MetLife Foundation and OneStage have launched ‘Plastic-Free Gurugram,’ a sustainability programme aiming to reach over 100,000 residents by cutting single-use plastic use and improving waste management.
Unveiled during PNB MetLife’s 25th anniversary, it engages RWAs, institutions, and malls.
A baseline survey of 228 respondents found 84.4% segregate waste at home, but 77.8% still use disposables at gatherings.
The Gates Foundation said on Tuesday it would spend at least USD 1 billion over the next two years to widen access to artificial intelligence, a bold bet that the technology can narrow rather than widen the gap between rich and poor countries.
The commitment was unveiled alongside the foundation’s 10th annual Goalkeepers Report, titled “Make This Matter: AI, Equity, and the Choice We Can’t Delay.” The report argues that the window to shape who benefits from AI, and how quickly, is closing fast.
Under the plan, 40% of the money will go to education, including AI tutoring designed to individualize student learning and teaching tools for classrooms in the United States and abroad. Another 40% is earmarked for health care, spanning diagnostics, clinical decision support for frontline health workers, maternal and newborn care tools, and drug and vaccine discovery.
A further 10% will support agriculture, including AI-generated advice tailored to smallholder farmers’ soil, weather and crop conditions. The remaining 10% will fund digital infrastructure, such as building datasets in languages current models do not yet understand.
The Gates Foundation AI strategy rests on three priorities set out in the report: making tools work in every language people speak, designing them around the contexts where they will actually be used, and investing in the people and access needed for communities to shape the technology themselves.
More than 90% of the data used to train early large language models came from English-language sources, the report said, leaving many communities poorly represented in the systems built on that data. It also calls for countries and communities to decide how their own data is managed and protected.
Bill Gates, chair of the foundation, wrote that the organization was created in part to address a basic market failure, in which those with the greatest needs have the least power to steer innovation and investment. AI presents the same challenge, he wrote, only at far greater speed, because the most capable tools will be built first for those most able to pay.
“We can harness AI for good. But it won’t happen by accident,” Gates wrote, adding that success should be measured not only by what AI does for the most profitable users but by what it does for the people who stand to gain the most.
The foundation said its funding would scale up partners already working to close access gaps, with examples cited from clinics, classrooms and small farms. It also urged technology companies, governments and other philanthropies to commit resources, expertise and public advocacy, noting that affordable access will require action from industry as well as public investment.
The Seattle-based foundation is led by Chief Executive Mark Suzman under the direction of Gates and its governing board. Goalkeepers is its campaign to accelerate progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, has signed a Letter of Association with Bisleri International to boost plastic waste management across its branches and offices nationwide.
Under the agreement, Bisleri will conduct training and awareness sessions for SBI employees and housekeeping staff, and will collect used plastic waste from SBI premises for recycling, the companies said in a joint statement.
The tie-up falls under Bisleri’s “Bottles for Change” programme, through which the packaged water maker works with institutions, housing societies, corporates and communities to encourage responsible plastic waste management.
The companies said the partnership is intended to support India’s shift toward a circular economy and aid the country’s target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070.
Ravi Ranjan, SBI’s Managing Director for Risk, Compliance and Stressed Assets Resolution, said the collaboration was a step toward embedding sustainable practices into the bank’s workplace culture.
“We believe that when employees are empowered to make responsible choices, that awareness extends well beyond our offices and into the communities that we serve and are a part of,” Ranjan said, adding that such partnerships support India’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision.
Bisleri International Chief Executive Angelo George said the partnership combines SBI’s institutional reach with Bisleri’s experience in plastic waste management.
“By engaging employees across SBI offices, we aim to build responsible practices at the workplace that can extend into homes and communities,” George said, describing the initiative as a potential model for corporate participation in the circular economy.
SBI said the collaboration reinforces its broader commitment to environmental stewardship as it works toward a Scope 1, 2 and 3 net-zero target by 2055, the year the bank marks its centenary.
