Managing Director & CEO, Axis Bank

Shikha Sharma, Managing Director & CEO, Axis Bank

"We at Axis Bank, strongly believe, that we should participate in the well being of our society. Axis Bank Foundation was set up to give strategic direction to the philanthropic activities of our Bank and its officers. In tune with our desire that the Bank should not only be profitable but also socially relevant, we set apart up to 1% of our profits every year for the activities of our foundation. The foundation has so far been focusing primarily on initiatives in the field of education. We are also engaged in highway trauma care and rural medical relief, in a modest way.

Going forward, we would like to increasingly engage in providing sustainable livelihoods, especially to the under privileged. We have taken upon ourselves the goal of providing at least a million sustainable livelihoods in the next five years, with a commitment that at least 50% of the beneficiaries we support, are women. We propose to partner with reputed non-governmental organisations, government agencies, like- minded corporates, and others to reach out to the communities in which we would like to operate. The officers of our Bank would also play an important part in carrying out our duties as a responsible corporate citizen."