Chicken Soup for IT?

The age old adage charity begins at home is perhaps best exemplified by
Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor Infosys. Through Infosys Foundation
and other initiatives, this tech bellwether has always been on the forefront of
philanthropic activities as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Murthy firmly underlines the significance of CSR: For benefits of
globalization and technology to reach the poor, the private sector,
philanthropic institutions and committed individuals should cooperate and
establish partnerships with government institutions. This would lift millions of
our people out of poverty, provide them with opportunities and make them
participate in the process and progress of globalization, .

Referred to as a companys soul food, CSR is a voluntary exercise undertaken
by business enterprises including taking positive steps regarding its resources,
skills, location and funds for the benefit of people and environment. While
Murthy and Infy have been proactive on the CSR front, how do other tech
companies, both MNCs and Indians, stack up?

The sad part is that CSR still has not taken off in India according to a
recent survey by Mumbai based online organization Karmayog. The second edition
of the survey has revealed startling facts: nearly half of the top 1,000 Indian
companies surveyed do nothing by way of corporate social responsibility.
Karmayogs suggestion was that every company must spend a minimum of 0.2% of its
sales on CSR and make a mention of it in the annual report.

For the Indian IT industry, whatever CSR activities are happening are
centered around education, rural upliftment and helping the physically
challenged. Dataquest attempts to track down some of the CSR initiative which
the major IT companies have undertaken.

Education for All

All children deserve to have access to knowledge and the digital divide can
be a big barrier for them to be successful in a knowledge based economy. Not
surprisingly, education has become a key focus area for the Indian government
with the 11th Five year plan earmarking Rs 5,000 crore for setting up IT
infrastructure in government schools.

It is imperative that students across India are allowed to develop skills
essential to compete in a globally competitive world. And with more than 80% of
the schools in India being government schools, corporate India too has joined
hands with the government for undertaking serious efforts focused on enhancing
the quality of education in this space.

Taking a cue, a majority of IT companies in India are now assisting the
underprivileged children to prepare for mainstream education by equipping them
with skills required to compete in a global world.

Tech Mahindra runs Prayasa project for providing community based alternative
primary education for empowerment of out-of-school marginalized children in
Delhis urban slums. Under the project, the Tech Mahindra Foundation is
supporting seven additional alternative education centers, which provide
education to 280 children. These centers are located in areas where the children
lack parental support or parents are not in a position to afford remedial
coaching through commercial coaching centers.

Another Indian IT company, Polaris, too has been running a unique program
called Ullas for over a decade now, for recognizing academic excellence in
students from corporation and government schools between classes nine and
twelve, by providing not just monetary assistance but also sharpening social
skills. Beginning with just thirty-two children, Ullas has awarded over 20,000
scholarships to students in schools across all districts of Tamil Nadu, Mumbai
and Delhi, says K Govindarajan, senior VP and head, administration and special
projects, Polaris.

Like Dell globally, Polaris too has decided to contribute 1% of the companys
profits to the Ullas Trust. In the last fiscal, 3,313 students were awarded
young achiever scholarships representing 196 schools in Chennai, 150 schools
from all districts of Tamil Nadu. What makes the project unique is that the
initiative is anchored by the employees of Polaris, who contribute 40% of the
scholarship amount, while Polaris contributes the remaining 60%, adds
Govindarajan.

Wipro meanwhile has partnered with thirty-two organizations. In 2008 alone,
the company worked on thirty-five projects in partnership with twenty-seven
organizations, and was mainly involved in providing infrastructure for
marginalized children at Kasturba Gurukulam (working with girl child) and
Vanavil (with nomadic children).

HP India has undertaken the Sankya Plus Education program in partnership with
Rotary International District. A virtual network to connect schools, teachers
and children, HP India has awarded a grant of Rs 60 lakh for setting up a
HP-Rotary hub that will connect numerous government and unaided schools.

