SAHYOG

"Everyone is someone’s type"

The World Health Organisation (WHO) stipulates that with a population of over 1.2 billion people, India needs more than 12 million units of blood annually but collects only about nine million. The chronic shortage of blood supply in India worsens during times of disease breakout. While there are numerous platforms that collect blood across the country there is a lack of awareness and cultural taboos associated with blood donation in India.

The Invest India Social Impact Initiative team decided to conduct a blood donation drive during the 2018 dengue breakout in collaboration with the Indian Red Cross Society to help raise awareness and contribute to blood bank reserves. The blood drive saw over 60 volunteers and various inquiries on future drive locations and timings. With a total of 30 units donated and 90 lives saved the Social Impact Initiative team has decided to make the blood drive an annual occurrence.

"Jab Bharat Padhega Toh India Badhega"

The young and growing population of our country is one of the most appealing characteristics of the Indian market to any business, foreign or domestic. However, it is not just the quantity but quality of the workforce that will leverage India’s growth potential to competitive international standards. With over 14 crore children in primary school, improvement in basic education standards and infrastructure is crucial. This will ensure that the millions of Indians entering the workforce in the coming years contribute to their highest potential to what is headed to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

The Invest India Social Impact Initiative focuses on the theme of primary education in underdeveloped areas as its umbrella vision for its projects. With the successful completion of phase one with support from Wabco, our team began working towards a sustainable model of providing soft support to the children within the school. Phase two saw the creation of a cost-efficient sustainable model that utilises waste paper from our office to create recycled stationary. Phase two of the project generated 256 recycled notebooks from 617kgs of paper at zero cost. These notebooks have been donated to the Government school in Alwar. The Invest India Social Impact Initiative team is now working towards increasing the number of offices engaged in providing the waste paper and working closely with a network of schools and associations working towards improving children’s education. The aim is to associate with not-for-profit groups that provide gratuitous educational services to children from below poverty line households, orphanages and special needs schools to provide assistance through the recycling project.

“Working with Wabco”

Invest India identified Indok village (Alwar district of Rajasthan) that lay in rubble and required a holistic development. With an aim to partner with several corporates each of which would take up different aspect of the given project, we identified a few sectors that required facilitation, to create a comprehensive approach to the issues faced in this village. Alwar district falls in the buffer zone of the Sariska National Park. Wild animals often trespass into the village, threatening lives of many. Since the school compound in the village was also vulnerable to this threat, infrastructure development, and safety became sectors of foremost importance to the first phase of our project.

After months of research and planning, the Invest India team was successfully able to receive support from WABCO, a Belgium auto components multinational company operating in India over many years.  As part of their CSR mandate, WABCO funded the entire boundary wall of the school in this village. The wall was built within two months and provided a safety threshold to the child

In light of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in India, Invest India launched the Business Immunity Platform initiative to aid investors and companies tide over this unprecedented crisis.

As part of this initiative, Invest India’s Social Impact team built an assistance cell which helped corporates channel CSR funds and protective healthcare equipment to various government departments as well as Central and State funds set up for COVID-19 relief. The team developed a significant pipeline of donations and CSR contributions from corporates and created a repository of technologies focused on COVID-19 interventions that can be supported by CSR spending. Facilitation of donations included essential supplies, PPEs, critical care equipment, and other commodities to frontline organizations.

Building on insights from these engagements, Invest India’s Sahyog team published a report highlighting the changing landscape of CSR in India during COVID-19, Government of India’s initiatives to scale CSR for COVID and insights into key trends via a survey. The report also features a comprehensive overview of the role of CSR for technological incubators as an instrumental stride in the battle against the virus outbreak. 

The Government of India has expanded the scope of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Now the 2% CSR  funds can be spent on incubators funded by Central or State Government or any agency or Public Sector Undertaking of Central or State Government, and, making contributions to public funded Universities, Government bodies engaged in conducting research in science, technology, engineering and medicine aimed at promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Invest India has developed a 'Frequently Asked Questions’ booklet on CSR contributions to Technology Incubators. It was developed in collaboration with Nishith Desai Associates, as a ready reckoner for corporates looking to make CSR contributions to technology incubators. 

Invest India continues to facilitate corporates looking for impactful CSR opportunities by strengthening initiatives such as the n 100 provided by incubators from across the country. The CSR Repository can be accessed CSR projects repository on the India Investment Grid (IIG). It contains more than 600 CSR projects, including more tha.

Invest India conducted a webinar on d CSR for technology incubators.

in partnership with ISBA, the largest network of incubators in India to bring more awareness regarding the recent CSR amendments and Sahyog team’s associated activities to help facilitate CSR funding to further contribute to mobilizing the innovation ecosystem in India.