Standard Chartered Bank

To celebrate its 150th Anniversary in 2003, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) embarked on a global community program – ‘Seeing is Believing’ (SiB) to raise funds to cure avoidable blindness. The program’s initial goal was to raise enough money to save the sight of one person for each of the Bank’s 28,000 employees (in 2003). By the end of 2003, SCB doubled its original target and restored the eyesight of 56,000 people around the globe. During the first phase of SiB in India in 2003, SCB raised funds enough to restore sight to more than 8,000 people in the country (double the employee population in that year in SCB India). With more than 12 million blind people in India, resource mobilization is the key issue. According to World Health Organization estimates, annual incidence of cataract in India is 3 million of which 2 million surgeries are done annually, adding 1 million to the backlog every year. Keeping these facts in mind, SCB set out to identify the right partners among NGOs that would support the Bank in its endeavor to carry out cataract surgeries through implantation of Intra Ocular Lens (IOL) for needy and marginalized people. During the second phase of SiB (2004-06), in view of the impact and resounding success of the initiative in the initial year, the Bank set a new goal to restore sight to 1 million people over the next 3 years globally.
As part of this initiative in India, SCB has partnered with Sight Savers International, one of the leading international eye care agencies, to support two flagship projects in Muzzaffarpur (Bihar) and Vishakapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). About 0.45 million people benefitted through these two flagship projects. SiB has grown at an astonishing rate, contributing to the restoration of 1 million sights. By the end of 2010 (third phase spans 2007-10), SiB will reach 10 million people through a variety of initiatives to both prevent and cure blindness. In its current phase, SiB has expanded to deal with prevention as well as cure as this is the only sustainable way to tackle the increasing numbers of avoidably blind. In India, a total of 1.4 million people will benefit through cataract surgeries and provision of primary eye care services. In partnership with CBM International, SiB as an initiative is supporting 0.93 cataract surgeries across 22 states in the country. Additionally, 0.47 million people in the states of Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana will be benefitted through setting up of 40 Vision Centers with the support of leading eye care institutions in these states.

American Express India

American Express India introduced the Employee Payroll Giving Program for the first time in 2008 and last year it added an exciting feature to the program, whereby an employee’s contribution was matched by American Express Foundation and the program was christened ‘Give2Gether’ (G2G). The new name reinforced the fact that when employees give to their favorite charities, American Express gives too. An extensive internal campaign was designed to generate awareness and to drive employee engagement and participation in the program. Together, through employee pledges and the match from the American Express Philanthropy, Amex has been able to raise close to Rs. 1 Crore for charitable causes on an annual basis.
Service to customers is the heart of Amex’s business, and service to the community is an important and natural extension of the company and employee efforts. Whether mentoring students, caring for the elderly, feeding the hungry or cleaning up the environment, thousands of Amex employees serve their communities through volunteerism each year. In India, the Leadership team set up a Good Citizenship (GC) Council to drive the company’s agenda. A cross functional all India team led by an India Leadership Team (ILT) member was set up in January 2009 which took charge and set up a calendar of activities for the year to drive the culture of giving. The company actively encourages and facilitates employee volunteerism. Global Volunteer Action Fund (GVAF) is an extension of Amex’s Employee Volunteer Program by bringing together the many volunteer efforts of the company into one cohesive program. The intention was to make it easier for employees to participate in volunteer opportunities throughout the year in their local communities. The initiative allows employees to locate and sign up for volunteer projects, record their volunteer time and apply for grants of up to $1,000 (for an individual employee) $2,500 (for teams of two or more employees). Last year, Amex awarded 13 GVAF grants totaling more than $15,000 in India.

Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd.

To keep its focus on ‘Design for Environment’, Intel India has taken goals on green initiatives and built them into the Corporate Bonus program for the employees. Based on the performance in the green initiatives, the company rates itself against the goal and hence has a direct bearing on the bonus received by each employee. The savings in power have been benchmarked against the current products / technologies available in the market and the computing power required in the future. Given that there is a constant improvement in technology, a huge 68% power reduction is a first and huge step towards consumption reduction and hence environment protection. Making products which are in lead-free or halogen-free packaging helps the company in better recycling and hence reduces problems to the environment.
Education too is a key focus area for Intel as the company believes that students across India deserve to develop skills to be successful in the global knowledge economy. Intel is actively involved with governments, academia and various partners (through public private partnership) to catalyze changes in India’s education system to help develop these skills. Under ‘Intel Teach Program’, the company has partnered with all the state governments and several national level bodies like National Council for Teacher Education, to address two critical key areas. Firstly, teacher quality and building the capabilities of the education functionaries at the school, block and district levels; secondly, curriculum reforms to ensure that learning is experiential, and promotes understanding and application of the knowledge rather than the child’s capacity to memorize textbook content.

Tata Teleservices Ltd.