This knowledge center will facilitate the dissemination of information to
over 500 schools in the first phase by utilizing the existing computer
networkby creating pre-recorded virtual classroom sessions. The project will
also identify and deploy laboratory simulation packages that will either
compensate for the lack of good laboratory infrastructure in many schools or
supplement existing infrastructure in others.

Aricent India has adopted the Carterpuri Primary school (Gurgaon) for
providing basic and advanced training in computers to its 500 students by
setting up computer labs, and monetary contribution for infrastructure
upgradation and other essentials like uniforms, school bags, books, mid-day
snacks, etc.

A similar initiative is being run at the Damodaran School in Chennai for the
underprivileged children with Aricent contributing by way of school shoes,
stationary material and an audio CD player along with educational CDs.
Considering that a majority of children at a school-going age are school
dropouts, Aricent is working in collaboration with Gurgaon based Literacy India
for the upliftment of such destitute children, illiterate women and unemployed
youth by providing their premises to impart computer training to the vocational
training students.

As one of the most well-known active players in Indias education segment,
Intel India has been working in the upliftment of school education partnering
with state governments and national bodies for education like National Council
for Teacher Education in a PPP mode. Through its Intel Teach program, 8,64,000
teachers across seventeen states have benefited. Its other program, Intel Learn,
intended to enable learners to acquire technology skills has benefited more than
50,000 students in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Akshay centers in Kerala.

Even as companies continue to work for improvising education, Cisco has taken
the onus to feed the millions of impoverished children across the globe through
its Harvest of Hope program. In India the company has worked with Akshaya Patra,
feeding 7,500 government school going children mid-day meals around its new
campus. By using matching funds from Cisco Foundation and John Morgridge
Foundation, we were able to fund our CSR partner for around 7,500 children.

There are however exceptions to the MNCs preference to go it alone with
companies like Cognizant, Microsoft and IBM India choosing to rely on the
know-how of NGOs when it comes to running CSR initiatives.

Cognizant has been working with Pune based Swatantryaveer Sawarkar
Educational Trust since 2007 to build a residential learning center for rural
children in a remote village called Dabhon catering to the needs of the children
of the areas Katkari tribals, most of whom are migratory and cannot provide
uninterrupted education to their children.

Under Ullas program, Polaris has awarded over 20,000 scholarships to students in TN, Mumbai, and Delhi

Microsoft Indias ambitious project, Jyoti, involves working with NGOs to
empower underserved individuals through the use of IT skills training. Under the
project, the company has announced grants worth Rs 7.63 crore for three NGOs
with an aim to touch 100,000 individuals across nineteen states over a period of
three years.

The three NGOs include Aide et Action (Rs 4.56 crore) to help train 54,000
youth across eighty-two centers in order to equip them to find jobs in new
economy sectors like ITeS, retail and customer relations; CAP Foundation (Rs
1.20 crore) to scale up employability training for 36,000 people through
e-learning modules delivered over the Internet; and Mahila SEWA Trust (Rs 1.87
crore) for providing technology training to 10,000 poor women belonging to the
informal sector and enable them for full employment and self reliance, informs
Dr (Ms) Vikas Goswami, lead CSR, Microsoft.

Perot India, which runs its gamut of CSR initiatives under the Deeksha
umbrella, started in early 2008 and has been supporting Siragu Montessori School
(run by Suyam Trust for Chennais pavement dwellers) and Kalaiselvi Karunalaya
Social Welfare Society (KKSS). Further, as the program was introduced in other
locations like Noida and Bangalore, other NGOs too were brought into the fold.
In association with three NGOsSrijan, SETU foundation and Shanti Kaushal
foundation, the company has contributed monetarily. Over the last eight months
of its existence, Deeksha has mobilized over Rs 31 lakh.

