IT firms spend CSR funds on education, job skills

As part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Indian IT firms were spending 70 per cent of their funds on education and employable skills, said the industry's representative body Nasscom on Wednesday.

"Education and job skills account for 70 per cent of the CSR funding by IT firms, followed by environment and healthcare," said the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) Foundation at its CSR Leadership Conference here.

Noting that more companies were funding CSR projects in states outside where their headquarters were located and in remote areas across the country, it said senior management teams were leading the service for social causes.

"Companies from Karnataka, Maharashtra, NCR, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are going to other states for equitable distribution of projects between urban and rural areas," said the Foundation in a report on 'Catalysing Change Through CSR' at the third edition of its flagship event.

Foundation Chairman Ganesh Natarajan said the industry had accepted the CSR mandate as evident from the utilisation of its allotted funds.

"Education and employable skills are our key social problems. An industry which has grown by investing in knowledge and skills, realises the difference a skilled knowledge society can make," he said.

Foundation CEO Shrikant Sinha said the time was ripe for the industry to address the larger social causes to bring about a radical change across the country.

"We are drawing a roadmap for the next few years and guide the industry CSR towards creating maximum impact," he added.

--IANS

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