CSR in Education: How a School Project Actually Gets Built
Every CSR education project ends the same way: somebody buys equipment, somebody installs it, and somebody signs for it. This section is about that end of the work - specification, costing, procurement paperwork, installation across Karnataka, and the photographic handover pack your impact report needs.
Start Here
Two pages, written for the person who has to defend a number inside a company rather than for a search engine.
CSR Funding for Schools
What a Rs. 5 lakh, Rs. 10 lakh, Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 50 lakh allocation actually buys one school. Unit economics per school and per student, GST invoicing, the procurement paperwork, delivery and installation across Karnataka, what a handover pack contains, and a realistic project timeline.
Read the GuideCost Per School Calculator
Enter a budget and see what it buys: machines and seats, UPS sizing, structured cabling, furniture, lighting to 300 lux, air conditioning, cost per seat and cost per student - with every assumption stated on the page. Built to be printed into an internal note.
Open the CalculatorWhat We Supply
Computer labs, science and robotics labs, interactive panels and smart classrooms, classroom and lab furniture, libraries, playground equipment, textbooks and notebooks. One supplier, one purchase order, one warranty chain, one set of handover documents.
Computer LabsSection 135 and Schedule VII, in Plain Language
Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 requires a company that crosses any one of three thresholds in a financial year - net worth of Rs. 500 crore or more, turnover of Rs. 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs. 5 crore or more - to constitute a CSR committee and to spend at least two per cent of its average net profit over the three immediately preceding financial years on corporate social responsibility. Schedule VII to the Act lists the heads that spend may go towards. Item (ii) of that Schedule covers promoting education, including special education and employment-enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly and the differently abled, and livelihood enhancement projects. School infrastructure - computer and science laboratories, classroom technology, furniture, libraries, sanitation, play areas - is normally taken up under that item.
That is a plain summary of what the statute says. It is not legal or tax advice. Whether a particular purchase qualifies as CSR expenditure, how it is disclosed in Form CSR-2, whether it counts as creation of a capital asset and in whose name that asset may be held, and what your unspent-amount obligations are, are all questions for your CSR committee, your auditors and your legal advisers. We are a supplier. We will give you a specification, a price and a paper trail; we will not tell you how to book it.
What CBM IMPEX is, and what it is not
CBM IMPEX is a commercial, GST-registered supplier of school equipment, based in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru. We specify, cost, supply, install and document school infrastructure, and we raise a tax invoice against a purchase order like any other vendor.
We are not an NGO, a trust, a society or a Section 8 company. We are not registered as a CSR implementing agency under Form CSR-1, and we hold no 80G registration. Money paid to CBM IMPEX is not a donation. It is payment for goods and services, it is not eligible for any donation-related tax deduction, and we will never describe it as one.
That is not a limitation - it is the position. A company executing a CSR education project directly, or the implementing agency it funds, still has to buy the equipment from somebody. That is the role we fill: the vendor at the end of the chain who turns a sanctioned budget into a working laboratory, and hands back the documents that prove it.
How the Chain Actually Works
Six stages between a board resolution and a room full of children using the equipment. Most projects that go wrong go wrong at stage three or stage six.
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The company sanctions a budget under Schedule VII item (ii)
A CSR committee approves an allocation and an activity head. At this point the number usually exists but the scope does not - which is why the first request we get is almost always "what does Rs. 20 lakh buy?" rather than a specification.
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A school, or a set of schools, is identified
Directly, through the district education office, through a school's management, or through an implementing agency the company already funds. Multi-school programmes are cheapest when the schools form a geographic cluster, because installation crews mobilise once rather than eight times.
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Somebody surveys the room and writes a specification
This is the stage that gets skipped, and it is the stage that decides whether the project finishes. A lab needs an electrical supply that can carry it, a room that can be cooled, a ceiling that can be worked on and a floor area that fits the furniture. We measure the room, check the existing supply and spare capacity, calculate the electrical and heat load, draw the layout to the actual furniture dimension, and flag anything - occupancy limits, a missing second exit, a supply that will not take the load - before it becomes a variation.
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The scope is costed package by package, not as a lump sum
IT hardware, electrical and backup power, furniture, civil finishes, networking, cooling, software, commissioning. A single lump sum cannot be compared against another vendor's single lump sum, and it hides the thing CSR buyers most often get wrong - on a full turnkey computer lab, the computers are only about 56 per cent of the cost. The room is the other 44.
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A purchase order is issued and we invoice the party that issued it
The company, its implementing agency, or the school or its trust - whichever is paying. One named party, one purchase order, one GST tax invoice, one warranty chain. Split that across three parties and the warranty claim two years later becomes somebody else's problem.
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Delivery, installation, commissioning, training and a documented handover
Equipment installed and tested, staff trained, and a handover pack that includes the completion certificate, dated photographs, asset tags mapped to serial numbers, warranty certificates, test reports and a signed acknowledgement from the head of institution. If a vendor has not priced this, it is not in scope, and your impact report will be built from whatever photographs the school happens to take on a phone.
