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Business Ethics & Philanthropy Kotak Mahindra Bank CSR Report: Empowering Indians through Education
Kotak Mahindra Bank CSR Report: Empowering Indians through Education
The Kotak Mahindra Bank has been in business for 21 years now. The bank has a wide reach with about 1,869 branches across the country. It also has a presence outside India in Singapore, London, the USA and the Middle East. The Bank has cemented its distinctive status through unique offerings and services, e.g. its industry-leading differentiated interest rate strategy on savings accounts; and India’s first video-based KYC savings account that serves the twin purpose of convenience and contactless opening of an 811 account in a highly digitised post-COVID ‘new normal’.
Kotak Mahindra Bank is conscious of the interdependencies between its economic activities and the ecosystem it operates in. Therefore, it has ensured that Environmental Social Governance (ESG) philosophy goes beyond a set of policies and practices and is an integral element of the culture of the bank.
The Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programmes are largely long-term, implemented in focused geographies, are sustainable and scalable, and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and India’s development priorities.
Over the years, the bank has increased its CSR expenditure. In FY 2023-2024, the firm spent Rs. 230.81 crores for its CSR initiatives which was more than the prescribed amount as mandated by law.
1. Kotak Mahindra Bank CSR
Kotak Mahindra Bank believes in positively contributing to the economic, environmental and social well-being of communities through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda. The key areas of focus of CSR projects of Kotak Mahindra Bank are education, livelihood, healthcare, environment and sustainable development and sports. The Bank identifies suitable NGOs partners to carry out these programmes. It focuses on implementing programmes that are sustainable, scalable and can be implemented across various locations with measurable and sustainable impacts amongst the community.
2. CSR Policy
Kotak Mahindra Bank has established a Board-level Corporate Social Responsibility Committee which is responsible for monitoring, reviewing and approving CSR initiatives and expenditure. The Committee makes recommendations to the Board on CSR policy and related matters. As per the CSR policy, Kotak Mahindra Bank, at all times, is committed to:
Engage with communities to understand their material expectations and concerns, and will consider these material expectations and concerns to design its CSR agenda.
Implement, monitor, review and evaluate CSR initiatives to achieve the desired outcomes in a transparent manner.
Undertake projects in the areas of promoting education, enhancing vocational skills and livelihood, promoting preventive healthcare and sanitation, reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups, sustainable development, relief and rehabilitation, and interventions towards a cleaner India under Swachh Bharat Mission with the aim to serve communities at large and to transform their lives.
Partner with government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other institutions to collectively deliver the community development initiatives and support such organizations and institutions with appropriate and necessary resources.
Encourage its employees to contribute and volunteer for various community development initiatives.
Ensure that surplus arising out of CSR initiatives is utilized to further augment the CSR agenda and does not form part of the Bank’s profits.
Comply with all legal provisions applicable for CSR and adopt industry best practices, where feasible.
3. Kotak CSR Initiatives in Education and Livelihood
Kotak Mahindra Bank implements its CSR programmes on Education and Livelihood through Kotak Education Foundation (KEF). The foundation supports children & youth from underprivileged families through different education and livelihood based interventions to help them rise above the poverty line & lead a life of dignity through sustainable processes.
Through the foundation, Kotak works in various sub-areas to conduct many initiatives.
3.1 Improving Learning Outcomes in Schools
Kotak Education Foundation focuses on improving learning outcomes among students through capacity building for teachers, promoting digital education, supporting learning needs of children in schools as well as in their communities, and development of infrastructure.
KEF works across 160+ schools in Maharashtra and Gujarat, in areas such as school leadership, foundational literacy, numeracy, digital learning, teacher training and communicative English. The organisation has collaborated with various implementing partners to enable access to vernacular content in Science to government schools in rural UP. It has also trained next generation education who have initiated the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching. Through the Girl Child Education project, KEF is supporting mainstreaming of 3,000+ girls who dropped out of formal schooling. Apart from these initiatives, KEF has also been supporting early childhood education in Balwadis and through Creches at construction sites.
Project Science Programme
The Khan Academy’s Science Program, supported by Kotak Mahindra Bank, plans to reach about 700 Kasturba Gandhi
Balika Vidyalaya’s (an all-girls residential school for girls from disadvantaged communities) and 1,500+ Madhyamik schools in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The CSR project leverages NCERT aligned core science content offering for Grades 9-12 which was created with support of the Bank and customised in accordance with UPSCERT. During the project period, KAI Science Program was rolled out in 698 school, reaching over 59,000 students. KAI trained more than 750 teachers, 70 District Coordinators, and more than 100 science mentor teachers. KAI track the progress using the Skills to Proficiency (STP) metric on the Khan Academy platform, recommending 30 minutes of use per week. The project operates at the unique intersection of technology, gender and capacity building of public school systems.
