Investments in climate tech in India are growing at a fast pace, amounting to over $800 million in the first half of 2022 alone. It is important to invest in technologies and infrastructure to help communities adapt to the crisis already at hand. It is hence critical to develop models to address climate change mitigation with interventions that are strategic, measurable, and sustainable.
To shed more light on these aspects in this episode of CSR Partnerships for Innovation, we are joined by Mr Ashwini Saxena, CEO at the JSW Foundation. Ashwini has over 30 years of experience across India and Africa with reputed developmental organisations such as UNIDO, IFC, World Bank and many, many corporates.
Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | Linkedin
Guest: Ashwini Saxena | Linkedin
Producer: Anagha Wankhede
Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar
Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu
Music: "Welcome To India" by Steve Oxen
CSR spending in India is concentrated in a few sectors, including education and healthcare. Less than 1% of the CSR funds are channelled towards incubators to support social enterprises.
To understand the criticality of CSR backing for scalable and impactful solutions through social enterprises, we have with us today, Mr. Harish Krishnan, Managing Director, Public Affairs and Strategic Engagements at Cisco India and SAARC.
Harish leads Cisco's strategic engagement with India's national and state governments on a wide range of public policy issues that concern Cisco in India.
Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | Linkedin
Guest: Harish Krishnan | Linkedin
Producer: Meenakshi Iyer
Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar
Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu
Music: "Welcome To India" by Steve Oxen
When the very DNA of a company is imbued with purposeful community action and giving back to society, innovation thrives.
In this episode, Krishna speaks with Sapna Bhawnani from Alstom, an organisation at the forefront of driving innovation in India's sustainable mobility sector. Sapna has played a pivotal role in shaping Alstom's CSR strategy in India, and she shares her incredible journey to foster innovation, her personal learnings, as well as ideas for others looking to integrate innovation as part of CSR.
Sapna Bhawnani currently leads Communications & CSR of the Asia Pacific Region at Alstom. She has been associated with Alstom in various capacities in India and internationally since 2008.
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Contents
00:00-Podcast Introduction
01:38-Introduction to Sapna and Alstom's CSR approach
05:08-Introducing Innovation in CSR
09:08-What Outcomes should CSR Achieve?
13:38-Evolution of Alstom's Innovation Programme
17:04-New Leverages in CSR Partnerships
18:24-The Role of CSR Compliance in Innovation
19:57-Growing the Portfolio
21:32-Advice for CSRs looking to get into Innovation
23:51-Building an Ecosystem to Support Innovation
25:04-The Joy of Innovation
26:30-Summary and Outro --- Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | LinkedIn
Guest: Sapna Bhawnani | LinkedIn
Producer: Meenakshi Iyer
Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar
Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu
Music: "Welcome To India" by Steve Oxen
Mercedes-Benz has made a substantial name for themselves and their products through innovation. Shweta Pandey joins Krishna for this episode of CSR Partnerships for Innovation to share the evolution of how MBRDI elevated innovation in how they fund CSR initiatives, and she shares some of her personal favourite initiatives, as well as sound advice for others looking to integrate innovation as part of their CSR strategy.
Shweta Pandey leads the legal and compliance portfolio at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India. As part of her role, she is also responsible for corporate social responsibility, where she has undertaken CSR activities across different thematic areas including fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in sustainable mobility.
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Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | LinkedIn
Guest: Shweta Pandey | LinkedIn
Producer: Meenakshi Iyer
Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar
Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu
Music: "Welcome To India" by Steve Oxen
In this episode of CSR Partnerships for Innovation, Krishna sat down with Neha Jain from Akamai. She shared the story of how Akamai’s flagship programme got started, and how at the intersection of technology and impact, Akamai is evolving their CSR strategy. With Akamai’s focus on innovation and their earnest efforts to encourage, mentor, and fund entrepreneurs with incredible solutions, Neha shares how her story has evolved with Akamai’s CSR innovation journey.
Neha Jain is the Director of Operations and Innovation and Co-chair of the CSR Trust at Akamai Technologies, which has been promoting innovative solutions to solve India’s water crisis.
For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our Website, Linkedin, Twitter and, Instagram: @sattvaknowledgeinstitute
Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | Linkedin Guest: Neha Jain | Linkedin Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Music: Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.
Content Chapters:
Welcome to the podcast CSR Partnerships for Innovation. Over the past few years, India has inched up to become the third largest innovation and entrepreneurship hub globally. Our economy boasts of start-ups across diverse sectors with incredible innovation pouring in from every corner of our country.
There's another movement also underway the corporate social responsibility, or CSR contributions, which have also grown exponentially, channelling vital investments into the social fabric of our nation. Maybe it's time to forge an even stronger bond between these two dynamic forces innovation on one hand and CSR on the other.
The precise models and strategies to effectively channel CSR funds into the innovation spaces remain less defined than we would like it to be. This is what this podcast is about.
Each episode will feature industry luminaries from the CSR realm who will unveil their finest practices on how their CSR contributions are shaping the innovation landscape of this country.
I'm Chintan Vaishnav, mission Director for Atal Innovation Mission at the Niti Aayog, and we are delighted to unveil this podcast series in collaboration with Sattva Consulting, hosted by their dynamic and hands on CEO Sri Krishna Sridhar Murthy.
For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our Website, Linkedin, Twitter and, Instagram: @sattvaknowledgeinstitute
Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | Linkedin Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Music: Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.
