Tata Consultancy Services, globally referred to as TCS is India’s largest software and IT services company. A part of India’s largest multinational business Tata group, TCS has over 420,000 of the world’s best trained consultants in 50 countries across major continents.

Talking about their corporate social responsibility, TCS gives special attention to STEM (Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics) and rural education. In keeping with the philosophy of Tata Group, the company channelizes its best resources to improve literacy level and train the innovators and tech geniuses of tomorrow. Other areas of focus for social change include marine conservation, health and sanitation.

TCS invests in addressing the most pressing needs of the community through various CSR initiatives and programs focused on education, skilling, employment, and entrepreneurship, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). With a focus on bridging gaps in access to opportunities, TCS also invests in social innovation and community projects targeted the poorest sections of society, and supports programs addressing basic health and wellness, water sanitation and hygiene, conservation, and disaster relief efforts.

In the FY 2022-23, Tata Consultancy Services had spent Rs 783 crore on corporate social responsibility which has gone up to Rs 827 crore in FY 2023-24.

CSR Policy of TCS in India

Tata Group Founder Jamsetji Tata’s words sum up the basic tenet of corporate social responsibility at the Tata companies: “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in our business, but it is in fact, the very purpose of its existence.” In line with this thought, TCS CSR programs are all about sustainable well-being.

Coming from the Tata Group legacy, which gives utmost respect to the community, environment and employees, TCS in India has a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility. A recent example of its concern for employees is how, when most other companies were either laying off their workforce or imposing salary cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic, this tech company announced a salary hike for its employees across all levels, making TCS the first IT firm in India to declare an increase in pay during the pandemic.

TCS’ community development programmes across the world include health and wellness, biodiversity, education, STEM, digital literacy and skill development. CSR of TCS also includes other activities like disaster management.

Talking about Corporate Social Responsibility, TCS mentions in its CSR policy that their ‘vision’ is to “Empower communities by connecting people to opportunities in the digital economy” and their ‘mission’ is to “Build equitable, sustainable, and inclusive pathways to opportunities for all – especially youth, women, and marginalized groups.”

The company also mentions that their major objectives to engage with communities include “Creation of employment, entrepreneurship and livelihood opportunities for youth and marginalized members of the community and development of 21st century skills through education and skilling.” They also aim to “Support basic health and wellness; water, sanitation, and hygiene need of communities- especially those that are marginalized.”

CSR Committee

The CSR committee comprises N Chandrasekaran (Chairman, Non-independent Non-Executive Director), O P Bhatt (Member, Independent, Non-Executive Director) and N G Subramaniam (Member, Non-Independent, Executive Director).

 

Key highlights of TCS’ CSR initiatives in the FY 2023-24

1. In the past one year, TCS has empowered over 7 million people through its CSR programs with a focus on women youth and marginalized communities.

2. TCS served 20,342 marginalize people through its literacy as a service program empowering them through Functional, Financial and Digital Literacy.

3. TCS imparted skill training to 23,297 rural youth across India, mentoring them for industry readiness through its Youth Employment Programme.

4. Digital entrepreneurs trained under TCS’ programme ‘BridgeIT’ are earning their livelihood across 1735 villages in India. The program is being expanded to 44 districts with a new cohort of 1400 women entrepreneurs from socially marginalized backgrounds.

5. In Financial Year 2024, Literacy as a Service (LaaS) programme has empowered 20,342 learners mostly women with functional and financial literacy.

6. TCS’ Youth Employment Program currently runs in 24 states and union territories of India. In Financial Year 2024, 19,900 students were trained of which 49% for women. Over 2845 students have gained employment in the IT/ITES and other domains.

7. In FY 2024, Ignite My Future programme has benefited 312, 966 students and 6209 educators across ANZ, APAC, LATAM, North America, UK, Ireland and India.

8. In FY 2024, goIT programme has benefitted 121,648 students and educators around the world.

Top CSR projects of TCS in FY 2023-24

Health and Wellness

TCS has provided an integrated Hospital Management System and IT infrastructure, which includes a comprehensive and fully integrated web-based solution to The Cancer Institute, Chennai. TCS has also provided support to integrate the Health Insurance Scheme with the National Medical Commission (NMC) dashboard to facilitate daily syncing of patient data and statistics to aid monitoring and auditing. It has also been building new features including compliance with statutory requirements.

