NASSCOM FOUNDATION AIMS FOR INR 50 CRORE WORTH PROJECT IMPLEMENTATIONS IN 2016-2017, ANNOUNCES SUCCESS ACROSS ITS PROGRAMMES
- In talks of creating multi regional partnerships from Employability based Skilling in Jammu and Kashmir to E-waste Management in Telangana
- Roots for Industry CSR money to be spent towards encouraging and funding social innovations
Mumbai, 12th February, 2016 – NASSCOM Foundation, today announced, that it has secured grants worth INR 50 Crore for the coming financial year 2016 -17 at the Industry’s Flagship, NASSCOM India Leadership Forum-2016.
The Foundation also announced that it would have spent INR 10 Crore by the end of 2015-16 towards successful implementation on its various programmes in Digital Literacy, Employability based skills development, Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, encouraging social innovations, providing software and hardware support to NGOs and supporting in national emergencies like the Chennai floods. In the last year, the Foundation had been able to directly and indirectly impact roughly 50 Lakh peoplethrough its programmes.
Earlier today, 11 projects in the areas of Education, Skills, Accessibility, Health, Women’s empowerment and other social issues were recognized as the best social innovations for the year 2015-16 and received their awards from Mr. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister, of Maharashtra. 10 of these projects will also receive grants worth INR 7 million from NSIF partners, Genpact and Mphasis.
The Foundation also hosted a high profile panel comprising of Larry S. Fox, Partner & Member of Board, Social Venture Partners; Kunal Kumar, Pune Municipal Commissioner; Jayesh Ranjan, IT Secretary, State of Telangana and Padma Shri Saurabh Srivastava, co-founder, Indian Angel Network and moderated by Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation to discuss on the theme ‘Inclusion @scale – Is CSR the way?’.
The panel broadly debated on the influx of new age techno social innovations and how they can be sustained and their impact enhanced through the CSR funds. Can companies collaborate to solve the large scale social issues in a region like how corporates in Pune have joined hands with the Pune Municipal Corporation to form ‘Pune City Connect’ with a goal to make Pune a Sakshar, Swachh and digitally literate city and further enhance its chances of becoming India’s first smart city. Can the IT Parks use CSR money, to retrofit their buildings for ease of access to the persons with disability and also manage their e-waste in a more responsible manner like how it is being run as a pilot project in the IT parks of Telangana.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation, said, “NASSCOM Foundation is aware of the responsibility entrusted to it by the industry and is taking all the steps in the right direction to enable the best use of the industry CSR funds. I am proud to state that the coming year will see the foundation spend increase five folds in its attempt to come closer to its goal of creating a truly inclusive India by using technology for creating a positive social change.”
NASSCOM Foundation, being the industry partner to the Government of India for the National Digital Literacy Mission, has been able to create 80+ centres across India aiming to make over 75000 households become digitally literate, giving them a chance to be a part of the India growth story in the booming digital economy and creating myriad heart-warming, human interest success stories on how digital literacy can change lives.
In addition, NASSCOM Foundation has been working with various corporates using their CSR funds to train people from underserved communities on employability driven skills and has signed various MoUs with the governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana among others bringing about a positive change towards financial inclusion and simultaneously enhancing the talent pool, for the industry to hire from.
NASSCOM Foundation is also working with the Government of Telangana to retrofit the IT Parks in Cyberabad region to make them inclusive of Persons with Disabilities. It is also working with the IT companies in the region to help them manage their e-waste responsibly.
Mr Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation said, ”Our ongoing partnership with so many corporates is a great example of how CSR money can be used for the benefit of millions across the country – improving their livelihood and income prospects, creating a real impact in the community. It’s a great way to achieve inclusion in society.”
NASSCOM Foundation announced that on the back of its successful partnerships with corporates like Amdocs, Aricent, Atos, Cisco, Capgemini, Cognizant, Cyient, Ericsson, Genpact, Google, HP, Intel, Infosys, Microsoft, Mothercare, Mphasis, Persistent, SAP, Sears, Symantec, Syntel, Wells Fargo and Zensar Technologies among others which has been growing year on year.
