CSR Partnerships for Innovation CSR Partnerships for Innovation

Investments in climate tech in India are growing at a fast pace, amounting to over $800 million in the first half of 2022 alone. It is important to invest in technologies and infrastructure to help communities adapt to the crisis already at hand. It is hence critical to develop models to address climate change mitigation with interventions that are strategic, measurable, and sustainable.

To shed more light on these aspects in this episode of CSR Partnerships for Innovation, we are joined by Mr Ashwini Saxena, CEO at the JSW Foundation. Ashwini has over 30 years of experience across India and Africa with reputed developmental organisations such as UNIDO, IFC, World Bank and many, many corporates.

Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | ⁠LinkedinGuest: Ashwini Saxena | LinkedinProducer: Anagha WankhedeAudio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar

Designer: Usha Sondhi KunduMusic: "Welcome To India" by Steve Oxen

CSR spending in India is concentrated in a few sectors, including education and healthcare. Less than 1% of the CSR funds are channelled towards incubators to support social enterprises.

To understand the criticality of CSR backing for scalable and impactful solutions through social enterprises, we have with us today, Mr. Harish Krishnan, Managing Director, Public Affairs and Strategic Engagements at Cisco India and SAARC.

Harish leads Cisco's strategic engagement with India's national and state governments on a wide range of public policy issues that concern Cisco in India.

Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | ⁠LinkedinGuest: Harish Krishnan | LinkedinProducer: Meenakshi IyerAudio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Music: "Welcome To India" by Steve Oxen

When the very DNA of a company is imbued with purposeful community action and giving back to society, innovation thrives.


In this episode, Krishna speaks with Sapna Bhawnani from Alstom, an organisation at the forefront of driving innovation in India's sustainable mobility sector. Sapna has played a pivotal role in shaping Alstom's CSR strategy in India, and she shares her incredible journey to foster innovation, her personal learnings, as well as ideas for others looking to integrate innovation as part of CSR.

Sapna Bhawnani currently leads Communications & CSR of the Asia Pacific Region at Alstom. She has been associated with Alstom in various capacities in India and internationally since 2008.

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Contents

00:00-Podcast Introduction

01:38-Introduction to Sapna and Alstom's CSR approach

05:08-Introducing Innovation in CSR

09:08-What Outcomes should CSR Achieve?

13:38-Evolution of Alstom's Innovation Programme

17:04-New Leverages in CSR Partnerships

18:24-The Role of CSR Compliance in Innovation

19:57-Growing the Portfolio

21:32-Advice for CSRs looking to get into Innovation

23:51-Building an Ecosystem to Support Innovation

25:04-The Joy of Innovation

26:30-Summary and Outro

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Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | ⁠⁠LinkedIn

⁠Guest: Sapna Bhawnani | ⁠LinkedIn⁠

Producer: Meenakshi Iyer

Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar

Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu

Music: "Welcome To India" by Steve Oxen

Mercedes-Benz has made a substantial name for themselves and their products through innovation. Shweta Pandey joins Krishna for this episode of CSR Partnerships for Innovation to share the evolution of how MBRDI elevated innovation in how they fund CSR initiatives, and she shares some of her personal favourite initiatives, as well as sound advice for others looking to integrate innovation as part of their CSR strategy.

Shweta Pandey leads the legal and compliance portfolio at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India. As part of her role, she is also responsible for corporate social responsibility, where she has undertaken CSR activities across different thematic areas including fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in sustainable mobility.

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Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | ⁠LinkedInGuest: Shweta Pandey | LinkedInProducer: Meenakshi Iyer
Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar
Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu
Music: "Welcome To India" by Steve Oxen

In this episode of CSR Partnerships for Innovation, Krishna sat down with Neha Jain from Akamai. She shared the story of how Akamai’s flagship programme got started, and how at the intersection of technology and impact, Akamai is evolving their CSR strategy. With Akamai’s focus on innovation and their earnest efforts to encourage, mentor, and fund entrepreneurs with incredible solutions, Neha shares how her story has evolved with Akamai’s CSR innovation journey.

Neha Jain is the Director of Operations and Innovation and Co-chair of the CSR Trust at Akamai Technologies, which has been promoting innovative solutions to solve India’s water crisis.

For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our Website, Linkedin, Twitter and, Instagram: @sattvaknowledgeinstitute

Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | ⁠Linkedin
Guest: Neha Jain | Linkedin
Producer: Meenakshi Iyer
Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar
Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu
Music: Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

Content Chapters:


0:00 - Podcast Introduction
01:42 - Introduction to Akamai and Neha Jain
02:40 - CSR at Akamai and how it has evolved
04:22 - How Akamai sees CSR in India
08:41 - The story of how Akamai first transitioned to innovation in CSR
22:02 - CSR Compliance and internal discussions
28:59 - Stand out innovations & next steps for Akamai's Flagship Programme
34:28 - Advice for the CSR ecosystem
36:46 - Summary and thanks

Welcome to the podcast CSR Partnerships for Innovation. Over the past few years, India has inched up to become the third largest innovation and entrepreneurship hub globally. Our economy boasts of start-ups across diverse sectors with incredible innovation pouring in from every corner of our country. 

There's another movement also underway the corporate social responsibility, or CSR contributions, which have also grown exponentially, channelling vital investments into the social fabric of our nation. Maybe it's time to forge an even stronger bond between these two dynamic forces innovation on one hand and CSR on the other. 

The precise models and strategies to effectively channel CSR funds into the innovation spaces remain less defined than we would like it to be. This is what this podcast is about. 

Each episode will feature industry luminaries from the CSR realm who will unveil their finest practices on how their CSR contributions are shaping the innovation landscape of this country. 

I'm Chintan Vaishnav, mission Director for Atal Innovation Mission at the Niti Aayog, and we are delighted to unveil this podcast series in collaboration with Sattva Consulting, hosted by their dynamic and hands on CEO Sri Krishna Sridhar Murthy.



For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our ⁠Website⁠, ⁠Linkedin⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠ and, Instagram: @sattvaknowledgeinstitute

Host: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy | ⁠⁠Linkedin⁠
Producer: Meenakshi Iyer
Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar
Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu
Music: Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.