Premier academic and research institute IIT Madras has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with media publication The CSR Journal for a long-term partnership. As a part of this MoU, IIT Madras will be the official Knowledge Partner for the upcoming ‘The CSR Journal Excellence Awards 2021’.
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) has been the top-ranked engineering institute in India for six consecutive years as well as the ‘Best Educational Institution’ across all categories (for three years in a row) in the NIRF Rankings put out by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The institute has emerged as the country’s leading technical institution in creating new knowledge, having crossed the 1,000-mark in patents filed. Recently, IIT Madras has been given the title of ‘Institute of Eminence’ (IoE).
The CSR Journal (CSRJ) is a digital and print news publication headquartered in Mumbai. It covers developments in and around the corporate and citizen social responsibility domain through timely news reporting. In addition to this, each year, The CSR Journal conducts The CSR Journal Excellence Awards in order to recognise the corporate citizenship initiatives by India Inc.
The MoU was signed between Prof Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Corporate Relations), IIT Madras and Amit Upadhyay, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The CSR Journal on September 28, 2021.
IIT Madras will be designing the evaluation framework, bring in social sector expertise to shortlist projects submitted for the The CSR Journal Excellence Awards, based on industry-accepted metrics. IIT Madras will be designing the final assessment framework with relevant scales for grading of shortlisted 21 submissions for the Final Round. This Evaluation Framework will be used by the jury in the final round. Kaviraj Nair, CEO, Office of Institutional Advancement, IITM will be the Nodal Officer for this esteemed partnership.
Said Amit Upadhyay, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The CSR Journal, “We could not have asked for a more credible institute to partner with for taking forward the momentum that CSR law has created in the sustainable development of India. IIT Madras is a highly respected education and research institute with a long standing history of brilliance and merit. We are proud to associate with them for The CSR Journal Excellence Awards 2021 and on future projects.”
Said Prof Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, “We are excited to partner with The CSR Journal to help shape the CSR landscape of tomorrow.”
Said Kaviraj Nair, CEO – Office of Institutional Advancement, IIT Madras, “IIT Madras has an impeccable track-record in bringing rigour, focus and innovation in our evaluation methodologies; the proposed association with The CSR Journal will definitely help give a new direction to the way the Corporate Social Responsibility projects are assessed for their effectiveness. The measurement and evaluation frameworks become extremely important, as the CSR spending by corporates will continue to see an uptrend.”
About The CSR Journal Excellence Awards
The CSR Journal Excellence Awards is an annually held multi-category awards instituted by The CSR Journal, starting in 2017, for recognising initiatives taken up by India Inc. under their Corporate Social Responsibility mandate. The awards honour corporates and foundations for their impact, scalability and sustainability.
