Ms. Natarajan is currently the COO of Cognizant Foundation. She has been associated with the organization for the past twenty-five years engaged in multiple roles, managing leadership project management, operations process etc. For the past three and a half year, she is associated with the Cognizant foundation as a whole.

Tell us about the key focus areas of Cognizant Foundation.

The CSR programs of the foundation are based on three pillars. The foundation was established in the year 2005 and for the past 13 years, it has been focusing on specific areas, education and healthcare. However, since the last five years, special focus is given to skilling as a major area of intervention. Based on the focus areas, the foundation has developed flagship programs specifically focusing on the needs of the present time.

In their education initiative, the foundation is into providing scholarships to the underprivileged and trying to bring transformation in the school education system through technology. Prime importance is given to build an education system based on science and technology.

In the area of healthcare, the foundation lays major focus in advocating preventive blindness, reaching out to 50,000 beneficiaries by supporting various institutions with specific infrastructure funding, in view of improving technology and infrastructure. It has reached out to remote areas and addresses the problems, particularly the issue of preventive blindness.

In the foundation's skilling initiatives, the primary focus is given to underprivileged children, laying attention to the dropouts with a special focus on women and differently-abled to provide employment. They have the provision to track the people post-employment provided by them, for a period of one year, with continuous follow up procedures.

The second pillar of the foundation is their Outreach Program which was initiated in the year 2007- a platform for volunteers to channelize knowledge and workforce to contribute towards the society. The initiative has channelized and partnered with more than 200 schools, associating 1 million volunteers reaching 4.5 million children, contributing 2.2 million hours in the last 10 years.

The third pillar of the foundation is the Campus Connect Program, which connects to engineering campuses of remote rural towns equipping them with knowledge and tools specifically required to meet the demands of the present market thrust areas.

How do you see technology as a crucial part of CSR?

Technology helps in bringing innovative solutions to the thrust problems and plays a crucial role in providing quality upscaling. The foundation lays particular focus on working with partners who share some ethos and belief in technology innovation. It also provides support to the NGO's to develop digital literacy technology infrastructure for the capacity building process. It looks for solutions and innovations in technology. Quoting an example, in the case of preventive blindness, such solutions are sought after which provides specific technology to accelerate the impact and upscale it consecutively. Similarly,  in case of education, the prime focus remains on improving the quality of teaching in the remote areas. It emphasizes on digital literacy, not replacing teachers but providing quality education. It promotes smart classes to bridge the gap between children and teachers, especially in tribal areas where there remains a language barrier due to varied vernacular languages used by the students and the teachers.

What are the key parameters for selecting ideal implementing partners?

The foundation looks at specific innovation and uniqueness of solution the prospective implementing partners bring to the society. The foundation firmly believes in the availability of solutions equivalent to the problems that exist. It is in the process of solution identification, the foundation comes in collaboration with the others players in the ecosystem, the community in particular. The organization is open to collaborations provided the prospective partners fulfil the parameters of credibility, transparency, ethical values, knowledge, workforce and their contribution to meaningful volunteering. The foundation renders the relationship with NGO's or partners not as a transactional relationship but as a shared vision, passion and value system for addressing the cause.

What is the plan for scaling up your CSR programs?

According to the foundation, scaling up is of equal importance as sharpening the focus of the intervention areas as it may not always be possible to scale in every thrust area. There are challenges which can be addressed by utilizing a pool of experience collected from varied sources, in order to define a clear outcome metric. The foundation is keen to develop a long-term partnership with NGO's as it is understood that the process to achieve a desirable outcome is time-consuming. Therefore, it lays importance in the process of understanding and learning from the partners of the ecosystem, in the process of jointly collaborating for the long run.

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