The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) awarded Chandrima Ganguly Dendukuri as Social Impact Maker 2021 for her exemplary contribution to field of CSR in India.

She was awarded during annual ASSOCHAM CSR & Sustainability Summit & Awards held on Feb 24 in Bengaluru.

The Award was presented to her by Honorable CN Aswath Narayana, Minister IT Minister of Information Technology – Biotechnology, Higher Education, Science and Technology of Karnataka; Shalini Rajneesh IAS, ACS, Government of Karnataka and Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel.

Chandrima is a passionate Voice for Emotional Health and Wellness. As the Co-Chair ASSOCHAM Telangana CSR & Sustainability and Founder/Trustee Dhanush Foundation, she launched SUMONA in July 2021. SUMONA is a Boutique Counselling platform for people who are tired of feeling worthless about themselves.

Her slogans “Don’t SUPRESS, EXPRESS EXPRESS !!” “Conversations can lead to MAGICAL OUTCOME” have created awareness among many people to open up their bottled emotions. As a certified Help Giver in International Counselling & Guidance, she has been volunteering in counselling sessions and has transformed the lives of many help-seekers. At SUMONA, one finds a FRIEND, A CONFIDANTE, A COUNSELLOR.

Chandrima is also the Co-Founder and Financial Controller for Dhanush InfoTech and its Group Companies. She co-founded the IT Services Company in 2008 and its Public Healthcare division in 2015. She garnered multi-million-dollar Investment in it, besides being responsible for Compliance, Legal and Taxation.

She started her professional career as a Banker and handled all gamut of banking for a decade at Citibank. She is a Certified Corporate Director from Institute of Directors (IOD) and a staunch champion of Corporate Governance.

Her CSR theme is Rural Empowerment through Public and Technology enabled Healthcare such as Telemedicine. Through her NGO Dhanush Foundation, she facilitates the NandGhar Project, which is Vendanta’s flagship social initiative to create and operate smart Anganwadis. She holds a Certificate from Indian School of Businessin Creation of Value through CSR and is the Chair ASSOCHAM Telangana CSR & Sustainability Committee.

Chandrima is an active member of the Mumbai Angels Investors Network. She invests in early stage start-ups. She believes in social value investing, a step forward to value investing. She prefers to invest in businesses that values long term strategy and enables entrepreneurs to collaborate for a better planet.

She enjoys mentoring young founders and entrepreneurs on Business Plan. She is keen on inspiring entrepreneurship for B-School Students through Industry –Academia interactions. On her personal side, Chandrima is an avid reader, a poet and a trained singer. Her daily dose of love, laughter and sunshine are her children, a Golden Retriever and her backyard bliss of kitchen garden.

Forum witnessed the presence of B V Naidu Chairman, ASSOCHAM SMARTecIndia Initiative & South Region Development Council & Managing Partner StartupXseed Ventures & Founder & Chairman, The Gain. He emphasized the collaboration between corporate, government and civil society for CSR projects. He also mentioned that the alignment of the CSR projects with SDGs 2030 is the way forward.

Also present at the event were Abhishek Ranjan, Chair, ASSOCHAM CSR & Sustainability Committee, Southern Region who laid emphasis on the integration of CSR & Sustainability and how ESG is driving business leaders today to create impact in the society.

Shalini Rajneesh IAS, ACS, Government of Karnataka highlighted the Government of Karnataka’s initiative “AKANKSHA”, an integrated platform for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and CSR Alignment.