About
To foster inclusive, sustainable growth through community-driven, beneficiary-centric development programmes, focused on Sustainable Livelihoods, Climate Action, and Social Infrastructure, aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals.
CSR arm of the Dalmia Bharat Group; the group's heritage line ('Adopt a Heritage' - Red Fort; Humayun's Tomb/Purana Qila via its Sabhyata Foundation) makes this a corporate heritage funder.
Dalmia Bharat Foundation (DBF) was established in 2009 as the dedicated Corporate Social Responsibility entity of the Dalmia Bharat Group, registered as a not-for-profit organisation under the Indian Trust Act, 1882. DBF's own stated core focus areas are Sustainable Livelihoods, Climate Action (soil and water conservation), and Social Infrastructure, and its programming, including the DIKSHa skilling initiative launched in 2016 with the National Skill Development Corporation, operates across roughly 30 districts and multiple Indian states, concentrated in areas near the Group's cement and industrial operations. Separately, in April 2018, Dalmia Bharat Limited, the Group's listed parent company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding directly with India's Ministry of Tourism and the Archaeological Survey of India to adopt the Red Fort in Delhi and Gandikota Fort in Andhra Pradesh under the government's 'Adopt a Heritage' scheme, becoming the first Indian corporate house to adopt a historical monument, in a deal reported at roughly Rs 25 crore over five years. This heritage adoption generated significant public debate, with critics questioning the commercialisation of a national monument and defenders pointing to the scheme's precedent in the Aga Khan Trust for Culture's public-private conservation work at Humayun's Tomb. [Unverified - confirm whether this heritage adoption was administered through DBF specifically or directly by Dalmia Bharat Limited before publishing]
Initiatives & Portfolio
With the National Skill Development Corporation.
Signed by Dalmia Bharat Limited directly; not confirmed as a DBF programme.
There is an important structural distinction worth noting here: Dalmia Bharat Foundation's own stated CSR pillars (livelihoods, climate, social infrastructure) do not explicitly include arts, heritage or cultural preservation, based on the Foundation's own public materials. The Group's most visible cultural-heritage activity, the high-profile Red Fort and Gandikota Fort adoption, was signed and publicly announced by Dalmia Bharat Limited (the listed parent company) directly with government ministries, not explicitly attributed to DBF in available sources. This mirrors a pattern seen elsewhere in Indian corporate philanthropy, where a parent conglomerate's headline cultural or heritage activity is sometimes carried out through a different vehicle than its dedicated CSR foundation. Before treating this profile as representing an active cultural funder, it would be worth confirming with the Dalmia Bharat Group directly which specific entity currently holds responsibility for the Red Fort and Gandikota Fort heritage work.