Mumbai: In a first effort of its kind, the corporate sector of India, including the Tata and Mahindra groups, has come forward to launch "Population First" (PF), an initiative to help the Union and state governments achieve the goal of population stabilisation by the year 2045, sources said on October 8.

"A trust has been formed and registered under the name of PF with a seed capital of Rs 25 lakh from Dorabjee Trust of the Tatas to initiate a human development programme with a focus on health and family welfare issues," PF executive trustee SV Sista told reporters on October 7 night.

"The PF would adopt a two-pronged strategy. At macro level, it would mount a national advocacy campaign for population stabilisation with the objective to sensitise all sectors of the society on effects of overpopulation. On micro level, a grassroot communication programme would be devised to reach the target audience to try and bring about attitudinal changes towards health and family welfare issues," he said.

"We will try to make PF a brand and may also consider tying up with fast moving consumer goods companies to make inroads in rural India," he added.

Apart from Sista, the board of trustees and founder members include Ratan Tata, Keshub Mahindra, Deepak Parekh, Jamshed Godrej, M S Swaminathan, Tejendra Khanna and Begum Bilkees Latif.

In addition, the PF has an advisory council headed by J J Irani and comprises personalities like Rajashree Birla, F C Kohli and Julio Ribeiro.

Sista said India has crossed the one billion mark and was expected to touch three billion by 2045.

PTI