CSR in the Digital Era

Hemant Gupta

MD & CEO, EQUIPPP Desi Investments Pvt. Ltd.

Hemant Gupta is the MD & CEO of EQUIPPP DESI Investments, a platform with the mandate to invest in local infrastructure projects in PPP mode with local and state Governments.

After 26 years at Citi, one of the largest Global Financial Powerhouses, where he worked in a wide variety of functions including Product Management, Technology and Operations, in India and North America, Hemant decided to swap a large Corporate role for a more socially impactful role.

His journey led him to head BSE Sammaan, which helps Companies do more effective CSR. It was a logical next step in that journey to promote Social enterprises and other tech enabled startups as the MD of Zone Startups India, BSE’s technology incubator.

From there, he went on to establish the Social Stock Exchange in India. He was a member of the Working committee and Technical Group constituted by SEBI for setting up the Social Stock Exchange in India. He was also heading the SSE at BSE.

Hemant holds a Management degree from IIM Calcutta and an Engineering degree from IIT Madras.

Anuj Sharma

Founder Director, Alsisar Impact

Anuj Sharma is the Founder of ALSiSAR Impact with 2 decades of experience working at the intersection of Impact investing, Social Entrepreneurship, Advocacy and Economic Resilience of local & indigenous communities. Alsisar Impact has the largest portfolio of social start-ups in the Himalayan and north east region (Kashmir to Kohima) and significant portfolio in South Asia’s frontier market with a unique theme ‘Lighthouse Place Based Investing’ to empower local communities, enable them direct ownership and conservation efforts of their precious natural resources, climate change and ecosystem preservation.
Earlier, he has worked in 16 countries (US, Europe, Middle East, Asia) in transactions ~ USD 50 Billion. He founded South Asia’s first transaction advisory firm in Impact Investing in Social Enterprise landscape in 2007-08, and worked on the largest number of Impact Investing transactions in the past one decade, galvanizing ~USD 1.25 billion in the space. He has been part of varied academia including various IITs IIMs, TISS, BITS Pilani etc

Jignesh Thakkar

Jignesh Thakkar, Partner & COO, ESG Advisory | Head, Social & CSR Consulting, KPMG India

Jignesh leads our Social & CSR advisory offerings as part of ESG practice in India, a 200+ member team. He leads ESG practice in Gujarat. He has over 15 years of experience of working in development sector with focus on three pillars of impact across the ‘ideate to impact’ journey, namely impact design, impact management, and impact measurement.
He comes with extensive experience in the development sector with focus on poverty alleviation, livelihood, education, community development, capacity building, governance and other allied development sector areas.
He is the first ‘Accredited SROI Practitioner, Social Value International’ in South Asia; as well as one of the Global 15 Trainers on Social Value & SROI. He is an occasional speaker at various forums in India on CSR, Impact, Exit Strategy, to name a few.
He started his career by working with Tribal Development Department, Government of Gujarat as a Senior Consultant by leading the PPP based Skill Development & Vocational Training Projects worth 1500 crore project. Subsequently, he moved to UNICEF Project on “Improving the Quality of Enumeration for Census 2011”, in capacity of National Coordinator and lead the “National Alliance: Census 2011” where he was responsible for timely and qualitative Capacity Building right from National Trainers Team (90) to Enumerators (27 Lakh) across India through a network of more than 30 project partners. Further, he got associated with TeamLease for setting up TeamLease Skills University (TLSU)- India’s First Vocational Skills University, in capacity of Assistant Registrar wherein he was responsible for regulatory, infrastructure and academic administration and also actively supported in other areas such as marketing, HR, IT, etc.
He led the project on SROI (Social Return on Investment) and institutionalized SROI framework, first of its kind in India for Tata Motors (a global award-winning case study by INSEAD), followed by doing social impact (e)valuation for over 500+ projects. He is also instrumental in setting up of India’s first social fund focused on Health (India Health Fund). He has also developed unique and ahead of time exit preparedness rubrics aligned to the principles of effectiveness, convergence and sustainability. He has developed India’s first total quality management and maturity assessment model for NPOs. He has actively contributed to the Working Committee of proposed ‘Social Stock Exchange’ in India by SEBI.

