New Delhi, March 20 HCLFoundation announced on Friday the winners of the 11th edition of its annual HCLTech Grant, distributing Rs 24 crore to 12 non-governmental organizations working in water, biodiversity, healthcare, and education.
Four organizations will receive Rs 5 crore each. Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti of Rajasthan won the newly introduced water category for a project to enhance water harvesting in 10 villages in the Thar desert's Barmer district, the foundation, the CSR arm of HCLTech, said in a statement.
Live Foundation of Jharkhand received the biodiversity award for community-led forest conservation across 50 villages in West Singhbhum district.
Goodwill Foundation of Mizoram won the health category for expanding rural healthcare access in 40 villages in Mamit district, and Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti of Rajasthan received the education award for promoting gender equality through holistic education in 30 villages in Ajmer district.
Eight additional NGOs received Rs 50 lakh each across the four categories.
This year's edition marks the first time that water has been included as a standalone category, and it comes with an increased total grant outlay compared to previous editions.
The winners were chosen from 7,274 NGO registrations received from across India.
"Over the past decade, the HCLTech Grant has been a catalyst for change in the development sector," HCLFoundation Director Nidhi Pundhir said.
Since its inception, the grant programme has reached 2.2 million people across more than 60,000 villages, supported the planting of 1,77,000 saplings, the rejuvenation of 1,28,100 hectares of land, and a reduction of 67,095 tonnes in CO2 emissions.
