Social initiatives of ICICI Bank

India is making significant progress in addressing social issues around poverty, access to livelihoods, preventive healthcare and education. Extensive efforts are, however, still required to address the social development needs of a large country. With a purpose-driven approach to create meaningful social impact, the Bank has been playing a role in some of these areas. The Bank considers lending opportunities which have the potential to create a positive impact in society. In fiscal 2020, the Bank financed a company in a special economic zone which employs about 22,000 people from neighbouring villages. A large number of employees are women who are the sole bread earners for their families. The ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (ICICI Foundation) has been extensively involved in providing skill training and enhancing livelihood capabilities among the segments of society requiring such support, including in villages. Rural development is particularly an important focus for the Bank where efforts are being driven to enhance the village ecosystem.

ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth

ICICI Foundation was established in 2008 for strengthening the efforts of the ICICI Group towards meeting its corporate social responsibility. ICICI Foundation's efforts are managed by an in-house team with direct project implementation capabilities. The focus on enabling sustainable livelihood through skill training gained momentum with the setting up of the ICICI Academy for Skills in October 2013.

During fiscal 2020, ICICI Foundation adopted a more focussed approach in its efforts in ensuring skill development and enhancing livelihoods. This was enabled by inaugurating skill training academies, inducting new knowledge partners and courses and adopting a cluster-based approach as part of its Rural Livelihood Programme.

Rural Livelihood Programme

Sustainable and distributed growth is a key driver of the Rural Livelihood Programme. ICICI Foundation has structured its efforts around four key areas:

• Addressing shortages in the village ecosystem which includes efforts to improve the yield and quality of local products
• Addressing surplus in the local economy and developing value chains to improve market linkages for better realisation
• Adopting an inclusive approach by providing low investment entrepreneurial opportunities to landless and other communities, and;
• Undertaking environment-friendly initiatives by addressing local environmental challenges and promoting sustainable practices

ICICI Foundation reoriented its strategy during fiscal 2020 under the Rural Livelihood Programme for enhancing outcomes and its sustainability. From an approach involving interventions at a village level, the strategy was shifted to identifying clusters of villages with similar needs for driving interventions. The model is based on Value Chain & Entrepreneurship Development.

In identified clusters, multiple groups of trainees work in various segments of the value chain of an identified commodity, or as entrepreneurs in a for-profit arrangement or as employees. The idea is to create supply chains and synergies that can enhance value and make it sustainable.

This has helped in improving income opportunities of trainees and effectively benefit communities rather than just individuals. This model has also made significant impact on the environment.

Other Activities

ICICI Foundation organises blood donation camps and facilitates participation of Bank’s employees and customers in Daan Utsav, a platform to donate for charitable causes. The proceeds are deployed for activities relating to preventive healthcare, environment protection and other social causes. During fiscal 2020, the proceeds from the Daan Utsav were disbursed to support projects like watershed development activities, nutrition supplements for children undergoing cancer treatment, and other community initiatives like addressing human wildlife conflict.

Rural development

The Bank’s long-standing effort in rural development related activities continued during fiscal 2020. Agricultural activities remain the mainstay for rural areas, and the Bank has been providing financial solutions for customers across the agri-value chain, particularly farmers. In a mission to enable better opportunities for farmers, the Bank has started funding electronic negotiable warehousing receipts (eNWR). Lending against eNWR is quicker, hassle-free and convenient for both the Bank and borrowers. Farmers can use eNWR to get loans against underlying commodities. This lending protects the farmers from volatility and provides opportunities to avail better prices for their produce. The Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) has a well-defined mechanism to empanel warehouses for issuing eNWR.

There are specific segments of the rural economy that require the engagement to be more supportive and sensitive to their requirements. In this regard, the Bank undertakes initiatives that address the needs of these segments of the rural population. The Self-Help Group (SHG) Programme is an initiative that has enhanced entrepreneurship among women in the rural areas. The Bank provides a comprehensive suite of banking products, including zero-balance savings account and term loans, for meeting the business requirements of the women of these SHGs. Services are offered at their doorstep, thus saving their time and money on visits to the branch. The Bank is also organising financial literacy camps and has set up dedicated service desks at select branches to guide SHGs on banking procedures. There has been a gradual rise in entrepreneurial ventures by women in the areas where the Bank has been providing services to SHGs.

