In a major push for rural development, HCL Foundation and the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday announced a landmark extension of their Samuday partnership, renewing the flagship rural development programme for another five years, through 2031.

The two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding at a ceremony in Lucknow, in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister and Rural Development Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Minister of State for Rural Development Vijay Laxmi Gautam, and senior government officials.

Maurya said the state government remains committed to integrated rural development, noting that the Samuday partnership had driven significant change in Hardoi district over the past 11 years, and that the renewed MoU aims to replicate this transformation in other districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Since its launch in Hardoi in 2015, the Samuday partnership by HCL Foundation has grown into one of India’s largest government-CSR collaborations. The programme now spans 579 Gram Panchayats across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, reaching more than 3 million people. It is also active in 95 Gram Panchayats in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district, benefiting over 140,000 residents.

Under the renewed Samuday partnership, focus areas will include strengthening rural livelihoods, improving education and healthcare access, promoting climate-resilient agriculture, advancing water and sanitation infrastructure, empowering Panchayati Raj institutions, and deepening convergence with government schemes, besides extending the programme’s footprint to additional districts.

Dr Nidhi Pundhir, Director, HCL Foundation, said the organisation works closely with communities and government bodies to strengthen rural ecosystems and build development models that can be scaled across geographies. She added that the past decade of the Samuday partnership had shown how government, communities and the private sector could jointly deliver lasting impact, and that HCL Foundation looks forward to deepening this collaboration.

Samuday’s impact since 2015:

• Over 1.99 million people reached through health and nutrition programmes
• More than 534,000 students benefited from improved learning environments
• 113,000+ farmers supported with better agricultural practices
• 85,000+ youth and women aided through livelihood initiatives
• 2,224 kWp of renewable energy infrastructure created
• 2,300+ households covered under waste management interventions

HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCLTech, has so far impacted over 8.5 million lives across its programmes in education, sports, health, sanitation, skilling, livelihood and environmental sustainability.