CSR Show 2015: Gurgaon to become the CSR Hub of India

Hundreds of corporate firms, PSUs, social organizations and NGOs congregated at the CSR Show 2015, the biggest event of its kind being organized in Epicenter, Gurgaon. The two-day event aimed to showcase 'the best of sustainable and social practices adopted' by the industry and the welfare organizations alike, with Reliance Foundation, Max Foundation, Jindal Steel & Power limited, DLF Foundation, ONGC, MMTC, Hero Motocorp, Maruti Suzuki, Samsung, FICCI, GMR, Tata, JSW Foundation and Indian Oil among the participants.Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, The Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development was the chief guest present on the occasion. Mrs. Shallu Jindal, Director, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Mr. Jitendra Kalra, COO, Reliance Foundation,Lt. General Rajender Singh, CEO, DLF Foundation , Mr. Deepak Arora, CEO, Essar Foundation, Ms Neelima Khetan, Director, CSR & Sustainability, Coca-Cola, Mr. Sumantra Sen, JSW Foundation and Mrs. Mohini Daljeet Singh, CEO, Max Foundation  were amongst the other dignitaries present at the show.

The exhibition-cum-seminar opened on Tuesday, and was thematically built around the idea of 'building sustainable business through CSR. The event was organized by the Live Week in association with DLF Foundation as their event partner. The show hosted a number of speakers from the corporate world. The seminar started with an exhibition on some of the prominent and effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives conducted by those participating, along with a series of panel discussions on the side about CSR, sustainability and Swachh Bharat.

The first round of plenary discussion was on “PSU, Corporations, Governments and Development Sector’s role in Inclusive Growth with focus on Swachh Bharat.” Speaking on the occasion Lt General Rajender Singh, CEO, DLF Foundation said “We need to introspect that are we going the right way which will benefit our country, our society and humanity at large.

The latest company act and mandatory 2% expenditure on CSR has been a landmark as far as the social initiatives are concerned. Unemployment is the biggest problem that our country is facing today, our country is the youngest in the world with an average age of 28. Government has rightly laid down the priorities and our first priority as of now is to skill our youth and get them jobs, second is health, then education and after that comes our community development initiatives and Swachh Bharat. I believe that our responsibility as a Corporates is to act as a catalyst and boost the efforts of Government. Corporates have a great role in creating employment, lets create a kind of environment where people are skilled have jobs, let us educate them and make them the future leaders of the country. DLF Foundation has been extensively working on Skill Development, we aim to create a network of large no of skill developmental centres and train under-privileged youth and help them get jobs. Our target is to skill a million youths in the next decade. ”

The second day of the show witnessed discussion on the Swachh Bharat Mission and sanitation practices. The Corporates and NGO’s shared views and lessons on companies and PSU’s ambitious National Sanitation Mission, state of affairs in CSR post the companies Act, and Integrating Human Rights into Business Practice.

Ms Mugdha, one of the organizers, Live Week said “CSR show is an assembly of the strongest and most socially responsible organizations and NGOs. We aim to bring the best CSR practices together in a common platform for the welfare of the society.