Ashima Bhat is Group Head - CSR, Business Finance, Infrastructure, Administration at HDFC Bank. Under her leadership, the HDFC Bank spent a total of Rs535 Cr on various CSR activities in the year 2019-20, an increase of 20% over the amount spent last year. This included a contribution of Rs70 Cr to the PM CARES Fund.
In this interview with TheCSRUniverse, Bhat talks about how her CSR team changed the working mode and strategy in response to the COVID crisis. She also shares insight on HDFC Bank’s CSR vision and speaks on how corporates can together create more impact through their CSR activities.
Scroll down to read the full interview with Ashima Bhat.
Interview Highlights
- Pandemic has seen greater use of technology and it is here to stay. Our teams innovated and infused technology in our processes to ensure continuity of work.
- Implementing agencies can be solution providers in the CSR space with their immense ground experience. They can also be providers of breakthrough ideas.
- Our peers need to find common grounds to further amplify our efforts in transforming lives. Hybrid solutions by combining our talents can go a long way in helping communities.
- We quickly reacted to replace some of our activities which helped us generate employment opportunities for the migrant returnees with minimal impact on the larger project implementation.
- With CSR provisions in place, the industry has a platform for direction; to help facilitate effective implementation and seek desired change through coordinated efforts
Interview with Ashima Bhat, Group Head - CSR, Business Finance, Infrastructure, Administration at HDFC Bank
Q: HDFC Bank has been among the companies leading CSR activities in India. What do you mean by your umbrella initiative ‘Parivartan’?
A: HDFC Bank’s social initiative - Parivartan, works toward bringing a holistic change in our society. For us, Progress isn’t simply about moving with the times. It is about ushering in ‘Parivartan’ - a continuous transformation that improves lives and empowers communities. This creates sustainable ecosystems.
Q: What are the key focus areas for your CSR initiatives?
A: To achieve our CSR goals, we work together with the marginalised communities to try and understand their unique needs. We have crafted our strategic focus areas to ensure effective and sustainable transformation of these communities. These focus areas are Rural Development, Promotion of Education, Skill Development & Livelihood Enhancement and Financial Literacy & Inclusion. In addition, as a responsible corporate, we come forward to support the states and the country during crisis or natural disasters.
Q: How has your CSR programme implementation been impacted/affected due to COVID pandemic?
A: The Impact of COVID has been unprecedented and has meant that we needed to get back to the drawing board with our partners to discuss and modify plans to meet the challenges of the situation. Our partners too were quick to respond and seek alternate strategies to ensure continuity. The approach has been to create awareness, counsel and even assist them tide over issues of access to basic essentials. No doubt the pandemic and the lockdown have caused delays, we have quickly adapted and evolved, keeping in mind the needs of the beneficiaries.
Q: What are the new measures you are taking to continue your CSR activities while adhering to the COVID protocols?
A: Despite the pandemic, our CSR team along with our implementation partners ensured the developmental work continues. We continue to adhere to all the requisite norms that ensure safety of our team and the communities.
It is significant to note that our teams innovated and infused technology in our processes to ensure continuity of work. The modified approach involved remote monitoring through digital platforms, replacing physical submissions of project completion with geo-tagged photographs and opening of set up of new process aligned with the current needs.
Our original plans underwent certain changes keeping in mind the fast-changing scenario on ground. In states including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra, we advanced our Natural Resource Management activities and held back certain physical exposure visits and training programmes to avoid gatherings. This swap could also help us generate employment opportunities for the migrant returnees with minimal impact on the larger project implementation. Similarly, in the space of education, our implementing partners switched to digital platforms to continue teaching.
Q: What are the key emerging CSR opportunities and needs in the COVID scenario?
A: While it has been immensely challenging to adapt to the new norms, our approach under Parivartan has been dynamic in supporting the local communities acrossIndia.
At HDFC Bank, we have always promoted the use of technology to ease the lives of people at the grassroots. Our Milk to Money is one such example. The Pandemic has seen greater use of technology and digital and it is here to stay in the time to come. For example, education is one area where there is tremendous scope of building a digital infrastructure to ensure access to quality education for children.
Another such opportunity that we must all make note of is Livelihood generation. There is an opportunity to generate local, sustainable and entrepreneurial prospects for the migrant returnees in their own regions. Besides our successful convergences with employment programmes under several Government schemes, we have initiated several Land Development and Natural Resource Management activities to offer livelihoods to hundreds of families like the Ridge-to-valley project in Madhya Pradesh or small ponds in Rajasthan. This is helping them survive the pandemic and for them to stay back, we must further generate skill-based employment opportunities locally.
Q: What is the budget outlay for your CSR activities in the financial year 2020-21?
A: The companies act prescribes a 2 percentage of previous 3 years average net profits to be used for social initiatives. We have consistently been meeting this target. The Bank has a plan towards achieving this through various projects that are being undertaken and are confident will be spending 100 % of its CSR outlay.
Q: The CSR has fundamentally changed after the CSR was made mandatory by Companies Act 2013. What are your thoughts on CSR laws in India?
A: As a leading Bank and also an organisation with one of the largest CSR spends in India, we do have an important role to play in making a difference in the lives of the people. Both our employees and management have been working for the upliftment of the marginalized in various ways, even before CSR became a mandate.
The introduction of the CSR rules gave momentum to the collective efforts of all corporate citizens to bring change. The Corporate Social Responsibility based on the concept of trusteeship has since become even more stronger and a guiding light to all of us. The industry now has a platform for direction; to help facilitate effective implementation and seek desired change through coordinated efforts. The subsequent modifications to the rule have brought in more flexibility and expanded the spectrum, thus giving more opportunities for socially responsible corporates to innovate and bring about a change.
Q: What can be the changes in the current CSR provisions that can help corporates in being more productive and effective in implementation of their CSR activities?
A: I believe several stakeholders bring in their own expertise in conceptualizing as well as implementing several interventions. There is a scope to acknowledge and recognise the grassroots stakeholders for better penetration of the interventions.
It will also be strategic to align our projects with the National Goals and thus the Global goals. While we do have causes that the rule approves of, we can further align these causes with measurable parameters to reach a common destination.
Q: What are your expectations from your CSR implementation agencies/partners in today’s changing scenario?
A: The needs of the communities are changing with each passing decade. The challenges that a village community faced ten years ago is every different to the challenges it faces today. This teaches us to be dynamic and innovative. For a sector such as farming itself has undergone a sea-change. Extreme weathers introduced newer problems. However, an adaptive approach is what I see as a game changer. Herein, the implementing agencies can be solution providers in the CSR space with their immense ground experience. Likewise, they can also work towards becoming role models who are seen as providers of breakthrough ideas.
Q: What are your suggestions and message to your corporate colleagues on building a strong CSR environment in the country?
A: There is a need to synergise more than ever. We have to build partnerships that would prove strategic in providing sustainable solutions to the communities. Our peers need to find common grounds to further amplify our efforts in transforming lives.
For instance, HDFC Bank’s initiative on financial literacy and inclusion focuses on inducting unbanked individuals to the banking fold. After we have equipped them with the knowledge of micro-finance, our peers can come in to build their capacity in creating specific livelihood opportunities that can be linked to their supply chains. Thus, hybrid solutions by combining our talents can go a long way in helping communities.
