CSR-Workshop at

AISCCON HQ, Navi Mumbai, March 06, 2024

BACKGROUND

Points to ponder from Power Point Presentation to be made:

Let us celebrate an increasing life expectancy…concurrently groom ourselves for an ever increasing challenges… Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - an avenue for our well being… Sunrise grace … Sunshine thoughts…
Re-orient mindset from charity & welfare to sustainable solutions through CSR for our wellbeing…Appreciate that the Corporates view us as beneficiaries and not the implementors of CSR projects / programs… this demands blending with Youth…
CSR has pre-requisites for reporting the progress, assessing the impact of funding for social cause meeting their policies / guidelines and prevailing mechanisms… Therefore the process has to begun with identifying the deserving senior citizens, and the domain of operations - livelihood, age care, healthcare, physiotherapy, diagnostic centres, mental well being, digital literacy, education, home care and many more within the purview of Section 135, Schedule VII of MCA act. (Details given at the end of this note for ready reference)
Welfare funds from tax payers money shall be continually depleting in real terms and the senior citizens is fastest growing segment in the society today and the years ahead…With that we need to groom ourselves for dignified lifestyle… maintain some learning drive that is challenging on attaining the competency maturity… but is the need of hour.
  • Details of ten pre-requisites for seeking the MoSJ&E grants & CSR project proposal making guidelines. (refer to 2nd CSR Newsletter).• Under Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY) scheme, CSR committee prepared a proposal dated April 30, 2021 on “Advocacy for CSR”.
  • One CSR grant proposal dated June 2022 is also available on website • Our findings so far on the self imposed barriers to the jumpstart of activities both in securing CSR grants from Corporates and from MoSJ&E are: appreciation for & addressing (a) blending of youth energy (b) limited financial outlays (c) containment from business as usual (d) harnessing collective potential (e) secrecy of our actions (f) brain storming (g) ownership of the programs / projects.
  • 9th CSR Newsletter - the points that may be looked into by the Federation/Associations for funding under CSR projects.
  • The speakers presentations shall give you full exposure of CSR from its beginning and the efforts made so far. The presentations also will offer you the insights of challenges to be overcome for CSR avenues
Recommended steps for next six months;
  1. Browse website: www.aisccon.org - icon - “CSR & News” : all attachments/videos - this would demand considerable patience / making notes as well.
  2. Read from website and appreciate the credentials of committee members
  3. Read all the 11 issues of Newsletter and make notes / write queries / prerequisites - this would call for munching the flow of developments in AISCCON.
  4. Study the details in PPT for interim reviews of 2020 and 2021.
  5. Carefully study and munch the details of final report of 2019-2022 CSR term.
  6. Now write down the gaps on the pre-requisites for moving forward.
  7. Make plan of actions to compliance of all the pre-requisites to move forward.
  8. Read the presentations of Speakers in CSR Workshop at Hyderabad August 2023. The presentations by eminent speakers from outside AISCCON as well.
  9. Develop your passion for making a proposal and owning it after implementation.
  10. Carefully watch all the videos in YouTube links for CSR workshop.
  11. At this stage you are now fully equipped to enter the CSR domain.
  12. Now do the field studies for identifying the deserving seniors as beneficiaries.
  13. Prepare a concept note of your proposal / fields / domains within Schedule VII.
  14. Circulate this amongst the CSR Committee for their views / comments / inputs.
  15. Discuss with some of the CSR Working Groups as per details available at website. The more we interact better would be the sharing of experiences.
  16. Get an independent peer review done on impact and sustainability of your proposal. This could be done by CSR Committee or eminent personalities.
  17. Organise all the supporting documents for the proposal.
  18. Develop complete financial model (fixed / operating) including cash flows/timeline. Here it would be nice to take help from competent personnel.
  19. Complete the proposal as per the Chapters identified and details are at website. This exercise would showcase your vision / passion as well.
  20. Workout whether you can afford engaging a Consultant or upload on MCA website. Consider the avenues of blending with Youth / networking in AISCCON.
  21. Explore contacts that your network has for propagating your proposal for CSR grant. The exploring of contacts could be from AISCCON office bearers as well.
  22. Harness the potential of CSR Committee members wherever needed in the process. The more you react the better would be the proposals for CSR.
  23. CSR Committee is available to shape your ideas into reality through CSR avenues. The initiative need to come out from your end.
The following are the links for the reference documents:
  • List of ten pre-requisites ; see the CSRNewsletter No.2.
  • Brief basic guidelines for making CSR proposal - CSR Newsletter No.5.
  • Workshop templates and details of committee members on website.
  • One typical CSR proposal for grant - June 2022 : available on website.
  • Requirement of any other reference documents shall be met upon request.
  • Your proposal need to fall in line with Schedule VII as detailed below.

