ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth

Our History
ICICI Banks Social Initiatives Group (SIG), a non-profit group set up within ICICI Bank
in 2000, pioneered our work on primary health, elementary education and access to
finance. ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (ICICI Foundation) was founded by the
ICICI Group in early 2008 to continue building upon the ICICI Groups legacy of
promoting inclusive growth. ICICI Foundation works on high impact projects that are
sustainable and scalable with pre-defined exits. ICICI Foundation works in
partnership with governments, leverages the capacities of local NGOs for
implementation of its initiatives and adopts a direct intervention model for skill
development.

Vision and mission

For over five decades, the ICICI Group has partnered India in its economic growth and development.
Promoting inclusive growth has been a priority area for the Group from both a social and business
perspective. The ICICI Group strives to make a difference to its customers, to the society and to the
nations development directly through its products and services, as well as through development
initiatives and community outreach.
ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (ICICI Foundation) was founded by the ICICI Group in early
2008 to carry forward and build upon its legacy of promoting inclusive growth. ICICI Foundation
works within public systems and specialised grassroots organisations to support developmental work
in four identified focus areas. We are committed to investing in long-term efforts to support inclusive
growth through effective interventions.

Vision
To be a leading institution for the promotion of inclusive growth in India by contributing to the key
enablers required for widespread participation in economic opportunities in the country.
Mission
We will promote inclusive growth in india through focused intiatives in the identified areas including
primary healthcare, elementary education, skill development & sustainable livelihood, financial
inclusion and rural development.

Focus areas are :

Primary Healthcare
Elementary Education
Skill Development & Sustainable Livelihood
Financial Inclusion

1) Primary health care

In the area of primary health, our goal is to improve the delivery of health services to
women and children from remotely located and low-income families.

Recognizing the urgent need to improve the situation with regard to child health
and nutrition, since November 2011, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, in
partnership with the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD),
Government of Rajasthan, is implementing a pilot project in Baran district to
improve the nutritional status of 0-5 year olds through a three-pronged,
comprehensive approach of prevention, management and treatment of
undernutrition
Approach
The key components of the intervention include:
Promoting Mother Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) Day

As part of the National Health Mission, MCHN day has been designed as a mechanism to deliver
health and nutrition services under one roof on a fixed day at a fixed site, viz. Anganwadi Centres,
on a monthly basis. MCHN day is important as it is the only convergence mechanism at the AWC
level for joint delivery of health and nutrition services. However, the process suffers from a fractured
system of service delivery and low attendance due to which services are not offered under one roof
as envisaged, resulting in poor access of key services by target population.
Our intervention emphasized institutionalizing MCHN day on a fixed day at a fixed site to increase
the quality and reach of health and nutrition services to every household.
Strengthening Growth Monitoring

Growth monitoring is the foundation of ICDS programming as it involves not only the identification of
children with undernutrition but also involves the need for follow-up services such as referral to the

Malnutrition Treatment Centre (MTC) or Primary Health Centre or additional food supplementation.
However, this process suffers from several inefficiencies for reasons such as lack of accurate scales,
incorrect measurement, under-reporting of undernourished children, very low attendance on Mother
Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) days.
To overcome these gaps, our intervention focuses on strengthening the process of growth
monitoring through strategies to improve weighing efficiency & quality of growth monitoring and
promotion as well as improving the process of identifying and tracking undernourished children.
Management of Severe Acute Malnourishment (SAM)

Our intervention strategy focuses on identification, referral, treatment and follow-up care of severely
acute malnourished (SAM) children.
Despite the existence of Malnutrition Treatment Centres (MTCs), large numbers of children with
severe acute malnourishment remain untreated in Shahabad and Kishanganj, possibly contributing
to the high child mortality rate in the two blocks. Hence, underutilization of the MTC was a grave
concern and thus the project focused on improving utilization of services provided at 4 MTCs for
severely undernourished children in the intervention area.
Capacity-building of all ICDS and relevant NRHM-staff (such as those related to

MTC) for improved service delivery

The project aims to develop a system of need based, context sensitive and skill oriented training on
child undernutrition for all cadres Anganwadi Worker (AWW), ICDS Supervisor known as Lady
Supervisor (LS), Child Development Project Officer (CDPO), Malnutrition Treatment Centre (MTC)
Staff, Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM), ASHA Sahyogini (the ASHA Accredited Social Health Activist
as known in Rajasthan) ,Block ASHA Facilitator and Village Health, Sanitation, Water and Nutrition
Committee (VHSWNC).
Eleven model AWCs have been upgraded and developed to act as a demonstration site and
resource for other AWCs in the catchment area. These AWCs function as nodal centers for holding
monthly review and capacity building activities for front line workers (FLWs), operating as learning
labs. This ensures standardization of delivery of all key services envisaged under the ICDS viz.
growth monitoring, provision of supplementary nutrition, pre-school education, referral and Nutrition
and Health Education (NHED).
Supportive Supervision to Anganwadi Workers (AWWs)

Lack of supervision of AWCS and the ICDS staff at the community level has been identified as a
major gap in ensuring efficient delivery of services. Inability of the supervisory staff to undertake
supportive supervision is a major constraint in ensuring proper functioning of AWCs. Hence, the
project includes the objective to improve monitoring and supervision of AWCs through Lady
Supervisors and CDPO.

