Tech Mahindra exceeds prescribed CSR budget, spends Rs 105 crores on Education, Employability, Covid-19 Relief

New Delhi, 28 December 2021: Tech Mahindra, a multinational company, has spent a total of Rs 105 crores on various CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities, which is more than its prescribed CSR budget, for the financial year 2020-21.

Tech Mahindra Limited is an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company.

The average net profit of the company from the past three years before tax amounted to Rs. 5,222.3 crores. Thus, the company’s CSR obligation, calculated as 2% of the average net profit of the past three years, stood at Rs 104.44 crores. The company, however, spent an excess of Rs 56 lakhs on its CSR activities taking the overall CSR expenditure to Rs 105 crores. Earlier, in FY 2019-2020, the company had spent Rs. 118.11 crores on its CSR initiatives.

Tech Mahindra Limited has more than 75% of its business operations in India and it implemented all its CSR activities in the country through the Tech Mahindra Foundation (TMF) and Mahindra Education Institutions (MEI) and as per the Indian Companies Act 2013. The company spent more than 2% of the average net profit on the implementation of CSR projects and activities aligning itself with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of quality education for all.

The annual report of the company states, “One of the key focus areas of Tech Mahindra Foundation’s CSR vision is the Empowerment of girls/women. The Board has a mission/mandate that 50% of the beneficiaries of the CSR Initiatives on Employability, Education and Disability should be women. This is part of the CSR vision and a commitment to the idea of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.”

CSR amount spent by Tech Mahindra for FY 2020-21

CSR activities implemented by Tech Mahindra Foundation (TMF) and Mahindra Education Institutions (MEI)

Education & Employability

Tech Mahindra Foundation supported SDG 4 through the CSR programmes on education and employability. Education for skilling and school education at Tech Mahindra Foundation ensured quality education to the youth and children from urban marginalised sections of society. Shikshaantar, its teacher capacity-building programme, helped ensure quality education at the foundation level for children.

With sustainable economic growth for all being its core ideology, Tech Mahindra Foundation’s CSR programmes like SMART+, Smart Centres and Academies were catalysts to furthering this principle of assuring a dignified living to the young beneficiaries. They were centred on training the youth from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds in various specialised skill courses and assisting them with job opportunities.

SMART programmes ensured good placements and most of the students from the healthcare course are being placed in leading hospitals such as Fortis, Max, and Apollo through Smart Centres and Academies.

In FY21, as many as 15,268 young people were trained in SMART centres and academies. The company was able to provide placements to 7,485 of these people from several socially disadvantaged communities.

Projects supported the Government of India’s larger vision of skill development of youth through developing their market-oriented skills and linking them to potential employers. These projects sought to benefit school dropouts, people with disabilities, and those unable to go into higher education, with a specific focus on women and people with disabilities. The projects strived to address the gap between the skilling sector and the industry requirement by bringing in the renowned industry from the service, technical, and manufacturing sectors as knowledge partners.

School Education

TMF promoted quality education for vulnerable sections of the society through vibrant and innovative partnerships with the government, NGOs, CBOs, and other organisations across eleven major cities of India. Projects were aimed to improve the quality of school education, teacher training through infrastructure improvement, capacity building of all stakeholders, and supplementary education.

Public Health

The foundation supported a project called ‘Last Mile Connect’ as part of which a public cycle intervention in Delhi was supported on an end-to-end basis. In addition, it also supported COVID-19 relief projects.

Technical Education

The Mahindra École Centrale (MEC) and the Mahindra University (MU) projects provided high-quality technical education in engineering and computer technology for the students. MEC is an international quality technology school with assured career progression for engineering aspirants. It focused on multi-disciplinary knowledge, personality development, and critical-creative thinking.

Tech Mahindra’s CSR Committee

Tech Mahindra’s CSR Committee comprises C. P. Gurnani (Chairman), M. Rajyalakshmi Rao, Haigreve Khaitan, Dr. Mukti Khaire, and V. S. Parthasarathy. The vision of the committee is “Empowerment through Education.”