HCL Foundation invests more than Rs 160 crore in community projects in UP

UP accounts for 2/3rd of the Foundation's activity spend

IT major HCL Technology’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm HCL Foundation has invested more than Rs 162 crore in various community projects in Uttar Pradesh.

“UP accounted for nearly 2/3rd of the Foundation’s total expenditure in India over the past three years owing to the Group’s predominant presence in the state,” HCL Foundation director Nidhi Pundhir told Business Standard here today.

The investments have been made in HCL Foundation’s three main CSR verticals of Samuday, Uday and Grant.

She informed the Foundation’s outlay had posted 216 per cent growth from about Rs 41 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 129 crore in 2018-19 with the cumulative investment of more than Rs 262 crore to date.

The various activities undertaken by the Foundation pertain to the sectors of health, education, environment, livelihood, sanitation etc with the estimated beneficiaries of 1.5 million people, mostly underprivileged women and girls.

Meanwhile, Pundhir announced HCL Foundation would felicitate the students at the finale of 3rd edition of its ‘Sports for Change’ programme, which aims to leverage the potential of sports to foster inclusion and promote budding sportspersons from diverse backgrounds at the grass root level. She informed the two-day event will culminate tomorrow in Lucknow.

HCL Foundation reaches out to 67,500 students across 200 government schools and 60 ‘gurukuls’ for providing professional exposure in sports. So far, the Foundation has given out 64 sports scholarships worth Rs 23 lakh, while 50 scholarships worth Rs 25 lakh will be announced this year.

These long term sports scholarships are funded by the HCL ‘Power of One’, voluntary employee contribution programme.

More than 400 children from six southern cities viz. Chennai, Bangalore, Madurai, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Coimbatore; and from various government schools in UP supported under HCL Uday in Noida and Lucknow; HCL Samuday in Hardoi, and HCL Grant in Barabanki and Gonda are taking part in this sports event.