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17/10/2022

SIDBI and Dun & Bradstreet signed an MoU to create the SIDBI -D&B Sustainability Perception Index (SIDBI – D&B SPeX). The index will be presented as a quantitative measurement for policy makers and enablers to nudge businesses towards adopting an ESG framework in their business strategy over the coming years. Read more at

The index will be presented as a quantitative measurement for policy makers and enablers to nudge businesses towards adopting an ESG framework in their business strategy over the coming years.

31/08/2020

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has now made COVID-19 related research and development spending by companies engaged in vaccine, drugs and medical devices business eligible for CSR as notified on 24th August.http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/221325.pdf

The MCA has also notifed the following areas as eligible under CSR:
i. Contribution to incubators or research and development projects in science, technology, engineering and medicine, funded by Central Government/ State Government/ PSUs,
ii. Contributions to public funded Universitieshttp://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/221324.pdf

28/05/2020

While India is battling the impact of the pandemic, the overarching goal is the“need to survive”. Ensuring that food and shelter,a basic need of every Indian is met. Perhaps a good time to re-strategize priorities. Read an article by Anurag Behar

Nothing much will be lost if schools stay shut a bit longer but we must not let Indians go hungry

21/05/2020

Avaya supported Agastya International Foundation’s instructors have distributed 2200 masks at police stations and primary health care centers and 50+ vegetable packages to wage labourers and slum dwellers in Pune

07/05/2020

A great initiative by NDTV and Save the Children India to protect India's children affected by Coronavirus outbreak. Our partner Avaya is doing their bit by providing technological platforms to NGOs.

Vishal Agarwal, MD India and SAARC, Avaya said that the company has been actively working with Save the Children. He further said that children are th...

25/04/2020

22/04/2020

In the current time of crisis, the NGO community stands ready to respond to the needs of the people. Door Step School is scaling up response and preparing to do so much more for the people.

08/04/2020

MCA qualifies COVID19-related spending as CSR activity
Following the declaration of COVID19 as a pandemic by WHO and a national disaster by the Government of India, the MCA has issued a circular qualifying spending on activities relating to promotion of healthcare, including preventive healthcare and sanitation, and disaster management as CSR activity on 23rd March, 2010

Please click on link below for the MCA circular.

09/08/2019

𝗜𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Public expenditure on education in India was 2.7% of GDP in 2017-18. This was about 10% of the total government (Centre and States) spending (Economic Survey 2017-18). Public spending on education has never attained the 6% of GDP envisaged in the 1968 Policy, reiterated in the Policy of 1986, and which was further reaffirmed in the 1992 Programme of Action.

The annual public investment in education in India over the last 5 years has been hovering around 3% of GDP. And (illustratively) the corresponding figures stand at 7.5% for Bhutan, Zimbabwe and Sweden; 7% for Costa Rica and Finland; 6% for Kyrgyzstan, South Africa and Brazil; 5.5% for U.K, Netherlands and Palestine; and 5% for Malaysia, Kenya, Mongolia, Korea & USA. (OECD & UNESCO, 2017)

It is also worth noting that many of these countries, particularly the OECD countries and the middle-income countries, are in a phase where expansion of education requires little public investment since their education systems are well established and provide complete access often with high quality out- comes. So, the allocation is mostly to merely run their systems. As against this, India still needs to make substantial investments in capacity expansion along with the expenditure to run the system.

The large deficit in the public financing that is required versus what has been made available eventually manifests in compromised quality of educational outcomes and lack of improvement. A large proportion of public expenditure on education comprises salaries of people (including teachers) existing in the system, with grossly inadequate amounts allocated for other matters, e.g. learning resources, school maintenance, laboratories, midday meals, etc.

31/07/2019

𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆

At the most basic level, education has ROI for the individual who is educated, in the form of increased earnings (wages) over a life time. This is referred to as ‘private or individual return’. The next level is benefit to the individual who is educated in other forms of well-being, referred to as ‘externalities’ in economic literature, e.g. better health, increased life expectancy, and more productive professional and social networks. These benefits are not in money terms, but some part of these benefits can be monetised.

Illustratively, better health would result in less cost to the individual and the system. It must be explicitly stated that such ‘monetisation’ captures only a part of these benefits, e.g. money alone cannot capture the overall effect of better health on the individual and their families.

The societal level benefits of education are, again, only partly measurable in money terms (referred to as ‘social return’). These accrue from many sources, e.g. the greater productive capacity of an educated workforce, the technological boost to economic activity, innovation driven by research and knowledge development, greater participation of women in more productive work, better public health outcomes, lower rates of incarceration, reduced infant mortality, improved family planning, and enhanced life expectancy, among many others. There are many other important nuances within the economic perspective of education. For example, higher ROI in education across demographic/social groups, e.g. for women, for those in poverty, and for disadvantaged regions. These ROIs mentioned are in the standard way that they are measured and stated, i.e. as ‘%’, which denotes percent return on investment for each year of education, up to college education.

Each year of education yields a return of around 6-12% to earnings of individuals. The ROI is particularly large for women and for disadvantaged groups: ROI for women are, on average, one percentage point more than those of men. Particularly for early childhood education, the returns are larger at about 13% on an average, and range from 7%-18%; this is due to the larger advantages gained by individuals with early childhood care and education (ECCE). 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝟯-𝟰 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀.

26/07/2019

𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

The ability to read and write, and to perform basic operations with numbers, is a necessary foundation and indispensable prerequisite for all future school and lifelong learning. We are in a severe learning crisis with respect to these most basic skills: a large proportion of students currently in elementary school - perhaps over 5 crore in number - have not attained foundational literacy and numeracy, i.e., the ability to read and comprehend basic text and the ability to carry out basic addition and subtraction with Indian numerals.
Numerous studies show that, in the current educational system, once students fall behind on foundational literacy and numeracy, they tend to maintain flat learning curves for years, perpetually unable to catch up.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒔?

A major cause of the current learning crisis is a 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹-𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀, i.e., the background early childhood care and learning (including pre-literacy and pre-numeracy) that is required for a child to engage in more formal grade school education. The problem most acutely afflicts first-generation learners, and children who have not had access to pre-primary education; Children naturally learn at different levels and paces during their early school years; however, because the current formal system assumes from the very beginning a common level and pace for all, many students start to fall behind almost immediately.

The Draft National Education Policy intends to tackle this as follows -
1. 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆: The school and classroom curriculum and schedules for Grades 1-5 will be re- designed to focus on foundational literacy and numeracy.
2. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲: Both a nutritious breakfast (e.g. even just some milk and a banana) and a midday meal will be served to pre- primary and primary school students. This will help make the hours between breakfast and lunch significantly more productive.

Foundational literacy and numeracy require immediate attention, as currently there is a huge deficit of learning. In this regard, it is important to actionize the Remedial Instructional Aids Programme (RIAP) and National Tutoring Programme (NTP); these two programs with their large teams of well-trained volunteers will help teachers in schools bridge the gap on an immediate basis.