Eligibility

Eligibility of Applicants and Project Leaders for CSR projects

  • Every project proposal will need to identify a Project Leader and an Applicant/ Grantee.
  • The Project Leader (PL) will be an individual who will take responsibility for executing the project
  • The Applicant or Grantee can be either of the following:

Case 1: Applicant is an individual

Case 2: Applicant is a company

  • PL has to be an individual (one person).
  • PL is required to be at least 18 years of age as on the date of call for applications.
  • PL is required to be Indian Citizen. An Indian citizen is defined as one who is in possession of a government approved proof of nationality such as a valid passport, voter’s id etc. Exceptional cases of foreign nationals with potential for impact in India will be considered.
  • Devotes 100 % of his time for the project
  • PL cannot be pursuing a long-term academic/research project (like doctoral students) with significant obligations during the project duration.
  • PL must have completed basic undergraduate training in natural sciences/engineering/ medicine. Essential qualification is PhD/ MTech/ BTech/ BPharm /MD/ MBBS/ BDS/ MSc / MPhil/ M Des/ MPH /MBA / MSW and equivalents, with under‐ graduate training in Science, Medicine, Engineering. Applicants with a BSc degree with at least 1 year of full-time work or research experience shall also be eligible

Regulation related

Companies with social impact technology should

  • be registered in India under relevant regulations (viz. the Indian Companies Act, 1956/2012 )
  • not have purely academic research focus area
  • not have been blacklisted by any Govt. entity owing to corruption or fraud case
  • not have filed bankruptcy

Solution/Product/Service related

  • Have developed approved/certified product or solution (ready to market) in the following focus areas of Environmental Sustainability
    • Circular economy ( Resource recycling leading to reduced air / water / land pollution )
    • Clean energy leading to Net Zero Emissions 
    • Expansion of clean energy / nature based solutions
    • Tapping the energy in the waste products as a green energy source for next generation vehicles
    • Carbon capture, utilization and storage
    • Reducing carbon foot print
    • Ocean waste recycling
  • Enterprise’s offerings should be innovative and commercially viable
  • Enterprise’s should have  a quantifiable performance indicators of that relates to above mentioned  focus areas( viz. X Metric tons of carbon emissions sequestrated)
  • Preference will be given to
    • first generation entrepreneurs
    • women entrepreneurs(with more than 50% women representation in their board or founded by women)
    • enterprise with credible past record of such validated technology/product development


What will not be supported through this Social Entrepreneurship Grant?

  • Ideas or concepts/exploratory research ideas that have not been proven and projects with no element of novelty
  • Solutions that require long term (>5yrs) development
  • Proposals without preliminary data and technology commercialization objectives
  • Commonly known solutions such as composting or vermicomposting
  • Proposals focusing on construction and demolition waste, mining waste, e-waste and hazardous waste
  • Projects with no plan towards saleable (implementable) technology/ products/services
  • Funding cannot be used to support PhD student research or any other academic research. The grant is not a research fellowship.