Fifth Edition of CSR Journal Excellence Awards to be Hosted on 25th February at NSE Mumbai

The fifth edition of The CSR Journal Excellence Awards is all set to be held on 25 February 2023, at the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde will be gracing the event as the Chief Guest this year.

The CSR Journal Excellence Awards proudly steps into its fifth year, this time with ‘India First’ as its theme. We at The CSR Journal aim to motivate, encourage and inspire corporates and other commercial ventures as well as our citizens to come forward and do something for the benefit of society and our fellow citizens, especially marginalised, underprivileged and vulnerable. The CSR Journal Excellence Awards is a platform to encourage more such corporate & citizen social initiatives which will help in bringing about positive social change. We hope that this will multiply with a snowball effect so that 10 noble initiatives today can inspire a 100 tomorrow.

The fifth edition of The CSR Journal Excellence Awards is all set to be held on 25 February 2023, at the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai. The Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Eknath Shinde, will be gracing the event as our Chief Guest this year.

Uday Samant, Minister For Industries, Government of Maharashtra, and Shri. Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister for Forests, Cultural Affairs, Fisheries, Government of Maharashtra, are our Guests of Honour for the evening.

The Excellence Awards 2022 aims to honour innovative and best practices in the sphere of corporate social responsibility, recognising the best practices in five categories.

These are Education & Skill Training, Women Empowerment & Child Welfare, Environment, Agriculture & Rural Development and Health & Sanitation.

Following are the top nominees in each category (Organisation; Project Name) for this year:

Education & Skill Training

– IndusInd Bank Limited

– Prarambhik Bhasha Shikshan Karyakram (PBSK) / Early Language Learning (ELL) on Haryana

– Jindal Steel and Power — Asha the Hope – an initiative to empower Divyangjan

– Dabur India Limited — School Support Programme – ‘Adarsh Pathshala – Ek Nai Pahal’

Women Empowerment & Child Welfare

– Parexel International (India) Private Limited (Part of Parexel Global) — DISHA

– Vedanta Limited — Nand Ghar

– National Mineral Development Corporation Limited – Balika Shiksha Yojana

Environment

– Indian Oil Corporation Limited – 5 Tons Per Day Cattle Dung to Biogas Plant at Gorakhnath Temple, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh

– Tata Capital Financial Services Limited – Climate Action – Water Security and Renewable Energy
– Sterlite Technologies Limited — Holistic Water Program

Agriculture & Rural Development

– Grasim Industries Limited (a flagship company of Aditya Birla Group) — Ensuring Sustainable Livelihoods through Best Practices

– SBI Foundation — SBI Youth for India Fellowship Programme

– Nayara Energy Limited — Gramsamruddhi

Health & Sanitation

– GAIL (India) Limited — Arogya

– PVR Limited — Safe Centres Programme

– Gland Pharma Limited and its CSR wing Gland-Fosun Foundation (a Public Charitable Trust of Gland Pharma Limited) — Health Plan for Socio-Economically Challenged Children

The CSR Journal received a record number of applications in each of these categories, out of which the above top-3 nominations were shortlisted by the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay, our Knowledge Partner for The CSR Journal Excellence Awards 2022. For the final round, the esteemed Jury Members responsible for examining and declaring the winner, first runner-up and second runner-up are –

Education & Skill Training

– S. Saharia, IAS (Retd.), former-State Election Commissioner, Maharashtra, former-Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra & Chairman, ISHAD
– Ranjitsinh Disale, Educationist, Winner, Global Teacher Prize (2020) & Advisor, The World Bank
– Abhay Ojha, Chief Business Officer, Zee Media
Women Empowerment & Child Welfare
– Yashasvi Yadav, IPS, Special IGP, Maharashtra Cyber Department
– Nidhi Chaudhary, IAS, Joint Commissioner, Sales Tax
– Reena Jha Tripathi, IRS, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax-1, Mumbai, Mumbai Region

Environment

– Bakul Rao, Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas , IIT-Bombay
– A. Rajeev, IAS (Retd.), former-Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA, Mumbai & Director, Urban World Consulting
– Shankar Deshpande, Chief, Town & Country Planning Division at Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority & Director, MMR-EIS
Agriculture & Rural Development
– Surinder Singh Jodhka, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University
– Sumit Kumar, IRS, Commissioner, Income Tax, Kanpur
– Vishwanath Giriraj, IAS (Retd.), former-Chairman, Fifth State Finance Commission, Maharashtra & current, Chief Executive Officer, Maharashtra Bamboo Promotion Foundation

