State Bank of India is the largest and oldest commercial bank in India, serving a varied customer base. Headquartered in Mumbai, the government-owned, multinational, public sector banking and financial services company has gained the faith and loyalty of millions of customers across the social spectrum. SBI provides several products and services covering retail banking, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), wealth management services, corporate banking, general insurance, life insurance, merchant banking, mutual funds, securities trading and primary dealership to name a few.
SBI has ingrained its values of service, transparency, ethics, politeness and sustainability across its operations and value creation model. Additionally, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is another way through which the bank demonstrates its responsibility towards the society. In FY 2020-22, the bank spent Rs. 204.10 crores towards its CSR initiatives which were focused around Rural and Slum area development, Health Care and Sanitation, Education, Environment Sustainability, Tribal Welfare, Empowerment of Women and Senior Citizens and supporting sports and athletes.
1. SBI Foundation
SBI Foundation is the CSR arm of SBI Bank. Through the Foundation, the Bank is making a paradigm shift in the socio-economic development of the country by creating an inclusive, sustainable and self-sufficient ecosystem through which marginalised and underserved communities from across the country can lead healthier and prosperous lives without discrimination based on region, religion, caste, creed or gender. For FY2022, 105 projects were sanctioned, with a budget of Rs. 168.09 crores.
2. COVID-19 Response
During FY 2021-22, 62 projects for Rs. 99.37 Cr were sanctioned towards Covid 19 and healthcare initiatives like COVID Care centres/ICU facilities, Genome Sequencing, upgrading health infrastructure, Initiatives in partnership with NGOs, and other initiatives like UPI based prepaid vaccination vouchers, vaccination hesitancy removal, etc.
Multiple initiatives were undertaken to support the setup of nationwide ICU beds, Oxygenated beds, Covid-19 care centres, Isolation centres, among others. 6 oxygen generation plants along with 550 Oxygen Cylinders and 84 oxygen concentrators were also provided. An Oxygen Pipeline Extension (2000 LPM) and Oxygen Monitoring System to equip 115 beds with oxygen supply was installed at Dr. Hedgewar Charitable Hospital: to improve and strengthen the health infrastructure in the region in preparedness for a possible third COVID-19 wave.
3. Healthcare Flagship Programs
The Bank undertook various healthcare initiatives like Organ Donation, Mobile Medical Units, Nucleic Acid Amplification testing, Aspheris machine in Blood Bank, ECG screening for Foetal Heart abnormality, Cleft surgeries and Neuro Rehabilitation centre.
3.1 Project Gift Hope, Gift Life
Through this project, SBI Foundation, in partnership with MOHAN Foundation, aims to improve the organ donation rate in India from deceased donors through organ donation helpline, training healthcare personnel, strengthening organ donation programme in Manipur, Karnataka, Chandigarh (UT), Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra, promoting support group for organ failure patients, and raising awareness and pledging among citizens.
3.2 Project NAT
The Nucleic-Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) has been set-up as part of the project, which aims to introduce advanced blood testing technology at Tata Memorial Centre run Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai to test 30-35,000 blood donor samples to improve blood transfusion safety for approx. 50,000 cancer patients. This will allow blood transfusions to be safer for patients, reduce morbidity or mortality due to TTIs (Transfusion Transmitted Infection), and increase the rate of detection of TTI in blood samples tested by NAT as compared to the existing ELISA method.
3.3 SBI Sanjeevani – Clinic on wheels
SBI Foundation started ‘SBI Sanjeevani – Clinic on wheels’, a mobile medical unit in South Sikkim during FY 2016-17, to provide primary healthcare services to the rural communities. The project has improved the quality of life of the communities in the remote villages by providing doorstep medical services.
During the current financial year, taking into consideration the current crisis in healthcare due to the Covid-19 pandemic, SBI Foundation has up-scaled the project to 10 States, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Telangana, and Uttarakhand, with an estimated outreach of over 2 lakh beneficiaries across 250 remote villages. The project has been well-received by the communities, and local Health departments are also supporting the initiative.
4. SBI Youth Fellowship Program
SBI Youth for India is a 13-month rural fellowship program which provides a framework to India’s bright young minds from urban areas to join hands with rural communities in their struggles & aspirations. The Bank’s grassroots 14 partners NGOs facilitate this journey of rural immersion also in the selection of meaningful projects to solve the rural issues. The application process for 2022-23, i.e 10th batch of fellows has begun on 4th March 2022. 74 fellows from the 09th batch (2021-22) have finalized their rural project for implementation across the 15 states of the country.
