Corporate Social Responsibility: A Gentle Approach to Our Earth and Its People

2011
corporate SOCIAL responsibility

a gentle approach to our earth and its people
SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY,KERALA.
SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.
Preface
The corporate India based in and around cities has been flourishing and marching ahead whereas
rural India still remains desperately poor. The gap between two Indias needs to be bridged or at least narrowed if India is to be counted as a developed country someday. The corporate India can play a key role in bridging this gap. Perhaps there is a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid for the corporate sector and it can only be mined if rural India is brought into the mainstream of development and not leftbehind. As per United Nations and the European Commission, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) entails triple bottomline: profits, protection of environment and fight for social justice. Since our Foundation through its Institute of Rural Research and Development (IRRAD) is heavily engaged in the last two, we are keenly interested in learning from the survey the efforts being put in by the corporate India towards CSR. The concept of CSR applies equally to individuals and corporations as it does to the State. It is a joint and shared responsibility of civil society, activist groups, Government and corporate sector to create appropriate means and avenues for the marginalised and bring them to the mainstream. The success of CSR lies in practising it as a core part of a companys development strategy. It is important for the corporate sector to identify, promote and implement successful policies and practices that achieve triple bottomline results. There are over 700,000 registered companies in India out of which about 6545 are traded on the Indian Stock Exchange. They need to ask themselves how best they can bring about social justice, and of protection the environment in co-operation with other sectors of the economy. To create a winwin situation, it is essential for all of us to work together to alleviate abject poverty and improve miserable living conditions that exist in rural India. I congratulate Times Foundation for bringing out the first ever national survey on Corporate Social Responsibility among leading business firms, corporate houses and public sector organisations thus paving the way for the formation of CSR alliance in India and enabling to convert issues of importance into advocacy.
Research Methodology
The researcher used a combination of primary and secondary research techniques, based on
participatory and ethical research principles. It included: web based research, review of print literature, visits to selected sites to witness CSR within the context of childrens issues, and interviews/ group discussions with selected representatives of industry, representatives from Chambers of Commerce and Industry, members from IT industry and financial institutions, representatives from foundations and trusts floated by corporations to promote CSR. During the course of the study, the researcher interviewed a number of corporate executives, most of whom were responsible for CSR functions in their respective organisations. He also had extensive discussions with representatives of Trade and Industry and Chamber of Commerce. Similarly, experts on CSR issues from not-forprofit sector were also consulted, so were NGO activists. The researcher also made field visits to a few sites where CSR initiatives were operational. While selecting the companies, efforts were made to select companies from a variety of sectors (at least, in India where there were hundreds of companies to choose from, as against Bangladesh where the choice was very much limited and Nepal where there was no choice at all) to get a comprehensive picture. In India the companies were chosen from following categories: Companies considered to be pioneers in promoting CSR (TATA group) and having a long history of philanthropic activities (Birlas). Financial institutions involved significantly in CSR (ICICI Bank). IT companies (WIPRO, Satyam) Public sector company (NTPC) Manufacturing companies from various sectors (Forbes Marshall, Asian Paints, Dr Reddys laboratory). Multi National Companies (IKEA, Intel). The outcome is based on these interviews, consultations, field visits and web and print literature review. Limitations of the study: The study has been carried out with a view to map and understand whether children are supported by the various CSR initiatives of the corporate sector in the region and how. It does not go into depth of how a company defines and practices CSR and whether a particular company is promoting CSR as it is generally understood. The focus of the study is on childrens rights in the domain of CSR and not on CSR per say.
4 SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.
Further, the term CSR itself is used very widely ranging from compliance with law to purely charitable activities. In that sense the study has its own limitations vis--vis promoting understanding of CSR from a new angle. Another limitation the study pertains to actual visits to project sites where children form a part of CSR initiatives of the company. The project sites and the head offices of the company, where most of the persons responsible for CSR were located, were at geographically different locations (barring a few) and hence it was not possible to visit both due to paucity of time and the amount of travel involved. Therefore, most of the findings are drawn heavily from personal interviews, presentations and available literature rather than all this plus actual project site visits. This also holds true for number of companies visited in Nepal and Bangladesh. And finally, though the title of the study is CSR and Child rights in South Asia, the study does not cover all the countries in South Asia. It is based on reviews done in only three countries, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Getting logistical support from countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, within a limited period of time, could be attributed to this limitation.
ABBREVIATION
CRP CSR
Child Rights Programming Corporate Social Responsibility
UNCRC United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child CCC Clean Clothes Campaign CII Confederation of Indian Industry COP Communication on Progress CSR Corporate Social Responsibility ETI Ethical Trading Initiative GCS Global Compact Society (India) GDI German Development Institute IPF India Partnership Forum NGO Non-governmental organization PSU Public Sector Undertaking PWC Price Waterhouse Coopers UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNGC United Nations Global Compact
LIST OF CASES
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The Sanskrit saying , Atithi Devo Bhav, means the one who comes to you for being
the society. Thus, the phrase Social Responsibility has its roots in Indian context.
served,
should be taken to be as God, is considered as the highest order of responsibility, be it to individuals or to
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a term describing a company's obligation to be accountable to all of its stakeholders in all its operations and activities. CSR has several strategic implications. The first is that CSR can be an integral element of a firm's business and corporate-level differentiation strategies. Therefore, it should be considered as a form of strategic investment. Even when it is not directly tied to a product feature or production process, CSR can be viewed as a form of reputation building or maintenance. A second strategic implication of the firms perspective is that one can generate a set of predictions regarding patterns of investment in CSR across firms and industries.. In particular, the focus is on issues relating to industry evolution, market structure, firm dynamics, and the role of asymmetric information in the context of CSR. Thus ,the present exploratory research focuses the Corporate Social Responsibility as a determinant of market strategic issues , with the various dimensions of CSR and its relevance for emerging markets , it also throw light on redesigning marketing paradigms for the global competition.
A historical perspective:
India had a very well developed commerce and industrial sector since ancient times. All the philosophical, religious and spiritual literature available of that period is testimony to this fact. The great Indian philosopher Kautilya (4th Century BC) in his book Arthshashtra has described in detail the trade and crafts, manufacturing, agricultural, mining and forestry sector present during1 the time of Maurya Empire.
L.N. Rangarajan, Kautilya, The Arthashastra, Penguin Books India
2 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India, Penguin Books India, 2004, page 113
Reference to presence of trade and craft is also found in Vedic literature, the Jataka tales and in Mahabharata one of the greatest Indian epics of all times.3 In modern times, the establishment of the Industrial sector can be traced back to 1911 when Jamshedji Tata laid the foundations of heavy industry by starting the TATA Iron and Steel Works. Today, India has one of the fastest growing economy in the world with a GDP of USD billion 576 in 2003-044. The economy is doing very well with real GDP growth of 8.5 per cent in 2003-04, 7.5 per cent in 2004-05 and 8.1per cent in 2005-06. According to some experts, the share of India in world GDP is expected to rise from 6 per cent to 11 per cent in 2025 and thus it is expected to emerge as the third super economic power after the US and China.4 Industrial, manufacturing and service sector has contributed immensely to this economic growth. Industrial sector is quite diversified and spread throughout the country. The banking sector and financial markets are well developed. The IT and BPO industry is thriving and growing at a fast pace with a potential to capture more than 50 per cent of the global off shoring market by 2010 5. 30. The term Corporate Social Responsibility might be new to Indias corporate world, the concept is not. Social responsibility of business has been a subject of discussion in India since time immemorial. Several references towards this end can be found in ancient Indian philosophical and spiritual literature. Vedic literature (around 2000BC) views business as an instrument of wealth for welfare, to attain socially desirable goals, through ethically worthy means, resulting in a generation of healthy, wholesome individuals, who carry ethical values and positive impulses into their community62. Kautilya (4th century BC) in his epical work, The Arthshashtra, has enunciated about the principles of fair trade which were designed to promote the welfare of the people.8 In recent times, many business houses believe that the role of business in society should not be limited to creation of wealth for its owners and promoters but also for the larger society. The early pioneers of Indian Industry, whether TATAs, Birlas, or Bajajs, firmly believed in the concept of social responsibility of business. The founder of TATA Steel, Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata, expressed this very clearly when he said: We generate wealth for the Nation. What comes from the people must, to the extent possible, therefore, get back to the people
3 Government of India 4 The NASSCOM, Mckinsey Report 20051 5 Garavi Gujrat, Asian Newsweekly, GG2, NetNews 06/04/2005
6 Vedanta in Action, Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Mumbai, pages 26-2 9 SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

(Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata (1903).
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Gandhiji went on to elaborate this concept further by emphasizing the moral responsibility of business through his idea of Trusteeship. He viewed owners of capital, as Trustees holding resources on behalf of the society, which to produce goods and services, will benefit society, at large.
The founder of Bajaj group, Shri Jamnalal Bajaj said: Our wealth should be utilized for improving the quality of the society and the nation. We should never fail to spend at least a portion of our incomes on the social, economic and educational development of the province where we live.
Most corporate bodies traditionally view CSR as an extension of a financial input for a humanitarian cause. This tradition has not only continued but has grown over times with many corporate houses engaging in social development. Since the early 1990s with the onset of globalization and opening up of markets to transnational corporations, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is being increasingly emphasized. With globalization has come the influx of information, which has raised expectations among various civil society institutions about the role of transnational corporations in meeting their share of socially responsible practices. Hence, the corporations are not being only judged by the profits they make for their shareholders, but also by the impact they make on the wellbeing of the community. The performance of a company is not only being measured in terms of economic impact but what is known as triple bottom line impact, i.e. economic, environmental and social or Triple P Impact, People, Planet and Profit. Terms like shareholders wealth is being replaced by stakeholders wellbeing and maximisation of profit is being gradually replaced by the concept of optimisation of profit. CSR is denoted by different names; corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, corporate philanthropy, community relations/affairs, etc. Whatever the terms used, the underlying assumption is, doing good for the society. This business of doing good is understood differently by different people and defined differently. Business for Social Responsibility, a global organisation that helps member companies to make CSR an integral part of their business operations, defines it as achieving commercial success in ways that honour ethical values and respect people, communities and the natural environment. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development describes CSR as business commitment to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life.
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CSR IN INDIA: The Current trends A cursory glance at the Indian Corporate scene would show numerous examples of social initiatives being promoted by various companies. Almost all the big industrial houses, be they in public or private sector, either implement social development project themselves or support NGOs and Governments initiatives on this. Even the small and medium industries are not lagging behind. According to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), approximately Rs. 3,000 crores (around 600 million US$) is the extent of corporate philanthropic spending in India per year.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is:

An obligation, beyond that required by the law and economics, for a firm to pursue long term goals that are good for society The continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as that of the local community and society at large About how a company manages its business process to produce an overall positive impact on society.
However, Corporate Social Responsibility as practiced in India is in its evolutionary stage. The earlier models of corporate giving could broadly be classified as ethical (Gandhian trusteeship model) and statist (public sector enterprise). The earlier proponents of social responsibility whether in public or private sector sought to promote these models by designing and implementing community development projects in the vicinity of their works. Along with this, another preferred way was to donate either in cash or kind, promote sports and games, art and culture and provide services like health, education drinking water, etc. While majority of companies still prefer to operate the concept of CSR this way, the CSR scene is increasingly becoming more stakeholder oriented than before. Companies are becoming strategic in their CSR activities, as against majority of earlier cheque-book type corporate philanthropy efforts. CSR is becoming more institutionalised and slowly there is a recognition that it should be congruent with the mainline business strategies of the corporations and should not be seen as a nonstrategic, public relations type of exercise.
While earlier, the companies were satisfied with community development activities this is no more the case. Corporate sector and foundations floated by it are chalking out what David Korten refers to as
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third generation strategies, which seek to address policy and systemic issues9 . Companies are also laying more emphasis on sustainability, replicability, scalability and impact measurement of their social initiatives. In the last few years, CSR has become a very hot topic of debate, discussion and hype not only in the west but also in India. With the opening up of the economy, the Indian corporate sector which was till then more or less insulated from the onslaught of multinational corporations, was suddenly exposed to real competition. The economic reforms which marked the liberalisation process had increased pressures on the performance of business and industry. With the process of globalisation set up in motion, awareness about environmental sustainability, human rights, consumer activism and corporate governance also increased. The advancement in global CSR field led to a substantial growth in the number of external standards produced by various organisations, both Governmental and Non-Governmental. Global standards like AA1000, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), United Nations Global Compact and Asian-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), Business Code of Conducts, are some of the examples of how increasingly the corporate sector is expected to become more accountable to its stakeholders. These standards have not just evolved externally. There is an evident effort to frame standards internally as well. The Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI), a network of Tata companies with an objective to collectively evolve a common direction for social responsibilities for the TATA group has come out with a TATA index for sustainable human development. Another factor which is influencing the promotion of CSR is that of public expectations from companies about their social roles. A poll carried out by TERI-Europe and ORG-MARG in 2001 in India, suggests that people expect the companies to be actively engaged in societal matters. Majority of the general public surveyed feel that the companies should be responsible for solving social problems as well as providing good products at cheaper prices, following labour standards and being environmentally friendly10. Thus, CSR is being seen as an integral part of corporate world, not only by outsiders but also by the corporations themselves. This could be gauged by the fact that in the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in September 2002, a large number of Corporate Czars from all over the world were present. In fact, there were more leaders from business and industry than the leaders of Government in the summit. 9 David Korten, Getting to the 21st Century 10 Altered Images: The 2001 State of Corporate Responsibility in India Poll, Tata Energy Research Institute
Corporate Responsibility (CR) has emerged as a significant theme in the global business community and is gradually becoming a mainstream activity. The growing emphasis on corporate responsibility is affecting the
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relationship between companies and their various stakeholders, such as investors, customers, vendors, suppliers, employees, communities and governments.
The CR trend is being driven by a variety of factors, such as the erosion of trust in large corporations, the globalization of business, the corporate-governance movement, the rise in importance of socially responsible funds and sheer competitive pressures. This last factor, however, does not necessarily imply that firms emphasising CR will beat the competition. It may produce such intangible benefits as brandenhancement, stronger employee morale and greater investor confidence. But, on the tangible side, it is harder to prove that CR leads to higher profits. Indeed, it is easier to quantify the costs of emphasising CR than the benefits. A full-fledged CR programme at a large multinational can cost tens of millions of dollars, or as much as 2% of total revenue.
The worldwide development of CR, then, is neither linear nor uniform. At this stage, CR seems like the proverbial elephant being felt by different blind menit is interpreted in many ways, but, nonetheless, is a large, single body and one that is on the move. If CR is to progress to the next stage of its development, a major challenge is to establish more widely accepted ways to measure CR. At the moment, there are many competing standards of measurement. CR also remains a controversial subject, rejected by many corporate boards as an unwelcome and unnecessary intrusion into company affairs. The arguments, if anything, prove that CR is very much a live topic and one that has to be addressed by the global business community.
Corporate social responsibly is the continuing commitment by business to behave according to business ethics and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of the life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at large. And also corporate social responsibility has generated a great deal of debate in business as well as in corporate circles in recent times. This debate centered around two major issues.
The primary issue is concerned with the extent to which corporations should be involved in social responsibility. The secondary issue is whether corporate social responsibility is a developed country trend and if corporations operating in developing countries have any or different types of obligations to CSR. Many experts differ in their views of the nature and extent of corporate social responsibility. Some perceive corporate social responsibility in a narrow sense and thereby view CSR in terms of supply of goods and
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services to society at a profit within a regulatory framework (Friedman, 1970). Therefore corporate social responsibility is not a threat to achievement of economic goals of a corporation; rather CSR is an opportunity and can be the basis of economic development of firms in terms of competitive advantage in global market. Businesses can not exist unless customers exist. Businesses run as long as the customers are satisfied. Gaining satisfaction of the customers in the long run does not end in ensuring quality products and services itself. Todays society expects more from a business. Since businesses can earn profit only if society consumes its products, society expects that a part of the profit should be spent for the betterment of the society at large.
A business of today must run its activities in a socially acceptable way if it desires to sustain in the long run. Businesses should operate without jeopardizing the fate of the future generation. And for that, business There are four dimensions of corporate responsibility:

Economic - responsibility to earn profit for owners. Legal - responsibility to comply with the law (societys codification of right and wrong). Ethical - not acting just for profit but doing what is right, just and fair. Voluntary and philanthropic - promoting human welfare and goodwill.
needs to think for the society, environment, and stakeholders of it. Long run relationship with the stakeholders can ensure long run sustainability of a business. This is the reason why corporate social responsibility currently has gained so much importance.
The meaning of CSR is analyzing the interdependent relationships that exist between corporations and economic systems and the societies and also discussing the level of any obligations of a business has to its immediate society; a way of proposing policy ideas on how those obligations can be met as well as a tool by which the benefits to a business for meeting those obligations can be identified.
The main objectives of this study are having an idea about corporate social responsibility under the competitive world. Focusing on the diverse dimensions of CSR is also our motto. What is the position of Bangladeshi companies regarding corporate social responsibility is our another objective. The entirety of CSR can be discerned from the three words contained within its title phrase: corporate, social, and responsibility. Therefore, in broad terms, CSR covers the responsibilities corporations (or other for-profit organizations) have to the societies within which they are based and operate.
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More specifically, CSR involves a business identifying its stakeholder groups and incorporating their needs and values within the strategic and day-to-day decision-making process. Therefore, a business Society within which it operates, which defines the number of stakeholders to which the organization has a responsibility, may be broad or narrow depending on the industry in which the firm operates and its perspective. Figure: Significance of Corporate Social Responsibility Commitment
Shareholder
Partnership Supplier
Corporate Sector - Company - Firm - Industry - Organization
Trust Consumer s
Employees
Respect
Three Dimensional Aspects of CSR:

The purpose of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is to make corporate business activity and corporate culture sustainable in three aspects: Economic aspects. Social aspects. Environmental and Ecological aspects.
Economic aspects of CSR:

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The economic aspects of CSR consist of understanding the economic impacts of the companys operations. Economic issues have long been overlooked in the discussion on corporate social responsibility. For many years, the aspect has been widely assumed to be well managed. However, it is actually the least understood by many of those shaping the corporate and public policy agendas, and underrepresented the corporate responsibility agenda.
The economic aspects of CSR is often mistakenly considered to be synonymous with financial issues, which is why it has been assumed easier to implement than the other two pillars of the temple. However, the economic responsibility is not simply a matter of companies being financially accountable, recording employment figures and debts in their latest corporate responsibility report. The economic dimension of the sustainability agenda should rather consider the direct and indirect economic impacts that the organizations operations have on the surrounding community and on the companys stakeholders. That is what makes up corporate economic responsibility.
a) The Multiplier Effect The economic performance of a company has direct and indirect impacts on all of its stakeholders including its employees, local governments, non-profit organizations, customers, suppliers, and the communities in which the companies operates. For example: a good economic performance makes it possible to develop operations for the long term and to invest in development and the well-being of employees. The employees of the company get good salaries, from which they purchase goods and services as well as pay taxes. These activities fuel the local service industry, government programs and the community activities. This multiplier effect becomes all the more important if the company is one of the largest employers in the communities.
b) Contribution through taxes Companies are major contributors to the well-being of the area surrounding their operations, for example through the local tax base. Therefore, the question arises: is it responsible for a business to see corporate taxes purely as to cost be avoided, rather than part of their social contract with society? Taxes have a
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Corporate social responsibility means:
Conducting business in an ethical way and in the interests of the wider community Responding positively to emerging societal priorities and expectations A willingness to act ahead of regulatory confrontation Balancing shareholder interests against the interests of the wider community
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Being a good citizen in the community
significant impact on the creation and distribution of wealth: tax avoidance, though perfectly legal, deprives the community in the area of the companys operation of well-being.
c) Avoiding Actions that Damage Trust A companys license to operate depends upon the trust and support of the local communities where it operates. The shift in power from the public the private sector emphasizes the importance of this trust and the obligations and responsibilities that come with it. Some company activities are potentially very destructive to the trust earned from the community or otherwise cannot be regarded as economically responsible. These should be avoided or at least carefully considered. Example of such harmful company behavior include: bribery and corruption, tax avoidance: and concentration of rewards and incentives of the companys performance to few individuals only instead of fairer distribution among the personnel. The company should also stop to consider the economic effects of changes in locations and/or operations to the community.
Social Aspects of CSR:

Social responsibility is the newest of the three dimensions of corporate social responsibility and it is getting more attention than it has previously had. Many organizations are becoming increasingly active in addressing social concerns social responsibility means being accountable for the social effects the company has on people -even indirectly. This includes the people within the company, in the supply chain of the company, in the community the company is in and as customers of the company which means the whole lot of stakeholder. It refers to the managements obligation to make choices and take actions that will contribute to the well fare and interests of society as well as those of the organization. The following aspects have been found to be key the social aspects of CSR for an organization:
a) Responsibility towards Customers -
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The idea of treating customers with respect and attention is not new to business: often being responsible to customers has a direct positive effect on the companys profits. There are, however, broader social responsibilities including providing good value for money. These responsibilities may include such issues as the safety and durability of products or services; standard or after sales service; prompt and courteous attention to queries and complaints; adequate supply of products or services; fair standards of advertising and trading; and full and unambiguous information to potential customers.
b) Responsibility towards Employees Businesses are major contributors to the employment generation of the community. However, social responsibility to employees extends beyond terms and conditions of the formal contract of employment. Companies need to come up with wider expectations that todays employees have for the quality of their working life. Such expectations include taking care of the personnels welfare and safety at work and upholding their skills and motivation for the work. Beyond these expectations, a socially responsible company secures a just treatment and equal opportunities for all its employees, regardless of gender, age, race, or religion.
c) Responsibility towards the Community Companies depend on the health, stability, and prosperity of the communities in which they operate. Often majority of the companys employees and customers come from the surroundings area especially so for SMEs. The reputation of a company at it s location, its image as an employer and producer, but also as an actor in the local scene, certainly influences its competitiveness. Many companies become involved in community causes, for example by providing additional vocational training places, recruiting socially excluded people, sponsoring local sports and cultural events, and through partnerships with communities or donations to charitable activities.
Environmental and Ecological aspects of CSR:

Environmental concern and sustainable development is a key pillar of the corporate social responsibility. Environmental and ecological issues have been an important topic of discussion for the past thirty years in the business world the longest time of the three dimensions corporate social responsibility. The knowledge and issues within the dimensions have progressed across a landscape of changing business realities. Environmental aspects put in place in the 1970s with the first real understanding of the environmental impacts of business. Now, in the 21st century, we are faced with new challenges.
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a) Environmental Impact Corporate activity may have many types of effect s on the environment. Usually environmental impact refers to the negative effects occurring in the surrounding natural environmental due to business operations. Such impacts may include: overuse of natural, non-renewable resources of energy, pollution wastage, degeneration of biodiversity, climate change, deforestation etc. Since many business related environmental problem transcend national boundaries, most companies s are thus actors in global environment. To obey CSR in case of environmental aspects corporations can take the following steps:
Measuring Environmental Impact- Environmental impacts can be measured in several ways through environmentally extended input-output tables, material input per service unit (MIPS) calculations, ecological footprint and life cycle assessment, to name a few. Ecological footprint measures the amount of natures resources consumed in a given year, and compares it to the resources available in the world. Life cycle assessment (LCA or eco-balance) is used to assess the environmental performance of a product from raw materials in the beginning of the production process all the way to disposal at the end of use. The MIPS value is calculated by dividing the amount of material the product or service causes to move e.g. the amount of earth moved in mining , not just the metal used during its entire life span by the amount of benefits and value its brings. Environmental Management- To truly commit to its environmental responsibilities a company should change its traditional modes operation towards a more environmentally oriented one. The environmentally more responsible perspective could include such issues as an emphasis on increased resource productivity, cleaner production and active dialogue with the companys stakeholders. Many businesses have found that establishing an environmental management system is the best basis for good environmental performance. Quality, health and safety issues can also be integrated into the same management system.
b) The Win-Win of Environmental Responsibility Several individual companies have found that improving environmental performance may also have beneficial effects on the company itself. Using less material and streamlining processes to create less waste may lower the costs of operation significantly. Moreover, the close review of operations, which is needed to improve the environmental performance, may reveal other improvement points, such as risk and material loss. A responsible public image may also attract more customers. These kinds of improvements as well as
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the investments behind them are often referred to as win-win good for both the environment and profitability of the company. The principle of win-win situations has been established for a number of years and most recently recognized in the commissions 6th Environmental Action program. The program explains, how the European Union and member State governments can fulfill their role in helping business to identify market opportunities and undertake win-win investments, the action program also set out a number of other measures aimed at business: establishment of a compliance assistance program to help business understand the environmental requirements of the European Community; development of national, but harmonized, company environmental performance reward schemes that identify and reward good performers and encourage voluntary commitments and agreements.
Is CSR the same as business ethics?