IBM India, through its $75 mn Reinventing Education program, partners with
governments and school systems around the world to develop and implement
innovative technology solutions. In India, the company has partnered with state
governments of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

In addition, the companys efforts to encourage students to develop an
interest in science has resulted in TryScienceunder which it has donated
sixteen TryScience kiosks to science and technology museums in Bangalore,
Chennai, Hyderabad and Trichyapart from supporting a series of workshops
focusing on science and creativity for over 150 teachers and students in
Bangalore in partnership with the Bangalore Association for Science Education.

While most companies have concentrated their energies on Indias primary and
secondary school education, the higher education system too is crying out for
overhaul. Archaic teaching methodology and outdated syllabi are a few
challenges. Companies like Cisco and HP have focused their CSR programs for this
hitherto neglected segment.

Cisco India has been running its Networking Academy (NetAcad) program to
train students to design, build and maintain computer networks. Currently, there
are over 190 Cisco Academies across twenty-two states and union territories with
12,294 currently active students, more than 24% of which are women students.

HP Indias Teaching Grant program meanwhile has given away Rs 90 lakh in FY
07 for supporting the development of mobile technology environments in higher
education environments. Apart from helping each university establish a mobile
learning (m-learning) center where students can access content using hand-held
computers; enterprising students can also submit project proposals to a project
incubation center that has been set up under this grant. In 2007, the technology
for teaching grant was awarded to IIT Guwahati and to Anna University and
Jadavpur University in 2006.

EMC Indias program, BridgeIT India, is intended to make engineering students
industry ready when they enter the workforce. The company has entered in
partnership with Junior Achievement India reaching out to 300 engineering
students in Bangalore, offering customized course content and having interactive
volunteers deliver sessions in these engineering colleges.

Oracle too addresses the challenge under Oracle education initiatives
reaching out to around 1 lakh students and teachers in around 1,300 institutions
through the Oracle Academy and Think.com programs.

Oracle Academy providing a portfolio of software, faculty training and
certification resources reaches out to around 200 institutions including NIITs,
IITs and IIMs. Apart from a tie-up with the Karnakata government for offering
advanced computer science and business courses to fifty engineering colleges and
hundred polytechnics. Oracle Academy has also partnered with Andhra Pradeshs
sixty Jawahar Knowledge Centers.

Microsofts Jyoti intends to touch the lives of 1 lakh people to train in IT skills

Unlike HP, EMC and Cisco who are working in technology-related training
programs, Accenture India has tied-up with Dr Reddys Foundation for its
Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS). The school trains youth from
marginalized backgrounds to receive formal vocational training in BPO and IT
courses. The company involvement comes in the form of re-designing the course
curriculum as well as providing apprenticeship and final placement opportunities
for meritorious performers.

Community Development

As the Congress-led UPA alliance rode back to power riding high on the
success of the National Rural Employment Guarantee program (NREGA), rural India
suddenly seemed to have come into the limelight. Indian IT companies are now
using their technology expertise to solve community problems.

For connecting rural India to the development network to enable them to
become part of Indias digital society, Cisco introduced the Lifelines India
initiative in November 2006. A voice-based service for village communities
providing them information related to agriculture, animal husbandry,
horticulture, fisheries, dairy sciences.

A joint collaboration between BT, Cisco and OneWorld charity, the program is
in support of the UN Millennium Development Goal on digital inclusion. Currently
the program is being implemented in 150 villages in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

The company has also been involved in setting-up a comprehensive satellite
based rural transformation initiative along with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and
ISRO. As a part of the initiative, they have set up Village Resource Centers in
rural areas to provide tele-education, tele-medicine, tele-agriculture, tele-fisheries
and disaster warning and management services.

Lack of basic health amenities in villages prompted Intel India to undertake
an eighteen-month long project for creating an inexpensive wireless solution to
connect Arvind Eye hospital, a specialist hospital that has pioneered low cost
eye surgeries to remote vision centers in Theni, a small district in Tamil Nadu
that enabled reach and cure to 30,000 people suffering from eye ailments.

