State-level CSR conclave inaugurated at Damanjodi

Bhubaneswar: Over 15 top industries of Odisha virtually assembled on Tuesday to attend a state-level CSR conclave inaugurated at Damanjodi. The theme of the conclave was ‘Doing CSR: Transforming the State’.

Among the top industries to have participated in the event were Vedanta, JSPL, JSW, MCL, HAL, Arcelor Mittal, Hindalco-Utkal Alumina, TPCODL, Dalmia Cement, NALCO, FACOR, Tata Steel, industry bodies like CII, UCCI and others.

C J Venugopal, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary and Tapan Chand top industry professional and President of Vedanta were present through the virtual medium as the chief guest and the special guest, respectively. Together, they inaugurated the conclave.

In his inaugural address, Venugopal emphasized that climate action and green energy are special focus areas for CSR by industries. He appreciated the commitment of industries by coming together on a platform to discuss ways to use CSR for the growth and development of the state.

Following this, T K Chand said that introduction of statutory provisions on CSR have helped in doubling CSR budget, increasing CSR spend from around Rs 10,000 crore in 2015 to Rs 19,000 crore in 2019. Local areas have also been paid attention on for implementation of CSR projects.

Chand further narrated that CSR is a change as well as an opportunity to change. CSR has brought change in the mindset and now industries have developed a mindset of caring and sharing. New trends of CSR like ESR (Employee Social Responsibility), cause marketing, strategic philanthropy, peer fund raising etc have started developing, making CSR a prestige tag.

The top organisations that had assembled for the virtual conclave made presentations about their flagship CSR project. All organizations exhibited their commitment to implement CSR in the state with a mission and bring transformation in the community. The assembly appreciated Women empowerment scheme and diversity of man-power in Vedanta. MCL’s mega CSR projects like medical college drew the attention.

Kishorie Express of JSPL to tackle anaemia among adults and girls and Op Jindal community college for skill development of 25,000 rural students presented by Prasant Hota received appreciations. Girl child promotion scheme of NALCO – NALCO ki Laadli, HAL’s Tribal emporium, mobile health unit of JSW, alignment of CSR with sustainability of Hindalco-Utkal Alumina etc were also lauded.

Later, emerging entrepreneurs Trinath Lenka, MD, Wallet for Wealth and Sudhakar Rao, MD, Eco-tourism organization who are providing services in remote areas of Odisha, made their presentations.

Trinath Lenka presented the services for financial inclusivity through its financial education which is at the core of CSR. The company is already operating at five locations in Odisha and his sixth outlet was inaugurated during the conclave at Damanjodi to make services relating to financial inclusivity available to the people. His efforts of putting financial inclusivity in the agenda of CSR were much appreciated by the participants of the conclave.

The program was compered by Munmun Singh and coordinated by Amit Singh and Piyush  Mishra of Vedanta.