There is clearly an overlap between CSR and business ethics Both concepts concern values, objectives and decision based on something than the pursuit of profits And socially responsible firms must act ethically
The difference is that ethics concern individual actions which can be assessed as right or wrong by reference to moral principles. CSR is about the organizations obligations to all stakeholders and not just shareholders.
- Managing Corporate Responsibility Another approach is for companies to issue CR reports and to assign someone to manage their corporate CR programme, either in a full-time or a part-time capacity. Again, the models vary widely. In some companies, CR officials are full-time high-level executives and the company issues detailed annual CR reports separate from annual reports. Our report allows us to capture in one concise package where we are and where we are going with CR, says Jim Walter, senior vice president of Worldwide Quality Assurance (who oversees CR as part of his duties). Chiquita, for example, has had a full-time CR executive for four years who reports to the board of directors.
At other companies, CR is regarded as a public relations or marketing function, often relegated to a junior public relations staffer who writes a one- or two-page CSR study that forms part of the standard annual report.Other companies practise CSR without using the term. They engage in activities that could be
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described as CR, such as the promotion of philanthropy, fair trade, environmental protection, human rights and so on, but dont know or dont care to include these activities under CR. On the other side of the coin, many companies like to promote various activities as being CR-friendly, but appear to be normal business practice. For example, the Japanese convenience store chain, Lawson, boasts that it is environmentally friendly by reducing power consumption in its stores and having more fuel efficient delivery trucks, but both measures are ones that any company would pursue to save money, with or without CR. CR practice varies widely, but the overall trend is clear. General Electric, for example, appointed a full-time vice president for corporate citizenship two years ago. The CEO of GE, Jeff Immelt, was recently quoted as saying Its up to us to use our platform to be a good citizen, because not only is it a nice thing to do, its a business imperative. Intel has also for the last three years appointed a full-time person to be responsible for CR, but someone based in the public affairs division rather than at an executive level. We need a single person who can manage the relationships with the various CSR, NGO and sustainability groups, says David Stangis, who is charged with the task. Intel issues an annual CR report that uses GRI standards. Its 2003 global citizen report is 40 pages long, covering issues such as the recycling of electronic waste, community programmes and labour relations. The company also holds special briefings about its non-financial accounting for socially responsible investors and other groups.
The idea of better communication is an essential one to CR. Among executives in the survey, the three top ways in which they report they are improving CR are strengthening governance structures (63%), implementing open and candid conversations with stakeholders (60%), and providing special training for executives and employees (46%). Investors have a similar attitude, saying that they can improve CR through private dialogue with companies and also requests to companies to improve governance structures. These results show the importance of transparency in dealings with stakeholders, such as employees and shareholders.
Software case study
Corporate responsibility: a false notion?
Programming responsibility
Dozens of software houses have in recent years begun to sell programmes designed to help companies conform with CR standards. At least 50 or 60 companies are writing some kind of software, says Indeed, the arguments of Olam, Alibaba GRIs Ms Slater. The GRI body itself is seeking to develop a software programme that companies can use to implement GRI standards and issue CR reports. When GRI sent out KERALA. 21 SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, a request for companies offering to develop the technology, it received 50 proposals. At Infosys, CR and software converge. While the company supports a number of charities and environmental efforts (such as using recycled toilet water to irrigate its lawns), Infosys uses IT to manage its

and the Easy Group are a variation of what critics of CR have said for years: that the best, and only, business of a company is its business. Left alone, a company will maximize profits (done within a legal framework), resulting in the maximum happiness for all stakeholders. The advocates of CR, say these critics, Imply there is something shameful in companies making profits by providing
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goods and services to consumers. So, CR implies that redemption can only be found through being responsible as a good corporate citizen.
But critics say that CR distracts companies From being successful, throwing sand into The gears of global capitalism by increasing the burden of regulations and other costs, and thus ultimately eroding the benefits that accrue to global stakeholders. One of the clearest critiques has come from an economist, David Henderson, the former head of the economics department of the OECD, and currently a visiting professor at the Westminster School of Business. In a 2001 treatise entitled, Misguided Virtue: False Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility (published by the New Zealand Business Roundtable), Mr Henderson wrote: CSR is flawed in its prescription, as well as its diagnosis. What it proposes for individual businesses, through stakeholder engagement and giving effect to the triple bottom line, would bring far-reaching changes in corporate philosophy and practice, for purposes that are open to question and with worrying implications for the efficient conduct of enterprises. Across economic systems and political boundaries, it would strengthen existing tendencies to regulate transactions, and to limit competition, in ways that would further restrict the opportunities and freedom of choice of people and enterprises.
Poor practices can be expensive:

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Of course, a company doesnt have to be dedicated to CR to seek to improve workplace safety, be transparent or build a good brand. But these figures do highlight a negative point: a company that pays no attention to CR is not necessarily going to have lower costs and be more profitable than one that does. In other words, while the bottom-line benefits of CR may be hard to quantify, the reverse is also true: the lack of CR doesnt guarantee higher profits for a company, all other things being equal. Companies that pollute often have tremendous inefficiencies in manufacturing. For example, coalfired plants with a dirty burn arent efficient, says Ms Brown. Companies that lack CR may gain some shortterm advantages over those that have it, she says, but over time it is not clear that they remain competitive. Poor labour relations, high pollution and similar CR problems will erode the performance of a factory, not help it, she says. The same is also true for issues such as corruption. Bribery is an expensive business model, she says. Whenever companies begin to globalize, they tend to embrace CR faster than those who stay at home, in her view. You tend to look for sustainable models as soon as you go abroad, she says, since an outsider entering a new market will be forced to depend on rules to succeed, as it has fewer local connections than entrenched domestic players. This is where some companies can gain an edge by utilizing CR to build a clean image. We have a competitive advantage because the reputation of Chinese companies is so low in the global market, says Jack Ma of an online trading company, Alibaba.com, based in Hangzhou. Mr Ma emphasizes what he calls the three trusts in his company: the first between the company and customers, the second between the company and employees, and the final one between the company and investors. We want to be known as the best employer in China, also the company with the best CR, he says. It is Alibabas strong brand image that helps drive the business. Because Alibaba has gained the trust of traders outside China, it can be a bridge to bring small Chinese companies to the world market. Mr Ma has reinforced the companys image by certifying Chinese suppliers as being trustworthy partners for Western buyers. These days, dozens of companies are willing to pay Alibaba thousands of dollars a year to be certified as a trusted Alibaba supplier. Obviously, this business model requires Alibaba to maintain its credibility with Western buyers; otherwise the entire companys future would be threatened.
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Three years ago, some salespeople were accepting kickbacks from companies to list them as our trusted suppliers, says Mr Ma. I had a clear message: no kickbacks. I would rather go bankrupt than do this. We had to fire the salespeople who were doing this. Therefore everyone knows that when you do business with Alibaba it is clean.
Conclusion and Recommendations:

