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Instead, the town (or "nagar," in case you were wondering why it was called "Snapdeal.com Nagar") chose to change its name to thank the company for adopting the village and installing manual pumps, giving the inhabitants clean drinking water for the first time.
Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl is surprisingly modest about the adoption:
"We honestly did something very simple – didn't even cost that much – and installed 15 hand pumps, which now enable clean water within a distance of 50 meters for all the residents of the village. We must have spent a total of $5000 on getting this and the really cool part about this is that these 15 hand pumps will give clean water to the villagers for the next 15-20 years!"
He also plays down the new name of the village, explaining that the decision was as much to do with shaming the current government for their lack of help in matters of administration and quality of life as it is to do with Snapdeal's involvement. Best of all, Bahl also challenges other Indian start-ups to match Snapdeal's commitment:
"There are 640,000 companies incorporated in India, many many of them much much larger than ours. Assuming even 10% have the resources to do anything (and $5000 isn't really a lot), we can solve water problems for 64,000 villages and millions of people in India. Something to think about."
Yes, Snapdeal is making the most out of the positive PR coming from this event. But ensuring clean drinking water for an entire village for 15 years? That earns a lot of goodwill in my book, so let them make as much out of this as possible; maybe it'll inspire others to follow suit.
Source: techland.time.com