Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham's emphasis is on 'compassion driven research' covering issues such as poverty, starvation, environmental pollution and contamination; as well as a focus on outreach via their charitable foundation. The School for Sustainable Futures focuses on providing aid to the most vulnerable as the most critical university metric, above publications or funding endowment. The educational focus is on community-centered programs to create self-sustaining ecosystems. The university's mission is to endow students with compassion and mindfulness and 'education for life', rather than 'education for living'. As such, the educational framework E4Life (Education for Life) offers an experiential sustainable development PhD program integrating social, economic, environmental, and cultural aspects and needs of communities within 'adopted villages'.