India: Many colleges and universities have come up with conducting courses on CSR, sustainability and allied areas. The first one being curated by Harsha Saxena for a Pune based university on MBA in CSR. In the past many corporations conducted training on CSR when the bill was introduced which were organised by her hosting international knowledge experts.
As time has passed the impetus on the subject has not only grown in India but also internationally. The dynamic subject is evolving every year with path breaking research and new benchmarks being adopted by the rating agencies, until recently when the SEBI has put provisions for who can rate the Indian companies.
Returning from the US, UAE and EU with a mission to develop India as much as opportunities be offered, Harsha decided to establish a campus in India. The moment the location had to be decided she saw places in all the metro cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and also paid a visit to Gujarat for the same but the beauty of nature with inclusive society and international presence could be found only in Goa.
“I was struck with the presence of mother nature away from the man made jungles where the concept of sustainable development could be truly lived and studied. Arambol had a fine mixture of international culture with Indian roots coupled with the scenic beauty of the Arabian sea and western ghats on either sides.” says Harsha, Founder IICSR Group (iicsr.com)
With minimal construction IICSR campus stands here being one of the first and most eco-friendly campus for students to begin and pursue their careers towards Responsible business leadership. They conduct 5 days of boot camps, pgp in CSR and sustainability, masters in CSR and sustainability and ESG from here. They are accredited by mepsc a sector skills council under ministry of skills development and entrepreneurship and the American council of training and Development.
Coming back to India and pursuing entrepreneurship as a woman and first generation entrepreneur is a learning journey especially when you have bootstrapped all along the way, thus questioning the norms and building your own ground on the way to growth.
“The government schemes need to be promoted more and implemented, we are still far away on that journey when compared to the developed nations. Hoping that we can nurture more youth to start innovative businesses than to join others, we are the youngest country in the world and it’s our responsibility to mould it, it’s for the youth.” conveys Harsha, sitting at Achala library at the beach facing IICSR campus in Goa.
