Multi-business conglomerate ITC deploys ITC AI climate tools to decode nature’s signals and drive targeted adaptation measures across its operations and agricultural catchments as the world marks World Environment Day 2026.
Under the theme “Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future” and the call #NowForClimate, ITC has conducted AI-powered climate risk assessments at 140 sites, including owned assets and third-party units, covering 20+ metrics such as floods, drought, extreme wind and more across multiple scenarios.
Using these insights, the company is implementing site-specific adaptation plans featuring engineering solutions, nature-based interventions, early warning systems and community preparedness measures, ITC said in a statement.
In agriculture, ITC has leveraged AI for farm-level studies to assess climate impacts on crop yields and is rolling out hyper-local advisories, climate-resilient crop varieties and regenerative practices through its ITCMAARS platform.
The company has expanded its Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) programme to nearly 32 lakh acres, benefiting over 12 lakh farmers, with a target of 4 million acres by 2030.
“By combining AI, climate science and collaborative partnerships, we can turn data into insights and insights into meaningful action,” said S. Sivakumar, Group Head – Agri & IT Businesses and Sustainability, ITC Ltd.
ITC has also scaled decarbonisation efforts, with over 50% of its energy from renewable sources and a goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2030. The company aims for Net Zero Operations by 2050.
Environmental challenges spanning waste management, agriculture, and clean technology are creating significant opportunities for India’s circular economy, according to Suranjana Ghosh, Head of Marico Innovation Foundation.
India generates an estimated 350 million tonnes of agricultural waste annually, much of which holds substantial industrial and economic potential if converted into valuable resources rather than discarded.
“Environmental challenges today are increasingly interconnected… Across sectors, we are seeing growing evidence that environmental challenges can be addressed through practical solutions,” Ghosh said.
She emphasised that sustainability is now viewed as an opportunity to create economic value, citing innovations that convert crop residue into sustainable materials, fuels, and industrial inputs, alongside waste-to-value technologies that strengthen recycling ecosystems.
“More than innovation itself, the challenge today is creating the right conditions for adoption. Access to markets, industry partnerships and implementation support will be critical,” Ghosh added.
As World Environment Day 2026 focuses on climate action, Ghosh called for translating innovation into measurable outcomes to build a USD 2 trillion circular economy that could generate 10 million jobs by 2050.
“India does not lack innovative solutions… the focus must be on translating innovation into measurable outcomes that strengthen circularity, improve resource efficiency, and create long-term impact,” she said.
McDonald’s India – North and East has achieved a major milestone in McDonald’s for Youth Empowerment program, creating meaningful employment opportunities for over 1500 young individuals across Delhi NCR.
Implemented in partnership with local NGOs and community organisations, the flagship McDonald’s for Youth Empowerment initiative has provided first-job opportunities to youth from less privileged backgrounds in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.
The program delivers structured training through McDonald’s global curriculum, covering customer service, communication, restaurant operations, food safety, teamwork, and professional development – equipping participants with transferable skills for long-term career growth.
Rajeev Ranjan, Managing Director, McDonald’s India – North and East, said, “Through McDonald’s for Youth Empowerment, we have supported over 2,500 young individuals in taking their first steps into the workforce. This powerful initiative transforms lives and builds stronger communities.”
Rajesh Soundararajan, Director, Katha, added, “Our partnership with McDonald’s has successfully connected youth with meaningful employment, fostering confidence and financial independence.”
The McDonald’s for Youth Empowerment program has expanded across multiple states including Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. McDonald’s now plans to scale the initiative further and invites interested NGOs to collaborate by reaching out at hiring.ngo@del.in.mcd.com.
Ambuja Foundation and Kanohar Electricals Limited have partnered to launch a Skill Development Institute in Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh, aiming to empower more than 1,000 rural youth over the next three years with employment-oriented training.
Located in Ghaziabad district and strategically close to the expanding Delhi NCR economic hub, the institute targets villages around Saunda where educated youth face high unemployment and underemployment despite completing secondary school or graduation. A field assessment by Ambuja Foundation highlighted a critical gap in industry-relevant technical skills and practical exposure.
The initiative, rooted in the native village of Kanohar Electricals Limited founder Shri Kanohar Lal Singhal, will offer structured courses including Phlebotomy, General Duty Assistant, OT Assistance, Customer Care, and Microfinance. Participants will also receive soft skills, IT training, on-the-job training, work readiness, financial literacy, and occupational health and safety modules.