What CSR Education Budgets Usually Buy
Indicative bands including GST, for planning only. Every figure is confirmed against a site survey and current quotation before it becomes a number in your proposal.
| Budget | Typical shape for one school | Rough reach |
|---|---|---|
| Rs. 5 lakh | One complete smart classroom (75-inch interactive panel, mount, power point, UPS, installation, teacher training), with the balance going to classroom furniture | 1 classroom, plus seating for 2-3 more |
| Rs. 10 lakh | A 16-seat computer lab in a room that is already finished and wired: 8 machines, two-seat tables and chairs, a 2-3 kVA online UPS, certified Cat6 cabling and a managed switch | Whole-school ICT access at 6 periods a day |
| Rs. 25 lakh | A 30-seat turnkey lab including the room - false ceiling, lighting to 300 lux, wiring, UPS, cabling, furniture, air conditioning and commissioning | Two sections at a time, every period |
| Rs. 50 lakh | A 60-seat turnkey lab, room and all, with budget left for a three-year maintenance contract; or roughly 15-18 smart classrooms across a campus | A full ICT programme for one school |
The CSR funding guide breaks each of these down line by line and adds the per-school and per-student arithmetic. The cost-per-school calculator lets you put in your own number and see what falls out, including the package split and the cost per student at your school's enrolment.
What We Can Supply Under a CSR Project
Computer Labs
Turnkey or supply-only. Room design, furniture, electrical points and online UPS, false ceiling and 300 lux lighting, air conditioning, certified Cat6 cabling, managed switching and content filtering, machines, imaging, commissioning and training.
Computer LabsSmart Classrooms
Interactive flat panels from 65 to 98 inches, wall mounts and trolleys, dedicated power points, backup, installation and teacher training. The single most visible CSR intervention per rupee, and the easiest to photograph for an impact report.
Smart ClassroomsScience & Robotics Labs
Physics, chemistry, biology and composite labs, and ATL-style robotics and innovation spaces. Furniture, services, safety provisions, equipment and consumables.
Science LabsClassroom & Lab Furniture
Student desks and benches, chairs, lab workstations, staff furniture, library furniture and storage - manufactured to IS specifications and delivered assembled and installed rather than flat-packed at the gate.
School FurniturePlayground & Sports
Play structures, multiplay systems, swings and slides, EPDM rubber safety flooring and outdoor fitness equipment, with the ground preparation and safe-surfacing that makes them usable.
Play EquipmentBooks, Notebooks & Kits
Textbooks by board and publisher, custom-printed school notebooks, stationery, and specific procurement items such as CBSE value education kits - the sort of line item that is easy to fund and hard to source in bulk.
NotebooksFrequently Asked Questions
Is CBM IMPEX an NGO or a registered CSR implementing agency?
No. CBM IMPEX is a commercial, GST-registered supplier of school equipment based in Bengaluru. We are not a trust, a society, a Section 8 company or an NGO, we are not registered as a CSR implementing agency under Form CSR-1, and we hold no 80G registration. Money paid to us is payment for goods and services against a tax invoice, not a donation, and it carries no donation tax deduction. Your company or your implementing agency places the purchase order; we specify, supply, install and document the equipment.
What does Section 135 and Schedule VII item (ii) actually say about education?
Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 requires a company crossing any of three thresholds in a financial year - net worth of Rs. 500 crore or more, turnover of Rs. 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs. 5 crore or more - to constitute a CSR committee and to spend at least two per cent of its average net profit of the three preceding financial years on CSR. Schedule VII lists the permitted activity heads, and item (ii) covers promoting education, including special education and employment-enhancing vocational skills, especially among children. School infrastructure such as computer labs, science labs, classroom technology and furniture is normally taken up under that head. This is a plain summary of the statute, not legal advice.
Can CSR funds be used to buy equipment for a government school?
This is a decision for your CSR committee, your auditors and the school's governing body, not for a vendor. What we can tell you is the procurement mechanics: a government or aided school will normally need a written acceptance of the donation from the head of institution or the block or district education office before equipment can be installed on its premises, an asset register entry once it is installed, and clarity on who owns and maintains the equipment afterwards. We supply against a purchase order from whoever is paying - the company, its implementing agency, or the school - and we raise a GST tax invoice to that party.
Who places the order - the company, the implementing agency or the school?
Whichever of them is paying. In practice we see three patterns. The company procures directly and has us deliver and install at the school, with the school signing a receipt. The company funds a registered implementing agency, which raises the purchase order and receives our invoice. Or the company transfers funds to the school or its trust, which procures. All three work from our side. What matters is that one named party issues the purchase order, because that is the party our tax invoice, our warranty and our installation sign-off are made out to.
What proof of delivery does a CSR team get for its impact report?
A handover pack. It contains the signed delivery challan and installation completion certificate, dated before-and-after photographs of the room, photographs of the installed equipment with asset tags visible, serial numbers mapped to asset tags, warranty certificates from each manufacturer, as-built drawings and test reports where the scope includes electrical or cabling work, the training attendance sheet signed by the school, and a signed acknowledgement from the head of institution. That set is what auditors and CSR-2 reporting normally want to see, and it is the reason we photograph every project rather than leaving it to the school.
Do you work outside Bengaluru?
Yes. We are based in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru and deliver and install across Karnataka, including Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubli-Dharwad, Belagavi, Tumakuru, Davangere, Shivamogga, Kalaburagi and Ballari. Multi-school CSR programmes are usually run district by district so that one installation crew can complete a cluster in a single mobilisation, which is materially cheaper than treating each school as a separate trip.
Send Us the Budget and the School
Give us a budget figure, a rough room size and a district, and we will come back with a package-wise scope, an indicative cost and what the handover pack will contain - not a single lump sum.