September 2008, New Delhi: Mr. Sriram Bharatam, CEO & Founder of iridium Interactive Limited, has been awarded the ‘Udyog Rattan Award’ by the Institute  of  Economic  Studies,  New  Delhi,  one  of the  country’s  premier research institutes. This honor was conferred on Mr. Bharatam in recognition of his contributions towards Industrial development. In the same function, iridium Interactive Ltd, also received the Excellence award for outstanding performance in Productivity, Quality, Management and Innovation.

Mr. Bharatam is also the founder of the not-for-profit Causeaneffect Foundation (CnE). The Causeaneffect project was first launched to help the victims of the super cyclone that devastated Orissa in the year 1999. The same team then moved on to generate funds for the victims of the Gujarat Earthquake and Andhra Floods, as well as the Tsunami-affected victims across Tamil Nadu & Andhra. In all Causeaneffect projects, iridium Interactive (ii) functions as the commercial interactive agency, and has been highly successful in generating awareness and publicity. The ii management and employees are actively involved in all the initiatives of Causeaneffect, giving generously of their time and expertise.

Mr. Bharatam himself made an abrupt departure from a very promising consultancy career to establish CnE. An avid believer in the World Wide Web, he used the power of internet to raise significant funds for the cyclone victims & to build a global community of 18 million in just 45 days. This effort led him to win the world’s prestigious Kauffman Community Award for ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ in the year 2004. Known for his creativity and innovation, he currently spearheads the Web Accessibility and Usability Initiative, i.e. making websites accessible for the differently-abled.

Accepting the Udyog Rattan award, Mr. Bharatam said that both the awards rightfully belong to management, staff and well wishers of iridium Interactive who have contributed towards making the company  a success story.
The award was presented at India Habitat Center, New Delhi. The ceremony was graced by the Governor of Sikkim, Bhism Narain Singh, Ex-governor ,TamilNadu ,G.V.G.Krishna murthy,Former Election Commissioner and other dignitaries.

The Udyog Rattan Award and Award for Excellence is conferred by the Institute of Economic Studies every year.  IES (http://iesindia.org) was established in 1980 by a group of economists, parliamentarians and industrialists who came together to study and discuss problems concerning various aspects of the economy and economic development of India and offer their expert advice and services.

The previous recipients of this prestigious award include Vijay Mallaya, R Krishna Bajaj, H S Singhania, Dr B K Modi, B R Chopra, Renuka Ramnath and H P Nanda.

Over the years the institute has been patronised and inspired by the likes of Pranab Kumar Mukerjee, Khursheed Alam Khan, N D Tiwari, A K Panja, V N Gadgil, Madhavsing Solanki, Giani Zail Singh, Shankar Dayal Sharma, Kumudben Joshi, M Arunachalam, P Shiv Shankar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ram Rao Adik, M Hidayatullah and Rabi Ray.

About Iridium Interactive

iridium Interactive (ii) specializes in offering unique user-centric e-business solutions.  With a presence across three continents, it has been at the forefront in integrating strategy, design and technology to build unique, robust user-centric e-business solutions. We take the time to understand our client’s goals and develop interactive solutions to meet them. Our talented team has worked on a variety of disciplines for a multitude of clients drawn from various industries, and has a number of award-winning works to its credit. In the year 2007 iridium Interactive was chosen by NASSCOM as one of the top 100 Innovators of India.

iridium Interactive operates in the digital virtual world – but with the feet firmly entrenched in the physical real world. The raison de’ etre is social responsibility.  And that’s the core genesis.
Speaking on this occasion Sriram said, “We believe that every citizen has a responsibility to give back to the society, and we at iridium Interactive have steadfastly followed this adage. Our socially responsible approach is our differentiator – bringing smiles to more faces, and winning us a few accolades along the way. We translate our ideology into action in many ways: we advocate web accessibility in the virtual world; while working towards up-lifting the disabled in the real world through our non-profit arm, Cause an Effect foundation.”

Cause an Effect (CnE) is an award winning Not-for-Profit organization with international repute focusing on Disability, Organic farming and Livelihood. The organization harnesses the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for sustainable and equitable development, to enable the poor and the marginalized communities to transform their lives.

The process of empowering disabled is an end-to-end value chain that spans Iridium and Cause an effect, and is done through multiple initiatives. Cause an Effect has conducted disability camps bringing together the State Governments, transport authorities and medical personnel to issue 5000 disability certificates to the differently abled. It has also conducted livelihood trainings that have empowered thousands of people with financial viability, and workshops in education and English language to bring the needy community closer to the mainstream.

iridium has also been instrumental in promoting ‘web accessibility’ for visually impaired and motor disabled people, enabling them to access technology- and information-related products through the use of Internet. The company creates awareness amongst website owners (government and private) on the need to make sites accessible to disabled users, and also on promoting Internet usage within the disabled sections of the society.

About  Sriram Bharatam

Sriram started his career with Hewlett-Packard JV in the Strategy & Consulting practice, rising quickly through the ranks. He left a very promising career to establish a non-profit to aid victims of a natural calamity that occurred in Orissa, India in late 1999. An avid believer of the power of the world wide web, he used the power of internet to raise significant sum of funds for Cyclone victims & build a global community of 18 million in just 45 days through CauseanEffect foundation. This effort led him to win the world’s prestigious Kauffman Community Award for ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ in the year 2004.

With this confidence he founded India’s first full-cycle interactive agency, iridium Interactive in 1999. The focus of the organization has been to empower both corporate and their end clients through the medium of the internet. Today his team works with leading corporate in nine verticals across 3 continents. Known for creativity and innovation, he is currently spearheading the Web Accessibility initiative i.e making the web sites accessible for visually challenged in India. He is an alumni of MIT with bachelors in Engineering and Masters in Business Administration & a nominee of Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’.

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