New Delhi: There is a need to scale up corporate social responsibility (CSR) interventions to achieve desired economic growth, said Padma Bhushan Rajashree Birla, Chairperson FICCI CSR & Community Development Committee, while giving away the ‘19th FICCI CSR Awards’ here recently. A total of 13 companies were acknowledged with the FICCI CSR Awards, seven companies with Jury Commendation Certificates and 16 finalists were acknowledged with an appreciation plaque for their commendable CSR work.

Birla said: “The world of business and society, profit and purpose are intertwined. In India, we face numerous developmental challenges such as healthcare, education, digital literacy, livelihoods and poverty alleviation. We need to scale our CSR interventions in terms of quality, outreach and access for each developmental indicator. Only then we can be assured of reaching economic growth and delivering inclusive growth.”

She further said: “The last two years have been unprecedented in the challenges and hardships that humanity faced all over the world. Every government has done its utmost and continues to do so. Vaccination and enhanced awareness are undeniably helping step its march. Over 100 crore vaccines have been administered in India with 79 per cent of the adult population having received the first dose and 38 per cent the double dose.”

Alluding the process of short listing and finalizing the winners of FICCI CSR Awards, Jury Chair, Co-Chair, FICCI CSR & Community Development Committee and MD, Bain Capital India Ltd, Amit Chandra said that deliberations of jury were very stringent and were assisted by detailed assessment provided by experts and appreciated the great work being done by India Inc to make our society a better place.

“I hope that the best practices that these awards seek to highlight and applaud, India CSR leaders shall get inspired and collaborate more ambitiously with governments and NGOs to address problems that plague our community in the years to come,” he added. /BI/