ASM Institutes unveil CSR awards for Pune

To celebrate corporates in Pune that are contributing to better community living, Pune-based ASM Group of Institutes unveiled its annual Excellence Awards for corporate social responsibility (CSR).

"The idea is to allow students to get valuable insights and get motivated for their future plans. We also believe that Pune has several individuals and corporates that have been investing time and efforts to focus on CSR. The idea was to celebrate these initiatives and give them a platform," said Sandeep Pachpande, chairman, ASM Group. The awards were presented in association with Business Standard.

ASM institutes in the past provided platform where they have awarded individuals in corporate world. The idea behind launching an annual CSE Excellence Awards was to give the students a peek into how corporates are trying to give back to society in their own small way.

The event celebrated five companies that have created a benchmark in CSR. These included the Persistent Foundation that focuses on health, education and community development, and Tata Technologies which has chosen to improve the employability of graduate engineers and focus on water conversation.

Jain Irrigation received the award for its work in rural development, use of solar energy and community development while SKF in a very unique way has focused on sports and is helping children from the underprivileged segments to pursue their dream of becoming sportsmen. Seco Tools has been working in the area of health, improving hygiene and village development.

The awards were conferred by Padmashri Arun Firodia, chairman, Kinetic Engineering in the presence of Padmabhushan Shobhana Ranade, a veteran Gandhian social worker.

Firodia said that though the government has now made spend on CSR mandatory, every industry should do their bit in social services. He reminiscences how his father had insisted that every project they start should have a social goal as well.

"When we were planning to work on Luna, I still remember how my father told me we had to set up this project in a backward area, should have no foreign collaboration, no imported machinery, or components and the product should be weighing less than 50 kg and sold at Rs 2,000. We had to rack our brains to come out with our Luna within all these parameters," he added.

Firodia said that his company Kinetic Engineering has tried to stay with this idea. The company has adopted four wards in Pune where the company is driving a zero garbage campaign.

The idea of giving back to the society was also brought to the fore by 89-year-old Ranade, who said that every small act is like a drop in the ocean and urged the audience to contribute in their own small way.