The Tata Medical Center in Kolkata, India, is a state-of-the-art centre for cancer research, diagnosis and treatment. TCS continues to support the Hospital Management System (HMS) at Tata Medical Center (TMC), Kolkata. TCS has provided IT support to TMC for their Pharmacy migration to ‘TATA 1mg.’

TCS’ transformations at Tata Medical Center, Kolkata, and Cancer Institute, Chennai, facilitated 173,449 new patient consultations in FY 2024.

TCS partnered with TMC, Kolkata to establish Tata Translational Cancer Research Centre (TTCRC). The partnership aims to create an interactive environment for clinicians, scientists, and industry to collaborate and translate data driven and discovery-based science for improvements in patient care. It focuses on personalizing therapies, decreasing the cost of treatment, and developing innovative care delivery models for cancer patients in India.

TCS contributes to initiatives at TTCRC through multi-omics and bioinformatics analysis, scientific data management, management of multi-centric clinical studies – such as the large one on Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), clinical decisions automation and the development of innovative digital solutions.

As part of the CANSupport initiative, TCS Malaysia joined hands with the National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM), to develop the first-ever digital solution to improve care for children with cancer. This groundbreaking initiative is in partnership with the Ministries of Health and Transport of Malaysia. TCS worked with NCSM to develop a technologically driven one-stop platform for all cancer-specific services connecting doctors and caregivers in
Malaysia. The new digital solution can be accessed by any caregiver or newly diagnosed cancer patient.

Education

Literacy as a Service (LaaS)

Adult non-literacy continues to be a problem holding back India from reaching its full economic potential. Women account for 65% of the illiterate population, and the rest is from marginalized communities. To address the causes of non-literacy, TCS devised the Literacy as a Service Programme (LaaS) which augments the Government of India’s efforts to improve literacy.

LaaS provides an innovative teaching method by combining the power of IT with the theory of cognition and laws of perception. LaaS adopts creative means of delivery to enable functional literacy, such as animated graphic patterns for easy visual and auditory learning.

Modules on the platform include functional literacy (8-10 hours), digital literacy (5-7 hours), and awareness on key citizen entitlements (3-4 hours), available in 12 languages – nine Indian, and three foreign.

In Financial Year 2024, Literacy as a Service (LaaS) programme has empowered 20,342 learners mostly women with functional and financial literacy.

Ignite My Future (IMF)

Ignite My Future is a teacher professional development programme which introduces the concept of computational thinking into all core subjects. This is a transdisciplinary education programme that transforms the way students learn.

This year, IMF India launched Learning Leaders’ regional chapters, catering to regional learning requirements of the teachers from the partner districts across India. One of the IMF’s pioneering STEM initiative interventions, Global Innovations Project (GIP) aims to connect students and teachers from around the world as they explore and solve real-world problems using computational thinking.

Teachers and students from schools like School of Scholars (Maharashtra), BGS Schools (Karnataka), Podar International School (Maharashtra), Rajya Ashram Paddhati Vidyalaya (Samaj Kalyan Department, Uttar Pradesh), APSWREIS (Andhra Pradesh) in India have collaborated with schools from North America under this programme.

Overall, the participants from India worked on 109 innovation projects, clocking over 560 collaborative learning hours and 268 videos over Microsoft Flip tool. Teachers were very appreciative of the opportunity to learn and collaborate with educators around the world.

In FY 2024, Ignite My Future programme has benefited 312, 966 students and 6209 educators across ANZ, APAC, LATAM, North America, UK, Ireland and India.

 

goIT

TCS’ flagship program goIT (go Innovate Together) is a Digital Innovation program which prepares students with culturally relevant and context-appropriate learning experiences, coupled with modern technologies. goIT prepares students with engaging design workshops and custom mentorship to pursue the careers of tomorrow of which involve STEM and computer sciences.

The programme has benefitted  students in several Indian states. goIT helps students develop core skills in partnership with school districts, using a four-pronged model which includes in-person or virtual volunteer-driven engagements, round the year goIT online connects, monthly challenges centred around the UN SDGs and mentorship by industry professionals from TCS.

