Amritsar, NFA Post: Corporate social responsibility arm of HCL Technologies, HCL Foundation, has announced winners of the sixth round of the HCL Grant — a flagship program dedicated to strengthening NGOs working towards nation building.
The three NGOs, one each in the development areas of environment, health, and education, will each receive a grant of 50 million rupees for a three-to-five year project, the foundation said in a statement.
In addition, two finalists in each category will receive a one-year grant of 2.5 million rupees, making a total grant of 165 million rupees.
Under its HCL Grant program, the Foundation has so far committed more than 600 million rupees, excluding this year’s grants, according to the statement.
Recognised as one of the most sought-after validations amongst NGO ecosystems in India, the HCL Grant has in the past five years reached over 733,000 beneficiaries, it said.
The Grant aims to touch the lives of at least 1.72 million people in 8,598 villages in 70 districts across 18 states and two union territories of India, the foundation said.
The winning NGOs of HCL Grant 2021 were:
- Sahas (Environment)
- India Health Action Trust (Health)
- Child Rights and You (Education)
The NGOs were chosen after an 8-month review of thousands of applications by an eminent jury, monitored and audited by Grant Thornton, the governance partner of HCL Grant.
The jury consisted of Robin Abrams, Director, HCL Technologies, and Chairperson of the jury; Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestle India Limited; B. S. Baswan, former Director, Indian Institute of Public Administration, and former Secretary, Human Resource Development ministry; Pallavi Shroff, Managing Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. law firm; Richard Lariviere, President Emeritus, Field Museum (Chicago), and former President, University of Oregon; and Shiv Nadar, Founder of HCL, Chief Strategy Officer of HCL Technologies, and Founder and Chairman of the Shiv Nadar Foundation.
“Despite the pandemic, the robustness demonstrated by our NGO partners, experts, jury members and the entire team is commendable. The passion and zeal of our NGO partners to bring in scalable and replicable solutions have created systemic shifts across geographies, lending velocity to the sustainable development agenda, Abrams said.”
On the occasion of the grant awards, the HCL Foundation released “Fifth Estate – NGOs Transforming Rural India in Environment, Health and Education,” a compendium featuring the top 30 NGOs selected in the sub-jury round, as well as the previous year’s winning NGOs.
