MUMBAI: Mahindra & Mahindra Limited headquartered in Mumbai, has spent Rs. 85.57 Crore towards various corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and initiatives during the financial year 2016-17, financial report said.

“The amount equal to 2% of the average net profit for past three financial years required to be spent on CSR activities was Rs. 83.00 crores. According to the report, average net profit of the Company for the last three Financial Years was 4,165.21 crores.” It added.

During the reviewed year again education was most preferred area of working for the corporate social responsibility programs at M&M.

In the year 2015-16, M&M invested Rs. 185.110 crore towards various CSR projects and programs. Group spent Rs.121.14 crore in CSR during the year 2013-14.

CSR Committee

The CSR Committee comprises of Dr. Vishakha N Desai (Chairperson), Anand G Mahindra, RK Kulkarni, Dr Pawan Goenka and Vikram Singh Mehta. The Committee, inter alia, monitors the CSR activities.

M&M CSR efforts continue to be directed towards supporting the constituencies of girls, youth and farmers by innovatively supporting them through programs in the domains of education, health and environment, while harnessing the power of technology. It is only through these sustained and continued efforts that your Company can build and consolidate its CSR activites wich contribute to nation building.”, Annual Report said.

During the last Financial Year, M&M has been making an impact through its ongoing CSR programs, some of the notable ones include Project Nanhi Kali, which supports the education of underprivileged girls, Mahindra Pride Schools, which provide livelihood training to youth from socially and economically disadvantaged communities and a variety of other scholarship programs, which range from providing opportunities to youth from low income group families to undergo diploma courses at vocational education institutes, to allowing meritorious students to pursue their post graduate studies at reputed universities overseas, to allowing meritorious and deserving students to study at the Mahindra United World College in Pune.

It has also helped set up a engineering institution ‘Mahindra Ecole Centrale’ MEC in Hyderabad, in partnership with Ecole Centrale, Paris and the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad.

In the area of public health, M&M sponsored Lifeline Express, through which medical care and treatment was provided to communities who do not have access to any medical facilities.

M&M contributed to the environment by adding green cover through planting of over two million trees this year through Project Hariyali.
Supported small and marginal farmers by training them in effective farming practices including soil, health, crop planning, creating model farms with bio-dynamic farming practice, with a view to increasing crop productivity, through Wardha Farmer Family Project, Krishi Mitra Project and Integrated Watershed Development Project.
M&M partnered with Maharashtra Govt. to support Village Social Transformation Mission of the Govt.
It has created a Zero Fatality Corridor to ensure ‘zero’ deaths due to accidents on Mumbai Pune Expressway.
Company has a vibrant Employee Social Options platform through which the employees are provided opportunities to give back to the community.

(Rusen Kumar is the editor at India CSR Network. He can be reached at editor@indiacsrnetwork.com)