CSR s an important business strategy because, wherever possible, consumers want to buy products from companies they trust; suppliers want to form business partnerships with companies they can rely on; employees want to work for companies they respect; and NGOs, increasingly want to work together with companies seeking feasible solutions and innovations in areas of common concern. Satisfying each of these stakeholders groups allows companies to maximize their commitment to another important stakeholders group their investors, who benefits most when the needs of these other stakeholder groups are being met. The winning companies of this century will be those who prove with their actions that they can be profitable and increase social value. Companies that done well on those issues, increasingly shareowners, customers, partners and employees are going to vote with their feet to that company. Corporations should consider three dimensions of CSR for running successfully in this competitive world. CSR as a strategy is becoming increasingly important for businesses today because of three identifiable trends: Changing social expectations Increasing affluence Globalization
There is an implicit contract between big business and society or indeed between whole economic sectors and society. Bangladesh is a fledgling democracy needing much advancement in its application and intellectual domains CSR is not a product but service that affects the society at large. Ineffective operations of CSR ha created an unbalanced society, ultimately contributing to a top heavy and non- sustainable business model. The gap between rich and poor has risen due to hegemonic control of the profit making institution called corporations; the corporations of Bangladesh are purely under the guidance of the rich whose motive are self-gratification and advancement. This equation stays valid to a point and then naturally loses coherence and justification because any relationship to sustain some element of parent-child attributes must be present. A rapacious corporation will ultimately tumble as it will become disenfranchised from the public its shareholders and will cease to find profit; their market size will shrink as the purchasing power of public will be depleted due to excessive profiteering and not giving back to the community. In the short run,
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this predicament is not tenable but given for the profit driven psychology, a disaster can be awaiting in the medium to long run. Sustainable and responsible organizations can only avert such fiascos and CSR is the guiding principle ensuring corporate success in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Bringing CSR practices in Bangladesh sets a definitive milestone in the total development of corporate Bangladesh. The goal is to maximize true value and benefit for an organization, while protecting the huge investment corporations make today in their brands. CSR asks to companies to ensure their business operations are clean and equitable, and contribute positively to the society in which they are based. Key steps on the road to integrating CSR within all aspects of operations include: Ensure the commitment of top management, and particularly the CEO, is communicated throughout the organization. Appoint a CSR position at the strategic decision-making level to manage the development of policy and its implementation. Develop relationships with all stakeholder group and interest. Incorporate a social or CSR audit within the companys annual report. Ensure the compensation system within the organization reinforces the CSR policies that have been created, rather than merely the bottom line.
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CHAPTER 5
OBJECT OF THE TOPIC
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CHAPTER 5
CONCEPT
Corporates are traditionally known as engines for driving the economic performance of an entity, its success being measured in terms of high returns on equity at individual plane and its contribution to the nations economic growth on a collective plane. Do they have any social or environmental responsibility? This paper begins with an attempt to define the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with
The concept of corporate
social relation to the newer concept of environmental ethics and extending to the boundaries of corporates responsibility involving themselves in the international carbon trading market. The paper would give reasons as to how
exactly Carbon trading is an excellent answer to the prevailing disrespect shown by the Corporates against originated in the Environment. Having defined the concept as it is commonly understood or as propounded by the
the 1950s in
theoreticians of CSR as an applied concept in the context of the environment, the paper seeks to examine the position in the Indian context, with some historical background, and the current practices, including the
USA and the
concept came setting up of the National Authority, under the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol, laid down by the UNFCCC, into and its compliance. The sustenance of these expanding environmental operations doesnt hold a future
promise without adherence to the OECD principles, UN millennium development goals and the concept of prominence in
public debate during the 1960s and
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CSR, which repeatedly are laying stress on realisation of the losses caused to the environment and the responsibility of corporates towards these losses. The generally accepted principle is that if a company has caused some damage to the environment, be it in the form of air or water pollution, it owes a debt to the society to make up for it. The issue is as to whether the march towards becoming environment conscious and socially responsible is how to chalk out a peaceful way of harmonizing the corporate world with ecology and environment. The Indian economy has been on a growth trajectory and recorded an annual growth rate of about 8% for the third year in succession. Post-liberalisation policies of 1991 have a significant visible impact. Further, the corporate sector accounts for a major part of this growth story by way of its contribution to the secondary and the tertiary sectors of the economy. Indian markets offer vast business opportunities for the international business and this interest is visible from the investment coming from overseas corporate world. The Indian corporates are also increasingly acquiring an important role in international operations as can be seen from the acquisitions of overseas businesses by the Indian companies and their role with respect to their environmental responsibilities. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in June 1992 by over 180 countries at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and came into force on 21 March 1994. The UNFCCC provides a legal framework that enables Parties to the Convention to start the process of stabilising Greenhouse Gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The Kyoto Protocol adopted under the UNFCCC in December 1997, came into force on 16 February 2005. The Kyoto Protocol commits industrialised signatory countries (.Annex I. countries) to reduce their GHG emissions by an average of 5.2%, compared with 1990 emissions during the period 2008-2012 (often referred to as the first commitment period). Under the Kyoto Protocol, Annex I countries may achieve these emission reductions either domestically or by supplementing their domestic efforts through three international market-based or flexible mechanisms which will be discussed later. The Kyoto Protocol sets targets for industrialised countries to cut their GHG emissions like carbon dioxide, methane, hydroflurocarbons, perflurocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride, nitrous oxide. These gases are mainly responsible for global warming, the rise in global temperature, which may have catastrophic consequences for life on earth. The targets for reducing emissions then become binding on all the countries, which have ratified the Protocol. The two main industrialized countries, which have not ratified the protocol, are Australia and United States. The agreement acknowledges that developing countries contribute least to climate change but will quite likely suffer most from its ill-effects. These countries do not have to commit to specific targets, but have to report their emissions levels and develop national climate mitigation programmes. China and India,
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potential major polluters with huge populations and growing economies, have both ratified the Protocol. As of now, 165 countries have ratified the Protocol. The paper attempts to combine the concepts of CSR and environmental degradation, with special emphasis on carbon trading and the role of corporates to comply with their CSR y involving themselves in the carbon trading market and in this way, have a profitable business and a reputation of being socially responsible at the same time. The first section of the paper defines the concept of CSR, with special emphasis on CSR in the Indian Context. The second section describes the environmental degradation and the role of corporates to counter the same. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) There is no universally accepted definition of CSR. There are varied views on what CSR is and what it is not. Having become a buzzword in boardrooms and the media, CSR is more often misunderstood as giving back to the society and considered to be synonymous with philanthropy. The dominant school of thought is that CSR is no philanthropic activity and a business must earn for what it invests. The company does it for its own long term good. Drawing a parallel with Publicity and Public Relations, it is argued that philanthropy could earn publicity but CSR, like Public Relations is a long term investment with assured returns. It advocates that CSR constitutes a series of initiatives taken by a company in its enlightened self-interest. Definition of CSR It would be interesting to derive a meaning of the concept with the dissection of each of the words. CSR is not a difficult concept and can be explained as: Corporate means organised business; Social means everything dealing with people, the society at large; Responsibility means accountability between the two.
From the above, CSR could be defined as the process of business operations carried out while ensuring compliance with legal requirements, as also linked to ethical values, to an extent. CSR means open and transparent business practices that are based on ethical values and respect for employees, communities and the environment. It is designed to deliver sustainable value to the society at large as well as to the shareholders. Now, there is no single, commonly accepted definition of CSR, even across global corporate bodies. It refers to business decision making linked to ethical values, compliance with legal requirements, and respect for people, communities and their environments. CSR is seen as more than a collection of discrete
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practices and occasional gestures or initiatives motivated by marketing, public relations or other business benefits. Rather, it is viewed as a comprehensive set of policies, practices and programmes that are integrated throughout business operations and decision-making processes. The concept of CSR is based on the idea that besides public authorities, companies also should take on responsibilities of social issues. According to more recent approaches, CSR is seen as a concept whereby on a voluntary basis social and environmental concerns are integrated in the companies business operations and in the interaction with their stakeholders. The idea of being a socially responsible company means to go beyond legal compliance and to invest in human resources and the environment. An external programme of good deeds will not protect a firm whose actual operations harm its surrounding society. Thus, being purely philanthropic externally is not enough. Also, at the same time, complying with the law is the minimum behaviour to legally stay in business and has nothing to do with the societys expectations, which are essential for the word social to have any meaning in CSR. The Indian perspective Broadly speaking, there are two views with regard to the CSR in India. The first view, considered to be more conservative, is that if a company is legally compliant and has been equitable in terms of (i) distribution of income and surplus, (ii) truthful and transparent in its disclosures, (iii) provision of a safe and healthy environment for its workers, (iv) payment of timely dividend to shareholders, (v) takes care of the qualitative and service aspects of its business with regard to their customers, and (vi) prompt in after-sale services, it is CSR & Environmental Ethics: The Indian Context 6 compliant with the principles and tenets of CSR, which it owes to all its stakeholders in some way or the other. However, the other school of thought takes its operations beyond the narrow confines and believes that this is not CSR, but this is the point where CSR begins. According to this view, a company simply becomes a good corporate citizen by doing all this but it still has a long way to comply with its CSR. Here, CSR is loosely referred to what a company does, apart from its obligations, for example, development of surrounding areas like parks, roads, hospitals, day-to-day services; taking care of the interests of people who are connected with the company, e.g. shareholders, people living in surrounding areas who suffer because of the companys day-to-day activities like degradation of environment in terms of pollution, deforestation, etc. In all such cases, the company owes a duty to the society to make up for the damage caused by them and also to provide them better conditions for living, as they have been an important part of the growth of the company. CSR does not mean that the company has to indulge in philanthropic activities. There is a thin line of distinction between CSR and Philanthropy. What we are talking about here is CSR, and certainly not philanthropy, a concept which does not entail any legal obligation or pressure.
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A further insight into the concept of CSR takes us to the two broad approaches to CSR. The first approach is the Traditional Approach. The basic theme of this approach is doing good to look good. Basically, this approach was followed for a long time, till recently, and the companies following this approach undertook to perform their CSR only for the sake of it, only because it would fetch them recognition in the market. It did not practice these activities because it was genuinely interested in the well being of the society. The mere reason behind it was to build its corporate image. Commitments were short term, allowing the organization to spread the wealth over a variety of organizations and issues through the years. The new approach or the Modern Approach has its underlying objective, doing all that we can to do the most good, not just some good. It supports corporate objectives as well. This is a win-win situation for all because when a particular company does well to the society genuinely and for a cause, it has to be good, and along with this process, it succeeds in building a name for itself. Vikramaditya Singh Malik & Roshan Santhalia The million-dollar question as of now is whether CSR has been or should be mandated or not. As of now, there is no law that recognizes or enforces the concept of CSR, but still companies do comply with their responsibilities, which may be for their personal gains to their reputation, name or even profits. The debate as to whether there should be a law to enforce the concept of CSR has recently arisen and with the passing of various judgements by various courts in India, including the Supreme Court of India, precedents have been set which go in favour of CSR acquiring the statutory backing and are in specific reference to the environment. Following cases deserve a mention: National Textile Workers Union Vs. P.R. R: It was held by the Apex Court in this case that the traditional view that a company is the property of the shareholders is an exploded myth. According to the new socio-economic thinking, a company is a social institution having duties and responsibilities towards the community in which it functions. Obviously the Honble Supreme Court of India is referring to CSR, when it talks of duties and responsibilities towards the community. The generally accepted view is that if a company has the resources and has come a long way in its progress, it owes a debt to the society and the community in which it has progressed. Also, it is agreed that if a company has caused some loss to its surrounding areas, it is its obligation to make up for that loss, whether technical or environmental, as a part of its CSR. Panchmahals Steel Ltd. Vs. Universal Steel Traders : In this case, the Gujarat High Court has pointed out that a company has three-fold reality: Economic reality

