<a href="https://www.tatachemicals.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tata Chemicals</a> Society for Rural Development (TCSRD), the CSR arm of Tata Chemicals Limited, has launched a School Support Programme in Okhamandal in partnership with the Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell (CSPC), to address teacher shortages in government schools and strengthen education quality across the block.



While the Right to Education (RTE) Act mandates quality education for children from Classes 1 to 8, several government schools in Okhamandal require additional academic support to ensure continuity in classroom learning. To bridge this gap, TCSRD and CSPC have recruited and trained 120 local education volunteers who will provide academic support across primary and secondary schools.



The School Support Programme includes:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>40 Primary School Volunteers to support government primary schools facing teacher shortages</li>



<li>44 Remedial Education Volunteers to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy</li>



<li>16 High School Educators to provide Mathematics and Science support for Classes 9 and 10</li>



<li>13 Re-enrolment and NIOS Instructors to help out-of-school children and youth continue their education through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)</li>



<li>7 Academic Enhancement Educators to strengthen the overall learning environment across villages</li>
</ul>



The programme was formally launched on August 4, 2026, at Sabras Bhavan, Mithapur, in the presence of Pabubha Virambha Manek, Member of the Legislative Assembly, Devbhumi Dwarka; Madhuben Bhatt, District Primary Education Officer; R. V. Odedra, Taluka Development Officer, Devbhumi Dwarka; Bharatbhai Karmata, Vice President, Dwarka Taluka Panchayat; Bhurabha Jadiya, Block Resource Centre Coordinator; Aashaben Parmar, Taluka Education Coordinator; and Rino Raj, Vice President Manufacturing, India, Tata Chemicals Ltd.



&#8220;At Tata Chemicals, we believe quality education is fundamental to long-term community development. Through this partnership, we aim to ensure that students continue to receive uninterrupted learning support while creating opportunities for local youth to contribute to the education ecosystem,&#8221; Raj said, adding that the initiative is expected to strengthen schools and encourage more children to stay connected with education.



The School Support Programme reflects TCSRD&#8217;s continued focus on improving access to quality education through collaborative, community-led interventions, the company said, adding that the initiative aims to build a stronger learning ecosystem for children across Okhamandal by working closely with local institutions and government schools.



CSPC is a specialized resource organization focused on mitigating coastal salinity, supporting land and water resource management, and enhancing rural livelihoods across coastal Gujarat.



TCSRD is the social development arm of Tata Chemicals, working on livelihoods, women&#8217;s empowerment, education, healthcare and sustainability to build resilient rural communities across India.



Tata Chemicals Limited, part of the over USD 180 billion Tata Group, is a leading supplier to the glass, detergent, industrial and chemical sectors, with a strong position in crop protection through subsidiary Rallis India Limited.

Tata Chemicals launches school support programme in Gujarat

ICICI Bank&#8217;s CSR spending surged to Rs 994 crore in fiscal 2026, up from Rs 801 crore a year earlier, as the lender&#8217;s philanthropic arm impacted over 1.98 crore lives across India, the bank said in its <a href="https://www.icici.bank.in/content/dam/icicibank/managed-assets/docs/investor/annual-reports/2026/ICICI-Bank_ESG-Report_2025-26.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESG report</a> for the year.



The bank&#8217;s CSR arm, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, has reached the milestone through initiatives till March 31, 2026, ICICI Bank said in a statement.



ICICI Bank&#8217;s outstanding sustainable financing portfolio stood at Rs 99,385 crore at the end of March 2026, up from Rs 90,624 crore a year earlier, of which green financing accounted for Rs 30,704 crore, the bank said. Its forest conservation initiatives now span 83 forests and tiger reserves across 21 states, alongside the planting of 86,600 trees and the creation of 49 crore litres of water storage capacity during the year, while Scope 1 emissions were cut by 32%, it added.



&#8220;We significantly scaled up our CSR initiatives across the four thematic areas of healthcare, conservation of environment and restoration of ecology, livelihood enhancement and community development, with a focus on capacity creation and developing ecosystems,&#8221; said Sandeep Batra, Executive Director, ICICI Bank.



Healthcare remained the bank&#8217;s largest area of focus during the year, with the Foundation&#8217;s interventions benefitting 5 lakh individuals in fiscal 2026 and 30 lakh individuals through 600 hospitals since 2020, the bank said. 