Vineet Rai

Founder and Chairman, Aavishkaar Group

Vineet Rai is the Founder of Aavishkaar Group and chairs its Board and Group Executive Council. Aavishkaar Group is an Impact Investment Platform impacting millions of people in Asia and Africa using an entrepreneurship based development approach. Vineet believes in building impact ecosystems to deliver real Impact as enshrined in the vision of Aavishkaar Group “We exist to bridge the Opportunity gap for the Emerging 3 Billion”. Vineet believes that Impact Investing has the potential to change the world of finance irreversibly.

The Group’s ecosystems include Aavishkaar Capital – the Impact fund manager focused on Global South, Arohan – One of India’s largest & most digitally advanced microfinance institution (MFI) targeting low income households, Ashv Finance – a Fin Tech NBFC, offering unique cash flow based business loans to Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and IntelleCap –building Impact Ecosystems
globally.

Aavishkaar Group has 10000 employees, manages assets in excess of US $ 1.5 Billion while trying to serve needs of entrepreneurs from debt of US $ 150 (INR 10 thousands) to equity of US $ 15 Million (INR 100 Crore) while aligning the group to 13 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDG’s.

Vineet has received numerous awards including the 2021 Access-HSBC Inclusive Finance India Award for personal contribution
to Financial Inclusion in India, TIE Hall of Fame 2018, the Impact Investor of the Year by News Corp for 2016, Porter Prize for
Strategic Leadership in Social Space, 2016, CNBC TV 18 Award for being the Catalyst Fund for India 2016, G 20 – SME Innovation
in Finance Award 2010 in Seoul South Korea, UNDP-IBLF –ICC World Business Award in 2005 and Lemelson Award for Social
Venture Investing. In 2021 Vineet Rai and Swati Rai (Co-Founder) was awarded the Faces of Vibrant Bharat 2021 by Grant
Thorton Bharat. He is an Ashoka Fellow and Honorary Member of XLRI Alumni Association.
In 2022, Vineet has been appointed on the G20 Start up 20 Engagement Group Task Force on Sustainability and Securities and
Exchange Board of India has appointed him on Advisory Committee of the Social Stock Exchange. Vineet was invited by the
Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for his “Roundtable interaction with Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds”. In
2021. Vineet was also invited by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for consultations on doubling the income of the
farmers in September 2017 as part of his champions of change program. Vineet has also served on the advisory committee of
SEBI for the formation of Social Stock Exchange, as Commissioner at the Business Commission for Sustainable Development, as
Senior Advisor to Blended Finance Working Group at OECD and as an Advisor to United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific Science Technology and Innovation Advisory Board

Hardik Parikh

Senior Consultant, Sattva

Hardik is a Senior Consultant with Sattva’s Corporate & Sustainability Advisory practice in Mumbai. At Sattva, he has worked on multiple projects spanning CSR Strategy, Program Design and program management among others, for clients from the BFSI and other industries. Hardik has 8+ years of work experience, and prior to Sattva, he worked with a boutique Investment Banking advisory firm in Mumbai, primarily on debt capital and corporate restructuring transactions. Hardik is a Policy in Action Fellow with Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC), having written a policy brief for a Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra. He is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelors in Commerce from the Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics.

Rakesh Kaul Punjabi

Technology Consulting Partner, EY India

I have over 27 years of diverse experience of large-scale technology transformations at Federal and State level, across geographies including India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, Caribbean and Middle East.

Over these years, have constantly reinvented myself. Started by working on core technology projects around Data Centres and Connectivity, then moved to large ICT led transformation including designing and executing of Digital Public Infrastructure. Now, for past couple of years have worked upon innovative AI solutions for transformation. In the meantime, added further skills of consulting, leadership, culture development and managing profitable growth.

My experience of spans across following themes

• Digital Public Infrastructure
• Social & Financial Inclusion
• Healthcare reforms
• Public Finance reforms
• Urban Sector reforms
• Education and Skills
• Institutional Strengthening

Dr. Sujata Seshadrinathan

Director – IT, Basiz Fund Services, Mumbai

Dr Sujata Seshadrinathan is Director – IT, Product & Process and Founder and Majority Shareholder in Basiz Fund Services, a Global Leader in Fund Administration. She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration focussing on Blockchain adoption. With over 25 years of work experience combining software, finance and accounting domains, Dr. Sujata has lead companies that are invested into startups, Fund services, Fund Tech and Legal Tech. She is recognised for entrepreneurial excellence and is the recipient of several awards for it. Dr. Sujata is also a Professor for management courses teaching Entrepreneurship and Technology. She is a frequent speaker at events, panels and contributes regularly to publications on technology related topics. As a philanthropist she and Mr. Seshadrinathan runs the Sujata Sesh Foundation that is active in the space of Education, Healthcare, Water conservation and Women Empowerment.

