The Titan Company Limited (Titan) began in 1984 as a joint venture between the TATA Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). It is currently one of the largest integrated watch manufacturers in the world.
Titan enjoys the reputation of being one of India’s leading lifestyle companies which started with watches and has now also diversified into jewellery, eyecare, Indian Dress Wear, Fragrances & Fashion Accessories.
CSR Spent in FY24
In the FY 2023-24, the company spent Rs 57.99 crores on CSR initiatives. Titan’s CSR policy focuses on education, especially of the underprivileged girl child, People with Disabilities, skill development for the underprivileged and support for arts, crafts and Indian heritage. Several CSR programmes are being run with the help of NGOs across the four priority states of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Sikkim.
CSR focus in 2023-24
In FY 2023-24, over 22,370 girls were educated through remedial intervention, learning centres and school adoption under the Kanya Programme. Over 41,000 individuals have been skilled for employment, employability, and entrepreneurship, the Integrated Village Development Programme (IVDP) reached out to 16,307 individuals across Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Tamil Nadu.
The ‘Happy Eyes’ eye care project has provided compensation benefitting over 5 lakh underprivileged adults and children while 20 tribal women and 120 at risk women/girls supported for entrepreneurship as claimed by the company in its Annual report. At the same time 517 youth received scholarships for higher education and 774 persons with disabilities have been supported through Titan’s CSR.
Girl Child Education Programme
The programme focuses on providing remedial education, which encompasses both the Government school system and learning centres. The Kanya Programme, over the course of the year, has impacted more than 22,370 girls in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Kanya+, the school adoption model for young girls from 6-12 standard is running in its 2nd year with a focus on various aspects of education, including academic education, science education, adolescent education, and life skills, aiming to empower young girls and equip them with the necessary tools for a brighter future.
The Kanya Programme has been expanded to Raichur, Karnataka, where it currently supports more than 4,379 girls through 169 Academic Support Centres.
The Titan Kanya Sampoorna project is focused on education, life skills, adolescent health, and career guidance for girl students. The project is aimed to enhance school readiness, and reduced learning gaps to foster leadership qualities. During the Financial Year 2023-24, the Kanya Sampoorna Programme has impacted the lives of 35,000 girls in Cuddalore and Yadgir.
CSR for Skill Development
Skilling for employment – Through its skilling centres and partner organisations, a total of 5,049 youth were skilled in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Telangana. A total of 2,438 of the trained youth were successfully placed, as mentioned by the company in its Annual Report.
The ‘Skilling for employability’ programme across Government ITIs and Tier 3 and Tier 4 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu, has impacted over 35,149 youth.
Entrepreneurship Development – 120 at-risk women were trained in West Bengal. Two entrepreneurial women groups formed among tribal women near Mysore in Karnataka.
Over 774 persons with disabilities were skilled and 527 were placed during the year.
CSR to Support Indian Arts, Crafts and Heritage
Titan through its CSR has been undertaking efforts to nurture and revive craft clusters and enterprises through tailored assistance spanning design, product innovation, market access, upskilling, and business development. Comprehensive support was extended to 10 distinct craft clusters through individual projects, alongside aiding over 40 craft enterprises under Project Tarasha, thereby benefiting approximately 1,011 primary and 9,895 secondary beneficiaries.
CSR for Eyecare
Happy Eyes Eye Care CSR Programme
This is the company’s flagship eye care programme, which include free eye check-ups, providing free spectacles and also supporting cataract surgeries. The programme has been running for over 8 years now. This programme addresses the needs of underprivileged adults in the rural hinterland of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as well as government school children. Over the years, the CSR programme has impacted more than 2.5 million beneficiaries, of which more than 0.5 million in Financial Year 2023-24 alone.
Tackling cataract blindness
Titan Company Ltd. and Sankara Eye Hospital have been working to tackle cataract blindness in Tamil Nadu. Over 2,24,000 individuals screened and 3174 free cataract surgeries were performed under this initiative.
The programme engaged local communities in identifying and treating eye diseases, empowering them with essential skills and tools. Under this, 17,001 persons with various eye ailments received treatment, including 9153 people who were provided with free corrective spectacles. Additionally, the collaboration extended its services to include the treatment of other eye disorders such as Glaucoma, Retina, Cornea, and Occuloplasty, with a total of 367 specialty surgical procedures performed thus far.
CSR for Water Conservation
Titan Company started initiatives both within and outside the Company’s fence to focus on water conservation and augmentation in India. The Company has invested in two huge rainwater harvesting cisterns in the jewellery plant, Hosur, which can store 1.4 crore litres of water. In a good rain-fed year, this storage can help satisfy the needs of the jewellery plant to the fullest.
Efficiency measures such as waterless urinals, IoT-based consumption tracking systems, drip irrigation for gardening and optimisation of freshwater usage for equipment have been areas of focus. The establishment of a MEE condensate water recovery and reuse recovery system helped the watches plant in Hosur save 400 KL/annum.
In addition to the completion of lake rejuvenation in Bengaluru and the ongoing one at Hosur, the Company has enhanced its focus on watershed management in many of its CSR programmes in places like Uttarakhand, Cuddalore, Krishnagiri and Chengam in Tamil Nadu. Recently, the Company also rejuvenated a Kalyani (pond) near Chikkaballapur, which can hold 13 lakh litres of freshwater.
CSR for Sustainable Water Solutions
Titan Company Ltd., in collaboration with Himmotthan Society, announced a significant milestone in their joint effort to bring sustainable water solutions to the Tehri district of Uttarakhand. Under this initiative, trenches and percolation pits have been constructed across 60 villages, offsetting 126 million litres of water from an annual water deficit of 359 million litres through community participation. This project has not only increased per capita water availability from 17 to 55 litres per day but also helped reduce drudgery of women and children on an average by 3 hours daily, resulting an improved quality of life.
In response to the severe water crisis exacerbated by changing climatic conditions and the devastating Uttarakhand floods of 2013, Titan Company Ltd. partnered with Himmotthan, a Tata Trusts initiative, to solve these issues. Currently, Titan is supporting 60 villages in the Tehri district of Uttarakhand.
Waste management
As part of the Zero Waste to Landfill initiative, a project has been initiated at Hosur with a cement co-processing plant for hazardous waste disposal. In line with the ERP guidelines, initiatives have begun on recycling and reduction of plastic packaging. The Company has engaged plastic waste processors to ensure responsible collection and recycling of plastic waste.
CSR for Rural Development
A new holistic Environment and Agriculture Development Programme with the National Agro Foundation (in Tiruvannamalai and Krishnagiri in TN) is now being supported for a 3-year term, covering 3,500 hectares of land. The purpose is to promote a self-reliant ecosystem that can sustain the livelihood of communities and ensure community ownership of the resources to conserve and develop them for environmental sustainability.
Vriddhi, a spring shed cum livelihood initiative in Phek district of Nagaland, is benefitting over 3,000 tribal families with a focus on spring shed management, agriculture, and livestock-based livelihood initiatives. Through the watershed and spring shed initiatives, we have created water holding capacity of over 173 million litres.