Human reality, and Public reality
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It also noted that keeping the environment clean is a sentiment gaining momentum after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984. Birla Zauri Agro Chemical Ltd., Goa Case (April 1975): In this case, the Goa High Court ordered the closure of the companys operations because the effluents of the company were polluting the sea causing CSR & Environmental Ethics: The Indian Context 8 large-scale deaths of fish and also polluting the wells of villagers and damaging the crops. Here the company was obviously violating the environment laws. The company has a statutory duty in such cases to take care of the pollutants and maintain the environmental balance. It follows the principle that the polluter pays. As a responsible corporate citizen, the company should have set up an effluent treatment plant not only as a part of its statutory obligations but also in fulfillment of its CSR objectives. Now, since this paper discusses the role of corporates towards their CSR and especially towards the environment, further emphasis is being laid on CSR and the novice concept of carbon trading, in the wake of the recent problems arising out of global warming and the awareness in this respect, especially in India.
Environmental degradation by Corporates in India : One of the major provisions of Indian State Policy is to maintain environmental standards along with promoting economic growth. However, the same becomes difficult, as it has to be implemented through the archaic bureaucratic lines that still haunt the countrys basic political and civil system. Indian Corporates in the contemporary times have taken full advantage of this not so strict environmental control by the government and have been successful in maximizing profits for themselves. However, over the last few years the Indian Corporates are realizing that it is in their favour that they adhere to their social responsibility and grow in a manner that is more sustainable. Indian Industries have opened up post 1991 reforms that took place in the country allowing freedom from strict rules and regulations that had made working of Indian Industries very difficult. In this post reform scenario, Indian industries have widely increased the production capacities and basic infrastructure leading to increasing amount of pollution. With the increasing liberalization and globalization of the Indian Economy it seemed almost axiomatic to assume that the greening of India would only be successful if it was made into a paying proposition in commercial terms.
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Indian Companies like Reliance group of Industries, Tata Steel Group and other big corporations have created a lot of hassle and trouble in the environment over the post 1991 scenario. Therefore, it is imperative for such corporations to pay back to the community as a whole in order to compensate for their activities. E.g. The Indian Oil Corporation refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat has been a cause for huge marine pollution over the past years. The refinery has polluted the Western Coast of Indian through Oil spillages, oily wastage etc. Carbon Trading at the Indian Level : Carbon trading is an umbrella term that includes the trading of GHG reduction credits that were defined in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol of the Climate Change Convention, first drawn up in 1992. The key idea behind carbon trading is that, from a global point of view, where carbon dioxide comes from is far less important than total amounts. The carbon market which enables emissions to be cut with the minimum price tag creates a choice: either spend the money to cover the costs of cutting pollution (emissions), or else continue polluting (emitting), and pay someone else to cut their pollution. There are two main ways to exchange carbon. The first is the cap-and-trade scheme whereby emissions are limited and can then be traded. Under Kyoto Protocol Annex I countries can trade between each other. The European Trading Scheme is a cap-and-trade scheme and the largest companies-based scheme around. It is mandatory and includes 12,000 sites across the 25 European Union member states. The compliance is critical and under Kyoto obligations, industrialised countries have 100 days after final annual assessments to pay for any shortfall- by buying credits or more allowances via emissions trading. Failure to do so leads to further penalties. There are also some voluntary cap and- trade schemes. The Chicago Climate Exchange is such a scheme. Interest in carbon trading at regional level is increasing in America, even though the US Government has decided not to ratify Kyoto Protocol. In voluntary schemes, there is no provision of a penalty. The Kyoto Protocol laid down the excellent idea of Carbon Trading at the Global level with various countries having specified amount of Carbon Emissions Limit. Presently, various Indian Companies are practicing carbon trading, but the same is being done at the international level. Although India has no commitments to fulfil as it is a part of the Non annex I countries in the Kyoto Protocol but a system which can actually replicate the international system of carbon trading at the domestic level would give India the first mover advantage. Due to the same, India would solve, in advance, the problem of fulfilling the commitments raised by Environmental protocols in the future and at the same time; the Indian Industries would be able to sell off the surplus carbon credits to countries outside. It is obvious and definite that with India coming up as an international hub for trade and commerce, the pollution levels of the country would rise. In that case, there would be protocols on the international level
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that would restrict Indian activities to curb emission outburst. Therefore, if India can actually learn something from the contemporary system of carbon trading then India would not have to face the issue and its implications in the future. The concept of Carbon Trading can be used at the domestic level within India where the large corporates can be given a certain amount of carbon credits and whoever exceeds the same can be penalized. This plan should be restricted only to the bigger corporates in the first phase and the smaller corporates in the second phase. The Indian corporates shall be divided on the basis of their production levels calculated in terms of the net worth of production in Indian Rupees. Further, the Corporates shall be assigned with carbon credits based on their net worth production. This is imperative because there is a direct relation between their Corporate Social Responsibility and their contribution to the economy of the country. The amount of credits shall be revised after every five years through a survey conducted by the national authority setup under this plan. It is obvious that the bigger players would be in the need of larger amount of carbon credits as compared to the smaller players within this large industry group. Therefore it is imperative that sale and purchase of carbon credits is also allowed at the national level. The same is again a reiteration of the concept as mentioned under the Kyoto Protocol. The benefits of such a plan on the domestic level would be immense, if and only if the plan is executed at the grass root level through a very efficient and able national authority, to be setup under this plan. The industries would now refrain from exceeding their carbon-emitting limit, as it would act as an automatic deterrent on their profits. The plan would benefit the smaller players and would encourage them to reduce their carbon emissions so that they can sell off their excessive carbon credits. It is imperative that the carbon trading being done at the domestic level has a completely different and separate system so that the national carbon units and the international carbon units are not combined and confused, which would otherwise lead to a mockery of the trading system. The fundamental thought behind this is that trading would take place at two parallel levels that do not intersect or interfere with each other. It can be reasonably approximated that a system of sale and purchase of carbon credits would actually incite the Indian Corporates to reduce pollution and start taking up jobs that would further help the environment. Companies all over the world are doing the same but the important thing is that at this stage and for the Indian companies, it is not mandatory, as India is a non-Annexure 1 country. Two Indian refrigerant companies, one from Gujarat and the other from Haryana are leaders in global carbon trading. Vadodra-based Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd (GFL) is likely to see its bottomlines grow more by selling carbon credits, a waste product, than their main business, refrigerants. In the last quarter, Gurgaon-based SRF made Rs 149 Crore from the transfer of CERs; its net profit stood at Rs 89 crore. GFL
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was the first Indian company to get registered for a CDM project in March 2005 for 3 million CERs. Out of the total CERs issued by the National CDM Authority, SRF and GFL have close to 40 percent between them. India alone has 59 % of the world total.19 It is a reflection of the preparedness Indian enterprises have shown in exploiting a new opportunity. The Energy and Resources Institute, or TERI, a non profit group in India has partnered with the Chicago Climate Exchange to help South Asian Countries reduce greenhouse gases while selling carbon credits to polluting companies in the United States. The project will offset 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 18 months. In fact the G-8 summit being held at Berlin this year from 6-8 June, 2007 is mainly for the purpose of discussing climatic change due to the greenhouse gas emissions and the role of countries in this regard. Only time will tell whether such talks are useful in persuading the 8 most industrialised nations to reduce their economic expansion activities and care a little more for mother nature.
As of now, India is still not ready for a substantive law for the enforcement of CSR. However, certain judicial pronouncements are a positive indication that the country is slowly getting ready for such a law. India is coming out of the traditional view of doing for the sake of it and coming forward and realising their responsibilities. When the concept of CSR begins to be understood as a business oriented concept, without which the business would become difficult, it will be the time when India may be ready for statutory backing to the CSR. Notwithstanding the above and any amount of sermonising on the CSR platform, ultimately we have to remember Milton Friedmans famous quote that the business of business is business. It reinforces the view that all CSR is driven by business interests and it is best left to the judgement of a corporate as to what makes good business. Globalization has been a force that has been all-pervasive and has impacted India in a great way. It has led to a new global order and the success of a country lies in its ability to face the upcoming challenges, and to emerge in the global order with a winning outlook. The way India has responded to the Kyoto Protocol has been commendable and it has created a lions share for itself in the global carbon trading market. This is a perfect example of Indias resilience and its capability to modulate its policies in a changing world arena. It is also very crucial for India to capitalize on this success and to further consolidate its market share. It will face a lot of competition from countries like China and Brazil in the carbon market in the near future. It will ask for great foresight and management skills of the Indian companies to fend off such competition in carbon trading. India should also try to develop industrial techniques and production methods, which utilize renewable sources of energy. The best technique to match up to the challenges brought about by globalization is to anticipate the future commitments under international treaties and obligations. India will have to cut its GHG
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emissions under the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which starts from 2012. India should try to frontload its preparations to meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol and concentrate on harnessing renewable sources of energy. The right approach is to understand that the environmental problems should not be read in isolation, they have a direct impact on the economic condition and human development in a country. India should frame its environmental policies and legislations keeping this aspect in mind. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals should be the leading light in any such exercise, which are strived for by all the member-nations of the United Nations.
Corporate Social Responsibility Impact of globalisation and international business:

