Talking to Newsline on the sidelines of the event, Sumeet Singla, Regional Head Corporate Affairs, India and South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, said that the bank runs global projects related to CSR. He shared, “We are running a project called ‘Seeing is Believing’ whereby we plan to restore the eyesight of about 10 million people worldwide by 2010. We’ll raise about USD 10 million for the same. In India, this project is being carried out in 82 different ways with implementing partner- CBM International in over 24 states. The second programme under CSR activity is ‘Living with HIV’. It’s a peer education program where we spread awareness about HIV/AIDS in educational institutions. We plan to educate people through volunteer champions in vulnerable regions of Africa, Asia and other big markets.”

Standard Chartered Bank is also pioneering women empowerment programs like ‘GOAL’ in India. “Our volunteers go to villages and encourage girls to play a game of Netball. There we give modules about education, health, sanitation, and training skills. We assist them in getting employment and try promoting the game with the help of Netball Association,” added Singla.

Srikant Sastri, MD, Solutions Integrated Marketing and Growth For All International Foundation, said that the SME sector is also becoming active on the CSR front. “We are initiating a project through which we’ll try to integrate companies working in different fields to work together for a community. We’ll start with Delhi and Rajasthan and try to involve corporates and NGOs undertaking CSR activities to work for the upliftment of the colonies.”