• 5TH EDITION of CSR Summit 2016

    (L to R) Ms. Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA, Mr. Deepak Sahu,Chief editor, SPO INDIA, Mr. Champak Raj Gurjar, President-FAIITA, Mr. Ashutosh Chadha, Group Director-Govt. Affairs & Public Policy- Microsoft Corporation, Mr. Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, Mr. Deepak Maheshwari, Director, Government Affairs, India & ASEAN Region, Symantec, Mr. Amit Gujral, Head Marketing, LG India, Mr. Thaawarchand Gehlot, Hon’ble Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI, Mr. Som Mittal, Chairman, NCPEDP and Former Chairman, NASSCOM, Mr. Avanish K Awasthi, Joint Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI, Mr. Sanjay Jha, Director, CSR- INTEX India, Ms. Surabhi Srivastava, Co-founder & COO, Innovision, Mr. D. R. Sarin, CMD, ALIMCO, Ms. Gayatri Subramanium, Convener & Chief Programme Executive, Head - (IA) Hub, NFCSR, IICA, Ms. Priyanka (Sign Language Interpreter)

  • CSR Summit (Audience)

CSR@Disability - Bringing the Industry & the Government together on the Development agenda

With the Government’s vision to transform India into knowledge economy and to spend the mandated 2% of their profits on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, SPO INDIA and NASSCOM Foundation are trying to bridge an alliance between the Industry and Government to discuss on CSR and Sustainable developmental goals and the role for the private sector in engaging with a development agenda. With this mind, an event themed CSR@Disability took place that aimed to address this issue at large.

The event was covered in 2 sessions – the first session covered the theme CSR@Disability wholly which included speeches and presentations from different dignitaries and corporates and the second session covered the Panel discussion.

Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot, Hon’ble Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI was the Chief Guest for the morning session and he was joined by Ms. G Latha Krishna Rao, IAS, Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI.

Other dignitaries who graced the occasion were Mr. Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation; Mr. D. R. Sarin, CMD, ALIMCO; Mr. Avanish K Awasthi, Joint Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI; Mr. Som Mittal, Chairman, NCPEDP and Former Chairman, NASSCOM; Mr. Deepak Maheshwari- Director, Government Affairs, India & ASEAN Region, Symantec; Ms. Gayatri Subramanium- Convener & Chief Programme Executive, Head - (IA) Hub, NFCSR, IICA; Ms. Meenu Bhambani- Vice President & Head - Corporate Social Responsibility, Mphasis and Ms. Surabhi Srivastava- Co-founder & COO, Innovision.

Opening the morning session, Deepak Kr Sahu, President – SPOI said in his speech, “With the industry having responded positively to the reform measures undertaken by the government across the public and private sector, Section 135 (Indian and multinational companies) has brought more companies into the fold. According to Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, a minimum of 6,000 Indian companies will be required to undertake CSR projects in order to comply with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 with many companies undertaking these initiatives for the first time. Further, some estimates indicate that CSR commitments from companies can amount to as much as 20,000 crore INR. This combination of regulatory as well as societal pressure has meant that companies have to pursue their CSR activities more professionally.” There was also a panel discussion by the theme CSR @ Disability that was moderated by Mr. Avanish K Awasthi, Joint Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI and the panellists who joined the discussion were Mr. Ashutosh Chadha,- Group Director Government Affairs and Public Policy at Microsoft India; Ms. Gayatri Subramanium- Convener & Chief Programme Executive, Head - (IA) Hub, NFCSR, IICA; Ms. Meenu Bhambani- Vice President & Head - Corporate Social Responsibility, Mphasis; Mr. Deepak Maheshwari- Director, Government Affairs, India & ASEAN Region, Symantec and Ms Surabhi Srivastava- Co-founder & COO, Innovision.

MINUTES OF THE EVENT

Welcoming SHRI. THAAWARCHAND GEHLOT, Hon'ble Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Government of India

Welcoming MS. G LATHA KRISHNA RAO, IAS Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI

Welcoming MR. AVANISH K AWASTHI Joint Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI

Welcoming Mr. Som Mittal, Chairman, NCPEDP and Former Chairman, NASSCOM

Panel Discussion : CSR@Disability 2016

Audience in attentive mood
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Keynote Speakers



Shri. Thaawarchand Gehlot

Hon'ble Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Government of India

“Historically, it has been a tradition to do something good for the society, to work for its welfare in terms of both economic and social goodness. Though the term ‘CSR’ has been coined only recently, the emphasis fundamentally has always been to uplift the society; corporates earning huge profits contribute 1-2 % of its income to the betterment of the societal good. There are people who earmark this money for religious work too. Keeping this in mind, the government realised that government funds and subsidies are just not sufficient to work for social good. Unless this made into a law and urging every corporates to contribute 2% of profits towards this cause, CSR would never meet its objective of serving the community and the society at large.”

Ms. G Latha Krishna Rao, IAS

Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI.

“We are talking about Corporate Social Responsibility very often but for a long time there has been a generous funding of the corporate sector towards several societal causes. They have done it on their own and that funding we are trying to formularizing it through CSR. I was going through the funding that the sector received from the corporates, but I think if we have a little respect for this sector that we should be doing more than what we have been doing. If you really want to do something then do a good job, other than doing it just to earn a mere name. Giving a very small portion of your corporate funds for a sector as vast as this, is not the only answer. They should open up more if they have the willingness to serve this sector.

Mr. Avanish K Awasthi

Joint Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI

“Vibrant Ability or Vibrant Inclusion is what the government should be talking about. ALIMCO has taken the first big step in addressing the disabilities and rehabilitating them. All across the country, 4500 camps have been organized to provide aids and devices to the disabilities. The idea is not just to give these at their doorstep; but it is to change the mindset of the people and the country towards the disabled population and bring them the motivation and change. The Honourable PM has been present individually in many of our programs, including his constituency Varanasi. The program held at Navsari gave away 11,000 devices to the disabled persons from the state. Gujarat should be a model state for all of us that in one stroke changed the way people look at this sector.”