The first meeting of AMCHAM’s CSR Committee for 2017-2018 under the Chairmanship of Mr. Harish Krishnan, Executive Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Engagement, India & SAARC, Cisco Systems (India) was held on 16th June 2017 at the Cisco office in Gurgaon. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM, in her opening remarks, mentioned the correlation between CSR and incubator creation and highlighted the innovation and growth program that AMCHAM wants to get involved in. Mr. Krishnan mentioned that the committee should make a more concentrated effort to capture the sector and state of member companies CSR activities in an easily digestible manner. He also expressed the desire to have the committee identify one project they could work together on.

Ms. Valerie Swope, Program Coordinator, AMCHAM, gave a brief overview of 2016-2017 committee activities. Members introduced themselves and highlighted the categories of CSR projects their organizations were focused on such as education, skill development, health and sanitation, nutrition, environmental conservation, agriculture, women’s empowerment, safety, etc. There was a video presentation on IBM’s program P-Tech by Ms. Joyeeta Das, Program Manager, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, IBM India.

It was decided the committee would have four committee meetings a year and that it would be helpful to have another session with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs to learn about new developments in the national volunteer guidelines and any new nuances in laws that would be applicable to CSR.