S Eldee
The real test of India’s social sector is not how many pilot projects we can launch, but how many of them survive long enough to become policy. For years, the story has been familiar: a promising NGO runs a small, donor‑funded experiment in a few districts; evaluations look good; then the money runs out, the team shrinks, and the model remains a footnote in a PowerPoint.
The recent trajectory of Lucknow‑based DEVI Sansthan — from a modest Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) issue on the BSE Social Stock Exchange to a three‑year Memorandum of Understanding with the Ladakh administration — hints at a different path: one where social finance, if designed well, can help turn pilots into public programmes.
DEVI’s journey began, in market terms, as a niche experiment. In June–July 2026, the organisation listed on the BSE Social Stock Exchange, raising about Rs 1.10 crore through ZCZP instruments priced at Rs 1 each, with a minimum ticket of just Rs 1,000. The pitch was simple: investors would not get interest or principal back; instead, their money would fund foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) programmes for tens of thousands of children in government schools, with impact tracked and reported under SEBI’s social exchange framework.
For a sector used to CSR cheques and foundation grants, this was novel: a regulated, transparent, retail‑accessible channel for “human returns” rather than financial ones.
What makes the Ladakh MoU, signed on 11 August 2026, significant is not just that a union territory chose an NGO partner, but that it chose one that had already tested its model in the market. Under the three‑year agreement, DEVI Sansthan will work with Ladakh’s School Education Department to strengthen FLN across the region, aligning with the national NIPUN Bharat mission’s goal that every child attain grade‑level reading and arithmetic by Class 3. In effect, capital raised through the Social Stock Exchange is being leveraged into a multi‑year, government‑backed scale‑up — exactly the transition that India’s education and social sectors desperately need.
This sequence — SSE issue first, government MoU later — matters for three reasons.
First, it shows that social stock exchanges can do more than raise money; they can de‑risk scale. When a government signs a multi‑year contract with an organisation that has already disclosed its finances, governance and impact metrics on a regulated platform, it reduces the information asymmetry that often stalls public procurement of social services. The SSE listing acts as a form of due diligence that is visible to citizens, donors and officials alike.
Second, it begins to solve the pilot paradox. India does not lack successful education pilots; it lacks mechanisms to move them from “project mode” to “system mode”. By allowing NPOs to raise patient, no‑repayment capital for specific outcomes, and then letting governments layer on longer‑term contracts, the SSE framework can help convert proof‑of‑concept into proof‑of‑scale. DEVI’s Ladakh deal is still early, but it is a template: market‑tested model, transparent reporting, then public adoption.
Third, it offers a new narrative for CSR and philanthropy. Instead of one‑off grants that vanish after a news cycle, corporate and individual investors can back organisations that are building towards government partnerships. The “exit” is not an IPO or acquisition, but a policy uptake — the moment when the state says: this works, we will fund it at scale. That is a far more durable form of impact than any annual report claim.
Of course, caution is necessary. A single MoU does not prove a trend; Ladakh’s unique administrative structure may not replicate easily in larger, more complex states. There are also risks: over‑financialisation of the social sector, excessive focus on easily measurable metrics at the cost of deeper learning, and the possibility that only a few well‑advised NGOs can navigate SEBI’s framework while smaller, grassroots groups are left behind. The Social Stock Exchange must remain a tool for mission, not a badge for marketing.
Yet, the direction is clear. If India is serious about fixing foundational learning, health, nutrition and livelihoods, it cannot rely on perpetual pilots funded by restless donors. It needs mechanisms that allow successful models to graduate into public systems with clarity on cost, quality and accountability. DEVI Sansthan’s path — from a Rs 1.10 crore ZCZP issue to a three‑year government partnership in Ladakh — is a small but telling sign that this graduation is possible.
The question now is whether other states, departments and donors are watching closely enough to replicate it.
SOS Children’s Villages India has launched its second Mobile Digital Learning Centre in the capital, in partnership with Informa Exhibitions India Pvt Ltd, part of Informa Markets in India, as part of efforts to expand digital literacy in underserved neighbourhoods.
Children from a vulnerable community in North-West Delhi boarded the bus, fitted with desktops and a projector screen, at the inauguration of the new Mobile Digital Learning Centre.
