The Foundation believes that improving market access for low income households is the only sustainable way to bring about increases in their incomes and therefore will principally focus its attention on redressing market-failures which constrain them. However, low income households are often not able to access even well functioning markets because they are basically unhealthy or uneducated and are therefore unable to respond to market signals. It is also possible that even well-developed markets may not provide a level playing field for low income households or in the long-run pursue strategies that are not environmentally sustainable. The consequent effects of this are likely to hurt low income households, perhaps disproportionately - particularly those living in tropical regions like India.

Driven by these concerns the Foundation has chosen as its focus areas:

Markets: Facilitating access to the markets will allow the low income households to gain a foothold in the rapid economic growth of India. It will aim to make markets more responsive to the needs of the poor and tap into the low-income households both as producers and consumers.

Human Capacity: Promoting the development of better human capacity amongst the lowest income households through quality education and sound health to enable them to participate in the socio economic processes of the country and make meaningful contributions to growth.

Sustainability: Promoting Environmental Sustainability and the growth of a strong civil society.

The ICICI Foundation will adopt a policy of active mentorship in each of these defined areas and will seek to work with specialised institutions in all areas, ranging from facilitating the flow of grant and commercial resources to HR, Communications and Business Development.