“Nikhil Pant, Former Chief Programme Executive, National Foundation for CSR, IICA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, GoI, has played a key role from government side in formulation and nation-wide rollout of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as per Section 135, Companies Act 2013 – Legislation, Rules, Policy, Strategy, Compliance (Accounting, Audit, Taxation, Reporting); he also specializes in CSR Grant Management, Monitoring & Evaluation Frameworks, Impact Assessment, Project Management etc., and is currently involved in “Compliance to Impact with Sustainability” advising to governments, corporates, NGOs and Academia on CSR and Sustainable Development.”
Nikhil has more than 27 years of experience in implementation, training, advocacy, grant management, strategy & policy formulation of development programmes. In his own way, Nikhil presents unique, practical need-based solutions that are individual specific, and community and organization based, meeting key people-centric development requirements at the very core. With his teaching, civil society, corporate and government experience and networks, he also develops meaningful partnerships to achieve desired outcomes in quick time.
As an Advisor and CSR Consultant Nikhil specialises in conceptualization, design, development, delivery and measurement of Sustainable Development Models. Through his work he seeks to bring in meaningful and engaging convergence of governments, corporates/CSR, civil society, entrepreneurs, social business, academia and communities in a participatory mode of collaboration, co-creation and creativity, for impact and scale, leading to need based social change. He emphasises on the never say die spirit of positivity towards life, living and co-existence, and takes up assignments and embeds this spirit as a cross-cutting horizontal, thereby bringing in a fresh, lively approach towards human development and environmental conservation issues that the world faces. People, Planet and (Non) Profit remain central to Nikhil as he engages deeply for social change.
Since 1992 Nikhil is Principal Consultant and Chief Development Officer, REACHA, a one of its kind grassroots, community based voluntary organisation that is today bringing innovation in CSR implementation, impact and reporting in the country. Here he is delivering transformative CSR projects: a) in a Conflict Zone – Kashmir, with Indian Army and b) with a Member of Parliament in rural UP to strengthen grass-roots participatory democracy.
He was Managing Partner, Shaktishi, a CSR and SDG Advisory, Consulting & Training firm from April 2017 to August 2019. The firm assisted corporates and non-profits in 360 degree CSR Advisory, Consulting and Training.
He was Member, Tata Power Sustainability Advisory Council from 2016-2018, where he advised Tata Power Board on Compliance, Global Best Practices and Impact.
From 2012-2017, at national level as part of rollout of Section 135, Companies Act 2013 on CSR, Nikhil led formulation of CSR Policy, Strategy, Rules etc., and their country-wide deployment through Advisory, Advocacy, Consulting, Research and Training as Chief Programme Executive, National Foundation for CSR, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), Ministry of Corporate Affairs, GoI. He also engages with IICA today as Visiting/Guest Faculty.
He led key strategic grant-making projects as Principal Consultant, Tech Mahindra Foundation from 2010-2012 that strengthened the NGO partnership model in a participatory mode of co-creation and development.
As a School Teacher and Student Counsellor with Manava Bharati School India International School, New Delhi from 1997 to 2010, Nikhil developed student-centric learning-by-doing education projects of child and youth development that led to community based positive change. These were shared with CBSE through Sahodaya School Complexs and Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) of school children with focus on learning outcomes, and are today embedded in various Education/CSR projects across the country.
Under Nikhil’s leadership, effective and outcome-based CSR and Sustainable Development projects have been undertaken at government, corporate, institutional and civil society level. These projects cover Policy, Strategy, Compliance, Grant Management, Training, Advocacy and Implementation with organisations like HCL Foundation, Indian Army, ONGC, Genpact, REC Foundation, Tata Power, North Delhi Power Limited, Tata Teleservices, Yes Bank Foundation, Bombay Stock Exchange, Deshpande Foundation, OIL, HPCL, Indian Oil, Coal India Limited, NTPC, IGL, EIL, Smile Train, Dhampur Sugar Mills, IIMs (Bangalore, Calcutta), ISB, Narsee Monjee etc. to name a few.
www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilpant