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, was established in 2010 to enable bright young minds gain access to the world class management-pedagogy. WHEELS is Section 8 independent non-profit foundation set up and run by IIT alumni & other complementary professionals to provide innovation & technology driven solutions to the challenges that affect the global rural population in the areas of Water, Healthcare, Energy, Education, Livelihood and Sustainability, and partners with NGOs and social-enterprise organisations towards achieving this objective.

This association intends to build an equal partnership that brings tangible benefits to farmers, women, children and overall the rural communities in the Sundarbans region. Principally IMIK will lead the development of a sustainability course in collaboration with Mukti and WGF. These courses both certificate and diploma based, will be multilingual and available in both online and offline formats to ensure accessibility. It is envisaged that IMIK will adopt new management learning methodologies to make the courses appropriate, approachable, and affordable from a rural perspective using on-ground insights and case studies from the sustainability initiatives provided by Mukti. WGF will facilitate logistics, coordination, appropriate funding and resource mobilization for field visits and workshops to develop and thereafter sustain the initiatives.

The focus areas for the sustainable development initiatives will be –

• Sustainable Healthcare (Telemedicine & Last-Mile Reach) – Leveraging digital healthcare solutions to enhance rural healthcare access.
• Nutrition & Women Empowerment – Implementing community-driven nutrition programs focusing on maternal and child nutrition and women’s skill development.
• Agriculture (Harvest Loss Minimization) – Introducing sustainable agricultural practices and improving rural livelihoods.

Currently intensive and extensive deliberations between IIMK, WGF and Mukti have taken place and the blueprint on the Way Forward developed and the implementation is progressing according to the plan.