Foreign lender, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is planning to increase its focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India in the upcoming five years. The bank will do so in terms of funding as well as indulgence in livelihood and micro-finance programmes.

The social activities wing of the bank in India is RBS Foundation. "Our bank aims to grow its business five-fold in India within the next five years and along with that, we are also committed to expand our social projects at the same speed," RBS Foundation Head N Sunil Kumar said.

The foundation is working on an eco tourism project in Sunderbans, West Bengal. Along with this, it is working to indulge villagers in Melghat region of Maharashtra in carbon trading initiatives like tree plantation and afforestation.

"Along with that, we are also helping local villagers in Maharashtra's Melghat region develop a 2,500 hectare area for forestation for the purpose of carbon sequestration and trading," Kumar said.

"Besides, it will also be our endeavour to increase our micro-finance campaign and livelihood programme in rural areas by the same level," Kumar said.

RBS Foundation has been involved in livelihood and MFI programmes since 2006. It started as the ABN Amro Foundation.

"The micro-finance and livelihood programme have been very successful and now our effort would be to replicate them in other parts of India," Kumar said.