“With the growing demand for a skilled workforce, this Skill Development Institute in Modinagar will bridge the skills gap and equip youth with industry-relevant capabilities,” said Pearl Tiwari, CEO, Ambuja Foundation. “Through this partnership with Kanohar Electricals Limited, we aim to empower rural youth with the confidence and opportunities needed for sustainable careers.”
Dinesh Singhal, Chairman and Managing Director of Kanohar Electricals Limited, added: “Investing in skills development is essential for inclusive economic growth. This collaboration will transform livelihood prospects for young people in rural Uttar Pradesh.”
The three-year programme is expected to connect trainees with job opportunities across the NCR region, supporting reduced unemployment, higher household incomes, and greater economic mobility.
Lava International Limited has partnered with the Government of Uttar Pradesh to deliver Lava smartphones to 20,941 Anganwadi workers statewide, a transforming rollout under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) framework aimed at replacing manual record-keeping with real-time, data-driven service delivery at the grassroots level.
The handover ceremony was held at Lok Bhavan, Lucknow in March 2026, under the theme “Suposhit Uttar Pradesh, Sashakt Bharat” — Nourished Uttar Pradesh, Empowered India.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath presided over the event alongside Women’s Welfare Minister Baby Rani Maurya, Additional Chief Secretary Leena Johri, and WCD Director Sarneet Kaur Broca. Approximately 1,000 Anganwadi workers attended in person.
Lava supplied handsets from its Storm Play series, factory-configured for field deployment with Mobile Device Management (MDM) capabilities, a supervisor monitoring application, and state-specific interface integrations aligned to WCD and ICDS digital systems.
The Anganwadi digital empowerment initiative enables workers to record maternal and child health data in real time, track attendance digitally, monitor nutrition distribution for newborns and lactating mothers, and feed information directly into centralised dashboards.
“Digital transformation at the grassroots is not just about access to devices, but about building systems that work reliably at scale for those delivering essential services on a day-to-day basis. This initiative is a testament of our ability to design and deliver technology solutions tailored for real-world public sector needs,” said Llyod D’souza, Chief Business Officer, Enterprise Business, Lava International Limited.
The deployment directly addresses longstanding bottlenecks in welfare delivery. Supervisors can now remotely monitor field activity, track stock availability of food packets for at-risk households, and receive early alerts on potential health and nutrition risks — capabilities previously dependent on paper-based reporting cycles.
Officials said the initiative supports the UP government’s broader ambition to bridge the digital divide through scalable, technology-led interventions and strengthen last-mile delivery of public welfare programmes.
For Lava, the contract extends a record of enterprise public-sector deployments as the company positions itself as a domestic alternative in India’s government mobility procurement market.
HDFC Bank Parivartan has built and restored over 15,289 water structures across more than 10,430 villages, delivering a powerful boost to rural water security and benefiting 14.92 lakh households.
The flagship CSR programme has also provided access to safe drinking water in over 950 villages through community purification systems using UV, RO, and multi-stage filtration technology, supported by dedicated water tanks, tap connections, and regular quality monitoring.
From farm ponds and check dams to jal minars, rainwater harvesting systems, lift irrigation, and recharge wells, HDFC Bank Parivartan has created diverse water assets tailored to local needs, especially helping tribal farming communities in Central India.
Powering long-term impact, the bank combines every water structure with agricultural support including micro irrigation systems, shade net houses, Bio-Input Resource Centres, and multilayer farming. These integrated efforts have significantly increased irrigated area, reduced dependence on erratic rainfall, and improved crop yields for smallholder farmers.
Community ownership remains central to the programme’s success. Women’s Self-Help Groups and Water User Associations actively participate in Village Action Plans, while GIS-based planning and convergence with government schemes like MGNREGA ensure precision and sustainability. Trained water user groups focus on water budgeting and judicious usage to keep assets productive for years.
“At HDFC Bank Parivartan, we meet communities where they are — whether building ice stupas in the mountains or installing purification plants in villages that never had clean tap water,” said Ms. Nusrat Pathan, Head of CSR, HDFC Bank.
“Through Parivartan, our work spans watershed development, rainwater harvesting, rejuvenation of water bodies, last-mile irrigation infrastructure, and climate-smart agricultural practices. Over 15,000 water structures and safe drinking water for nearly a thousand villages is a major milestone, but the real success lies in fields now yielding a second crop and children no longer falling ill from contaminated water. We remain committed to building a water-secure India,” she added.