Strengthening community participation

Lack of community participation in the ICDS programme has been in large part responsible for the
limited impact of the programme on undernutrition. The project seeks to generate such participation
by increasing community awareness about undernutrition amongst their children its causes and
impact, positive health and nutrition practices and community entitlements under the ICDS
programme.
Our intervention focuses on operationalization of VHSWNCs and engagement of community
volunteers to improve access to health and nutrition services by the target beneficiaries and monitor
the delivery of services.

2) Elementary education:

ICICI Foundation believes that access to quality education is a prerequisite for

Indias growth to be inclusive. Therefore, we support various education
programmes in partnership with government institutions, aimed at systemic
improvement in teaching-learning outcomes across Government sector
schools.

ICICI Foundation in collaboration with the Directorate of Elementary

Education, State Institute of Education Research and Training and Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan (the Government of Indias flagship programme for
achievement of universalisation of elementary education) aims to support
and enable education functionaries to deliver quality education in alignment
with the current government mandates and strengthen strengthen school and
teacher education reform.

Approach
The key components of the collaborative programme are Strengthening academic nodal
institutions like, SCERT/SIERT & DIETs as cutting edge, revision of school curriculum and textbooks,
reform of teacher education (pre-service and in-service), capacity building of district and block level
educational functionaries and development of scalable models of Right to Education (RtE)
compliant schools.
Creating a model for change
Towards this, at the state-level we have established a Unit of Teacher Education (UTE) within the
State Institute for Educational Research and Training (SIERT) in Rajasthan, which is the state
chapter of academic authority responsible for school and teacher education in the state. External
resource persons from reputed institutions from across the country, provided by ICICI Foundation,
work collaboratively with the government faculty of SIERT to anchor the reform agenda. Similarly, a
Unit of School and Teacher Education (USTE) located in the State Council of Educational Research
& Training (SCERT) in Chhattisgarh has been set up. The entire STERP is navigated through core
functioning of UTE and USTE.

Similarly, at the district level, a Teacher Support Unit (TSU), an innovative structure is based at the
District Institute of Education & Training (DIET) in each of the 3 selected districts of Baran, Churu
and Jaipur in Rajasthan. The DIET is envisaged as the academic authority at the district level. The
activities through TSU are coordinated by members from the DIETS and ICICI Foundation. The
composition of the TSU and its location in the DIETs was a strategically crucial decision, for it
ensures government participation and visibility in the ongoing management of the intervention,
ultimately to usher in a sense of ownership. The TSUs work towards enhancing the professional
capacity of the DIET faculty, block level functionaries, nodal and other headmasters along with the
practicing teachers.
Similarly, in Chhattisgarh, four District Institutes of Training & Education (DIETs) are being developed
as subject-specific centres of excellence for the state - DIET Ambikapur Mathematics, DIET Bastar
Language, DIET Kabirdham Social Science and DIET Mahasamund Science. These centres of
excellence are expected to emerge as sustainable resource support nodes in their subjects for
supporting the pedagogical needs of the whole state.
Revision and renewal of curriculum, syllabus guidelines and textbook development
ICICI Foundation has helped form a state-level teacher educator group (TEG) comprising SIERT
faculty, select DIET faculty, select block-level functionaries, schoolteachers and external resource
persons from private institutions, NGOs and universities. Comprising of 500 academic professionals,
this group is divided into four sections to work on pre-service reform, in-service reform, curriculum
and textbook development, and district and block-level support. The focus has been on developing
textbooks for classes I to V for all subjects and textbooks for classes VI, VII and VIII for English and
Social Sciences. Since July 2014, 24 new textbooks have been developed and adopted in
Rajasthan, impacting 8.3 million students in the age group of 6-14 years. A review process has also
been completed in the current session after a feedback from the field implementation.
In Chhattisgarh, a similar process for revision & review of school curriculum and textbooks in line
with RtE, 2009 is underway, which will directly impact 1.7 lakh teachers and 4.7 million students in
the age group of 6-14 years.
Teacher Education & Training
ICICI Foundation understands that the teachers role is critical in ensuring a meaningful learning
experience for the child and bringing about a qualitative change in the teaching-learning process.
Towards this objective, the in-service teacher training has been redesigned to facilitate the use of
new textbooks by teachers in the classrooms in a child-centric manner. Around 1000 Key resource
persons (KRPs) have been trained, who further trained 5200 master trainers (MTs). Using a cascade
model, 131,000 teachers have been trained in the new curriculum and textbooks in Rajasthan.
The revision and development of new curriculum & syllabus for pre-service teacher training has
been completed and is being used across 33 DIETs and 234 private teacher training institutes
across Rajasthan, benefitting 15,000 Student-Teachers and 2,700 faculty members every year.
Capacity-building of the DIETs and block-level functionaries has been undertaken to support the inservice teacher education curriculum and teachers inside schools.
In Chhattisgarh, a similar cascade model is being adopted for training in-service teachers. There
were 45,000 professionally untrained in-service teachers facing disqualification as per RtE Act and

