Hyderabad, May 6, 2014: Microsoft today announced the successful rollout of the third edition of TOFFEE (Total Offense Free Entity), a traffic awareness initiative piloted by a group of employees of Hyderabad campus in association with the Cyberabad Traffic Police, to more than 350 employees at its Hyderabad campus. At a function held at the Microsoft Hyderabad campus today, Mr Avinash Mohanty, IPS, DCP-Traffic, Cyberabad, in the presence of Mr Shyam Sundar, IPS, DCP-Traffic, Hyderabad, announced that starting this year, TOFFEE will be valid all over Hyderabad as against only Cyberabad, as was the case earlier. The event was attended by representatives from more than 25 corporate houses in the neighborhood, including ISB, Amazon, Deloitte, Infosys, Dell, who were invited to the event by the DCP-Traffic, Cyberabad. Mohanty also announced a couple of new initiatives that are being driven by Microsoft Hyderabad employees and urged the companies to implement the same, to help make Hyderabad a safer and more traffic friendly city.
Commenting on the program, Chitra Sood, Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd, said: “The extension of TOFFEE outside the Cyberabad region to cover all of Hyderabad is a strong endorsement of the efficacy of this program. TOFFEE is a great example of public-private partnership. It is amazing to see how this program, which was initiated in 2011 by a few Microsoft Hyderabad campus employees, passionate about promoting the basics of road safety and traffic law, has now matured into something that spans across the entire city. I congratulate the team on their success, and am extremely thankful to the Cyberabad Traffic Police for their guidance and support. This year, we have distributed more than 350 TOFFEE stickers to employees on campus and are looking at expanding the number in years to come. I hope more and more organizations in Hyderabad will adopt and benefit from TOFFEE.”
Congratulating the Microsoft team for pioneering and driving this initiative, Mr Mohanty said: “The partnership between the Cyberabad Traffic Police department and Microsoft has significantly improved the traffic and road safety conditions in the Cyberabad region. Over the last few months, Microsoft employees have been providing voluntary traffic management at the extremely busy IIIT junction every Monday for at least 90 minutes during peak hours. Their efforts have not only helped decongest the roads and raised traffic awareness, but most importantly saved time for citizens who used to get stuck at this junction. In 2012, together with Microsoft, we helped Wipro roll out this program for their employees. This year, we would love to see more companies come forward and replicate TOFFEE. All they need is to approach Cyberabad Police Commissionerate, and we, with the help of Microsoft volunteers, will extend all possible help in rolling out TOFFEE for their organizations.”
TOFFEE is the first of its kind initiative started in 2011 by a group of Microsoft Hyderabad campus employees in association with the Cyberabad Police, to improve awareness about the basics of road safety and traffic laws. A TOFFEE certificate is a vehicle sticker valid for one year, which ensures that the vehicle is not stopped for normal/routine document verification checks by the traffic police. Every year, Microsoft receives several hundred applications for TOFFEE, which go through a rigorous process of shortlisting before stickers are finally issued to employees on campus.
The first step in the process is to ensure each applicant has proper documentation in place – vehicle registration certificate, lifetime tax paid receipt for non AP registered vehicles, insurance, driving license and a valid pollution under control certificate. Each of these documents are scrutinized by a team of TOFFEE volunteers at Microsoft. The next step is to monitor the applicant’s driving and parking in and around campus for about a fortnight. Applications of only those employees who successfully clear both the steps are then submitted to the Cyberabad traffic police department, who in turn verify the documents before issuing the stickers. This entire process is driven in association with the Microsoft global security team and is automated so that successful applicants receive timely reminders to renew necessary documents in advance before they expire.
About Microsoft Hyderabad
Microsoft’s Hyderabad campus houses Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd and Microsoft Global Delivery. Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd (MIRPL) is one of Microsoft Corporation’s largest R&D centers outside its headquarters in Redmond, focused on engineering for both external and internal software products. Microsoft Services Global Delivery is the global delivery organization of Microsoft Services worldwide. In just six years of its operations, Global Delivery has established a global footprint by delivering cutting edge services solutions to leading enterprises across the world.
