SEVA 2025 Summit: India’s Top CSR & ESG Leaders Redefine Employee Volunteering in Mumbai

Mumbai | Maharashtra — The second edition of the Summit for Employee Volunteering and Action (SEVA) 2025, organised by SoulAce, brought together CSR, HR and ESG leaders from across sectors to discuss the growing role of employee volunteering in shaping impactful workplace engagement and advancing sustainable organisational purpose. The Summit was held  at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. 

The Summit opened with a presentation on SoulAce’s 16-year journey in shaping the CSR ecosystem in India. SoulAce has pioneered several innovative verticals, such as impact assessment, employee volunteering and tech for good, that have shaped the social sector landscape in India across several thematic areas.

This presentation was followed by a panel discussion on the Future of Employee Volunteering in India. The speakers included Mr Alok Sheopurkar, Head-Human Resources, HDFC AMC, Mr Chandra Shekhar Gowda, Head – CSR, Sun Pharma and Ms. Shubha Shanbhag, Head – ESG, IndoSpace. The session was moderated by Mr Anirudhya Gupta, Vice President – Partnerships, SoulAce. 

The speakers on this panel discussed how corporate volunteering was evolving beyond activity-based engagements into a strategic driver of organisational responsibility, community impact, and social transformation.

The panel discussion on Building Sustainable Employee Volunteering Programs focused on how organisations can design, implement, and sustain impactful volunteering initiatives. Moderated by Mr Adarsh Kataruka, Managing Director, SoulAce, the panel included Ms Aakanksha Tiwari, CSR Lead, Bosch Global Software Technologies, Dr Neha Parmar, Program Manager, Wipro Foundation, and Ms Shilpashree Muniswamappa, Director ESG and Communications, Colgate-Palmolive.

During the session on Building a Culture of Purpose Through Employee Volunteering, the speakers discussed how organisations can embed volunteering into their culture to foster meaningful and purpose-driven employee engagement. The speakers on this panel included Ms Pallavi Barua, Global Head and Director, Tata Communications, Ms Rashmi Nagori, Head of ESG and CSR, Nuvama Group, Ms Srishti Gupta, Focus Area Head – K12 Education, Tata Consultancy Services, and Ms Sonal Mehta, CSR Lead, Mondelez. The session was moderated by Mr Aishik Saha, Director at Avagam Ventures.

Over the last two years, the Summit for Employee Volunteering and Action (SEVA) has emerged as a leading platform for meaningful dialogue on the future of employee volunteering in India. This year’s discussions explored how volunteering fosters a sense of belonging, aligns with the expectations of today’s workforce, and can be seamlessly integrated across the employee lifecycle. Speakers also highlighted the crucial role of leaders and managers in modelling volunteering behaviours, cultivating a purpose-driven culture, and ensuring robust impact measurement.

Speaking at the summit, Mr Adarsh Kataruka, Managing Director of SoulAce, said, “Volunteering is no longer just a CSR initiative; it is a powerful driver of meaning, belonging, and shared purpose in the workplace. This Summit has opened new avenues for deeper conversations and richer insights on building a culture of purpose through employee volunteering.”

The highlight of the summit was two hands-on volunteering activities: creating tactile Braille books for visually impaired children and developing Teaching–Learning Materials for underserved schools. These action-led experiences demonstrated the power of well-designed volunteering initiatives and offered a glimpse into how SoulAce helps organisations foster a strong culture of employee volunteering. SoulAce enables organisations to build impactful and scalable employee volunteering programs that align with their CSR and ESG goals. Through end-to-end curation, planning and execution—supported by its robust technology platform—SoulAce helps companies onboard volunteers, match employee skills with meaningful volunteering opportunities, and drive sustained engagement and measurable impact.

This year’s summit brought together CSR, HR, and ESG leaders from some of India’s leading organisations including Sun Pharma, TCS, Wipro, HDFC AMC, Colgate-Palmolive, Tata Capital, Mondelez, Tata AIA, GSK, Trent, L&T Financial Services, Bajaj Electricals, Novartis, RPG, SBI Caps, LIC Housing Finance, TVS Motors, Nuvama, Castrol, and Tata Communications, among others.

SEVA 2025 demonstrated how cross-sector collaboration and purposeful employee engagement can drive large-scale, meaningful social change.