Ashwath Bharath

Senior Director, Teach For India

Ashwath Bharath is Senior Director, Movement Building at Teach For India. Ashwath did his Bachelors in Bio-Technology (from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University) and a Masters of Science (by Research) in Bioinformatics (from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad). He spent close to a year at the Society for Development of Economically Weaker Sections in Yelagiri (Vellore), Tamil Nadu, before joining the Teach For India Fellowship in 2012. The Fellowship laid the foundation for the importance of education-for-all for social change and betterment of the nation; and that poverty doesn’t need to dictate destiny – every child can surpass our expectations if the right environment is created for them. After the Fellowship, he led the Government Relations vertical in Pune for three years, working with various stakeholders ranging from school staff to block, district, state and central-level officials. He then led Firki, Teach For India’s online platform for educators for five years. He currently leads the Movement Building cluster at Teach For India, which aims to engage and mobilize all our primary stakeholders (students, parents, educators, TFI alumni, and government officials) toward ensuring an excellent education for all children. He is a strong advocate of making teaching an aspirational profession and works toward strengthening the teacher-student relationship to facilitate a holistic learning process.

Abhejit Agarwal

Head – Sustainability & CSR, Axis Bank

Abhejit leads the Sustainability and CSR vertical at Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector Bank. In his role, Abhejit is responsible for delivering on the Bank’s vision and action towards achieving its sustainability and CSR mandates, both of which are Board-level agendas at the Bank.
Prior to his current role, Abhejit has held leadership roles at YES Bank and Essar Group, helping them achieve several industry-firsts in India in the sustainability domain.
Abhejit is or has been a member of the Bombay Chamber CSR Committee, CII Climate Change Council, CII Net Zero Council and the FICCI National Task Force on ESG. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Development Policy and Management at IIM Udaipur. He is also part of other industry-led initiatives focused on sustainable development and climate action such as the World Economic Forum Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders India and speaks extensively on these topics.
Abhejit is a postgraduate from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and has a bachelor’s degree from Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA. He lives in Mumbai with his wife and daughter, and enjoys anime, sports, music, travelling and gardening.

Shrutika Jadhav

Head- Catalytic Philanthropy, Dasra

Shrutika is the Associate Director at Dasra, leading the catalytic philanthropy division. She comes with over 15 years of experience in building nonprofits, fostering partnerships and collaboratives. Shrutika began her career with one of India’s largest insurance company where she played a critical role in scaling business operations. After this stint, she switched her career to become a teacher in one of the most disadvantaged communities. From then on, Shrutika continues to be a strong advocate for excellent education as a lever for change. In her role, Shrutika works closely with family foundations, corporates, and non-profits in supporting them achieve their vision for impact. Shrutika holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Lee Kuan Yew school of public policy and degree in business management from Mumbai university

Gopal Kumar

Head, CSR, Aditya Birla Capital

Enterprising & dynamic professional having over 25 years of leadership experience in Corporate Social Responsibility, Rural Marketing, Strategy & Planning, Developing & Leading New business Projects. Currently serving as Head – CSR of Adity Birla Capital Limited. Previously he held key roles at Hindalco Industries Limited & Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited.
Under his leadership the company has received numerous recognitions on various credible platforms.
Individually, he has been honoured with Aditya Birla Capital’s Inspiration Award for Emerging Leadership (2018) and Functional Excellence Award (2023). Additionally, he was recognized with the Mahatma Award 2023 for Leadership in Social Impact through CSR.

Prerana Langa

CEO, Aga Khan Agency, Habitat India

Prerana is passionate about large scale impact.
Prerana leads Aga Khan Agency for Habitat’s climate action work in India. Her focus is on constructing resilient environmental infrastructure, fortifying climate resilience, nurturing biodiversity, restoring coastal ecosystems, implementing flood and heat management solutions, and safeguarding water security.
She has been instrumental in establishing organizations such as YES FOUNDATION and ICICI Foundation for ICICI Group and YES BANK. She is recognized as one of the Top Five Social Impact Professionals in India by AVPN and Social Venture Partners.
She is featured in a book, The Chef Executive Officer, for perspective on innovative leadership alongside other high-profile CEOs.