CSR Funding for Schools: What Budgets Buy

The Number Most CSR Budgets Get Wrong

Almost every CSR education enquiry we receive starts from a hardware price. Somebody has looked up what a desktop costs, multiplied it by the number of children, and arrived at a figure. That figure is short by roughly half.

On a 60-seat turnkey computer lab we costed on CPWD schedule-of-rates 2025 pricing for a Bengaluru school in 2026 - a 25 by 30 foot room, about 70 square metres, 31 machines, gross cost of the order of Rs. 42 to 43 lakh including 18 per cent GST - the package split came out like this.

Package	Share of pre-tax cost	Indicative value
IT hardware - 31 desktops, monitors, peripherals, network printer	~56%	Rs. 19 - 20 lakh
Electrical & UPS - points, lighting, boards, protection, 6 kVA online UPS	~13%	Rs. 4.5 - 5 lakh
Furniture - 30 two-seat tables, 60 chairs, teacher furniture, storage	~12%	Rs. 4 - 4.5 lakh
Civil finishes - false ceiling, putty, two coats of emulsion	~5.5%	Rs. 1.9 - 2.1 lakh
Networking - 36 certified Cat6 drops, managed switch, UTM, access points, rack	~5%	Rs. 1.8 - 2 lakh
Air conditioning - 2 x 2.0 TR inverter splits with stabilisers	~4%	Rs. 1.4 - 1.5 lakh
Commissioning & services - survey, imaging, training, documentation	~2.4%	Rs. 0.8 - 0.9 lakh
Software & security - lab management, endpoint security, imaging and policy	~1.7%	Rs. 0.6 lakh

The computers were 56 per cent of it. The room was the other 44. Ceiling, paint, wiring, distribution boards, earthing, backup power, structured cabling, content filtering, cooling, furniture, imaging, training and the documentation that proves it all happened. A CSR proposal built from a hardware quotation alone is not a conservative estimate - it is an incomplete one, and the gap surfaces at the worst possible moment, three weeks before the school reopens.

All figures on this page are indicative bands for planning. They are confirmed only against a site survey and current quotation. Electrical and civil rates were built from CPWD schedule rates with a provisional Bengaluru location adjustment; IT hardware and furniture from dealer and street pricing converted to ex-GST and loaded for freight, installation and margin. Equipment prices move, and so do GST rates.

Unit Economics You Can Put in a Proposal

Derived from the same 60-seat benchmark. Indicative, inclusive of 18 per cent GST.

Metric	Indicative figure	What it assumes
Cost per seat, turnkey (room included)	~Rs. 71,000 at 60 seats	Two students per machine, room built and finished as part of the scope
Cost per machine, turnkey	~Rs. 1.38 lakh	Whole project cost divided by 31 machines - not the price of a computer
Cost per square metre, turnkey	~Rs. 61,000 per sqm	About 70 sqm for 60 seats, which is tight but workable at two per machine
Planning model, turnkey	~Rs. 4 lakh fixed + ~Rs. 64,500 per seat	Fixed portion covers survey, network core, backup, ceiling, commissioning
Planning model, supply-only	~Rs. 1.5 lakh fixed + ~Rs. 51,000 per seat	Room already finished, wired, lit and cooled; you buy machines, furniture, cabling, software
One complete smart classroom	Rs. 2.1 - 3.0 lakh	75-inch interactive panel, mount, dedicated power point, UPS, installation, teacher training
Floor area per seat	1.1 - 1.2 sqm	Two students sharing a 1000 x 600 mm table; allow 1.8 - 2.2 sqm at one machine per student

Smaller labs cost more per seat, and the fixed cost is why. A 60-seat turnkey lab is about Rs. 71,000 a seat. A 30-seat lab in the same building is about Rs. 78,000 a seat, and a 10-seat lab is over Rs. 1 lakh a seat - because the survey, the switch, the firewall, the distribution board, the earthing, the ceiling and the commissioning barely shrink when the room does. Below roughly 12 seats, a CSR budget usually does more good spent on smart classrooms than on a very small lab.

Four Costed Scenarios

What each allocation realistically buys one school. Indicative, including GST, for a Bengaluru or Karnataka district school.