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is associated with the conduct of corporations and in particular whether corporations owe a duty to stakeholders other than shareholders. Whilst the phrase Corporate Social Responsibility may be gaining momentum, the concept itself is not new. The question as to whether corporations owe duties to broader stakeholders has been debated at various times throughout the twentieth century.
The CSR debate has largely revolved around the conduct of multinational corporations (MNEs) and other large private companies which, due to their size, have the ability to significantly influence domestic and international policy and the communities in which they operate. Central to the debate is the perceived deficiency of national and international law remedies regarding corporate accountability, in particular the ability of available regulation to successfully regulate a corporations conduct in jurisdictions outside the corporations home state. Proponents of CSR argue that the efficient functioning of global markets depends on socially responsible business conduct.
There are a number of factors relevant to the current CSR debate, including: i. globalisation and the proliferation of crossborder trade by MNEs resulting in an increasing awareness of CSR practices relating to areas such as human rights, environmental protection, health and safety and anticorruption; ii. organisations, such as the UN, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), have developed compacts, declarations, guidelines, principles and other instruments that outline norms for acceptable corporate conduct;
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iii.
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access to information and media enables the public to be more informed and to easily monitor corporate activities;
iv.
consumers and investors are demonstrating increased interest in supporting responsible business practices and are demanding more information as to how companies address risks and opportunities relating to social and environmental issues;
v.
recent high profile corporate collapses have contributed to public mistrust and the demand for improved corporate governance, accountability and transparency;
vi.
commonality of expectations by citizens of various countries with regard to minimum standards corporations should achieve in relation to social and environmental issues, regardless of the jurisdiction in which the corporation operates; and
vii.
increasing awareness of the inadequacy of current regulations and legislation with regard to CSR matters and the regulation of MNEs.3
Interestingly, the fundamentals of CSR are considered to be universal reflecting the globalisation of business and economies. The traditional ethos of maximising shareholder value without regard to other stakeholders is an outdated notion in todays global environment. CSR not only sits comfortably with the mantra of maximising shareholder value, sustainable CSR practices enhance shareholder value.
Definition A single globallyaccepted definition of CSR does not exist, as the concept is still evolving. The language used in relation to CSR is often used interchangeably with other related topics, such as corporate sustainability, corporate social investment, triple bottom line, socially responsible investment and corporate governance. However, various individuals and organisations have developed formal definitions of CSR, including4: The commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life (World Business Council on Sustainable Development).
3
Strategis Canada, An overview of Corporate Social Responsibility, Part 1,
<http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/incsrrse.nsf/printen/re00120e.html> at 14.06.06.
4
Australian Government, CSR Defined <http://www.partnerships.gov.au/csr/corproate_csr_defined.shtml> at
16 June 2006.
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Operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business (Business for Social Responsibility). A set of management practices that ensure the company minimises the negative impacts of its operations on society while maximising its positive impacts (Canadian Centre for Philanthropy). The integration of business operations and values whereby the interests of all stakeholders including customers, employees, investors, and the environment are reflected in the companys policies and actions (The Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire Service). It is important to differentiate CSR from charitable donations and good works, ie corporate philanthropy and human rights.
The debate The CSR debate broadly focuses on whether a corporations sole purpose is to maximise shareholder wealth (shareholder primacy principle), vs. the ability to consider a broader range of stakeholders in its decision making. The debate has been the subject of commentary throughout the twentieth century and continues to be relevant due to the size and power of MNEs and the globalisation of business operations. The debate in each era has been triggered by different catalysts. Traditionally the debate focused on the power of corporations, particularly large national and multinational corporations, however the debate has evolved over time to consider broader social impacts such as the environment, employee and community rights. Areas of focus throughout the twentieth century included: i. 1930s general debate as to the role and purpose of corporations, i.e. solely a shareholder focused vehicle or an entity with wider responsibilities;5 ii. 1950s focused on the disproportional power of the US corporation compared to other nations;
1960s and 1970s the corporations role in relation to environmental degradation, minority rights and consumer protection; iii. 1980s and 1990s targeted the social impact of the proliferation of corporate raiders and hostile takeovers;6 and
Andrew Clarke, The Models of the Corporation and the Development of Corporate Governance (2005) 1. Corporations and Market Advisory Committee, Corporate Social Responsibility Discussion Paper (November 2005) 7.
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iv.
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the current debate weaves all the elements of previous debates together from a global and community perspective and is focused on whether regulation should be expanded to encompass CSR matters.
The following quotes illustrate the consistency of thought over time with regard to corporations having social obligations: i. In 1932 American commentator, E Merrick Dodd argued companies, like individuals, should strive to be good corporate citizens by contributing to the community to a greater extent than is generally required and therefore the corporation as an economic institution has a social service as well as a profit making function;7 ii. In January 1973 The Confederation of British Industry published the Watkinson Report A new Look at the Responsibilities of the British Public Company which observed that there must be and be seen to be an ethical dimension to corporate activity and concluded companies must recognise that they have functions, duties and moral obligations that go beyond the immediate pursuit of profit and the requirements of law; iii. In 2001 Robert Hinkley observed corporations exist only because laws have been enacted to provide for their creation and give them licence to operate. When these laws were enacted most corporations were small and their impact on society was insignificant Today corporations are our most powerful citizens and it is no longer tenable that they be entitled to all the benefits of citizenship, but have none of the responsibilities8. The shareholder primacy proponent argues that a corporations sole reason for existence is to maximise shareholder wealth whilst obeying the laws of the countries within which the corporation operates. Economist Milton Friedman famously argued that because shareholders own corporations, the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits. Friedmans argument gained traction, especially after the publication in 1976 of an influential paper, Theory of the Firm, which stated shareholders are principals
Andrew Clarke, The Models of the Corporation and The Development of Corporate Governance (2005) 3. Kerrie Burnmeister, Corporate Responsibility A Matter or Ethics or Strategy, Blake
WaldronDawson<http://www.bdw.com.au/publications/issues/articles/Issues1Corp_Responsibility.pdf> at 11 June 2006.
39
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who hire directors as their agents to manage corporations, and the job of directors is to increase shareholder wealth through every means possible, short of violating the law.9 Proponents of CSR argue that, for a corporations longterm success and profitability, its directors must consider the interests of shareholders and other relevant corporate stakeholders such as employees, consumers and the communities in which the corporation operates. Current proponents of CSR maintain there is demonstrated evidence that corporations which implement relevant and sustainable CSR practices perform better and attain greater competitive advantage. Despite the various arguments, much of the corporate industrialised world has attempted to find a balance with regard to the corporations impact on a wider group of stakeholders, whilst also focusing on maximising shareholder wealth. A recent global survey of corporate executives revealed that, overwhelmingly, executives embrace the idea that the role of corporations in society goes beyond simply meeting its obligations to shareholders.10 This view is also supported by a recent survey of global investment managers which recognised that environmental, social and governance matters may be critical to investment performance.11 Additionally, three quarters of the one hundred and fifty seven global corporate managers surveyed predicted that social or environmental corporate performance indicators would become mainstream investment considerations within ten years.12 CRS and the law Corporate history provides many examples of companys pursing profit without regard to relevant CSR matters, including: Nike factories in Asia were criticised for extremely poor working conditions and for employing young children;13 Nestle received criticism in relation to its practices including unethical marketing and utilising a supply chain that uses child bonded labour;
9
Prof
Lynn
Stout,
Shareholders
Unplugged,
UCLA
School
of
Law
<http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/MarchApril2006/argument_Stout_marapr06.msp> at 18 June 2006.