Health & Sanitation

– Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee, IAS (Retd.), Formerly, Director General & CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, New Delhi.
– Dr Rajendra Bharud, IAS, Commissioner, Tribal Research & Training Institute
– Ajit Kumar Jain, IAS (Retd.), former-State Information Commissioner, Maharashtra, former Addtl. Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra & currently the Chairman and Managing Director of ERAF – Environmental Research Foundation

This year, The CSR Journal’s Special Commendation Award in Corporate Social Responsibility will be awarded to:
– Capgemini Technology Services India Limited
– Castrol India Limited
– Coca-Cola India Private Limited
– Dell International Services India Pvt. Ltd.
– L&T Technology Services
– Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited
– Sanofi India Limited
– SBI General Insurance Company Limited
– Schaeffler India
– TATA Power
– United Breweries Limited

The CSR Journal is pleased to announce a special category of awardees:
This year, Dr. Abhay Bang and Dr. Rani Bang, Founder & Director Society for Education, Action, and Research in Community Health, from Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, will be honoured with ‘The CSR Journal Lifetime Achievement Award – 2022’.

The CSR Journal Award for Excellence in Future Leadership – 2022 will be coffered upon Shri. Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister of Forests, Cultural Affairs and Fisheries, Government of Maharashtra.
Patna-based Khan Sir who enjoys a fan following on social media as a digital educator, will be honoured with ‘The CSR Journal Youth Icon Award – 2022’. The influencer and actor Prajakta Koli will be felicitated with ‘The CSR Journal Influencing Youth Icon Award – 2022’.

Muthoot Finance Limited’s project Cup of Life – a Guinness World Record campaign, will be recognised with The CSR Journal’s Innovation and Corporate Leadership in Healthcare Award. Friends Union for Energizing Lives University will be recognised with The CSR Journal’s Skilling for Capacity Building & Livelihood Generation Award 2022 for their dedicated efforts towards vocational education in India.

“Over the past one year, CSR investments and initiatives have recalibrated themselves to address and move beyond the fault lines induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fifth edition of The CSR Journal Excellence Awards, marks an important milestone in the journey we embarked upon in 2016. The experience, support and cooperation of various stakeholders, partners and, most importantly, our readers have made the Excellence Awards inspire much-needed initiatives and inclusive and innovative practices among corporates as well as citizens."

"This year, our partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has successfully processed and evaluated a record number of applications for the Excellence Awards 2022. I extend my sincere thanks to our final round jury that has made possible the completion of the evaluation process for the awards this year. We are honoured to have the National Stock Exchange, Mumbai as our Exchange Partner this year. The first-of-its-kind gathering at the NSE will continue this journey and build on our vision of creating a repository of best practices and the most transparent and rigorous mechanism for evaluation of social impact in the country,” said Amit Upadhyay, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The CSR Journal.

Dr Shrikant Shinde, Member of Parliament, Kalyan Constituency, Maharashtra, will be honoured with the ‘Leadership for Social Change Award’, for his contribution to social work in the state and for leaving a mark as one of the youngest leaders in India.

“Social responsibility is at the core building a trustworthy and peaceful society. In a country such as India, where disparities between rural and urban India and within these two are so stark, individual and collective action needs to take the lead, apart from the welfare efforts and initiatives of governments. A key area in this is to access information and bridging the gap between different stakeholders by bringing them on a common platform."

"Through Excellence Awards, The CSR Journal has been successfully growing in this direction, creating a platform where a diverse group of people and organisations come together to understand, learn and reflect on each other’s social sector journeys. The CSR Journal has set a benchmark in bringing to the fore voices and innovations of citizens and corporates that has informed and guided several others to learn and reflect on experiences in an objective and factual manner,” shared Dr Shrikant Shinde.

The CSR Journal Excellence Awards is presented by The CSR Journal, India’s leading CSR print and digital news organisation. This year The CSR Journal Excellence Awards 2022 has partnered with Reliance Industries Limited as its Associate Partner, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and Maharashtra State Power Generation Company are the Associate Partners, National Stock Exchange as Exchange Partner, Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay as Knowledge Partner, Adfactors PR as PR Partner, ZEE News, ZEE Business & ZEE 24 Taas as TV Partners, Karma Art as Gift Partner, Free Press Journal as Print Partner, Public & Inshorts as Hyperlocal Information Partners, IndiaDotcom Digital Private Limited as Digital Partner, LiveClefs and On Call Entertainment as Talent Partners, Pixburg as Design Partner and Sutra as Event Partner.