Tata Africa believes in investing in the welfare and development of its partner communities. As a part of its ongoing community initiatives, the company has lent its support to the Ndlela Research and Clinical Trials Unit that operates in South Africa's rural regions.

The Ndlela group works at assessing and investigating the HIV epidemic in South Africa's rural areas by conducting basic HIV research including prevalence, incidence and molecular epidemiology of HIV. It also initiates and conducts clinical trials focused on the prevention of HIV – including efficient voluntary counselling and testing services, HIV vaccinations and microbicides trials. The Ndlela project is a collaboration between Soweto’s Perinatal HIV Research Unit and the University of Witwatersrand; it takes the clinical trials skills of dedicated researchers to the far reaches of the country to conduct HIV vaccine research.

The clinic and testing centre has grown from humble beginnings to a hub for doctors and nurses that wish to serve the broader community. Unfortunately, the road infrastructure in the research area is minimal and consists of mainly dirt roads linking the tiny villages and the clinics. These roads are not regularly maintained and are difficult to navigate in regular vehicles. In April 2008, Tata Africa, under the trusteeship of managing director Raman Dhawan, provided a brand new Tata Xenon 4x2 vehicle for transporting the team of volunteers and medical staff. 

Dr Eftyhia Vardas, director of the Ndlela project, said, “Tata Africa’s involvement in the Ndlela site is making a long term critical investment in the safe and dependable transport of research staff and research participants essential to ensure the efficient and rapid development of HIV intervention strategies and especially in the field of HIV vaccine research. This vehicle will also assist in enhancing the community understanding of HIV vaccines by allowing outreach events to take place in remote villages, enhance recruitment, retention and follow up of research participants, allow voluntary counselling and testing services to be accessible to more individuals especially those that are usually remote from existing services and unable to reach the available services”.

Ndlela is supported by research grants from the National Department of Science and Technology, the European Union through the FP6 programme of funding known as the AIDS Vaccine Integrated Project, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and collaborators from Spain. Ndlela is actively seeking further funding to conduct research in TB vaccines and infectious diseases in childhood that cause significant morbidity and mortality in the Agincourt area.