It has committed Rs 1,800 crore to Tata Memorial Centre for three new cancer care blocks in Visakhapatnam, Navi Mumbai and Punjab, and partnered with the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, for a cancer research centre.



On skilling, the Foundation&#8217;s livelihood and training programmes benefitted 3.54 lakh individuals in fiscal 2026, taking the cumulative number to 94.5 lakh since inception, the bank said, adding that it has set up a manufacturing facility at IIT Delhi and is upgrading nine National Skill Training Institutes with advanced Industry 4.0 laboratories.



The bank has empowered over 1.2 crore women through Self-Help Group loans exceeding Rs 35,500 crore since 2011, with 8.9 lakh women benefitting in fiscal 2026 alone, it said.

ICICI Bank CSR spending surges to Rs 994 crore in FY26

<a href="https://bankofbaroda.bank.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bank of Baroda </a>on Wednesday donated Rs 1.20 crore to the Chief Minister&#8217;s Relief Fund, Assam, boosting relief and rehabilitation efforts for communities hit by recent floods in the state.



The cheque was presented to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at the Chief Minister&#8217;s Office in Guwahati by Nayak Shiba Pada, General Manager and Zonal Head, Northeastern States Zone, Bank of Baroda.



MLA Naba Doley, along with Deputy General Managers Biswajit Swain and Sandeep Kumar of Bank of Baroda&#8217;s Northeastern States Zone, also attended the event.



&#8220;At Bank of Baroda, we believe that our responsibility extends beyond banking. In times of adversity, it is our collective duty to stand with the communities we serve,&#8221; Pada said, adding that the contribution reflects the bank&#8217;s commitment to helping affected families rebuild their lives.



The donation forms part of Bank of Baroda&#8217;s broader efforts to support relief and rehabilitation initiatives in regions hit by natural disasters, the bank said, adding it continues to work with governments and local administrations to strengthen community resilience.



Bank of Baroda, founded in 1908, is majority owned by the Government of India with a 63.97% stake. It serves close to 180 million customers through roughly 65,000 touch points across 15 countries.

Bank of Baroda donates Rs 1.20 crore for Assam flood relief

By Eldee



For years, &#8220;sustainability&#8221; and &#8220;quality&#8221; have been treated as costs that small manufacturers in India could ill afford. The government&#8217;s ZED Certification Scheme is quietly rewriting that assumption, and the early evidence from factory floors across the country suggests it deserves more attention than it has received.



Consider Finex Industries Pvt. Ltd., a metal and wooden furniture maker based in Dindori, Nashik, Maharashtra. After earning ZED Silver Certification on July 14, 2025, the company cut its Cost of Poor Quality by 11%, reduced rework by 10% and trimmed defects by 1%, while also improving workplace safety and resource utilization. The enterprise reported additional gains from better energy efficiency, smarter space utilization and lower consumable usage. This is not abstract policy language &#8211; it is money saved and processes fixed.



Or take Concept Clothing Pvt. Ltd. in Jalandhar, Punjab, which achieved ZED Silver Certification a month earlier, on June 14, 2025. The results were striking: an 80% drop in workplace incidents, a 50% cut in Mean Time to Repair, a 7.4% reduction in rework and a 4% fall in rejection rates, alongside meaningful savings from quality, environmental and workplace initiatives.



What both cases illustrate is a simple but underappreciated truth: ZED Certification is not a bureaucratic badge. It is a structured pathway that pushes MSMEs to confront inefficiencies they might otherwise tolerate indefinitely &#8211; excess rework, safety lapses, wasted energy &#8211; and gives them the tools and, increasingly, the financing to fix them.



That argument is bolstered by the scale the scheme has now reached. As of July 7, 2026, close to 949,000 MSMEs had registered under the ZED Certification Scheme, with over 667,000 Bronze, 6,700 Silver and 4,800 Gold certifications awarded nationwide. More than 9.13 billion rupees in financial support has flowed to enterprises adopting quality and sustainable manufacturing practices &#8211; hardly a token gesture.



The scheme&#8217;s design also deserves credit for addressing one of India&#8217;s most persistent economic gaps: the underrepresentation of women in manufacturing. Since November 11, 2023, the government has offered a 100% subsidy on ZED Certification costs for women-owned MSMEs, making certification effectively free. This removes what has long been a real barrier &#8211; upfront cost &#8211; and gives women entrepreneurs a genuine shot at building process discipline and market credibility on equal footing.