Since its launch in 2009, the programme has benefited 263,282 students across 42 countries the company claims in its annual report. In FY 2024, goIT programme has benefitted 121,648 students and educators around the world.

Employment, Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment

BridgeIT

BridgeIT is a unique initiative created to bridge the digital divide that places socially and economically underprivileged communities at a disadvantage. The programme creates digital entrepreneurs who use IT to help local citizens avail essential digital services in education, adult literacy, unemployment and social discrimination. It attempts to address prevailing social inequities in India by proactively reaching out to women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) communities.

Launched in 2014, BridgeIT has a footprint across 30 districts in 10 states. The programme offers budding entrepreneurs the skills, mentoring, technology, tools and resources required to set up a Digital Service Centre from where they can provide services such as generating and updating documents (such as Aadhar cards, Pan cards, and voters ID), enrolling for different government schemes, filling in online forms and cash withdrawals/deposits from the bank to fellow villagers.

Digital entrepreneurs trained under TCS’ programme ‘BridgeIT’ are earning their livelihood across 1735 villages in India. The program is being expanded to 44 districts with a new cohort of 1400 women entrepreneurs from socially marginalized backgrounds.

Youth Employment Programme (YEP)

YEP tackles one of the biggest challenges in India – unemployment among youth, especially those from marginalized sections of society, due to lack of 21st century skills. YEP provides employability training, imparting skills such as business communication, aptitude, computer programming and domain skills with the help of subject matter experts, domain leaders, and certified trainers from TCS.

The programme offers participants a smooth transition from college to careers, building their confidence and enhancing their social and economic status through its unique teach, coach, mentor, and place model. It helps them navigate opportunities available in the Indian job market with career guidance and mentoring, training on interview skills and access to market-facing certifications and hands-on real-time project experience.

Since its inception, the programme has improved the economic and social status of the beneficiaries and their families, encouraged diversity and gender parity within the workforce while creating inclusion and access for marginalized groups across the country.

TCS’ Youth Employment Program currently runs in 24 states and union territories of India. In Financial Year 2024, 19,900 students were trained of which 49% for women. Over 2845 students have gained employment in the IT/ITES and other domains.

Social Innovation

Digital Impact Square (DISQ) is a social innovation platform established in 2015 in Nashik, Maharashtra. The platform encourages innovation among young employees who harness the power of digital technology and engage with the digital ecosystem, to develop solutions for a lasting change in society.

Since its founding, DISQ has worked with 7 cohorts with more than 600 innovators, 35% of who are female. These innovators hail from 22 states and from over 180 colleges across India.

Digital Impact Square (DiSQ) encourages innovation using
digital technologies to address social challenges and has
impacted 190,543 lives across various startups in FY 2024.

Employee Engagement

Through its unique engagement model, TCS leverages its intellectual capability, technology expertise, large employee base volunteering their time and skills and of course financial capacity to invest in programs that deliver longer term social impact across the globe.

‘Each one Empowers one’ portal

In August 2022, TCS launched the ‘Each one Empowers one’ portal which allows employees of TCS and Tata Group, along with their families, to empower non-literates in their local community, such as security guards, domestic workers and gardeners.

The programme aims at promoting social inclusion, financial stability and economic growth. It has helped beneficiaries to receive better access to government benefit programmes, financial systems and empowered them to have a more significant say in family and community decision-making.

#millionhoursofpurpose

In the FY 2023, TCS launched the civic movement #millionhoursofpurpose. The initiative encourages employees to support different causes. Through this, TCS employees have created positive impact in several ways like addressing the 17 UN SDGs, ranging from planting saplings and trees, making and distributing newspaper bags, raising mental health awareness and educating children in schools among others. TCSers also contribute to the Tata group’s volunteering initiatives twice a year, such as Tata Volunteering Week and Pro-Engage (long-term pro bono volunteering).

Conclusion

As per TCS’ Integrated Annual Report for the FY 2023-24, the company has spent a total amount o Rs 827 crore towards CSR which is little less than the two percent of average net profit of the Company as per sub-section (5) of section 135: Rs 850 crore.

TCS in India has a massive STEM education and skilling legacy. The IT major plays on its strengths while designing CSR programmes. This has led to a high success rate and life-changing benefits for the participants. It is doing a commendable job towards CSR in healthcare with a focus on cancer care.