Maharashtra governor to meet corporate leaders to boost CSR initiatives

State shortlists nine areas including skill development, renewable energy, tribal development, forest conservation and mobile connectivity

Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao will meet industry leaders on Friday to discuss ways to align corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of both public and private sector companies with the development priorities of the state.

Who’s Who of the Indian corporate sector, including top bosses of Reliance, Tata, Aditya Birla Group, M&M, Bajaj, Godrej, Essar, Hindustan Unilever, Cadbury, HDFC, Hindustan Construction, IRB are likely to attend the meeting with the Governor. State finance and planning minister Sudhir Mungantiwar would be presenting the list of areas where the state government needs help of the corporations. Public sector majors like IOC and BPCL would also attend the meeting.

Education, tribal development, forest conservation, skill development, renewable energy and internet penetration in rural areas are likely to some of the focus areas.

The interactive session has been organised on January 8 at the Raj Bhavan. Maharashtra state planning and finance department is expecting 32 corporate honchos to attend the meeting at the Raj Bhavan.

“The meeting with the industry leaders is an attempt to combine the efforts of the government and the corporate world to achieve the desired results in helping the corporate entities to judiciously use their CSR funds while addressing the development needs of the state. The government would act as an enabler by identifying the relevant areas of development and help the organisations to invest in not only causes they believe in but also to the growth of Maharashtra" Mungantiwar told Business Standard.

He informed that the state finance department along with the governor have decided nine priority areas such as Swachh Bharat, skill development, forests and renewable energy.

Mungantiwar said the state government wants the CSR money to be spent efficiently. It will also form a team to facilitate the companies in their CSR initiatives. “This will help corporate firms get a better understanding of the larger and deeper programmes by the state government,” he added.

The minister added the objective of the event is to put in place a joint strategy to optimise CSR expenditure in the state. An official from the state finance and planning department said the interactive session is supported by KPMG which is also the knowledge partner.