BENGALURU: Striving to recognise excellence in CSR and Sustainability, ASSOCHAM Southern Region conferred its Social Impact Leader of the year 2021 Award to Prashanth Prakash, Chairman, Vision Group for Start-ups, Govt of Karnataka Board Member – Karnataka Digital Economy Mission & Founding Partner Accel, India at its Annual ASSOCHAM CSR & Sustainability Summit & Awards in Bengaluru.
Prashanth Prakash received the award from Dr. C N Ashwath Narayana, Minister for Electronics, IT, BT, S&T & Minister for Higher Education, Skill Development, Government of Karnataka, in the presence of B V Naidu, Chairman, ASSOCHAM Southern Region & Chairman, Karnataka Development Economy Mission (KDEM).
Prashanth Prakash is the brainchild behind the ACT (Action Covid Team) Grants – an initiative to deploy disruptive scalable solutions to fight the pandemic. The ACT Grants 100 crores grant corpus focused on ready-to-go solutions with strong teams and innovative, disruptive technology for those in need.
The journey of ACT Grants worked in a phased manner starting from Prevention and triage where the group was determined to intervene with solutions such as PPE Kits, telemedicine solutions, and make testing available. The next phase revolved around sustenance, particularly trying to resolve issues with migrants – relocating them to their hometowns and coming up with a mobile solution for reemployment. The group is now focusing on the ‘Next Normal’ with relief and support work.
Congratulating Prakash for his determination and disruptive use of technology to make a formidable impact on the society, B V Naidu, said, “I congratulate Shri Prashanth Prakash for his stellar contribution to CSR and start-up ecosystem in Karnataka in the healthcare capacity augmentation space. His pioneering initiative has been a boon to frontline workers and patients during the much-taxing second wave of the pandemic. It reflects his commitment towards ensuring timely medical help, especially for the marginalised at-risk population, and helping those who are vulnerable.
Shri Prashanth Prakash is also one of the pioneers involved in establishing the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) and has played a critical role in accelerating the organisation’s mission of achieving of promoting Karnataka as the most preferred destination for frontier technologies. We are indeed fortunate to have proactive business leaders such as Shri Prakash who are committed to driving social change not just in Karnataka, but across the country as well.”
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. Also present was Shalini Rajneesh IAS, ACS, Government of Karnataka who highlighted the Government of Karnataka’s initiative “AKANKSHA”, an integrated platform for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and CSR Alignment.
India CSR, India’s largest credible CSR think tank was media partner of the prestigious forum.
Highlights
- Chief Guest of the summit, Dr. C N Ashwath Narayana, Minister for Electronics, IT, BT, S&T &Minister for Higher Education, Skill Development, Govt. of Karnataka handed over the Awards.
- ASSOCHAM Southern Region organised the 2nd Edition of ASSOCHAM CSR & Sustainability Summit & Awards at Bengaluru on Feb 24, 2022.
- Under the leadership of Prashant Prakash, ACT (Action Covid Team) Grants of 100 crores was set up to support ready to deploy disruptive scalable solutions to fight against the pandemic. The initiative has been a great success with grantees like CloudHealth and StepOne now working at the pan India level.
- At ACT grants, he has worked closely with CSR foundations and been able to demonstrate that the power that the entrepreneurial world and its technology capabilities can bring to the CSR arena is enormous.
Also Read: ASSOCHAM organises CSR and Sustainability Conference & Awards – India CSR Network
