IT-BPM Industry to Drive the Inclusive India Growth Story at NASSCOM Foundation’s CSR Leadership Conference

NASSCOM Foundation hosted India’s largest Tech for Good driven conference – The CSR Leadership Conference 2018 in Bangalore today.

The two-day conference brings over 400 delegates consisting of CEOs, CXOs, CSR Heads from the industry, policy makers, influencers, NGO Leads, Tech4Good champions, and social innovators under one roof to discuss innovative approaches to CSR and help create a roadmap to a new, developed and inclusive India.

The event was supported by Accenture, discussing Skills to Succeed. Societe Generale and Wells Fargo also came forward to support the knowledge platform, along with Sonata Software. 

The event saw leaders like Debjani Ghosh, president, NASSCOM call for collaboration across the industry to solve larger national issues. Rekha Menon, Chairman and Senior Managing Director, Accenture India, talked about how India needs to upskill and re-skill its workforce to remain relevant.  Arun Seth, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation, reflected on NASSCOM Foundation’s role in using technology for social good to create an inclusive India.

Ashok Pamidi, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, said, “Sabka Saath, Saka Vikaas, (together with all, development for all) has been one of the cornerstones of the public policy of the Government of India. The conference takes this vision forward by providing a platform for the IT-BPM industry to collaborate and solve India’s most pressing problems.”

He further added, “With Industry Revolution 4.0 technologies, we are at the threshold of what could be history in the making. On the one hand, we plan to use CSR funds to skill people on these new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Robotics, etc. and bridge the skills gap. On the other hand, we plan to use the power of these technologies to address various day-to-day problems and needs of common people while helping improve the social fabric. This conference aims at the discussing opportunities and challenges of these technologies apart from addressing the present implementation needs.”

According to a report from Accenture on creating a future workforce, 95% workforce believes that it needs new skills to remain relevant. Addressing the critical question on future of work and where does India stand in re-skilling its workforce, the Skills to Succeed partner for the conference, Accenture called for an innovative approach, aided with intelligent technologies, to help people develop future-ready skills. The panel consisting of leaders like Gayathri Vasudevan from LabourNet Services India Pvt. Ltd., Clement Chauvet, UNDP, Anita Rajan, Tata STRIVE, Rituparna Chakraborty, TeamLease Services Ltd, and Gaurav Kapoor, NSDC moderated by Kshitija Krishnaswamy, Accenture further discussed on how India’s skilling challenge can be transformed into an opportunity.

Around 80% of the jobs created in the future will require STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths skills. A session focusing on STEM education for children highlighted how CSR initiatives had stepped in to energize the ecosystem by building makerspaces, tinkering labs, collaborating to develop curriculum and expose the students to new technologies at a young age.  

Collaboration in CSR can help bring impact at scale for some of the most challenging of the social problems we face today. Prakriti Panvar from Wells Fargo took the lead in discussing various collaboration models and highlighted best practices in a cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder environment.

According to a report, 9 out of the ten most polluted cities in the world are in India.  Increasing air pollution, water pollution, inadequate waste disposal, increasing e-waste, growing scarcity of natural resources are some of the few immediate and imminent environmental threats the country faces. Societe Generale has been at the forefront of promoting clean and renewable energy and brought its knowledge to the conference where Sowmya Suryanarayanan talked about how can organizations embed sustainability within the values and culture of an organization.

The first day of CLC also had other interactive panel discussions and impacted talks, Rural Development, Reimagining Healthcare and making development efficient.

The day ended with business leaders like Sandhya Vasudevan, DB Group, Rostow Ravanan, Mindtree, Sarv Saravanan, Dell EMC giving an insight into how they balance business goals with social imperatives.

The CSR Leadership Conference also had a host of networking opportunities and enabled NGOs and Corporates to find relevant partners. CLC also hosted some of the best social innovation project demos.

The second day of CLC will deep dive into engaging learning experiences in Employee Volunteerism with a session by MyGov on Self4Society, Mapping CSR to SDGs, Design Thinking for Development and Best Practices for Monitoring and Evaluation

The CLC has grown over the years to become the largest IT-BPM specific CSR conference. This year the CLC hosted the leadership from across all relevant stakeholder groups involved in the CSR ecosystem – The IT Industry, NGOs, Social Enterprises and Ecosystem support agencies. Some of the participating organizations included - IBM, Intel, Teamlease, Labournet, Atal Innovation Mission, NSDC, Tata Strive, Accenture, Akshaypatra, ACC Limited, Cognizant, Vodafone and Deutsche Bank, Dalberg, PwC, Sattva Consulting, and Storywallahs.

The NASSCOM Foundation CSR Leadership Conference, therefore, delivered on its promise to provide a 360-degree opportunity for all stakeholders to connect, learn from peers and experts, and strive to solve the most significant challenges facing development and diversity in India.