5. SBI GRAM SEVA Programme
“SBI Gram Seva” is a flagship program of the SBI Foundation, commenced in Aug 2017, which aims for holistic and sustainable rural development like digitisation, promotion of quality education, improvement in primary health services etc. in the adopted villages. During the financial year, SBI Foundation has sanctioned 5 more projects under the Gram Seva program by commencing the third phase of SBI Gram Seva program by adopting 25 new villages from NITI Aayog’s aspirational Districts in five more States- Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan. With this, SBI Foundation has achieved the milestone of adopting 100 villages under the SBI Gram Seva program. The program has so far impacted 20322 families and 1,13,010 beneficiaries across 100 villages in 16 states.
The SBI Gram Seva programme has gradually transformed these adopted villages into model village clusters in respective locations in the last five years. The programme has also been able to bring the desired behavioural change and community participation to the fore. In a nutshell, through the Gram Seva program, SBI Foundation has been working towards building self-reliant (Atma Nirbhar) villages, in line with Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of Gram Swaraj. During the Financial Year 2021-22, an impact assessment of the programme was conducted by Madras School of Social Work (MSSW), Chennai, and they rated the programme quite high in terms of a comprehensive strategy, effective implementation, social returns on investment (SROI), and the sustainability aspects of the programme. The programme has also garnered appreciation and awards from various forums, media, and others. With an impactful presence across 16 States of the country, the Gram Seva programme has reaffirmed the SBI Foundation’s commitment to the upliftment of marginalised communities, thereby continuing SBI’s long-held legacy of being the Bank for rural India.
6. Centre of Excellence for Persons with Disabilities
Centre of Excellence for Persons with Disabilities (PwD), established in 2017, primarily works on empowering PwDs through skill enhancement to make significant and measurable improvements. CoE conducted 27 Special Online training programs (of one-week duration) for 651 employees with disabilities, of which 24 Programs for 599 SBI employees with disabilities. Three online training programs of 5 days duration were conducted for 52 officers with disabilities of Telangana Grameena Bank and Indian Overseas Bank. Two offline training programs of 5 days duration were conducted for 61 visually impaired officers of Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank. The program’s primary focus is the advocacy of the rights of persons with disabilities, sensitization, and addressing the accessible needs of PwDs. So far, CoE has conducted six webinars attended by 168 participants from PSBs. Four sensitisation workshops were conducted for the HR officials of Union Bank of India. During the year 2021-22, CoE also sanctioned 8 projects with a total grant amount of Rs. 9.36 Cr focusing in the area of disability including project: “Techtonic Grand Challenge for Assistive Technology Start-ups” with a project cost of Rs. 1.00 Cr.
7. Education Programs
Thirteen projects for Rs. 22.53 Cr were sanctioned to support various initiatives like Prambhik Bhasha Shikshan Programme, Transforming schools and anganwadis in Ladakh, web-based literacy project, Mathematics education with Khan Academy, Toy Bank, Effective governance through School Complexes, Setting up Mini Science centres, Quality education in Middle School grades, Capacity building of teachers and educational stakeholders, Inclusive education for children with Neuro-development disorder, support National Integrity and Educational Development Organisation (NIEDO), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to build a coherent school mental health system for improving mental health outcomes of adolescents in India and support the ‘Model School’ initiative for renovating 11 Government Schools and providing a conducive and comprehensive learning environment for the students.
8. Other Programs
Apart from the above initiatives, the bank also dedicated its CSR energy for areas such as livelihood, entrepreneurship, women empowerment, environment & sustainability, and promotion of sports. As per the Bank’s annual report, eight projects at a financial cost of Rs. 13.60 Cr were sanctioned to support initiatives like SBIF Revolving Fund to provide Incubation support to social enterprises, Integrated Fish Farming promotion, Mega Watershed construction, Wadi Agriculture and incubation support to 15 start-ups, Training of 5000 youths in Banking Financial Services Insurance (BFSI) industry Job Roles and TISS Prayas to re-integrate and rehabilitate the socially excluded and stigmatised population in criminal and juvenile justice system etc.
For promoting sports, two projects for Rs. 48.90 lakhs were sanctioned to support 13 Athletes in partnership with Abhinav Bindra Foundation Trust and Karnam Malleswari Foundation by the Bank.
SBI also sanctioned five projects worth Rs. 6.84 Cr to plant fruit-bearing trees, securing a vital tiger corridor between Melghat, Satpura Tiger reserves, support the conservation of Red Panda species in the Khangchendzonga landscape and innovative Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model for dry waste management at Aurangabad, Maharashtra to ensure maximum segregation.