SCHEDULE VII (See section 135)

Activities which may be included by companies in their Corporate Social Responsibility Policies Activities relating to;
1 [(i) eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, 2 [promoting health care including preventive health] and sanitation 3 [Including contribution to the Swatch Bharat Kosh set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of sanitation] and making available safe drinking water;
(ii) promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly, and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects;
(iii) promoting gender equality, empowering women, setting up homes and hostels for women and orphans; setting up old age homes, day care centres and such other facilities for senior citizens and measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups;

(iv) ensuring environmental sustainability, ecological balance, protection of flora and fauna, animal welfare, agroforestry, conservation of natural resources and maintaining quality of soil, air and water 4 [including contribution to the Clean Ganga Fund set-up by the Central Government for rejuvenation of river Ganga];

(v) protection of national heritage, art and culture including restoration of buildings and sites of historical importance and works of art; setting up public libraries; promotion and development of traditional arts and handicrafts;

(vi) measures for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents, 5 [Central Armed Police Forces (CAPE) and Central Para Military Forces (CPMF) veterans, and their dependents including windows];

(vii) training to promote rural sports, nationally recognised sports, paralympic sports and Olympic sports;

(viii) contribution to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund or 6 [Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) or] any other fund set up by the Central Government for socio-economic development and relief and welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women;

1. Subs. by Notification No. G.S.R. 130(E), dated 27th February 2014, for item (i) to (x) (w.e.f. 1-4-2014). 2. Subs. by Notification No. G.S.R. 261(E), dated 31st March 2014 for “promoting preventive health care” (w.e.f. 31-3- 2014). 3. Ins. by Notification No. G.S.R. 568(E), dated by 6th August, 2014. 4. Ins. by Notification No. G.S.R. 741 (E), dated by 24th October, 2014(w.e.f. 24-10-2014). 5. Ins. by Notification No. G.S.R. 399(E), dated 23rd June, 2020 (w.e.f. 23-06-2020). 6. Ins. by Notification No. G.S.R. 313(E), dated 26th May, 2020 (w.e.f. 26-05-2020). 7. Subs. by Notification No. G.S.R. 525(E), dated by 24th August, 2020 for item (ix) and the entries thereto (w.e.f. 24-8-2020). 327 (x) rural development projects.] 1 [(xi) slum are development.Explanation.— For the purposes of this item, the term ‘slum area’ shall mean any area declared as such by the Central Government or any State Government or any other competent authority under any law for the time being in force.] 2 [(xii) disaster management, including relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities.]

Contact Details for consultative process with committee members;

Manohar Lal BaharaniAny query in entire process of developing CSR proposal8319723072
manoharlal.baharani@gmail.com
M.K. RainaPre-requisites for being entitled to submit CSR proposals + queries on the provisions of CSR Act. 9760002072
mkrainas@gmail.com
Suresh PalgayProposal templates / contents of the CSR proposal - peer reviews9837889942
spalgay@gmail.com
Sarvesh GuptaSchedule VII provisions / study of draft proposals for comments8077074204
sarvesh1948@gmail.com
Nageshwar RaoCSR Working group coordination, proposals impacts and sustainability analysis7702326663
mnrao1314@gmail.com
We appreciate your time, efforts & energy to take the above steps and look forward to emergence of praise worthy proposals for availing the CSR grants. Embosom Nice Thoughts…Best wishes… Cordially yours…Manohar Lal Baharani

FROM CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Committee Chairperson’s Desk

Corporate Social Responsibility – A way forward for wellbeing of deserving seniors

Inspired by the encouragements showered by Shri V.K. Bhadane, President AISCCON and Shri R.N. Mital Chairman AOSC-H Trust here are my inputs for those who wish to reorient their mindset from charity & welfare to wellbeing of deserving seniors through the funding avenues of Corporate Social Responsibility. In addition to the budget for welfare measures from the Government of India’s exchequer, since April 01, 2014, it is compulsory for companies to spend 2% of their average profit of the last three years on social welfare. This is called Corporate Social Responsibility. This is applicable to companies having Rs.1000 crores revenue or net worth Rs.500 crores or a profit of more than Rs.5 crores per annum. Vide notification dated 27.2.2014 the Ministry of Corporate Affairs included the welfare of senior citizens activities in Schedule VII of the Indian Companies Act 2013 on all India basis.