Skeptics might ask whether certification schemes like this simply add paperwork without changing outcomes. The Finex and Concept Clothing examples argue otherwise. Both firms point to concrete, measurable improvements in cost, safety and efficiency &#8211; the kind of numbers that boards and lenders take seriously, not the kind that exist only in a compliance file.



There is also a structural case for ZED beyond individual firms. Twenty-two states and union territories have now folded ZED into their industrial policies, offering additional incentives to certified enterprises, while 19 financial institutions extend concessions on processing fees and interest rates to ZED-certified MSMEs. That is the beginning of an ecosystem where quality and sustainability are not just encouraged in theory but rewarded in practice &#8211; through cheaper capital and better market access.



None of this means the scheme is without room to grow. Awareness among smaller, unregistered enterprises remains uneven, and Gold certifications &#8211; the scheme&#8217;s highest tier &#8211; still number only in the thousands against a base approaching a million registrants. Scaling that last mile will determine whether ZED becomes a genuine driver of India&#8217;s manufacturing competitiveness or a program that plateaus at Bronze-level participation.



But the direction is encouraging. If more MSMEs follow the path taken by Finex Industries and Concept Clothing, ZED Certification could become less a government initiative and more a standard expectation &#8211; one that strengthens India&#8217;s position in domestic and global value chains, enterprise by enterprise.



For details, please visit <a href="https://zed.msme.gov.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://zed.msme.gov.in/</a>

ZED Certification proves its worth for India&#8217;s MSMEs, one factory at a time

AWL Agri Business Limited, one of India&#8217;s largest food and FMCG companies, said on Tuesday it has strengthened its partnership with The Akshaya Patra Foundation by donating five custom-built insulated food distribution vehicles to support the Foundation&#8217;s Mid-Day Meal Programme.



The company has also committed to sponsoring nutritious mid-day meals for more than 41,000 children studying in government schools across Gandhinagar, it said. The initiative was marked by a vehicle flag-off ceremony held at the company&#8217;s corporate headquarters.



The five customized insulated vehicles will enable the safe and timely delivery of freshly prepared meals to government schools across Surat, Gandhinagar, and Vadodara, strengthening the Foundation&#8217;s ability to provide nutritious meals to children every school day, the company said.



&#8220;At AWL Agri Business, we believe that good nutrition is the foundation of a child&#8217;s health, education and future,&#8221; said Shrikant Kanhere, Managing Director &amp; CEO, AWL Agri Business Ltd. &#8220;We are delighted to further strengthen our partnership with The Akshaya Patra Foundation through this initiative, which combines infrastructure support with direct nutritional assistance to children.&#8221;



Sri Raya Rama Dasa, Vice President of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Gujarat, said the vehicles and meal sponsorship would strengthen the organization&#8217;s ability to serve children more efficiently. &#8220;Together, these efforts will help us combat classroom hunger, improve school attendance and help more children to learn and thrive,&#8221; he said.



The partnership builds on a long-standing association between the two organizations. To date, AWL Agri Business has served more than 700,000 mid-day meals to school children and provided 14 food delivery vehicles, covering more than 27,000 children across 129 schools, the company said.



The Mid-Day Meal Programme initiative also supports Fortune SuPoshan, AWL&#8217;s flagship CSR programme addressing malnutrition and anaemia among women and children, the company said.



<a href="https://www.awl.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AWL Agri Business Ltd</a>., formerly known as Adani Wilmar Ltd., is one of India&#8217;s largest food and FMCG companies, with more than 80 manufacturing facilities across 11 states, including what it says is India&#8217;s largest single-location refinery, located in Mundra with a 5,000-tonne-per-day capacity. Its Fortune brand reaches more than 135 million households, the company said.

AWL Agri Business strengthens mid-day meal programme with new vehicles, meal sponsorship

<a href="https://www.hcltech.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HCLTech,</a> a global technology company, has been named to <a href="https://time.com/article/2026/06/23/worlds-most-sustainable-companies-2026/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TIME&#8217;s World&#8217;s Most Sustainable Companies 2026 list</a>, marking its second consecutive year on the ranking, the company said.



