Leverage CSR to meet development needs, President tells industry

New Delhi April 27 (IANS) President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday urged the Indian industry to leverage corporate social responsibility (CSR) for re-imagining transformative solutions to address the large development challenges across the country.

The President said it was important to collaborate to achieve scale and deliver solutions to complex social problems given the magnitude of the challenges before the country and the relatively short time available to address them.

Highlighting that industry CSR programmes were extensive including education healthcare and rural development among others while special outreach was being made for gender empowerment the disabled and children s issues he said that CSR legislation enhances the scale and scope of social programmes by industry.

The President asserted that he expected the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as an industry association to reinforce and converge the initiatives of corporates in this sector adding that he was delighted that this was being undertaken through a dedicated CII Foundation set up for the purpose.

The President was addressing the presentation ceremony of the CII President s Award for Lifetime Achievement and CII Foundation Woman Exemplar Awards here.

--IANS
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