HCL Foundation organizes symposiums for capacity building of NGO’s on the theme of “CSR for Nation Building” at Delhi
Delhi: HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCL Technologies today hosted the eleventh symposium in the series at India Habitat Centre, Jacaranda Hall in Delhi.
The day-long event was attended by eminent personalities such as Ms. Seema Chaudhary – Editor, HT Live mint– Heads the CSR section, Mr. Kamal Singh – Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network India, Ms. Verity Corbett, Development Sector Expert and Mr. Varun Vidyarthi, Founder , Manavodaya Institute of Participatory Development.
HCL Foundation hosted the various sessions where NGO’s working in the areas of health, environment, education, Livelihood etc. attended the sessions and shared their experiences and challenges.
• The symposiums in series so far in 10 cities – Hyderabad, Jammu, Pune, Bhopal, Ranchi, Coimbatore, Udaipur, Vadodara, Dehradun and Bangalore received a tremendous response in terms of NGO’s coming forward and showcasing their work models towards the development of the society.
• 180 participants attended the event representing many parts of the state.
• The symposiums are part of capacity building initiatives that HCL Foundation started in 2017.
• In year one, 11 symposiums were held in cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna, Raipur, Guwahati, Chandigarh, Imphal, Jaipur, Vijayawada and Bhubaneshwar amongst other.
As part of the capacity building initiatives, panel discussions and open house sessions were conducted with local NGO representatives and civil society experts on themes such as – Strategizing CSR to achieve Sustainable Development Goals: Global to Local and Challenges and Opportunities for local area development: Education, Health & Environment.
The Symposiums will also be held in 01 other location namely – Itanagar.
Some glimpses of the event:
Ms. Nidhi Pundhir, Director – CSR and Head – HCL Foundation, said, “Today’s event marks eleventh in the series towards our PAN India Symposiums. We hope that through the symposiums we will be able to positively contribute to capacity building of our NGOs working in remote rural locations and share ideas and solutions. The objective of these nation-wide symposiums is to drive inclusive development models that are innovative, add equitable value and help NGOs gain better understanding of the sector.”
Note of HCL Grant:
• Started in 2015, the HCL Grant is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitment by HCL, through HCL Foundation (hyperlink), to strengthen and empower NGOs, engage with them, as well as recognize them for their path breaking work. Currently focused at rural development, the HCL Grant is awarded in three thematic categories, namely Environment, Health and Education.
• The Grant is designed to support breakthrough award winning projects to NGOs, that have a proven track record of evident impact, high credibility and distinct ability to deliver. NGOs that reach out to marginalized, isolated, underserved and underdeveloped rural communities in India, and work jointly to achieve sustainable socio-economic development.
• In its 4th year now, HCL Grant has opened application for HCL Grant 2019. The last date to submit entries is June 4th 2018.
• The third edition of HCL Grant witnessed an overwhelming response from the participants and it received 3449 entries in all three categories from across the country, representing almost every Indian state, as well as union territories. Through edition 4, the HCL Grant envisions to identify another set of NGOs doing phenomenal work.
• The NGOs will be shortlisted by entrusted eminent jury panel through a transparent selection process which is focused on both the “Idea” as well as the NGO’s ability to transform those ideas into implementable projects that sustainably brings about positive rural transformation. The applicants fulfilling the eligibility criteria are required to fill the online application form and project proposal form. Scalability, sustainability, relevance, innovation and financial modelling are some of the key attributes that become qualifying criteria for HCL Grant besides the eligibility criteria that apply. To know more or apply and check the eligibility criteria, please visit http://hclgrant.hcltech.com/home. In case of any queries please write to [email protected]
• Through HCL Grant, HCL Foundation will award up to ₹ 5 Crores ($0.8Million) per category, per NGO, against a well-defined 5 years’ project. HCL Grant, through Edition I, II & III has already committed ₹ 35 Crore (US$5.4Million) towards high quality projects in the years 2015-16, 16-17 & 17-18.
• Through this commitment, the HCL Grant supported projects selected during Edition 1, 2 3 & 4 aim to cover 9,11,736 people in 3,567 villages in 26 districts across 12 states of India of which the projects have already covered 2,07,121 beneficiaries. These projects are already operational in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Nagaland.
• HCL Grant awards the winning NGOs in each of the categories of Education, Health and Environment ₹ 5 crore for a 5 years project. From this year, the Grant would like to reward the other finalists too, who are doing great work in their own right. So the 2 other finalists in each category will receive ₹ 25 lakhs for a 1 year project which will be mutually agreed with HCL Foundation after the final Jury meet. Thus, the total committed fund for HCL Grant is ₹16.5 Crores for the year 2018 – 19.
• The first three editions of HCL Grant have been endorsed by senior most leadership of the country, Former President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, Honorable Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Mr. Arun Jaitely and Honorable Home Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh who felicitated the recipients and complimented HCL on the institutionalization of a mechanism for Corporate Social Responsibility through CSR.