HCLTech ranks among the top five global professional services companies on the list and is the highest-ranked India-headquartered company in the category, the company said.



The ranking, compiled by TIME in collaboration with Statista, assesses more than 5,800 global companies across more than 20 <a href="https://www.hcltech.com/sustainability/2026-sustainability-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sustainability indicators</a>, including commitments and ratings, reporting and transparency, and environmental and social stewardship.



HCLTech said the recognition reflects its alignment with the UN Global Compact and the Sustainable Development Goals. In fiscal year 2026, the company said it replenished 51 times more water than it consumed and retained zero waste-to-landfill platinum certification across all owned facilities.



The company said it has accelerated its net-zero journey by achieving its 2030 Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)-validated emissions target four years ahead of schedule.



&#8220;Being recognized by TIME for a second consecutive year reflects the progress we are making in embedding sustainability deeper into the core of our business and advancing our net-zero ambition for 2040,&#8221; said Vipul Arora, Global Head of Sustainability at HCLTech.



&#8220;Our focus remains on scaling impact through innovation, partnerships and responsible practices that enable long-term value for our clients, communities and the broader ecosystem,&#8221; Arora said.



HCLTech is a global technology company with more than 223,000 employees across 60 countries, offering services in AI, digital, engineering, cloud and software. The company serves clients across sectors including financial services, manufacturing, life sciences and healthcare, technology and services, semiconductors, telecom and media, retail and consumer packaged goods, mobility and public services.



Consolidated revenue for the 12 months ending June 2026 totaled USD 14.8 billion, the company said.

HCLTech named to TIME&#8217;s most sustainable companies 2026 list for 2nd straight year

Finance and<a href="https://www.mca.gov.in" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Corporate Affairs</a> Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government has explored the potential of CSR funds to boost innovation, social enterprises and mission-driven organisations capable of delivering scalable social impact across the country.



&#8220;Yes sir,&#8221; Sitharaman said in a written reply to a question in the<a href="https://loksabha.nic.in" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Lok Sabha.</a>



The minister said the legal framework for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is laid out under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, Schedule VII of the Act, and the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014. Schedule VII lists the activities that companies can undertake as part of their CSR obligations, and these, she said, &#8220;are broad-based and may be interpreted liberally so as to capture the essence of the subjects enumerated therein.&#8221;



The activities under Schedule VII are broadly aligned with national development priorities and span sectors such as education, environmental sustainability, gender equality, healthcare, livelihood enhancement, skill development, eradication of hunger, safe drinking water, sanitation, slum area development, rural development, and reduction of inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups.



Companies can also route CSR funds through four designated funds — the Clean Ganga Fund, the Prime Minister&#8217;s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), the Prime Minister&#8217;s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES), and the Swachh Bharat Kosh — enabling scalable social impact nationwide.



Sitharaman further pointed out that item (ix) of Schedule VII allows companies to contribute to incubators or research and development projects in science, technology, engineering and medicine, helping boost innovation-led ventures.



Under Section 135 of the Companies Act read with Rule 4(1) of the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014, the board of a company can carry out CSR activities either directly or through a Section 8 company, registered public trust or society meeting tax-exemption criteria under the Income Tax Act, 1961, an entity established under an Act of Parliament or State legislature, or an implementing agency with at least three years&#8217; track record in similar activities. This framework, Sitharaman said, facilitates partnerships between companies and suitable implementing agencies.



The Ministry, she added, has widened the scope of Schedule VII through a notification dated May 27, 2026, introducing a new item (xiii) — &#8220;subscription to zero coupon zero principal instruments on the <a href="https://www.csrvoice.com/post/undefined/zczp-tax-benefit-finance-ministry-social-stock-exchange/1571" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Social Stock Exchange.</a>&#8221; The amendment is expected to boost fundraising for not-for-profit organisations working on public welfare projects in a transparent and regulated manner.

Govt exploring CSR funds to boost innovation, social enterprises: Sitharaman

<a href="https://agropak.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Agropak</a>, a biotech startup building a natural fibre materials platform for bio-based packaging, has won the Big Pi Grant, India&#8217;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 <a href="https://www.csrvoice.com/post/agri-food/krishi-mangal-3-agritech-startups-cisco-india/1116" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate startups</a> through innovation support, commercial validation and market adoption without diluting founder equity, SusMafia said in a statement.