The initiative currently operates in three cities — Delhi, Pune and Raipur — reaching more than 800 beneficiaries, including 152 children. With the new centre, Delhi alone is targeting over 800 additional beneficiaries in the coming year.
The Mobile Digital Learning Centre programme provides free digital skills training, job-readiness support and confidence-building for youth and women from marginalised communities.
“Digital inclusion is a necessity for education, employability, and social mobility,” said Sumanta Kar, CEO of SOS Children’s Villages India.
“Through our Mobile Digital Learning Centres, we are taking technology directly to their neighbourhoods, ensuring that learning is not limited by geography or economic circumstances.”
Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director of Informa Markets in India, said the company’s continued partnership with SOS Children’s Villages India was helping expand access to digital learning and future-ready skills for children from vulnerable communities.
North-West Delhi was selected for the second Mobile Digital Learning Centre as the area is home to a large share of the capital’s estimated 60,000 street children, spread across roughly three lakh slum households in 675 clusters.
Officials said 45% of government school students in the area lack access to smartphones or stable internet, while 77% of youth in the area had no prior exposure to digital literacy.
The centre offers training across five areas: digital literacy, cyber safety, financial literacy, life skills and certified assessments. In its first year, the programme helped five beneficiaries secure job placements, enabled eight children to re-enrol in school, and facilitated 28 scholarship links and 32 links to higher studies.
The Mobile Digital Learning Centre initiative is part of a broader network run by SOS Children’s Villages India across seven states and eight cities, encompassing mobile units, standalone vocational training centres for ages 18-27, and after-school centres for ages 14-17. More than 2,610 young people participate in the programme annually.
Agropak, a biotech startup building a natural fibre materials platform for bio-based packaging, has won the Big Pi Grant, India’s largest non-dilutive grant for early-stage climate startups, organisers The Sustainability Mafia (SusMafia) said.
The Rs 31.4 lakh Big Pi Grant, presented at the third edition of SusCrunch 2026, is designed to boost climate startups through innovation support, commercial validation and market adoption without diluting founder equity, SusMafia said in a statement.
Agropak’s win adds to a growing set of resources for the company, including mentorship, strategic guidance and access to incubators and government programmes through SusMafia’s investor, fellowship and grant network.
The grant’s name draws on the mathematical constant pi (3.14), a nod meant to symbolise bold thinking and breakthrough innovation, according to the organisers.
SusCrunch 2026 drew investors including Zerodha and 3one4 Capital, along with corporates such as Reliance, Biocon, Zomato and Apollo Hospitals, underscoring rising industry interest in climate-focused startups.
The Big Pi Grant announcement comes as India’s climate-tech sector has drawn nearly USD 12.8 billion in funding across 1,583 startups between 2008 and June 2026, according to the Tracxn India Climate Tech 2026 Report.
Global early-stage climate funding, however, has slipped to a five-year low, the State of Climate Tech 2025 report found, a trend organisers say makes non-dilutive grants like the Big Pi Grant increasingly critical to bridging the gap between research and commercial scale.
Backed jointly by SusMafia and the BITS Pilani PIEDS Accelerator, the Big Pi Grant drew more than 50 applications from founders across BITS Pilani, IIT and the wider SusVentures network. Five startups spanning water and waste management, climate intelligence, sustainable materials and the built environment were shortlisted before Agropak was named the winner.
Past recipients have used the grant as a springboard. BioCompute, the 2024 winner, has since built laboratory infrastructure, expanded into the Bay Area and raised more than Rs 5 crore from investors including WTF Fund, Grad Capital and 1517 Fund. Bisket Labs, the 2025 recipient, went on to secure Karnataka’s ELEVATE Grant.
“Every founder needs access to business, capital and talent. No founder can build all three alone,” said Ganesh Shankar, co-founder of The Sustainability Mafia and founder of FluxGen.
