Murugappa Group's CSR arm expands focus to include sports & environment

AMM Foundation, the CSR arm of the Rs 74,000-crore Murugappa Group, is extending its philanthropic efforts beyond its traditional focus areas of health and education into sports and environmental initiatives in its centenary year.   

It has started a water rejuvenation project ‘Nanneer’ in the arid Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu. It has restored seven water bodies of varying sizes so far. Its goal is to restore 10 billion litres by 2026 from the current 1 billion litres restored so far.  

The foundation has set up the Murugappa Youth Football Academy in the north of Chennai to train children from underprivileged communities, especially from the fishermen community, as well as inaugurated a football field in Sivaganga district’s Pallathur village as well.  

“We set up the AMM Foundation and practised social responsibility before regulatory mandates around CSR came in,” said AMM Foundation Managing Trustee and former Chairman of the Murugappa Group MA Alagappan, at a media interaction on Thursday, a few days after a function to mark the foundation’s centenary year.  

The foundation spends about Rs 40 crore annually on philanthropic activities, funded by the contributions of its group companies as well as the return on the corpus it has built over time. He said the group companies spend close to 1% of their net profits on specific projects of the AMM Foundation, apart from working on their own CSR activities focussed on the geographies they operate in. He said the fifth-generation members of the conglomerate are also involved across the foundation’s verticals.   

AMM Foundation is also working in collaboration with other corporate groups now. It has tied up with Wockhardt Foundation for mobile medical vans, Agastya International Foundation for the Murugappa Science Centre and Coimbatore-based auto component maker Pricol’s water management project Siruthuli for environment projects.  

Established in 1924 with the inauguration of the AMM Hospital in Pallathur, Sivaganga, the AMM Foundation now manages several institutions and projects across India. The Foundation manages five hospitals, mobile health vans and five educational institutions among other initiatives.  

On January 22, the foundation inaugurated the centenary block of the AMM Hospital at Pallathur in Sivaganga District of Tamil Nadu to mark its centenary year. Azim Premji, Founder Chairman of Wipro Limited, presided over the function and unveiled the inauguration plaque. 

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