Agropak&#8217;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&#8217;s investor, fellowship and grant network.



The grant&#8217;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 <a href="https://www.csrvoice.com/post/environment/zerodha-csr-grant-boosts-susmafia-india-climate-tech-ecosystem/1291" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zerodha </a>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&#8217;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&#8217;s ELEVATE Grant.



&#8220;Every founder needs access to business, capital and talent. No founder can build all three alone,&#8221; 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 &#8220;Climate Ninjas&#8221; 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 &#8220;Climate Sitdown&#8221; 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 &#8220;feels like the start of a movement,&#8221; 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&#8217;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.

Agropak wins Big Pi grant to boost climate innovation

<a href="https://www.muthootfinance.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Muthoot Finance</a>, India&#8217;s largest gold loan non-banking financial company, said on Monday it will boost its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending to Rs 174.03 crore for fiscal year 2027, extending programmes in healthcare, education and housing to underserved communities nationwide.



The Muthoot Finance CSR outlay follows FY26 spending of Rs 106.42 crore, which the company said reached approximately 3.37 million beneficiaries through initiatives spanning education, healthcare, livelihood support, community development and sports promotion.



&#8220;At Muthoot Finance, we believe sustainable growth must go hand in hand with meaningful social impact,&#8221; Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot said in a statement. 



He said the FY26 results reflected the company&#8217;s commitment to underserved communities through healthcare, education, housing and social inclusion programmes.



Education remained a central focus of the Muthoot Finance CSR strategy, with flagship programmes including the Muthoot M. George Excellence Awards, higher education scholarships and the Muthoot Shiksha Jyothi initiative supporting nearly 11,900 students, including first-generation learners, the company said. 



Muthoot Finance has also established several educational institutions, including Sanskara School in Kochi, the Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science, and the newly launched Kalaivani School in Tamil Nadu.



On healthcare, the company said its Muthoot Snehasraya programme and related interventions benefited more than 100,000 people in FY26 through medical outreach, rehabilitation support and community healthcare services.



The company&#8217;s housing initiative, Muthoot Aashiyana, has built more than 270 homes for vulnerable and disaster-affected families since its 2018 launch, providing shelter and stability to underserved households, Muthoot Finance said.



Muthoot Finance also expanded its Soundscape Project, which provides digital hearing aids to children with hearing impairments, reaching 267 beneficiaries across Kerala, Hyderabad and Mumbai.



 Separately, the company&#8217;s prison rehabilitation programme, Radio Parvaaz, supports emotional wellbeing and informal learning among inmates, alongside initiatives for children of incarcerated parents.



Other community programmes included Box of Hope for fisherwomen&#8217;s livelihoods, a maritime safety programme for coastal communities in Tamil Nadu, and Pedal for Progress, which distributes bicycles to tribal students.



Deputy Managing Director George Muthoot George said the company aims to move beyond addressing immediate needs toward empowering communities for long-term self-reliance.

Muthoot Finance hikes CSR spend to Rs 174 crore for FY27

<a href="https://drreddysfoundation.org/" data-type="link" data-id="https://drreddysfoundation.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr Reddy&#8217;s Foundation</a> &#8212; a family-owned trust and one of the key beneficiaries of the CSR funds of pharma major Dr Reddy&#8217;s Laboratories &#8212; is scaling up operations at its Hyderabad soil testing facility with the lab targeting between 75,000 and 1,00,000 samples ahead of the next Rabi season &#8212; more than double what it processed in its first full year of operations.



The move comes amid growing concern over depleting soil health and implementation gaps in the Centre&#8217;s <a href="https://soilhealth.dac.gov.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Soil Health Card scheme </a>rolled out nationally in 2015. &#8220;Though the government&#8217;s soil testing ecosystem exists, the scale of the problem is huge. So we decided to address this issue in our own way,&#8221; said <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Suman-Saraswathibatla-2274443950" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Suman Saraswathibatla</a>, Director (Rural Livelihoods and Climate Action) at the <a href="https://www.csrvoice.com/post/agri-food/andhra-farmers-beat-el-nino-with-direct-seeded-rice-dsr-farming/1635" target="_blank" rel="noopener">foundation</a>.