The Bank has provided loans to over 7.0 million women beneficiaries through over 540,000 SHGs at March 31, 2020. Of these, 2.5 million women were first-time borrowers, who had not taken a loan from any formal financial institution. In addition to direct customers, the Bank reaches out to about 0.9 million customers through microfinance institutions.

ICICI Bank also provides lending to Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) which are semi-formal groups from the weaker sections of society. In addition to direct efforts, the Bank has tied up with about 530 non-government organisations called Self Help Promoting Institutions (SHPIs). These SHPIs are empanelled as Business Correspondents and work towards delivering credit and other banking products. The Bank also offers credit-related services to microfinance companies that are providing financial services to the rural population.

Financial inclusion is another activity which the Bank has actively pursued in the rural areas. At March 31, 2020, the Bank had over 21.0 million Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA), of which around 4.7 million accounts were opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. The Bank encourages and enables these account holders to transact digitally. ICICI Bank is also promoting government schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana for providing life insurance, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana for providing accident insurance and Atal Pension Yojana for providing pension benefits. At March 31, 2020, a total of 4.9 million customers had been enrolled under these three social security schemes.

Offering complete financial solutions to customers and their ecosystems has been a strategic focus in the Bank’s businesses. In the rural space, an example of this approach is the financial solution provided to farmers and other participants of the dairy ecosystem. This includes providing a suite of financial solutions including term loans and working capital loans to dairy unions, payment solutions and promoting investments into animal husbandry. These solutions are supplemented by providing skill training through ICICI Foundation. The Bank has reached out to over 300,000 farmers, engaged in animal husbandry across 5,000 villages since inception. The Bank has also tied-up with more than 2,000 Village Level Cooperative Societies (VLCS) comprising about 200,000 active members.

These solutions could include strengthening e-governance, enabling end-to-end digital payments for critical projects, participating in pilot projects as a financial service provider and supporting initiatives for promoting social development. In this regard, the Bank participated in several such opportunities during fiscal 2020.

As part of the government’s efforts on 'Ease of Doing Business' and smoothening the registration process for new companies, there has been a focus on providing clearances digitally, including for opening of bank accounts. ICICI Bank has worked along with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India, to integrate the digital account opening process for new companies on its platform. This enables companies to select the bank of their choice while filling the application, to get an instant account number. Details provided are then verified at the backend for account activation post completion of formalities.

ICICI Bank is one of the leading banks integrated with the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) platform set up by the Office of Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. The system enables efficient flow of funds from the central government to implementing agencies at state, district, block and village levels. The Government of India’s direct benefit transfer (DBT) programme rides on the PFMS platform, which has brought in efficiency and ensures that benefits reach the intended beneficiaries within a given time frame. ICICI Bank has been associated with PFMS since its inception and is one of the largest processor of payments through this platform. During fiscal 2020, the Bank had processed more than 60.0 million transactions in 25 states. For providing ease and convenience to stakeholders, ICICI Bank has provided multiple channels for uninterrupted service delivery through its mobile app, web portal and call centre.

Another area of engagement with the government, is in the Smart Cities Mission, an urban renewal programme of the Government of India. ICICI Bank has been closely associated with this initiative and has been working with various Smart Cities projects for providing digital collection and payment solutions. ICICI Bank is one of the leading banks in developing Common City Payments Solution (CCPS), a citizen-centric solution for promoting cashless economy by facilitating digital transit and retail payments. The Surat Money card which is being used in Surat Smart City has been declared as the winner of India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2019 for achievement in implementing the One city, One card under the Smart Cities Mission.

Apart from CCPS, a suite of digital solutions known as ‘ICICI Bank Smart City Solutions Suite’ has been created to cater to the day-to-day requirements of a Smart City. These include assistance in tax collection, bill payment of utilities, assistance in municipal bonds issuance, comprehensive project and payment management solution for live project updates and just-in-time payments to vendors or contractors, funds monitoring on PFMS platform, e-challan collections, smart toll collections on highways and smart parking spaces, besides other offerings like e-governance solutions, digital property tagging and many more smart solutions leveraging the Bank’s digital capabilities and expertise. ICICI Bank’s efforts at some of the Smart Cities Mission are helping scale up digital transactions and fostering competitiveness and benchmarking across smart cities.

A digital platform has been developed by the Bank for government departments and institutions, which provides a wide range of e-governance solutions. The platform includes activities like payments, project management, budget management, limit assignment and control, dashboard, reports and analytics, and online reconciliation of transactions. It facilitates hierarchical mode of disbursements, expenditure head wise payment and tracking to the end beneficiaries depending on various models.