Dinesh Agrawal

Biography

Dinesh Agrawal is General Manager (CSR) and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) group since 2004 at NTPC in New Delhi, India. NTPC is a power major with 20 coal and 7 gas based power stations having an installed capacity of 27,404 MW. With ongoing construction of coal, gas & hydro power projects, coal mining etc., NTPC plans to become a 75,000 MW company by the year 2017, including nuclear power.

Dinesh is responsible for planning and implementation of CSR programs for NTPC stations across India with annual budget of Rs. 170 million. He formulated the Corporate Social Responsibility – Community Development (CSR – CD) policy of NTPC (July 2004) and set-up NTPC Foundation, an independent Trust. He coordinates “Global Compact”, an initiative of UN and “Social Code” of India-Partnership-Forum, an initiative of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) & UNDP. He took several social initiatives in NTPC stations i.e. Quality Circles in villages and schools, inter-unit CSR-CD award for all operating stations, voluntary organizations of NTPC employees, guidelines for improving education in village schools etc. Dinesh is on the expert group of International Standard Organisation on framing ISO 26000 and on national committee of Bureau of Indian Standard on framing standard similar to ISO 26000 and SA 8000.

During 1994-2003, Dinesh framed policies and guidelines on Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) and guided socio-economic surveys & impact assessments, formulated R&R plans in consultation with stakeholders like government agencies, NGOs, project officials and the project affected persons (PAPs). He took initiative of conceptualizing and establishing Public Information Centre (PIC) and Village Development Advisory Committees (VDAC) in 1994 in 20 stations and was instrumental in negotiations and resolving conflict of Resettlement in Singrauli Region in consultation with Independent Monitoring Panel (IMP), the World Bank and PAPs.

During 1986-1993, Dinesh coordinated Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies and Environmental Management Plans (EMP) for 15 power projects with total capacity of 25,000 MW and facilitated environmental clearances from statutory agencies. He coordinated the Integrated EIA study of Singrauli Region conducted by EdF, France in 1988 and took the initiative of conducting Ecological Monitoring using satellite imagery in 1991.

During 1977-1985, Dinesh worked in operation and maintenance of Badarpur Thermal Power Station having 3 of 100 MW and 2 of 210 MW units during which he solved few chronic problems of coal mills with innovative solutions.

Dinesh holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from GB Pant University, Pantnagar and joined NTPC in 1977. He attended a course on “Hydropower and Environment” organised by International Centre for Hydropower in 2003 at Norway.

Dinesh has authored extensively on environmental and resettlement issues. He contributed to development of course material on “Resettlement” for Indira Gandhi National Open University. He has presented papers in many conferences e.g. at UNIPEDE Conference at Hamburg, 1993, The World Bank Conference at New Delhi, 1996, World Sociological Conference at Rio de Janeiro etc.

Under his leadership, NTPC was bestowed the prestigious ICC-UNEP Award for Sustainable Development Partnerships in 2002, Platts Businessweek Award for best Community Development Program of the year 2002 & 2005 at USA, TERI’s CSR Award in 2002, Mother Teresa Corporate Citizenship Award 2007, and Golden Peacock global CSR award at Portugal.

This biography was last updated on May 9, 2007