In order to tap this avenue there are certain pre-requisites we must have. Starting with we need to be either a Section 8 company (not for profit entity) or a Trust under Act 1882 or Society under Act 1860 or corresponding State Act. Thereafter there are documentary evidences like Registration Certificate, PAN number, three years existence and more. The pre-requisites are listed in the 32 page background study material titled “CSR Workshop Template” available on AISCCON web site under icon “News & Events”. All the subsequent documents mentioned in this Article are also available on the website. Once you attain this stage you are now ready to start thinking about tapping the CSR funding. Please be informed that over Rs. 25,000 Crores of CSR funding is being spent every year and it is a growing reality. Due to our inability to put up worthy proposals, large chunk of CSR funds are getting syphoned back to the Governance through schemes like Prime Minister Relief Fund, contributions to research & development, educational institutions etc.,. and we get below 1% share despite being 13% of the population. The probable causes are our ignorance of this avenue, reluctance to groom in pace with the lifestyle evolution process and procedural requirements, NGO’s are choosing soft options to get the CSR fundings for education, health care and women empowerment domains etc., Corporate Houses are mostly unaware of needs of deserving senior citizens at grass root level and more.
Having said that now let us look at the way forward. Get registered with Ministry of Corporate Affairs and their website www.csrxchange.gov.in. Begin browsing this website for couple of weeks to get a feel how the CSR implementation agencies are placing their project concepts for seeking CSR funds and what are the priority areas of Corporates Houses. Lot of other information is also available in this website which is dynamic in nature and therefore demands browsing at regular interval. Having done that now study the issues of concern for the deserving senior citizens in your area, find in which area you are passionate to take up some projects / programs for wellbeing of this segment. Prepare a concept note downloading all your thoughts supported by the evidences of the field work, cost estimates, sustainability aspects and assessment of impact that your program is going to make in improving the lives from the baseline scenario. Then your concept note has to fall in line with the provisions of Schedule VII (Section 135 of Act). This Schedule describes broad avenue like eradicating hunger poverty and malnutrition. It includes preventative health, sanitation, safe drinking water, promoting education including vocational skills and livelihood enhancements (this is important for all those elderly who are constrained to earn their livelihood until their life transition), measures to reduce inequality, ensure environmental sustainability, ecological balance, protection of flora & fauna, animal welfare, conservation of natural resources and many more. For full details please go through the website and read the Schedule VII. Please rewrite your proposal in such a way that it fits into one of these broad categories. In addition to this there are 17 Sustainably Development Goals identified by United Nations. You need to see where your project / program fits into one or more of these SDGs. This will enhance your chances of getting the CSR grants. In case you are having limited in-house resources to complete all the requisite steps there are now consulting organisations available at a nominal charges to provide the services. It is desirable to avail their services as that would help bring in synergy with the system requirements. The key factors for success are finding the baseline scenarios, identification of deserving senior citizens, trust & confidence that you demonstrate your passion to own and operate the project / program sustainably, financial analysis, transparency in financial dealings evidenced by external audit processes, impact evaluation techniques and the credentials of the Governing Body.
We the CSR Committee comprising undersigned, S/Shri M.K.Raina, VP AISCCON, Nageshwar Rao, VP Telangana, Sarvesh Gupta, President Haridwar Association, Suresh Palgay, Director Shehjaar Homes with the organisational support of Shri P. Ramachandraiah President Telangana Federation and his team had organised a three days workshop in Hyderabad during August 07-09, 2023. For those who are keen to move forward in this direction are welcome to watch on Youtube live the entire proceedings. There are six links uploaded on the AISCCON website (two for each day). In addition to this all the presentations made by eminent speakers can also be downloaded from the website. Going through all these would require considerable patience and likely to emanate queries in your mind. The CSR Committee shall be sportingly receiving such queries through email for response to the best of our competence. There is one typical sample CSR proposal also available in the website that was prepared in June 2022 for your perusal and reference to move ahead. Those who are more ambitious with clear long term vision and mission in this direction would be happy to know that now there is “Social Stock Exchange” also in place where the social organisational shares can be listed for funding by the public similar to the ongoing commercial organisations share business market. You are welcome to browse through the website www.bsesocialexchange.com.

In concluding of our workshop we observed that a large of number of AISCCON affiliates are already doing a good number of welfare activities by seeking charity funds and donations. An expertise to implement the projects / programs in the health care domain, education, digital literacy, mitigation of environmental issues, nutrition, safe drinking water, sanitation, geriatric care and more exists. The missing link is to consolidate these experiences, develop a well structured projects / programs in synergy with the provisions of CSR regulations to avail the funding that in any case Corporate Houses are obliged to spend as per the Companies Act. Therefore it is not a process of seeking charity or grant or donation but taking share of our cake that we deserve as our social right by giving praiseworthy proposals. This surely calls for harnessing our collective intelligence and team spirit, I believe. I wish that the participants of the 21st Annual Conference will rejuvenate their mind set and ensure redirecting their efforts from charity & welfare to wellbeing through CSR avenues. Wish you all good luck in your endeavour to improve the lives of deserving senior citizens. Comments / Inputs from mentors shall be sportingly received. Embosom nice thoughts. Best wishes…

Manohar Lal Baharani,
Chairperson, CSR Committee
Mobile: 8319723072
Email: manoharlal.baharani@gmail.com