Fujitsu has been constantly offering support to communities by collaborating with leading NGO partners. In an interview with Rusen Kumar, editor of India CSR; Shrikant Vaze, CEO at Fujitsu Consulting India, the IT services consulting arm of Fujitsu Group shared Fujitsu’s CSR vision and how the company is serving the society. Excerpts:
What are Fujitsu’s CSR initiatives envisioned for India?
Our CSR is practiced by implementing the FUJITSU Way which comprises three essential elements: Our Purpose, which indicates why Fujitsu exists in society, Our Values are the important sense of value each person should have, and Code of Conduct is what we should comply with. These core elements are inculcated across business activities, thus contributing to the sustainable development of society, community and the planet.
The six priority areas that we focus on are socio-economic ICT impacts, environment, ethical practices (compliance, supply chain management, occupational health and safety), human rights, and diversity and inclusion; well-being and human resource development as well as empowering the community at large. While executing many of our activities, we ensure wider employee involvement to achieve greater participation and ownership of key initiatives.
What are the major contribution areas?
Our major contribution areas are education, health, and safety, thus, the goal is to create a positive impact on society. For instance, last year at the peak of the pandemic, we supported orphanages in Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Noida, helped create libraries by providing educational books, organized mask-making activities to teach children to make their own masks and promote hygiene and self-care, donated laptops to Neelkamal Orphanage in September 2020 that homes 45 girls going to Marathi Medium and English Medium Schools and conducted virtual monthly yoga and dance sessions. In July 2021, we launched a Mobile Health Unit service for the disadvantaged senior residents around Talawade, near Pune, India, to enable access to free medical advice, medicine and counseling.
How has your approach towards CSR changed post the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Our focus has always been helping the ones in need, while the medium has changed due to the pandemic. At the moment, we are focused on finding ways to help underprivileged children in continuing their education by donating laptops, school supplies, sanitary kits, and providing ration supplies. We successfully supported eight old-age homes in India. We are also connected with several NGOs for a better reach and to help them if they need monetary or other support in their activities.
What are your future plans with regard to CSR initiatives?
We have ongoing long-term partnerships with NGOs like Akshaya Patra Foundation and Sharp, and we will continue to work with them and help develop and provide the infrastructure needed for privileged children’s education. We will continue to create access to high-quality education to connect the next generation with life-transforming opportunities. In partnership with organizations such as Teach For India, we will continue our work to improve the lives of children, set up libraries in orphanages as well as educate students, teachers, and parents on cyberbullying majorly focusing on how to prevent and deal with it. We are and will continue to support a home education system for children.
How has Fujitsu been contributing towards sustainable development?
We are committed through our corporate purpose to ‘making the world more sustainable. As a global enterprise, we aimed to make the world more sustainable by building trust in the society through innovation by proactive, sustainable, and consistent efforts that engage in societal and business framework transformations.
We encourage our employees to incorporate their passion aligned with their choice of 17 virtual global communities linked with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. In this way, we are driving a culture change across our global organization focused on long-term, positive impacts on society and the environment.
About Shrikant Vaze
Shrikant Vaze is the Head of Asia Cluster Global Development Centers at Fujitsu. In his current role, he is charged with leading Fujitsu’s India Global Development Center as well as the Asia Cluster GDC in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and Costa Rica. In the India region, he is responsible for the overall growth of Fujitsu Consulting India’s IT Consulting, Managed Infrastructure Services, Application Services and ERP businesses.
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