Rs. 5 lakh

One room done properly, or two rooms done adequately. Too small for a viable lab.

Option A - two smart classrooms

One 75-inch EDLA-certified interactive panel with wall mount or mobile trolley, dedicated 16 A point, 2 kVA UPS, installation and teacher training - Rs. 2.1 - 3.0 lakh
One 65-inch panel on the same basis - Rs. 1.5 - 2.2 lakh
Balance to a three-year on-site warranty extension and spare stylus, mounts and cabling

Option B - a 6 to 8 seat ICT corner

3 to 4 student machines plus a teacher machine, 21.5-inch monitors, keyboards and mice
Two-seat tables and stackable chairs, a small steel storage unit
A 2 kVA online UPS, a small managed switch and certified Cat6 drops
Imaging, endpoint security and half a day of teacher training

What it does not buy

Any civil work - no false ceiling, no rewiring, no painting
Air conditioning
A lab big enough to take a whole section at once

Reach: one or two classrooms. At an enrolment of 400, roughly Rs. 1,250 per child as a one-off.

Rs. 10 lakh

The smallest budget that buys a real computer lab - provided the room is already finished.

A 16-seat supply-only lab

8 student machines and 1 teacher machine, monitors, peripherals, surge strips
8 two-seat tables, 16 stackable student chairs, teacher table and chair, steel almirah, whiteboard
A 2 to 3 kVA online double-conversion UPS with 30 minutes of autonomy
12 to 14 certified Cat6 drops, 24-port managed switch, wall rack, patch panel, 100 per cent permanent-link test report
A network security appliance with web filtering, so the student network is isolated from the school's administrative systems
Standard locked-down image, endpoint security, lab-management software, asset tags
Commissioning, one day of teacher and lab-attendant training, handover documentation

Alternative shapes

Four complete smart classrooms across four sections
A 10-seat lab with the room built too - but at over Rs. 1 lakh a seat, which is poor value

What it does not buy

The room. If the wiring is unsafe, the lighting throws reflections onto screens or the room cannot be cooled, this budget will not fix it
Air conditioning, which a room with 9 machines in Bengaluru can usually survive without but a room with 30 cannot

Reach: whole-school ICT access at six periods a day. At an enrolment of 400, roughly Rs. 2,500 per child.

Rs. 25 lakh

A complete 30-seat lab, room and all. The most common serious single-school CSR allocation we see.

A 30-seat turnkey lab, about 40 square metres

Civil: gypsum-board false ceiling, wall putty and two coats of premium acrylic emulsion, floor making-good after services
Electrical: one power point and one switch per machine, 16 A points for cooling and the printer, a distribution board with MCBs, RCCBs and surge protection, earthing electrodes and strip, and lighting designed to 300 lux at desk height using recessed LED panels
Backup: a 5 kVA online double-conversion UPS with isolation transformer and a 30-minute battery bank
Furniture: 16 two-seat tables, 32 stackable chairs, teacher table and revolving chair, steel almirah, printer stand, whiteboard and notice board, sunscreen blinds
Network: about 20 certified Cat6 drops, 24-port managed switch, UTM firewall with web filtering, ceiling access point, 12U wall rack, full test pack
Cooling: one 2.0 TR five-star inverter split with a stabiliser
IT: 15 student machines plus a teacher machine, 21.5-inch monitors, a network laser MFP
Software: lab-management software, centrally managed endpoint security for three years, standard image with USB and browser policy
Services: measured survey, layout and load calculation, assembly and commissioning, a day of training, as-built drawings, test reports, asset tags, four weeks of site supervision

Alternative shapes

A 44-seat lab if the room is already finished and wired - more seats, but you inherit whatever the room already is
Nine to eleven complete smart classrooms across a campus
A 16-seat lab plus six smart classrooms plus furniture for two classrooms

Indicative cost per seat: Rs. 75,000 - 87,000. Reach: two sections at a time, every period. At an enrolment of 600, roughly Rs. 4,170 per child.

Rs. 50 lakh

A full 60-seat lab with money left for maintenance - or a programme rather than a project.

