Supporting Societal Development

ICICI Bank's and ICICI Foundation’s interventions for community welfare are focussed on diverse areas. These include creating infrastructure in remote locations, uplifting and restoring livelihoods, providing disaster relief, improving access to education for marginal communities and providing financial literacy among others.

Inclusive Development Projects in Aspirational Districts

The Government of India identified 'aspirational districts' across the country with an aim to transform districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social area and are adversely affected by poor socio-economic indicators. The Government is committed to raising the living standards of people residing in these districts and ensuring inclusive growth by localising Sustainable Development Goals. ICICI Foundation has leveraged the opportunity to introduce several livelihood interventions in 38 of these underdeveloped districts in association with the local authorities. At March 31, 2023, over 200,000 individuals had been benefitted from these interventions.

Providing Agricultural Training and Creating Employment Opportunities in Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu

In the ‘aspirational district’ of Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, the income of fishermen is low and seasonal. Most of them migrate to nearby towns in other seasons to work as an agriculture, transport or construction labourer and earn to support their family.

In order to empower women to supplement their family income easily and effectively, ICICI Foundation launched a value chain programme in this coastal district. ICICI Foundation has been providing training with a focus on crop improvement and productivity enhancement. Further, it has imparted knowledge among farmers for preparing bio-inputs, which are products made from beneficial organisms or natural extracts obtained from plants, to boost yields. It is also providing market linkages as well as need-based skill training to support additional income generation to the beneficiaries in the district.

Some other intervention areas include training for seaweed cultivation as well as making value-added products from seaweeds.

ICICI Foundation has facilitated the establishment of eight micro enterprises for producing value-added products such as palm food products, fish, seaweed, coconut, and crab fattening. It has also promoted and established the cultivation of Azolla, a protein-rich super food, for livestock, as well as gardening in their backyards in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), a government body that provides vocational training to farmers. Other programmes in the district include plantation of mangrove and bamboo trees and forest development with Miyawaki method that enables 10 times faster growth of plants.

Additionally, ICICI Foundation has extended training on financial literacy to the rural population to help them avail benefits of various government schemes.

ICICI Foundation also conducts free eye check-up camps. It has also installed solar drier unit for drying of fish, spices, curry leaves, fruits, vegetables, paddy and other products.

Further, ICICI Foundation has undertaken establishment of 64 rainwater harvesting structures in schools, panchayat buildings and veterinary hospitals with annual storage capacity of 4,500 litres.

Promoting Rural Infrastructure Development in Himalayan Region

In 2022, ICICI Foundation, in collaboration with Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), initiated construction of bridges to improve connectivity in the hilly terrain of Uttarakhand. It completed building 15 pedestrian bridges in six districts of Uttarakhand in 2022 and another 55 in 2023. The Foundation extended the expanse of its work to other areas of the Himalayan region by building 13 bridges in Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Sirmour districts in Himachal Pradesh, and eight in Reasi district in Jammu and Kashmir in fiscal 2023.

The bridges provide villagers with better connectivity, which in turn, promotes school education, livelihood, technology transfer and conservation of natural resources.

ICICI Foundation imparts skill training to women at shelter homes to help them obtain employment and integrate with the society. It also trains prison inmates and juveniles with a variety of useful skills to help them generate income inside the jail/home and find gainful employment after their release. The Foundation provides training in agriculture, dairy and making decorative lights. The inmates are also taught life skills.

In the case of orphans, ICICI Foundation helps them to secure jobs outside the orphanage once they turn 18 years of age. The programme involves equipping the orphans with livelihood skills.

Promoting Financial Literacy

At ICICI Bank, we believe financial literacy is essential to help individuals make informed decisions and manage their finances effectively. We organise regular financial literacy outreach programmes to educate people on financial management skills.

Each programme is designed to cater to the specific needs of different groups within the community, such as low-income families or small business owners, professionals and corporate employees, etc. It covers interactive sessions on topics such as budgeting, saving, debt management, investing, retirement planning and protecting oneself from financial fraud.

We partner with local schools, community centres and financial institutions to reach out to a wider audience through the programme.

During fiscal 2023, the target audience included students, daily wagers, self-help groups, railway coolies and porters, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), juveniles, physically challenged, transgenders, Anganwadi (rural child care centre) workers, Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers, farmer groups, among others.

Through ICICI Bank and ICICI Foundation, we have reached out to more than 146,000 people through various literacy programmes.

Restoring Heritage Library

ICICI Foundation collaborated with JSW Foundation to restore David Sassoon Library and Reading Room, a Grade-1 heritage structure, at Kala Ghoda in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Grade-1 heritage structure refers to buildings that are of national or historic importance and represent excellence in architectural style, design, technology and material usage.

David Sassoon Library is situated in the vicinity of many other historic educational and cultural institutions in south Mumbai. The library had several heritage structures that needed to be preserved for future generations. The restoration plan involved repair of the damaged and leaking parts, restoration of stone-surfaced exteriors and interiors, reconstruction of original sloping roof, recreation of a Minton tiled floor, and rehousing of nearly 30,000 books.

Creating Social Entrepreneurs

ICICI Fellowship is a one-year programme designed to create social entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow. The programme provides orientation, on-ground training, experiential learning and mentoring to aspiring development professionals in the social sector. As part of the programme, the candidates get an opportunity to engage with rural India and understand the challenges faced by the underprivileged communities. On successful completion of the programme, candidates receive a certificate. In fiscal 2023, 28 youth had participated.

Incubator Programme

In fiscal 2023, ICICI Foundation launched an incubator programme called ICICI Incubator for Impact (IINPact) for grassroot start-ups across India. The programme offers two-pronged assistance to start-up entrepreneurs, first being the guidance related to business fundamentals from industry experts and second being interest-free funding. For this programme, ICICI Foundation has collaborated with Xavier Institute of Management (XIM University), Bhubaneswar in Odisha to conduct boot camps and training sessions for the start-up entrepreneurs. The programme is conducted in hybrid mode – physically and digitally.

Periodic feedback is taken from the stakeholders and the incubatees to improve their go-to-market strategy. After completing the programme successfully, the incubatees receive a certificate that may offer them an opportunity to raise funds from potential investors.

This incubator programme is aligned in convergence with ICICI Foundation’s value chain interventions which strive to provide sustainable livelihood and improve the income of beneficiaries. Most of the beneficiaries are working in the field of agriculture, and there are also others who work in the areas of environmental conservation, education, health and financial services.