SusMafia, a founder-led climate community, says its network of 84 active climate founders and more than 700 “Climate Ninjas” has collectively raised over $350 million, employs more than 3,000 people and generates Rs 2,100 crore in annual revenue, while diverting over 363,000 tonnes of waste from landfills and mitigating roughly 1.56 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually.
At a separate “Climate Sitdown” session, Neeraj Jain, co-founder of Solar Square, a Series C rooftop solar company that has raised over USD 100 million, said the SusMafia community “feels like the start of a movement,” speaking alongside Ashish Goel, founder of Urban Ladder and an investor in more than 30 startups.
Organisers say initiatives like the Big Pi Grant will remain central to India’s climate innovation push as the country works toward its net-zero goals, with early-stage grants, founder communities and industry partnerships seen as key complements to venture capital.
HCLFoundation has invited applications from non-profit organisations across India for Edition XII of the HCLTech Grant, Rs 24 crore initiative targeting transformative rural development across four themes — water, biodiversity, health and education.
The corporate social responsibility arm of global technology company HCLTech is accepting submissions at www.hclfoundation.org/hcltech-grant until June 30, 2026, the Foundation said in a statement on Thursday.
Four winning organisations, one from each theme, will receive Rs 5 crore each. Eight additional NGOs will receive Rs 50 lakh each for proposed projects across the same categories.
“Some of the most transformative solutions emerge from grassroots organisations deeply connected to the communities they serve,” said Dr Nidhi Pundhir, Director, HCLFoundation.
“Through this edition of HCLTech Grant, we aim to provide a platform for NGOs to unleash their potential, scale innovative ideas and create sustainable change.”
The HCLTech Grant has to date reached 2.3 million lives across 61,000 villages in India. Funded initiatives have resulted in the planting of more than three lakh saplings, rejuvenation of over 68,300 hectares of land and a reduction of more than 67,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Total commitments under the programme now exceed ₹203 crore.
Winners of Edition XI included Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti from Rajasthan, Live Foundation from Jharkhand, Goodwill Foundation from Mizoram and Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti from Rajasthan, each receiving Rs 5 crore for projects spanning water harvesting, biodiversity conservation, healthcare access and gender equality through education.
HCLFoundation also announced the HCLTech Grant Edition XII Pan India Symposiums 2026, scheduled in Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Nagpur and New Delhi, to bring together NGOs, government bodies, corporates and policymakers on the role of CSR in nation building.
HCLFoundation has positively impacted over 8.4 million lives through long-term programmes in education, health, sanitation, skill development, environment and disaster risk reduction.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday marked World Environment Day by highlighting how his government’s initiatives over the past decade have driven expanding green cover and boosted populations of several animal species across India.
In a post on X, Modi applauded citizens’ collective efforts, backed by science, innovation and policy, in improving the environment. He described the day as a reminder to reaffirm commitment to sustainable growth and environmental protection.
“Some of India’s key successes include expanding green cover and a rise in the population of several animals,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister pointed to notable conservation achievements, including recovery programmes for the Great Indian Bustard, snow leopards, sloth bears and cheetahs. He also credited the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ initiative with adding nearly 119,000 hectares of forest cover annually.
Guided by the principle of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’, the government will continue its Mission LiFE efforts toward a cleaner, greener and more sustainable planet, he added.
World Environment Day, observed annually on June 5, was established by the United Nations Environment Programme in 1973 and remains one of the largest global platforms for environmental awareness. Azerbaijan is hosting the 2026 celebrations.
A corporate-backed initiative to build India’s next generation of Paralympic shooting champions is now fully operational, with funds deployed and training underway across the country.
The Wheeling Happiness Foundation (WHF), led by India’s first woman Paralympic medalist Dr. Deepa Malik, has launched the “Shaping Future Paralympic Shooting Champions” program under a CSR partnership with Asset Care and Reconstruction Enterprise (ACRE). The alliance, signed earlier this year, represents one of the most structured private-sector commitments to para-shooting development in the country.
“We are not just building champions; we are building a more inclusive India,” said Dr. Malik, a Padma Shri awardee. “This collaboration is proving to be a game-changer for countless aspiring para-shooters.”