A 60-seat turnkey lab, about 70 square metres

31 machines - 30 student, 1 teacher - at two students per machine, with 21.5-inch monitors and a networked laser MFP
30 two-seat tables and 60 stackable chairs, teacher furniture, storage, boards and blinds
A 6 kVA online double-conversion UPS with isolation transformer and 30-minute battery bank
One power point and one switch per machine, full distribution board with protection, earthing, and twelve 2x2 LED panels designed to 300 lux
Gypsum-board false ceiling, putty and two coats of emulsion
36 certified Cat6 drops, 48-port managed switch, UTM firewall, two ceiling access points, 12U rack, 100 per cent link test report
Two 2.0 TR inverter splits with stabilisers, sized to the actual heat load rather than to the floor area
Imaging, lab-management and endpoint software, commissioning, training, full as-built documentation
Balance of roughly Rs. 5 - 8 lakh: a three-year comprehensive maintenance contract, consumables, spare machines and a small contingency - which is what keeps the lab alive in year four

Alternative shapes

A 30-seat turnkey lab plus eight smart classrooms in the same school
Three 16-seat supply-only labs in three schools plus six smart classrooms - a district cluster rather than a flagship
Fifteen to eighteen smart classrooms across a campus, which reaches every child in every subject rather than only in ICT periods

Indicative cost per seat: about Rs. 71,000. At an enrolment of 800, roughly Rs. 6,250 per child, or about Rs. 900 per child per year over a seven-year equipment life.

Cost Per Student

Divide by enrolment, not by seats. A lab running six periods a day reaches the whole school; a smart classroom reaches every section that uses that room.

Budget	200 students	400 students	800 students	1,500 students
Rs. 5 lakh	Rs. 2,500	Rs. 1,250	Rs. 625	Rs. 333
Rs. 10 lakh	Rs. 5,000	Rs. 2,500	Rs. 1,250	Rs. 667
Rs. 25 lakh	Rs. 12,500	Rs. 6,250	Rs. 3,125	Rs. 1,667
Rs. 50 lakh	Rs. 25,000	Rs. 12,500	Rs. 6,250	Rs. 3,333

Those are one-off figures. Divide again by the working life of the asset for an annual number that stands up better in a board paper: seven years for IT hardware, ten for furniture, and the civil and electrical work for as long as the building lasts. A Rs. 25 lakh lab in a school of 600 is about Rs. 4,170 a child once, or about Rs. 600 a child a year.

The single largest lever on this number is not the budget. It is which school you pick. The same lab costs three times as much per child in a school of 200 as in a school of 600, and the smaller school is often the one with the better-prepared proposal. Ask for enrolment on the application form.

The cost-per-school calculator does this arithmetic for your own budget and enrolment, and prints cleanly into an internal note.

GST, Invoicing and the Procurement Paperwork

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.

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.

How the paper moves

Stage	Document	Issued by
1. Enquiry	Scope note and package-wise indicative estimate, after survey	CBM IMPEX
2. Firm quotation	Line-by-line quotation with HSN/SAC codes, GST shown separately, validity period, delivery and payment terms	CBM IMPEX
3. Order	Purchase order naming one party - the company, its implementing agency, or the school or its trust	Whoever is paying
4. Advance	Proforma invoice against the advance instalment	CBM IMPEX
5. Despatch	Delivery challan, with e-way bill where the consignment value requires it	CBM IMPEX
6. Supply	GST tax invoice to the party named on the purchase order	CBM IMPEX
7. Installation	Installation and commissioning completion certificate, signed by the school	CBM IMPEX, countersigned by the school
8. Handover	Photographic handover pack, warranty certificates, asset register, training attendance	CBM IMPEX
9. School side	Written acceptance of the donation and an asset register entry	Head of institution, or the education office

GST points worth raising early

Every supply is invoiced with our GSTIN, the buyer's GSTIN where it has one, and HSN or SAC codes line by line. Goods and works are shown separately rather than rolled into one figure.
Most school equipment attracts 18 per cent. Printed books are exempt. Rates on some paper and stationery lines changed with the September 2025 GST revision, so we confirm the applicable rate on the quotation rather than quoting it from memory.
A turnkey lab has a works-contract component alongside the goods. Where a project mixes supply and site works, we quote them as separate packages so both sides see what is goods and what is service.
Input tax credit. Credit is generally restricted on goods disposed of by way of gift or free supply under Section 17(5)(h) of the CGST Act. If your company is buying equipment and handing it to a school, that restriction changes the effective cost of the project by up to the full tax component. We flag it because it is material to your budget. We do not advise on it - take it to your tax team before the budget is fixed, not after.

