As the HCLTech Grant turns 10, its director reflects on lessons from a decade of social investment and the need to move beyond charity


When HCLFoundation started its national CSR grant programme ten years ago, corporate funding for rural NGOs was still limited. Over the years, the HCLTech Grant has grown into a structured philanthropic model supporting education, health, and environment initiatives across India. For Nidhi Pundhir, Senior Vice President, Global CSR at HCLTech and Director of HCLFoundation, its significance lies as much in transparency and ground-level impact as in scale.

“If you really want to deploy CSR funds well, you have to go there,” Pundhir said while talking to BW Sustainability World. “We’ve travelled across all 28 states and 8 Union Territories. Field orientation is non-negotiable.”

‘Governance And Measurable Impact Matter’
The grant, launched in 2015—around the time India’s CSR law came into force—was designed with a transparent, open-application process for NGOs. “We wanted to set higher accountability standards,” said Pundhir. “The not-for-profit space needed recognition, but also rigour in how funds were deployed and impact was measured.”

Each year, NGOs across India can apply through a public portal, with applications evaluated by independent juries. Projects are monitored through defined indicators for education, health, and environmental outcomes. “It is not a sign-off activity,” Pundhir stressed. “Every project is jointly implemented and co-created with the community.”

Public Health And Local Governance
Some of the grant’s most visible impacts have been in public health. In Nagaland, Pundhir said, maternal mortality fell to zero in districts where HCL-supported programmes worked with local health systems. In West Bengal, a malnutrition project influenced state policy on indigenous nutrition.

“The best results come when CSR efforts align with public systems,” she said. “Ninety-one per cent of our partners have collaborated with government bodies, from panchayats to state administrations.”

CSR Beyond Charity
Pundhir believes corporate social responsibility needs to move away from charity-driven models to evidence-based investment in public goods. “The biggest lesson is that partnerships and accountability define success,” she said. “Corporates have to adopt governance standards as strong as those they expect from NGOs.”

The Foundation’s impact assessments show 77 per cent of health projects have been integrated with public systems, while nearly half of education projects were replicated through local curriculum and digital models.

Environmental Lens Expands
As part of its next phase, the Foundation is splitting its environment category into two focus areas—biodiversity and water—to deepen its climate commitments. “We’ve doubled our allocation to Rs 24 crore,” Pundhir said. “But the shift is also qualitative: more partnerships, more measurement, and alignment with SDG 13 on climate action.”

Under its broader Harit programme, the Foundation reports restoration of 20,000 hectares of degraded land and conservation of 128 billion litres of water. “Around 25 per cent of our total CSR budget now goes into environment and conservation,” Pundhir said.

Next Decade: Measurement, Inclusion, And Collaboration
Looking ahead, Pundhir said the grant is opening doors to Section 8 companies, research institutions, and innovation-led NGOs, reflecting a changing CSR landscape. The focus will be on data-backed reporting in sync with NITI Aayog’s SDG localisation framework.

“The next decade is about deepening partnerships and measuring what truly changes on the ground,” Pundhir said. “Field work, not optics, is what defines impact.”