Ranu Kulshrestha Heads CSR function at Bridgestone India Limited, Pune, India. In her previous assignment, she was heading the CSR function of all the group companies of Hindustan Powerprojects Private Limited across Thermal, Hydro and Clean energy Businesses.

A thought leader in CSR in India, Ranu is a highly regarded professional who has worked with Moserbaer India Limited, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, UNDP- UNV, and National Council of YMCA’s of India-UNHCR. During her professional career spanning over 23 years, Ranu has worked at various levels – right from the grassroots to advocacy and policy development at various ministries and Industry bodies. She has been on various Committees of Industry bodies. Apart from heading the CSR function, Ranu has also successfully lead NGOs. In her previous organisations, she had successfully integrated CSR and Employee Volunteerism in the core business and today her leadership is widely acclaimed for the stakeholder engagement through a process driven programme management.

Her expertise in Project Design and Management is well recognised. Her core themes for development have been Rural Development, Primary education, Maternal & Child Health and Youth Development. Besides having done her Masters in Social Work, she also holds a Diploma in HR as well as in CSR & Sustainability from Swedish Institute of Management.  She is also known for her work on gender. She was the Chairperson of Internal Complaints Committee, responsible for Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace. Under her active leadership G+ a gender sensitization group was formed for peer coaching. She has been an active volunteer esp. as a trainer for building capacity of small NGOs and institutions. She has been recognized at various platforms for her work, the latest being one of the most talented CSR professionals in the country and Swayam siddha Award for Women Change makers.

In this Interview, Ms. Kulshrestha answers the following questions:

1. Why has Bridgestone focused on the overarching idea of road safety when designing their CSR initiatives?

2. How is Bridgestone leveraging their automobile expertise to improve livelihoods through skilling?

3. What prompted Bridgestone to enter the skilling sector in the first place? And what are some unique features about their skilling programs?

4. How has Bridgestone collaborated with private and public sector partners to widen its reach?

5. How is Bridgestone coping with the closure of it’s academies ? Especially as most of their skill training is hands on?

6. As a seasoned CSR professional, where do you see the skilling sector going next

Impact-Talk is a series of views and interviews of CSR heads, impact leaders and change-makers, addressing development challenges in India. If you have an impact-maker in your network, please suggest/share details at shilpi@csrbox.org