Commercial terms we normally work to

Advance of 40 to 50 per cent against the purchase order, which funds procurement; the balance against delivery and installation.
A retention of 5 to 10 per cent held for 30 days after commissioning is a reasonable thing for a buyer to ask for, and we are comfortable with it. If a vendor refuses retention on a turnkey project, ask why.
Prices held firm for the quotation validity period. Beyond it, IT hardware and copper both move.
Manufacturer warranties pass through to the school, and we register them in the school's name so a claim in year three does not depend on us still holding the paperwork.

Delivery and Installation Across Karnataka

We are based in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru, and deliver and install across Karnataka - Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubli-Dharwad, Belagavi, Tumakuru, Davangere, Shivamogga, Kalaburagi, Ballari, Hassan, Udupi, Chitradurga, Kolar and the rest. Installation is done by our own crews rather than handed to a local sub-contractor we have never met, because the handover documents are only worth something if the people who signed them were ours.

Cluster your schools. On multi-school programmes, the installation line is driven by mobilisation, not by distance. Eight schools in two districts cost materially less to install than eight schools in six districts, and finish several weeks sooner. If the choice of schools is still open, let geography influence it.

What the school has to have ready

A room that is empty and can stay empty for the duration of the civil and electrical work - typically two to three weeks for a 60-seat lab.
An electrical supply with enough spare capacity for the load, verified at survey rather than assumed. This is the single most common reason a project stalls on site.
A lockable room for staged delivery, so equipment does not arrive faster than it can be installed.
A named person at the school with the authority to sign - the head of institution or a delegate. Handovers wait for signatures more often than for equipment.
Written acceptance of the donation from the school or its education office, in place before installation rather than after.

What a Photographic Handover Pack Contains

This is the part that becomes your impact report, your audit file and your answer when somebody asks in year two what happened to the money.

Photographs

Dated before-and-after photographs of the room from the same positions. Wide shots of the finished lab. Detail shots of each equipment type with the asset tag visible. Photographs of the UPS, the distribution board, the rack and the cabling before the ceiling closes - the parts nobody can see afterwards.

Certificates

Signed delivery challan, installation and commissioning completion certificate countersigned by the school, and manufacturer warranty certificates registered in the school's name with start and end dates listed.

Asset register

Every item listed against its asset tag number, serial number, make, model, warranty expiry and location in the room. Handed over as a spreadsheet as well as on paper, because that is what the school's own asset register needs.

Technical records

Where the scope includes site works: as-built drawings, cable schedule, the 100 per cent permanent-link test report for every data outlet, earth-resistance readings, and lux readings taken at desk height to confirm the 300 lux design.

Training record

Attendance sheet for the teacher and lab-attendant training session, signed, with the topics covered listed - lab management software, content filtering, UPS operation and the maintenance log.

Acknowledgement

A signed acknowledgement from the head of institution confirming what was received, that it was installed and working, and that staff were trained. One page, dated, on the school's letterhead.

A Realistic Timeline

For a turnkey lab including civil and electrical work. Supply-only projects run roughly half as long; smart classrooms, two to three weeks.

