The germ of many powerful ideas lies in casual conversations. And so, it was with this one. Long term friends and associates – Santosh Jayaram and me – met at the Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi on the sidelines of an event. It had been many moons since we had connected – Santosh having dropped off the radar for a bit and relocating to Kerala. That meeting happened some nine months ago. When two dedicated professional meet what else would they talk about? What’s happening in the CSR space and what most urgently needs to be done? We both agreed that the area of Social Impact Assessment was crying out for attention. And then – as often happens – we parted with much bonhomie and hoping to meet up soon.
Little did I realise, that our casual conversation had set off a spark in the ever-agile mind of Santosh. Hardly had a month passed before I got a call from him outlining the genesis of a framework that he intended to create in the SIA domain. I listened with a mixture of disbelief and growing excitement – understanding that something of real value was about to be created. My queries to him were answered with alacrity and a clear perception of his vision to produce an innovative, AI driven tool that would be of immense value to all stakeholders – Corporate entities, implementing agencies, impact assessment organizations and professionals.
He soon revealed that his partner in this enterprise would be Ruby Thapar – someone whom I had also known for quite some years. Her stints with Dow Chemicals, Vedanta Resources, the Aditya Birla Group and Caterpillar had established her as one of the finest minds in the CSR and Sustainability space. I couldn’t have been happier. This partnership was going to do wonders – and so it proved.
What they unveiled on the 14th of July, 2026 at the India International Centre, was the IAAF or the Impact Assessment Accreditation Forum. Their intent – as they explained to the assembled group of specialists and experts – was to allow IAAF to operate as a principles-based accreditation framework to baseline and independently verify the impact claims of corporate projects. They have devised a finely honed, well-trialed and thoughtfully conceived AI-strengthened tool that would evaluate any completed SIA and come out with strengths, weaknesses, suggestions for improvement and even a rating score. Any SI agency would now be in a position to understand how they could do better, what aspects needed more attention. Corporates can use this tool to evaluate the Reports that they receive and call out agencies for gaps in their performance. Implementing Agencies can now look at Reports and draw inferences of how they could have implemented their programs and projects better.
Santosh explained that the model operates at 4 levels of refinement. The first is at no cost to the user, but the more advanced models require reasonable charges to be paid. The tool also looks at the domain of Accreditation. In the Jayaram model, accreditation is structurally tied to the Impact Report Accreditation Standard (Ver 2.0). Every submitted report is fed into a fixed, transparent 0–10 scoring rubric. This ensures that whether a corporate entity is reporting on rural development, water conservation, or carbon mitigation, the accreditation evaluates the baseline integrity of the information through the exact same rigorous scientific lens.
Most significantly, Santosh and Ruby have constituted a Founding Advisory Council comprising elite minds across public policy, social development, and corporate sustainability to govern the standards. By embedding this diverse human oversight council at the top of the accreditation pyramid, the final stamp of approval carries legitimate weight with global institutional investors, regulatory bodies like SEBI, and public stakeholders. Also, notably, Santosh and Ruby are going truly global. This tool is not just for India or only for CSR. Many organizations abroad are already responding with eagerness to the Model.
Of special value to me was the opportunity to meet up with colleagues and associates in the space of CSR and Sustainability. How often do I get to meet Ashwini Saxena, Sandeep Kumar, Parul Soni, Rohan Sarma, Dinesh Agarwal and such bright sparks as Debdatta Mukherjee and Mudita Lall in one gathering?
Great job Santosh and Ruby. All strength to your elbows and rest assured that we are all with you on this epic journey!