Natural Resource Management was introduced as a dedicated focus area under Parivartan in FY 2024-25, integrating water conservation with afforestation, soil health, and solar energy. The programme supports Sustainable Development Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation) and SDG 13 (climate action).
HDFC Bank Parivartan operates across six key pillars — Rural Development, Education, Skill Development & Livelihood Enhancement, Healthcare & Hygiene, Financial Literacy & Inclusion, and Natural Resource Management. As of March 2025, it has positively impacted over 10.56 crore lives across 28 states and 8 Union Territories. In FY 2024-25, HDFC Bank spent Rs. 1,068.03 crore on CSR activities under the Parivartan umbrella.
Agro-innovation company Syngenta Indiahas launched what it called a first-of-its-kind corporate social responsibility initiative, committing to sponsor 650 motorised tricycles for specially abled individuals in Madhya Pradesh, in a move that links agricultural enterprise with disability inclusion.
The first batch of vehicles was handed over on Sunday by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at the Unnat Krishi Mahotsav 2026, an agriculture exhibition and conference held in Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, on April 12.
“Empowering them with mobility is a critical step towards ensuring dignity, inclusion, and self-reliance,” Chouhan said, adding that the government remained committed to addressing the needs of marginalised communities, including the Divyangjan — a Hindi term for persons with disabilities. He singled out the Vidisha region, his parliamentary constituency, as a focus area for broader mobility initiatives.
Chouhan framed the distribution of motorised tricycles not merely as a mobility intervention but as a pathway to economic participation, saying recipients could use the vehicles as livelihood tools and engage in local rural economies.
Vivek Sharma, officiating Managing Director and Head of Marketing at Syngenta India, said the initiative was anchored in the company’s sustainability priorities, integrating social inclusion with agricultural advancement. He said the programme aimed to support last-mile connectivity, on-farm engagement and participation in rural enterprises across the agricultural value chain.
Sharma said Syngenta planned to complement the mobility support with skill development and improved market access, with the stated aim of enabling “long-term transformation at the grassroots.”
Syngenta India has operated in Madhya Pradesh through several community development programmes, including I RISE, a rural skilling initiative; I CLEAN, a market-access and hygiene awareness programme; and I SAFE, which promotes responsible use of agricultural inputs. At the Raisen exhibition, the company showcased new products and technologies for farmers.
Signify, the world leader in lighting, has illuminated four Kabaddi and Kho-Kho training centers across rural Haryana under its flagship CSR initiative, Signify Khel Jyoti, in a move designed to transform grassroots sports development across one of India’s most sports-rich states.
The intervention, timed ahead of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, deploys industry-leading energy-efficient LED sports lighting to extend usable training hours beyond sunset, improve athlete safety, and drive inclusive participation — particularly among women and youth.
“Sport has the power to bring communities together and create opportunities for young talent, especially in underserved regions,” said Nikhil Gupta, Head of Strategy & Marketing, Signify, Greater India.
“Through Signify Khel Jyoti, we are enabling access to safe and inclusive sporting spaces by improving infrastructure at the grassroots level.”
The centers were identified through a structured selection process in partnership with JSW Sports and Haryana Steelers, prioritizing active training ecosystems, coaching support, and long-term community impact. Ground-level execution was managed by Pro Sport Development.
Divyanshu Singh, CEO of JSW Sports and Haryana Steelers, said the initiative unlocks significant potential at the grassroots level. “In a state like Haryana, where Kabaddi is part of everyday life, extending training hours and improving safety can directly influence participation and performance,” he said.
The newly illuminated centers have historically produced athletes who have gone on to represent India at the highest levels, including the Pro Kabaddi League. Officials report increased enrollment across age groups, with a notable early rise in girls’ participation.
The Haryana project forms part of a broader national effort: Signify Khel Jyoti has now illuminated over 200 grassroots sports centers across India, reinforcing the company’s commitment to building an inclusive and sustainable sports ecosystem through the power of light.
Every monsoon, plantation drives sweep across India. Corporate volunteers gather, saplings are planted, photographs are taken, and annual CSR reports celebrate impressive numbers.
But after the cameras leave, the real question begins: how many of those saplings will survive five years later? Programs such as those implemented by SayTrees Environmental Trust demonstrate this shift, with over 9 million saplings planted across 20,000+ hectares of farmland supporting more than 25,000 farmers through agroforestry systems, capturing over 120,000–160,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually while improving soil health and farm resilience.
