Industry a part of Team India with the Government: Dr VK Paul

NITI Ayog urges India Inc to  build Anganwadis in Urban areas

New Delhi, 23 January 2023: “You are a part of Team India with the Government,” said Dr VK Paul, Hon’ble Member, NITI Aayog, Government of India, addressing India Inc at the CII National CSR Summit, organised by the CII in partnership with the National Foundation for Corporate Governance (NFCG) in Delhi today. The Summit brought together corporate leaders, especially CSR leaders, policymakers, experts, and NGOs to deliberate on the evolving role of CSR, the enablers that would drive CSR and the power of collaboration in driving social change around the theme of the Summit: ‘Future of CSR: The Enablers’.

On early childhood care, he mentioned that while Anganwadis were present in suitably large numbers in rural India, there was a pressing need to scale up their presence in urban areas. Industry has a critically important role to play in India’s social transformation, he stressed. Dr Paul urged India Inc to look at areas where government and industry could partner to accelerate India’s social development. Speaking of opportunities in healthcare, he mentioned looking at setting up a National Institute of Child Health which would offer medical facilities at par with the best in the world, while in elderly care, he talked about providing basic assistive technology to every elderly person who needs it.

Dr Paul also released a compendium – Creating Value Through Partnerships – which presents successful case studies of government-industry collaboration of 16 companies in areas such as education and environment sustainability.

At a session on Opportunities to Partner National Priorities with a focus on mainstreaming communities, Mr Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Department of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment said that there is a need to look at disabled people with a fresh pair of eyes and not focus on their disability and limitation because each disabled person can be an extremely productive employee. Sharing his perspective on the power of partnerships, Mr Lok Ranjan, Secretary, Ministry of Development of North-eastern Region said that there are tremendous opportunities for development in the North-east Region but stressed on the need to understand the region-specific challenges and requirements and emphasized that for CSR interventions to be meaningful, they cannot be ad hoc – pilot projects should lead to scale ups and try to resolve the larger issues of the region, rather than an immediate and localised need.  Major General Amit Loomba, Additional Director General, Ceremonials & Welfare, Army Headquarters; and CSR Committee Member, Indian Army, in the same session shared the welfare initiatives undertaken by the armed forces and said that Indian industry has the ethos, logos and pathos to drive social change and that it can give longevity to the welfare projects of the armed forces by supporting them.

Ms Rumjhum Chatterjee, Co-Chair, CII National CSR Committee and Co-Founder & Managing Trustee, Infravision Foundation observed that  In addition to the existing issues, there are emerging elements like the impact of climate change, increased frequency of disasters, emerging disease outbreaks, fast technology transitions, that are of deep significance in the CSR space.

While funding is an important aspect of CSR, Corporate India should go beyond funding, asserted Mr Ashank Desai, Co-Chair, CII National Committee on CSR 2022 -23 and Founder & Former Chairman, Mastek Ltd. It should also help identify and nurture leaders who will drive impactful transformation.

This was amply borne out when the 3 CII Foundation Woman Exemplars - Mana Mandlekar, Rama Sharma and Lata Mane, who are grassroots women leaders, shared their stories of struggle and setbacks and how they had emerged as leaders for their communities, driving change in the areas such as education and healthcare for the marginalised and underprivileged.

Farmer Co-operatives who have played active role in crop residue management to achieve stubble burning, were recognised in the CSR Summit platform.

A new feature at this Summit was a Partnership Facilitation Zone – a space specially curated and designed space for implementing agencies to exhibit and showcase their projects. This was to facilitate partnership / collaboration for projects.