a national saint. In 2012, Darda was reported to have been associated with companies that were awarded coal blocks under the controversial coal allocation by the then Coal Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for a throwaway price. In this controversy, his brother, Rajendra Darda, was also named along with him. Philanthropy Darda is the founder of Shri Jawaharlal Darda Institute of Engineering & Technology at Yavatmal and is the Managing Trustee of Press Institute of Maharashtra, Pune along with Smt. Kusumabai Darda Trust. Bhari village in the Yavatmal district was adopted by Darda under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. The village was converted into a model village at a cost of INR 1 crore. Darda donated INR 5 lakhs to the descendants of Tatya Tope because of the deteriorating condition of the family. He supported Sultana Begum (great granddaughter of Bahadur Shah Zafar) with the wedding of her daughter. Darda has worked towards stopping the slaughterhouses and has interest in wildlife conservation owing to his Jain roots. In 1984, Darda arranged funds for the people who were impacted by floods in Nanded and Parbhani. School buildings were constructed. He supported the Lokmat Relief Fund during earthquakes of Bihar (1988) and Killari (Latur, Marathwada 1993). Kargil Relief funds were raised by him and the group for the martyrs of Kargil from Aurangabad, Nagpur, Lature and Solapur through which hostels were made. Social and religious Under the guidance of Shri Vijay Darda, Lokmat Media Group organised a National Inter-Religious Conference in Nagpur on 24 October 2021. Religious and spiritual leaders from different religions participated in this conference and called for communal harmony and universal brotherhood. The religious leaders who graced the conference included Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji, Founder of Art of Living, Swami Ramdev ji, Founder of Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar, Acharya Dr. Lokeshmuni ji, Founder of Ahimsa Vishwa Bharti, Brahmaviharidas Swami ji of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, Cardinal Oswald Gracias ji, Archbishop of Mumbai, Pralhad Wamanrao Pai ji of Jeevanvidya Mission, Mumbai, Bhikkhu Sanghasena, Founder of Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre, Leh and Ladakh and Haji Syed Salman Chishty, Gaddi Nashin, Dargah Ajmer Sharif. The Chief Guest of the programme was Shri Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Government of India and the Guest of Honour was Shri Dayashankar Tiwari, Mayor of Nagpur. Awards and recognition Feroze Gandhi Memorial Award for excellence in Journalism (1990–91) International jurists award in UK