In a move aimed at bolstering the Centre’s rural outreach programme, central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) will pump in more than Rs 2,000 crore of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds in 2018-19 for development of most backward districts in areas of health, education and nutrition.
Earlier this year, the Centre launched the Transformation of Aspirational Districts, an initiative for 117 districts to uplift their socioeconomic indices by making available basic services and infrastructure such as roads and drinking water supply in a time-bound manner.
The decision to redirect CSR funds for these districts follows a joint workshop held by the NITI Aayog and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) on Tuesday. Among others, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, DPE secretary Seema Bahuguna and CMDs of a host of CPSEs deliberated on realigning deployment of CSR funds of CPSEs in accordance with pressing requirements.
CPSEs spent about Rs 9,000-crore CSR funds in the three years through 2017-18 in various government’s programmes such as Swachh Bharat and Clean Ganga missions.
CSR funds will boost the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat programme, which requires building/upgrading 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres across the country to provide free comprehensive healthcare including medicines to all citizens. Besides the health infrastructure, CSR funds will be used in building infrastructure such as school premises.