This soil testing facility is central to the Foundation&#8217;s broader soil health and regenerative agriculture programme, under which assessing soil condition is treated as the starting point for any intervention.



The push for an in-house facility followed nearly seven years of the Foundation&#8217;s own effort to find a reliable soil-testing solution, Saraswathibatla told PTI. &nbsp;



It approached Krishi Vigyan Kendras, agricultural universities, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), CGIAR institutions, and private players offering portable soil-testing devices — but found none of them adequate.



&#8220;If accuracy is there, then consistency is an issue. If consistency is there, accuracy is an issue,&#8221; he said, adding that the wet chemistry-based lab infrastructure needed for reliable analysis was &#8220;so broken and so under-equipped&#8221; that proper soil sample analysis at scale was simply not possible.



A 2023 experience proved to be the turning point. The Foundation sent 5,000 soil samples to one of the global research institutes for analysis — and waited a full year for results, by which time two cropping seasons had already passed.



&#8220;Two seasons are over. I am talking about 5,000 soil samples,&#8221; Saraswathibatla said. &#8220;If I need to develop a digital soil map, 5,000 is sufficient for four villages — one block. We are talking about so many lakhs of blocks. So where is the solution?&#8221;



With no institutional option delivering at the scale or speed required, the Foundation decided to build its own facility.



FROM PILOT TO SCALE The Hyderabad lab became operational in January 2025. In its first year, it processed 20,000 soil samples as the Foundation validated its standard operating procedures. This year, the facility has already analysed more than 40,000 samples across India, with the Foundation targeting between 75,000 and 1 lakh samples ahead of the next Rabi season.



The facility is not restricted to the Foundation&#8217;s own project villages — external users like researchers and government, can also access its services, Saraswathibatla said.



The testing facility examines three categories of soil properties — physical, chemical, and biological — each requiring different reassessment cycles.



Physical properties like texture stay stable for 10–20 years, though bulk density and aggregation shift with management. Chemical properties like pH and organic carbon —need reassessment every 2–3 years under intensive cultivation. Biological properties rre most management-sensitive, annual or seasonal (6–12 month) testing usually suffices under stable cropping systems.



Most testing programs, including government ones, focus on 12–14 chemical indicators: N, P, K, secondary nutrients (S, Ca, Mg), micronutrients (Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu, B), plus pH, EC, and organic carbon. &#8220;These parameters underpin site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) but often miss biological functioning and physical resilience,&#8221; Saraswathibatla said.



The push to scale up soil sampling this year has been driven partly by a combination of El Nino conditions and a fertiliser shortage, which has heightened the need for precise, data-backed fertiliser recommendations, according to Saraswathibatla.



While government advisories typically provide General Recommended Dosage (GRD) at the district level, there is a growing shift toward finer-scale recommendations. Saraswathibatla said the Foundation is developing village-level nutrient advisories based on stratified sampling (e.g., 20–50 representative samples per village, depending on soil heterogeneity) that can significantly improve recommendation accuracy for clusters of farms.



Farmers also receive extension support—training in balanced fertilization, integrated nutrient management, and climate-smart practices—which Saraswathibatla said is key to converting soil data into better soil health, carbon sequestration, and resilience.



A BIOLOGICAL FIX FOR FERTILISER RESIDUE The Foundation is separately partnering with a biological startup to introduce an NPK-soluble bacterium consortium — a packaged or bottled formulation designed to mobilise residual nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that has built up in soil from years of fertiliser application, making these nutrients available to plants again.



&#8220;It is not like we have done it. It is there — it is a proven science solution,&#8221; Saraswathibatla said. &#8220;But it is more about we have to really, really pack it and take it to the farmer.&#8221;



The intervention, he said, is aimed at both risk mitigation and farmer safety — helping ensure balanced fertiliser use while recovering value from nutrients already present in the soil.



MOU WITH ICAR-IISS Last month, <a href="https://iiss.res.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science</a>, Bhopal signed an MoU with the Foundation to deepen collaboration on soil health research and technology transfer.



The partnership will focus on building a Digital Soil Health Repository, high-resolution soil maps, nutrient management tools, cropping system modelling, and climate-smart advisories, combining ICAR&#8217;s scientific expertise with the Foundation&#8217;s field experience to advance data-driven soil management and precise fertiliser use — with a particular focus on supporting small and marginal farmers.



Source: PTI