FICCI Corporate Social Responsibility Awards – India’s first CSR award was instituted in 1999 by FICCI. The aim of the award is to identify and recognize the efforts of companies in integrating and internalizing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Over the years, a number of companies including HPCL, ITC Limited, Mahindra & Mahindra, Cairn India, SAIL, Tata Tea, Infosys, Tata Chemicals, HINDALCO, TISCO, TELCO, Lupin, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, etc. have been recognised by the FICCI CSR Award for their exemplary work in the area of CSR.

This year is the 16th year of the FICCI CSR Awards. The selection process for the FICCI CSR Awards is extremely competitive and is assessed by an eminent Jury through a 3 tier assessment process. Keeping up with changing CSR scenario in the country, the FICCI CSR Award has been re- aligned by introducing new categories and assessment process.

The ‘FICCI Corporate Social Responsibility Awards’ has the following categories:

• Category 1: FICCI CSR Award for Women Empowerment
• Category 2: FICCI CSR Award for Education, Skill Development and Livelihood
• Category 3: FICCI CSR Award for Environment Sustainability
• Category 4: FICCI CSR Award for Health, Water and Sanitation
• Category 5: Any other ( for domains other than the above four categories)
• Category 6: FICCI CSR Award for Exemplary Innovation ( irrespective of the turnover of the company)
• Category 7 : FICCI CSR – NGO Excellence Award (recommendation from companies)
• Category 8: FICCI CSR Award for Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – companies having turnover upto INR 200 Crores per annum

Assessment Process
The assessment will be based on Issue, target population, Scale, Location, Replicability, Sustainability, Innovation, Scalability, Participation/involvement, Finances and Impact. To bring about transparency in the assessment process, there will be three tier assessment processes.

Assessment Criteria: 100% weightage on CSR Projects
Identification of the issue and importance to the company, Identification of key communities and target beneficiaries, Identification of community needs, Action plan, expected output, monitoring framework or indicators for assessing the program’s progress, Implementation structure, budget, Partnerships, Success Stories, Impact, Sustainability, scale-up and replication, evaluation by external evaluator.