The program targets the identification and training of more than 300 new para-shooters nationwide. It also seeks to certify 30 national coaches and 15 classifiers and referees to World Shooting Para Sports (WSPS) standards — a technical gap that has long constrained India’s competitive depth in the discipline.
Equipment procurement is a central plank of the effort, with adaptive wheelchairs, specialized shooting tables, and accessible training infrastructure to be provided to participants. At least 30 percent of all supported athletes will be women, a target WHF says is non-negotiable.
The Para Shooting Association of India (PSAI), the national governing body, is the technical implementing partner. PSAI Chairperson and Dronacharya Awardee J.P. Nautiyal is overseeing execution alongside WHF.
Mohd Shariq Malik of the ACRE CSR Committee said the program aligned with the company’s core social mandate. “We are incredibly proud to support these inspiring athletes and believe in their potential to bring glory to our nation,” he said.
The Rotary Club of Delhi South, under District 3011 of Rotary International, has also facilitated the partnership. Kriti Makhija of the club was acknowledged by WHF for her coordination role.
India has emerged as a dominant force in para shooting internationally. At the 2025 World Shooting Para Sport World Cup in Changwon, India topped the medal table with 15 gold, 13 silver, and four bronze medals — ahead of South Korea and Iran. The WHF-ACRE initiative is aimed at broadening the talent pipeline that feeds that competitive success.
Dr. Malik said the program embodied the foundation’s motto — “Ability Beyond Disability” — and was designed to be sustainable rather than episodic.
“With ACRE’s support, we are strengthening our Paralympic legacy and fostering national pride on the global stage,” she said.
Bharti Real Estate, the property arm of Bharti Enterprises, has launched Abhigyan, a structured industry-academia engagement programme designed to give engineering students hands-on exposure to large-scale real estate and infrastructure development, as the sector grows in scale and complexity across India’s urban centres.
The initiative kicked off with its first field visit, hosting civil engineering undergraduates from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi at Worldmark, Aerocity — a sprawling commercial development adjacent to Indira Gandhi International Airport that is being positioned as one of India’s most ambitious global business districts.
“Abhigyan reflects our commitment to fostering industry understanding and nurturing future talent through real-world exposure. As infrastructure and real estate continue to evolve in scale and complexity, it is important for young professionals to understand how such developments are brought to life beyond textbooks.” — S. K. Sayal, MD & CEO, Bharti Real Estate
During the immersive walkthrough, students gained first-hand insight into integrated design, construction management, project planning and the execution challenges inherent in delivering premium commercial developments at scale.
The session concluded with an interactive discussion with Sayal and senior leadership, including Vice President of Operations Kamal Kumar Dua, Project Leaders Amit Tyagi and Ajay Kalia, Chief Marketing Officer Cherryn Dogra and Projects Planning Lead Pankaj Garg. Industry consultants Raja Raja Menon of Arcop and Amrit Pal of TPCL also participated in the engagement.
“Bharti Real Estate has provided the undergraduate students of Civil and Environmental Engineering IIT Delhi with a valuable opportunity to explore various aspects of planning, construction, on-site execution and ground coordination.
Such hands-on experiences play a crucial role in inspiring and shaping the next generation of engineers in the country.” — Prof. Allan L Marbaniang, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, IIT Delhi
Bharti Real Estate said Abhigyan is envisioned as an ongoing platform, with curated field visits and expert-led discussions planned across leading academic institutions nationwide. The company described the programme as a direct response to the widening gap between classroom learning and the realities of executing world-class, large-scale development projects.
Worldmark, the company’s flagship portfolio at Aerocity, spans approximately 17 million square feet across multiple phases. Worldmark 1.0 is fully operational and home to multinational corporations, global financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies.
Worldmark 2.0, currently under advanced development, covers around 7 million square feet including nearly 3 million square feet of premium office space already holding an occupancy certificate, and close to 3 million square feet of destination retail targeted for operationalisation in 2027–28. Worldmark 3.0 and 4.0 will add a further 5 million-plus square feet to the district in subsequent phases.