- HCL Foundation’s HCL Tech Grant has invested over ₹169 crore in 60+ NGO-led rural projects, reaching 2.3 million lives over a decade.
- Its long-term CSR approach focuses on education, healthcare, environment, water and livelihoods through strong NGO partnerships.
- HCL Foundation has invested ₹1,680 crore in CSR through FY25, directly impacting more than 7.5 million lives.
India’s CSR sector is not short of large numbers. Thousands of crores move annually through compliance-driven corporate spending, much of it legitimate, some of it difficult to trace back to any measurable human outcome. HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCL Tech, chaired by Roshni Nadar Malhotra, has spent a decade building a counterargument to that pattern. The difference between a cheque written and a community changed is institutional rigour, long-term NGO partnership, and a willingness to be publicly held accountable for what the money actually did. In November 2025, the foundation marked the 10th anniversary of its flagship HCL Tech Grant, having invested over ₹169 crore in 60-plus NGO-led rural projects and reaching 2.3 million lives through that programme alone.
The grant that picks partners, not projects
The HCL Tech Grant is unusual in the Indian CSR landscape for one specific reason. It runs an 8-month competitive review process, managed with Grant Thornton as governance partner. It identifies the highest-impact NGO-led models addressing environmental, health, and education challenges in rural India and funds them to scale further. The selection is jury-led. The monitoring is independent. The grants run for 3-5 years. This timeline allows NGOs to build something before delivering an annual activity report. By the 11th edition in 2026, the foundation was awarding ₹24 crore to selected NGOs for projects in water, biodiversity, healthcare and education.
Numbers that add up across a decade
Cumulatively, HCL Foundation has released ₹1,680 crore in CSR investment through FY25. This has directly impacted over 7.5 million lives. The programmes span between education, health and sanitation, skill development and livelihoods, environment and disaster risk reduction. Girls and para-athletes trained under foundation programmes have won national and state-level competitions. Farmers in HCL Foundation intervention areas have adopted sustainable practices. In 2026, the foundation was ranked No. 2 overall in the Perpetual Capital-Hurun India Impact 50 report. It also ranked No. 1 in gender equality and in affordable and clean energy. This reflects the specific kinds of change the programmes have measurably produced.
Harit, Samuday and the rural architecture
Harit is an environmental programme that focuses on conserving, restoring, and enhancing indigenous ecosystems through community engagement. It is framed explicitly as a climate change response. Samuday is an integrated rural development model that builds grassroots communities by addressing livelihoods, health, water and education together rather than in isolation. Uday performs the same role in urban informal settlements. The foundation’s insistence on integration rather than siloed thematic giving reflects the same lesson that every credible rural development organisation has learned: poverty is not one problem, and it does not respond to one-line interventions.
What Roshni Nadar Malhotra Said About It
‘We have demonstrated that strong partnerships with NGOs can deliver meaningful transformation. The true impact goes beyond numbers. It is seen in restored dignity and transformed lives,’ Malhotra said at the HCL Tech Grant anniversary event in November 2025. The initiative positions the foundation’s role as a catalyst for NGO-led change. It means the communities retain the institutions and practices after the grant ends, rather than depending indefinitely on a corporate donor’s continued attention.
The Way Forward
The HCL Tech Grant model should be required reading for every company currently writing a cheque into a CSR compliance account and considering whether the obligation has been discharged. It shows what a structured, long-term, independently audited partnership with civil society organisations actually produces. It also shows how different it is from project-level annual spending that evaporates the moment a corporate priority shift. The Perpetual Capital-Hurun No. 1 ranking in gender equality is particularly striking: it means the foundation’s programmes have produced more measurable gender equality outcomes than any other CSR programme in India’s impact ranking. SEBI’s BRSR framework and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs should both study the HCL Tech Grant design as a benchmark for what rigorous, outcome-verified CSR reporting should require of every large listed company.
Clear Cut CSR Desk
New Delhi, UPDATED: September 11, 2026 11:30 IST
Written By: Tanmay J. Urs