Week 0

Brief and budget
Budget figure, school or shortlist of schools, district, and any constraint you already know about - a fixed spend deadline, a vacation window, a board meeting.
Week 1

Site survey
One day on site per school. Room measured, existing supply and spare capacity checked, ceiling and floor condition assessed, occupancy and exits noted. Allow three to five working days to schedule a survey in an outstation district.
Week 2

Layout, load calculation and package-wise estimate
A drawn layout to the actual furniture dimension, an electrical and heat load calculation, and a costed scope broken into packages - not a lump sum.
Weeks 3 - 5

Your internal approvals
Realistically the longest and least predictable stage, and the one no vendor controls. CSR committee sign-off, procurement review, vendor onboarding, and a purchase order. Build four weeks in and be pleased if it takes two.
Weeks 5 - 9

Procurement and manufacture
Furniture three to four weeks from order. Desktops two to four weeks. Interactive panels ex-stock to three weeks depending on size. UPS and battery bank two to three weeks. Long-lead items are ordered the day the advance clears.
Weeks 8 - 11

Site works
Ceiling, wiring, distribution board, earthing, lighting, painting, cabling and air conditioning. Two to three weeks for a 60-seat room, with the room out of use throughout. This is the stage that has to sit inside a vacation.
Weeks 11 - 12

Delivery, installation and commissioning
Furniture assembled, machines installed and imaged, network built and tested, UPS commissioned, asset tags applied, everything powered up and run.
Week 12

Training and handover
A day of training for the teacher and lab attendant, the photographic handover pack, and signatures.

The school calendar binds harder than the budget calendar. Ceiling, rewiring and painting realistically happen only during vacations - April and May, the Dussehra break, and the December-January window. A CSR allocation sanctioned in January that involves civil work will not be completed, installed and invoiced by 31 March, whatever the purchase order says. Projects that start their survey in the November-to-January window and do the site works in the April-May vacation finish; projects that start in February usually do not. If your spend has to land inside a financial year, tell us in week 0 and we will tell you honestly whether the scope fits.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much CSR funding does a school computer lab need?

For a turnkey lab where the room is built as well as equipped, budget roughly Rs. 71,000 a seat at 60 seats, including 18 per cent GST. Smaller labs cost more per seat because about Rs. 4 lakh of the project is fixed regardless of size - the survey, the network core, the backup power, the ceiling and the commissioning. A useful planning model is Rs. 4 lakh fixed plus about Rs. 64,500 a seat. If the room is already finished, wired and cooled and you are only buying machines, furniture, cabling and software, the model drops to roughly Rs. 1.5 lakh fixed plus Rs. 51,000 a seat. These are indicative planning figures, confirmed only against a site survey and current quotation.

What does Rs. 25 lakh of CSR funding buy for one school?

Roughly a 30-seat turnkey computer lab including the room itself - false ceiling, lighting designed to 300 lux, wiring and distribution boards, an online UPS, certified Cat6 cabling with a managed switch and content filtering, two-seat tables and chairs, air conditioning, about 16 machines, imaging, commissioning, training and documentation. That works out near Rs. 78,000 a seat. The same Rs. 25 lakh would instead buy a 44-seat lab if the room is already finished and wired, or nine to eleven complete smart classrooms spread across a campus.

What is the cost per student of a CSR school project?

Divide the budget by the school's enrolment, not by the number of seats - a computer lab running six periods a day reaches the whole school. A Rs. 25 lakh lab in a school of 600 children is about Rs. 4,170 per child as a one-off, or roughly Rs. 600 per child per year over a seven-year equipment life. The same lab in a school of 200 is about Rs. 12,500 per child. This is why enrolment, not budget, is usually the number that decides which school a CSR programme should fund first.

Is a payment to CBM IMPEX a donation eligible for 80G deduction?

No. CBM IMPEX is a commercial, GST-registered equipment supplier. 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. What you pay us is consideration for goods and services against a tax invoice, not a donation, and it attracts no donation-related tax deduction. Your company or your implementing agency issues a purchase order and we invoice that party.

How does GST work on equipment bought with CSR funds?

We raise a GST tax invoice to whichever party issues the purchase order, showing our GSTIN, the buyer's GSTIN where it has one, HSN or SAC codes line by line and the tax charged. Most school equipment attracts 18 per cent; printed books are exempt; rates on some paper and stationery lines changed with the September 2025 revision, so we confirm the applicable rate on the quotation rather than quoting it from memory. One point worth taking to your tax team early: input tax credit is generally restricted on goods disposed of by way of gift or free supply under Section 17(5)(h) of the CGST Act, which affects how the GST on a donated asset is treated. We flag it because it changes the effective cost; we do not advise on it.