3.2 Supporting Higher Education
Kotak Education Foundation has supported about 3300 students through scholarship programmes. The organisation’s Kotak Shiksha Nidhi initiative provides financial aid to students that have lost a primary earning member of their family to COVID-19. Kotak Kanya is another program which supports the career aspirations of meritorious girls from underprivileged financial backgrounds.
In addition, KEF has been supporting higher education and research that cater to the short term and long term needs of India. For example, KEF has been supporting Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to establish a Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML Centre) in Bengaluru since FY 2021-22.
Furthermore, Kotak Education Foundation has extended its support to IIT Kanpur to launch Kotak School of Sustainability, a one-of-a-kind, inter-disciplinary school with an aim to propel sustainability education. It is India’s first integrated School of sustainability with a vision to promote pedigree education, research and outreach. This school is poised to offer thought leadership solutions towards sustainability actions and prepare future generations to take lead on sustainable development. The school brings together departments and centres of excellence at IIT Kanpur with an aim to provide an enabling environment for collaborative research across multiple facets of sustainability such as clean energy, environment, ecology, circular economy, climate finance, sustainable societies and policy.
3.3 Skill Development
Kotak Mahindra Bank supports multiple organisations to provide sector specific skill development to youths to enhance their employability. In FY 2023-24, over 13,200 youths were trained, of which 60% were either successfully placed with different organisations or became entrepreneurs.
The organisation also worked with multiple agencies to provide sector specific skill training to over 2,000 Persons with Disabilities (PwD). In FY2023- 24, nearly 1500 people were placed in different organisations, making them financially independent.
3.4 Entrepreneurship
Kotak Mahindra Bank has actively promoted entrepreneurship amongst women (including those from tier-2 and tier-3 Indian cities) through Women’s Startup Programme that is managed by IIM Bangalore. Around 269 ventures led by women were nurtured through mentoring and advisory support under this initiative.
3.5 Promoting Rural Livelihoods
Kotak is implementing various initiatives focused on agriculture, livestock and Non-Timber Forest Product, aiming to improve income for farmers. Through multiple organisations, the Bank has benefitted over 12,500 farmers in FY2023-24.
4. Kotak CSR Initiatives for Healthcare
Kotak Mahindra Bank has three sub-areas that comprise its CSR initiatives in healthcare. They are: addressing gaps in the cancer care spectrum, improving access to healthcare and improving infrastructure for healthcare.
4.1 Addressing gaps in cancer care
Kotak’s interventions in cancer care span across earlier detection, treatment support (including accommodation and nutrition) and hospice care. Through various collaborations, Kotak Mahindra Bank was able to aid more than 5,900 cancer patients in FY 2023–24, of which 4,100 were paediatric patients.
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4.2 Improving access to healthcare
Kotak Mahindra Bank works to provide access to affordable healthcare facilities to rural communities and low-income households through mobile medical vans, eye check-up camps and oral cancer screening camps under its CSR interventions. The organisation was able to reach 3.3 lakh beneficiaries for primary healthcare and 1.2+ lakh through eye care camps, surgery and treatment that included school students and senior citizens.
The Bank has also conducted Oral Cancer Screening camps at six markets under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee and also for police personnel in Mumbai. Through various initiatives, it has also provided early interventions, rehabilitation and mobility solutions for PwDs and supported treatment of over 6,700 children with clubfoot in 45 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
5. Environment and Sustainable Development
Kotak Mahindra Bank uses ecosystem restoration approach to support initiatives that replenish water, reduce carbon and benefit communities.
5.1 Enhancing Water Security
In rural areas, the Bank has worked with around 9,000 farmers and their communities in water-stressed regions across India. The main purpose of these interventions is to build water security and improve crop production through soil and water conservation measures and de-siltation of traditional water reservoirs. About ~6,000 Ha of land has been positively impacted under this program and a water harvesting capacity of 340 crore litres has been created. These measures along with the income diversification efforts is expected to improve the incomes of these farmers approximately 30 per cent.
In urban areas, waterbodies are often at risk of encroachment, illegal waste dumping and degradation. To address some of these risks, Kotak Mahindra Bank is rejuvenating 5 lakes and a 0.8 km stretch of a creek by clearing garbage and weeds. This restoration is across a total area of ~370 acres and is expected to act as a microhabitat for biodiversity and a recreational space for community to connect with nature.
6. Sports
Kotak Mahindra Bank has partnered with Pullela Gopichand Badminton Foundation to develop a world-class badminton training facility in Hyderabad. In FY 2023-24, the Bank supported 30 Athletes with training, nutrition, sports science and other mental and physical wellbeing related services through this collaboration.