With most government aid reaching rather late to any disaster struck areas,
coupled with inadequate assistance, corporate houses too come forward to provide
monetary and material relief. During the tsunami a number of companies like
Intel and Microsoft came forward to contribute.

A two-year endeavor, Intel sought to provide relief and rehabilitation to the
tsunami hit Arcoduthurai village including reconstructing the demolished school
buildings with a vocational training center, a computer center, a play school
and a community center. Microsoft contributed by way of cash assistance worth
$277,000 to the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund.

For fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship so that they become job
providers rather than job seekers, HP India and Accenture have come forward.
HPs Micro Enterprise Development Grant program has given away Rs 3.2 crore as
grants in 2008 providing business training via the HP micro enterprise
curriculum. In 2008, ten organizations in India were awarded the HP 2008 Micro
Enterprise Development Grants namely South India Producers Association, Tide
Development Research Foundation, Dhriiti, FOOD India, Saransh, Development
Alternatives Group, Center for Entrepreneurship Development of Karnataka, Enable
a Child, Entrepreneurship Development Institute India and AWAKE.

Accenture meanwhile runs an Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India
implementing Micro Enterprise Development Programs for disadvantaged and
unemployed youth across rural Karnataka receiving formal training on various
aspects of entrepreneurship to enable them to earn a livelihood.

Ciscos Harvest of Hope program has fed around 7,500 governance school students

Children of a Lesser God No More

Confined to live on the margins, ignored by the mainstream society, women
and the differently-abled section are now finding their place under the Sun;
with IT companies now designing technology accessible to groups who are
conventionally not associated with using technology.

IBM India supports the entire hardware and software requirements for the
computer centers at the Mitra JyothiIBM Center for people with disabilities in
Bangalore and Noida-based IETE-IBM computer center, dedicated to providing IT
skills to visually impaired people and more recently at Dignity Foundation in
Mumbai and Bangalore.

Even among the differently-abled, the intellectually challenged were the most
marginalized with not even a single initiative that looked at using technology
to help them overcome their disability, gain technical literacy and become a
part of the new digital economy. IBM India was instrumental in the launch of
Indias first comprehensive Assistive Technology Center, with the Spastic
Society of Karnataka and PACER Center, with IBM donating the hardware and
accessibility works software apart from working as volunteers in supporting the
center. The new center would enable children and adults with any disability to
participate more comprehensively in work and life.

Intel meanwhile partnered with NGO Amba for developing the technology
curriculum and certification for program being offered by the Amba Center for
Economic Empowerment of the Intellectually Challenged through eleven centers in
India. Through this, 104 young people have been trained, seventy-nine placed in
basic data entry jobs earning them dignity and acceptance in their own
communities.

Another marginalized sectionwomenhave been at the core of Cognizants
community development initiatives with projects like Shikhar and Ek Mouka
employability training programs. While Shikhar is working to develop women to
enable self dependence; the Ek Mouka program is working for the upliftment of
women and adolescent girls through vocational training, access to education and
health services.

Tech Mahindra too is running a program called Nai Raahena women literacy
program intended for mothers with children studying in municipal schools.

Volunteering Anyone?

Apart from organizations contributing to societal development, employee
volunteering is also an integral part of any CSR initiative wherein companies
either match the employee donation monetarily or allow employees off days to
work in NGOs of their choice.

Under Dells Road Run employees raise awareness program and funds for the
Bangalore-based Freedom Foundation, which takes care of children affected by
HIV, the employee donation is matched equally by Dell with over 1,200 employees
having participated in the run raising Rs 20 lakh this year. Not just cash
assistance, Dell employees also donate their time by adopting a class of forty
children and teaching them until they pass their higher secondary at Christel
House which provides free education for the underserved.

HP India has recently launched its first company-wide volunteering program
allowing HP employee organizers to create and post volunteering opportunities
and open them up to the entire base of employees for taking up.

Stuti Das

stutid@cybermedia.co.in