Tata Teleservices Ltd. has Education and Environment as the two major areas of interventions for its Corporate Social Activities. With the aim of providing education to enhance employability, TTSL has initiated several projects such as Project Learning that focuses on leveraging TTSL’s core competence of providing connectivity to people in villages and the underprivileged sections of the society thereby bridging the digital divide. For this project, TTSL partnered with NASSCOM Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages of India and Smile Foundation. TTSL provides internet connectivity and refurbished computers to the Knowledge Centers run by these organizations. The company has also introduced innovative capacity building initiatives like the ‘Re-ignite Program’ targeted at building greater achievement motivation for the leaders in these organizations. Project Drishti was launched in association with The National Institute for Blind, Mumbai and Blind Relief Association, New Delhi and set up 2 call centers manned by visually impaired people who made outbound calls to TTSL customers. These have been running successfully for two years and TTSL is setting up a third one in UP East Circle.
As part of the company’s focus on environment, TTSL has undertaken several initiatives such as propagating the use of recycled paper wherein 80% of all paper used by TTSL has to be replaced by recycled paper. Under the ‘Print Manager’ initiative, an application by that name has been developed by the TTSL IT Department with the aim to reduce paper consumption across the organization. The application is in the form of a user interface which prompts the user to think before s/he gives a print command by letting him know the number of trees will be cut with that print command. As a result of these initiatives, TTSL has managed to save 1,350 trees from being cut and saved 16,458,000 sheets of paper annually, further resulting in saving 247 trees from being cut. Although TTSL does not generate any e-waste through its direct operations, there is an indirect fall out of operations from equipment like computers, switches, batteries, etc. The company has tied up with ATTERO Recycling – the country’s only Government certified e-waste recycling plant in India, for an organized process of e-waste disposal. TTSL has placed drop boxes in its offices and select retail outlets where employees and customers can drop their mobile phones, unused batteries for disposal.

Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd.

In collaboration with MV Foundation, Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd. is striving to eradicate child labor by enrolling children into the mainstream education system through residential bridge camps. MV Foundation is an NGO founded in 1981 that has positively impacted close to 600,000 children by mainstreaming them into regular schools. Qualcomm has partnered with them to set up their first residential bridge camp in the city of Hyderabad. The company also provided financial contribution to Sikshana Foundation to support their adoption and education programs. The funding was aimed at enhancing educational standards at 25 schools in the Kanakapura district in Karnataka. The project makes a positive difference for 3,450 students from government primary schools by empowering teachers, motivating the children and equipping the schools with laptop computers, resulting in a 35% increase in the school’s assessment scores over a period of three years.
Qualcomm supports Save the Children India (STCI) in their ongoing efforts to make India a more child-friendly nation. Recently, the company made a contribution to STCI in support of three key funding projects — construction of a Special Care Center; operations of four Balvadis (pre-schools); and operations of ten Adolescent Girls Centers. The Special Care Centre provides for 85 more children to study each year while the Adolescent Girls Centers provide life skills, financial independence and empowerment to 120 young girls from poor backgrounds. The Balvadis ensure children aged between three to five years within the underprivileged communities get basic education so that once they start grade one in school, they are set up for success.
Qualcomm India employees participate in multiple donation drives such as Fund Collection through employee donation drives and blood donation in association with the Thalassemia Society. Most of the company’s initiatives are inclined toward encouraging education and bringing up educated communities. At the Hyderabad site of the company, Qualcomm has conducted two donation drives to raise funds and two blood donation drives in the past one year.

Infosys Technologies Ltd.

At Infosys Technologies Ltd., the community activities are carried out at multiple stakeholder levels within the organization, and the accountability exists equally in all levels. Infosys’ CSR theme HEART (Healthcare, Education, Art & Culture, Rural Upliftment & Rehabilitation and Targeted Inclusive Growth) drives all the activities in Infosys. As a socially responsible corporate with sound business practices, Infosys believes in developing sustainable solutions for society in partnership with its stakeholders, and encourages its employees to contribute to social development. The CSR theme HEART has been adopted at various internal stakeholder levels including the Board of Directors, the Infosys Foundation, Infosys Group and Infoscions. In 2008-09, these stakeholders implemented a number of large community programs. Infosys’ employee CSR groups in India, in association with the Infosys Foundation, launched the Notebook Donation Drive to equip schools in rural India with essential stationery kits. The employees contributed and raised donations to sponsor 32,120 children from 274 schools and provided flood relief in the form of rehabilitation kits, food packets and disaster-resistant shelters to victims in Indian states of Orissa and Bihar. This year, the Infosys Foundation initiated Jnanavikasa, a program that trains rural women in India in hygiene, health, nutrition, infant care, literacy and vocational skills. The program is estimated to reach 750,000 women in rural India in the next few years. Under the HEART program, 102,190 children across India benefitted by mid-day meal initiatives and 81.3% students trained under Special Training program, gained employment.
The Infosys Foundation, formed in 1996, comprises of a dedicated team which works to support and enrich the underprivileged sections of the society. The Foundation is involved in four key areas viz. facilitating affordable health care, rehabilitating destitute women, enabling children from rural and underprivileged communities, and nurturing Indian arts and heritage. In 2008-09, the Foundation implemented various community programs benefiting 3,150 schools and approximately 43,680 individuals. This includes rehabilitation of 920 devadasis, an underprivileged community of women in India, and their children.