How long does a CSR school equipment project take?

From purchase order to handover, about 10 to 14 weeks for a turnkey lab that includes civil and electrical work, 4 to 6 weeks for a supply-only lab in a finished room, and 2 to 3 weeks for smart classrooms. Add the company's own internal approval cycle before the purchase order, which is usually the longest and least predictable stage. The binding constraint in practice is the school calendar: ceiling, wiring and painting realistically happen only during vacations. A project sanctioned in January that involves civil work will not be finished and invoiced by 31 March, and planning it as though it will is the most common way CSR education budgets end up unspent.

What documents do we get at handover for our CSR impact report?

A photographic handover pack: dated before-and-after photographs of the room, wide and detail shots of the installed equipment with asset tags visible, a serial-number-to-asset-tag register, the signed delivery challan and installation completion certificate, manufacturer warranty certificates, as-built drawings with cable schedule and test reports where electrical or cabling work was in scope, lux and earth-resistance readings for a turnkey lab, the training attendance sheet signed by the school, equipment manuals, and a signed acknowledgement from the head of institution. We shoot it ourselves at handover rather than relying on whatever the school photographs afterwards.

Can you supply schools across Karnataka, not just Bengaluru?

Yes. We are based in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru and deliver and install across Karnataka including Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubli-Dharwad, Belagavi, Tumakuru, Davangere, Shivamogga, Kalaburagi, Ballari, Hassan and Udupi. For multi-school programmes we group the schools into district clusters so one crew completes several schools in a single mobilisation. Spreading the same number of schools across six districts instead of two adds real money to the installation line and several weeks to the programme.

Related Pages

Cost Per School Calculator

Put in your own budget and enrolment and see the seats, the package split, the cost per seat and the cost per student. Prints cleanly into an internal note.

Open Calculator

CSR in Education

The section hub: how a CSR education project gets executed end to end, Section 135 and Schedule VII item (ii) in plain language, and who does what.

CSR Hub

Computer Lab Setup

The engineering behind the numbers on this page - room sizing, layout, electrical load, UPS sizing, 300 lux lighting, heat load and Cat6 cabling.

Computer Labs

Smart Classrooms

Interactive panels from 65 to 98 inches with mounts, backup, installation and teacher training - the highest-visibility CSR intervention per rupee.

Smart Classrooms

CSR Funding for Schools: What a Budget Actually Buys

The Number Most CSR Budgets Get Wrong

Unit Economics You Can Put in a Proposal

Four Costed Scenarios

Rs. 5 lakh

Option A - two smart classrooms

Option B - a 6 to 8 seat ICT corner

What it does not buy

Rs. 10 lakh

A 16-seat supply-only lab

Alternative shapes

What it does not buy

Rs. 25 lakh

A 30-seat turnkey lab, about 40 square metres

Alternative shapes

Rs. 50 lakh

A 60-seat turnkey lab, about 70 square metres

Alternative shapes

Cost Per Student

GST, Invoicing and the Procurement Paperwork

What CBM IMPEX is, and what it is not

How the paper moves

GST points worth raising early

Commercial terms we normally work to

Delivery and Installation Across Karnataka

What the school has to have ready

What a Photographic Handover Pack Contains

Photographs

Certificates

Asset register

Technical records

Training record

Acknowledgement

A Realistic Timeline

Brief and budget

Site survey

Layout, load calculation and package-wise estimate

Your internal approvals

Procurement and manufacture

Site works

Delivery, installation and commissioning

Training and handover

Frequently Asked Questions

How much CSR funding does a school computer lab need?

What does Rs. 25 lakh of CSR funding buy for one school?

What is the cost per student of a CSR school project?

Is a payment to CBM IMPEX a donation eligible for 80G deduction?

How does GST work on equipment bought with CSR funds?

How long does a CSR school equipment project take?

What documents do we get at handover for our CSR impact report?

Can you supply schools across Karnataka, not just Bengaluru?

Tell Us the Budget and We Will Tell You the Scope

Related Pages

Cost Per School Calculator

CSR in Education

Computer Lab Setup

Smart Classrooms