imminent removal from service rolls. In response to this, the appropriate course was designed, 2500
KRPs were trained and 42,000 teachers have been professionally trained thus far through open
distance mode (ODL) and their certification has been cleared through State Education Board.
Similarly, certification of 15,000 professionally untrained Science teachers is also under way
adopting the same ODL mode, while work on revision of existing Teacher Education curriculum
(B.Ed.) is in progress.
Governance and Institutional Accountability
The Right to Education Act 2009 specifies that every child in the age group of 6 to 14 years has a
right to good quality and free education. To fulfil this objective, 150 schools in Rajasthan (in Baran,
Churu and Jaipur districts) and 100 schools in Chhattisgarh (in Surguja, Bastar, Kabirdham and
Mahasamund districts) are being developed as part of the endeavour for capacity building and for
making the schools RtE compliant. The focus is on improving quality of education by way of building
a conducive school environment, improving class room transaction, ensuring teachers professional
growth and meaningful role of School Management Committees (SMCs).
This includes supporting the establishment and functioning of SMCs as per RtE norms, comprising
community-based groups of parents and stakeholders to maintain oversight on these schools as well
as building capacity of key stakeholders of the school system, namely teachers, Head Masters
(HMs), Nodal Head Masters (NHMs) and government officials to play their effective roles in ensuring
RtE compliance in the selected schools.
Impact Assessment
Monitoring and review are crucial to the success of the programme and the sustainability of reforms.
Therefore, the programme seeks to assess impact of its interventions at various levels. Independent
baseline studies identified lack of adequate knowledge on the part of teachers and students as the
basic problem. Insights from the baseline studies have been taken into account while developing the
various textbooks and training modules. ICICI Foundation is working with the Government of
Rajasthan to deliver monthly and quarterly progress and financial reports and to institutionalise a
quality benchmarking system for pre-service and in-service teacher education training programmes.
3) skill development and sustainable livelihood :

Skill development and sustainable livelihood is a major focus area for ICICI
Foundation to leverage Indias demographic dividend for inclusive growth.
Providing livelihood to underprivileged youth is essential to ensure their
effective participation in Indias growth to reap the benefits of the
demographic dividend. Towards this, ICICI Foundation launched a nationwide
skill development initiative, ICICI Academy for Skills (ICICI Academy), in
October 2013.

Approach
Since its inception, ICICI Academy has launched 21 centers across India. This
includes centres at Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Coimbatore,
Narsobawadi, Patna and Guwahati. ICICI Academy has also set up centers at Durg
and Indore under the public-private partnership (PPP) model with the Governments

of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, respectively, to provide vocational training to

underprivileged youth in these states.
Knowledge Partnerships
ICICI Academy has tied up with industry leaders as Knowledge Partners to co-create an ecosystem
which provides the best-in-class skill development programmes. To ensure industry-relevant training,
content development and curricula design, setting up of best-in-class training labs, training of
trainers and regular monitoring of training delivery is undertaken by Knowledge Partners.
ICICI Academy has partnered with Schneider Electric India Foundation (for Electrical & Home
Appliance Repair), Blue Star Ltd. (for Refrigeration & AC Repair), Crompton Greaves Ltd. (for
Pumps fina & Motor Repair), Voltas Ltd. (for Central Air Conditioning), AkzoNobel India Ltd. (for
Paint Application Techniques), Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. i.e. Cafe Coffee
Day (for Retail Caf Operations), Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (for Office Administration), NIIT Ltd. (for
Web Designing), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Auto Farm Sector (for Tractor Mechanic), Thyrocare
Technologies Ltd. (Lab Assistant at Diagnostic Centers) and TVS Training & Services Ltd. (for Two &
Three Wheeler Service Technician). The Selling Skills course leverages ICICI Group's expertise to
train students in sales and managing customer relationships.
Industry Partnerships
ICICI Academy leverages existing corporate relationships of ICICI Group in order to reach out to a
larger employer base. It partners with various organisations as Placement Partners. These
partnerships serve the dual purpose of making the youth employable and ensuring their livelihood.

4) Financial inclusion

A key enabler towards inclusive growth is the provision of banking

services to Indias rural poor.

Financial literacy is the first step to achieve financial inclusion, creating

the need to seek and receive financial services and products. To
increase awareness about organised banking and insurance channels,
ICICI Foundation provides a Financial Literacy Programme

Approach
ICICI Foundation through its Rural Self Employment Training Institutes reaches out to
unemployed rural youth and engages them in a Financial Literacy Programme spanning 12
hours of training. It is an integral part of all courses conducted at the ICICI RSETIs. The module
engages with the youth through audio-visuals, flip-charts, games and self-analysis
questionnaires. The training focuses on building awareness and cultivating healthy financial
habits such as maintaining financial records, regular savings and investments. As a result, many
of our trainees are now actively using banking channels and have secured credit linkages.