Planting a tree is the easiest part of the process. Protecting it, nurturing it, and allowing it to become part of a thriving ecosystem is the real work. And that work does not end with a plantation event, it begins there. Such agroforestry landscapes can capture over 120,000–160,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually while improving soil health and farm resilience.
India’s climate ambitions demand more than symbolic greening. They demand ecological integrity.
India has committed to creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent by 2030 through increased forest and tree cover. Achieving this target cannot depend on plantation numbers alone, it requires ecosystems that survive and mature.
Recent debates around commercial plantations and forest leasing have renewed an old question: what qualifies as a forest? A plantation, especially one driven by short-term economic returns, is not automatically a forest. Forests are living systems composed of native species, layered canopies, soil microbiology, water cycles, and biodiversity networks that evolve over decades.
When restoration is reduced to numbers, ecological complexity is lost.
Across the country, survival rates of plantation drives often drop sharply after the first few years due to inadequate maintenance, poor species selection, water stress, grazing pressures, and lack of community engagement. Reviews of afforestation efforts by institutions such as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) have pointed to gaps between plantation targets and long-term ecological outcomes. A sapling in the soil is only the first step in a 20-year ecological journey. Without protection and monitoring, it rarely becomes a mature canopy.
A living forest, particularly in urban and peri-urban landscapes, performs multiple functions simultaneously. According to research by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) and studies by institutions such as IISc Bengaluru, dense native tree cover can help moderate urban heat, reduce runoff during heavy rainfall, stabilise soil, and improve air quality. As Indian cities experience rising temperatures and more intense rainfall events, these ecological services are no longer optional, they are essential infrastructure.
But these benefits emerge only through thoughtful ecological design: native species diversity, multi-layered canopy planning, soil restoration, and long-term stewardship.
Equally critical is community partnership. Restoration efforts that exclude local communities rarely endure. Evidence from Joint Forest Management initiatives across India shows that when local communities participate in protection and monitoring, survival and regeneration outcomes improve significantly.
Ecological restoration is not merely a technical exercise; it is a long-term social commitment.
CSR in India has the potential to support meaningful ecological regeneration, but only if it shifts from annual plantation targets to multi-year restoration commitments. This means budgeting not only for saplings, but for maintenance, monitoring, and biodiversity support over five to ten years.
Climate action cannot be reduced to a photo opportunity.
India does not need more one-day plantation drives. It needs living forests, biodiverse, climate-resilient ecosystems that are designed to thrive long after the CSR cycle ends.
If corporate responsibility is to truly serve climate resilience in 2026 and beyond, the shift is clear: from planting trees to growing forests with life. Planting is an act. Growing is a commitment. And the future of India’s climate leadership depends on choosing the latter.
The writers are founder and co-founder of Bengaluru-based NGO SayTrees Environmental Trust.
HCLFoundation, which drives the corporate social responsibility agenda of HCLTech in India, announced on Monday the expansion of its My Clean City program to Agra, Uttar Pradesh — the first city outside the Noida–Greater Noida belt to receive the initiative since its 2019 launch.
As part of the rollout, the foundation donated 10 e-drain carts, two e-street sweeping machines and one HomoSep robot — a mechanised septic tank cleaning device — to Agra Nagar Nigam, the city’s municipal body. The equipment is intended to reduce hazardous manual work while improving the scale and consistency of urban waste management.
The HomoSep robot, already deployed in Gautam Buddha Nagar, has cleared more than 100,000 litres of sludge across 452 manholes and sewer sites — removing sanitation workers from direct exposure to toxic conditions. The device represents a broader pivot within the program toward mechanisation as a tool for worker safety.
Since its launch, My Clean City has engaged nearly 750,000 citizens through behavioural sensitisation drives and trained more than 61,000 stakeholders on waste management practices. The program has managed over 17,000 tonnes of waste in Noida and Greater Noida, and runs a Waste Champions Club involving more than 2,400 school students.
The initiative also carries a social welfare component. Under its Social Inclusion of Sanitation Workers program, 200 sanitation worker families in Gautam Buddha Nagar receive support across health, education, financial literacy and skill development — a recognition that sustainable sanitation reform extends beyond infrastructure.
Five biogas plants, each processing between 1,500 and 1,800 kg of cow dung daily, have been established in the region as part of complementary clean energy efforts, generating fuel from waste material.
HCLFoundation said the Agra expansion reflects a strategy of replicating proven urban sanitation models in new municipal geographies. The foundation, which reported having positively impacted over 7.5 million lives to date, focuses thematically on education, health and sanitation, skill development, environment, and disaster risk reduction.