10
The McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives: Business and Society, The McKinsey Quarterly (December 2005),
conducted the survey in December 2005 and received responses from 4,238 executives, more than a quarter of them CEOs or other Clevel executives in 116 countries.
11
Mercer Investment Consulting, 2006 Fearless Forecast What do investment managers think about responsible investment ( March 2006) at 11. 12 Ibid 11.
13
Global exchange 2005, Nike Campaign
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James Hardie has been criticised regarding its failure to provide adequate compensation to people affected by asbestos related diseases resulting from the companys building products; Ford Pinto scandal whereby Ford, although aware of a fatal design flaw, decided it would be cheaper to pay off possible law suits with regard to resulting deaths instead of recalling and fixing the affected cars;14 Shells joint venture with the Nigerian government where, in 1995, Ken SaroWiwa and eight others were executed largely due to leading a nonviolent campaign against environmental damage associated with the operations of multinational oil companies, including Shell and British Petroleum. Shell was criticised for not using its power to intercede with regard to the executions.15; and; Enron manipulated electricity in order to maximise profits at the expense of Californian citizens. Historically, a narrow view of corporate responsibility has been enforced whereby a corporations responsibility extends only to maximising profits. In Dodge v Ford Motor Co16 the Michigan Supreme Court upheld the shareholders claim that a corporation is carried on primarily for the profit of the shareholders and therefore the powers of the directors are to be exercised on this basis. The decision of the directors not to declare a dividend to facilitate the expansion of the business and increase the number of employees was considered to be inappropriate. However, subsequent cases have taken a more flexible approach. Decisions made to benefit consumers, the community, employees and the
14 170 NW 668 (1919). environment have been considered as not breaching directors duties where shareholders interests have not been completely disregarded and emphasis placed on the corporations future.15 In Australia, the traditional view is that case law and corporations legislation does not extend a directors obligation to consider stakeholders other than shareholders (other than in respect of creditors when a company is or is likely to become insolvent).10 Acting in the best interest of the company has generally been interpreted by the courts as acting in the best interest of shareholders. However, laws relating to labour conditions, consumer protection and community matters such as environmental protection apply to corporations and therefore any decision by directors in breach of these requirements may potentially lead to a breach of directors duties.16,17 Recently the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) on Corporations and Financial Services Inquiry into Corporate Responsibility and Triple Bottom Line Reporting (Committee) considered whether the legal
14
15
<http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/faq.html> at 14 June 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell#Nigeria> at 14 June 2006.
16
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framework, viz. the Corporations Act, should be amended to legally oblige directors to consider broader interests. On 22 June 2006, the PJC released their findings, preeminent amongst their findings is the recommendation that there be no amendment to the Corporations Act to require directors to consider the public interest, instead the PJC recommends a voluntary self regulatory approach. During the review, the PJC noted, inter alia: the Corporations Act permits directors to have regard to the interests of broader stakeholders;18 many companies are voluntarily integrating the consideration of broader community interests into their core business strategies; the importance of balancing the long term view of a companys viability and profitability with the focus on short term returns; by international standards, Australia lags in implementing and reporting on CSR; CSR initiatives assist (i) maintain and build reputation and (ii) recruit and retain high quality staff; institutional investors have a strong influence on corporate behaviour and are more likely to take a longer view; support for the adoption of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment; overall reporting should remain voluntary as mandatory reporting would lead to a tick the box mentality; a voluntary standardised reporting framework should be developed and advocated support of the Global Reporting Initiative; and 15 Teck Corp v Millar (1973) 33 DLR (3d) 28. Allens Arthur Robinson Corporate Governance Site, Directors duties and corporate philanthropy <http://www.aar.com.au/corpgov/iss/corp/corpdir.htm?print=true> at 4 June 2006. 16 Allens Arthur Robinson, Corporate Governance Site, Directors duties and corporate philanthropy, <http://www.aar.com.au/corpgov/iss/corp/cpmr[dor.htm> at 4 June 2006. 17 Examples include: various state based environmental legislation, s 299(1)(ff) of the Corporations Act which requires companies to report on environmental performance, legislation regarding occupational health and safety as state and federal level, Trade Practices Act which promotes competition and fair trading to protect consumers. 18 The interests of the company include the continuing wellbeing of the company. Directors must not act for motives foreign to the companys interests, but the law permits them to consider many interests and purposes, as long as there is also a purpose of benefiting the company. (See JD Heydon, Directors Duties and the Companys Interests in P Finn

(ed), Equity and Commercial Relationships (Law Book Company, 1987) 135.)
43
Submission by the New South Wales Young Lawyers Pro Bono and Community Services Taskforce to the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee,
<http://www.lawsociety.com.au/uploads/files/1142226553639_0.5476435755609974.doc> at 7 July 2006. ASX Governance Recommendations should be expanded to incorporate CSR sustainability reporting guidelines. Although the committee does not believe it is necessary to mandate either (i) consideration of stakeholders interests or (ii) sustainability reporting, the committee is of the view that there is a need to ensure corporations consider these matters.19 The PJC commented that any hesitation on the part of corporate Australia in incorporating CSR matters into their business practices does not arise from legislative constraints of the Corporations Act. The PJC considers that the interpretation of the current legislation is the best way forward for Australian corporations on the basis that an effective director will realise that the wellbeing of the corporations comes from strategic interaction with outside stakeholders.20 The ASX Corporate Governance council released an explanatory and consultative paper outlining the councils review of Good Corporate Governance and Practice Guidelines in November 2006. The paper considers, amongst other matters, recommendations of the PJC regarding CSR and outlines the Councils proposals regarding same. The major proposed changes relate to Principle 7 which deals with risk management. New commentary seeks to provide guidance on risk management and advises that risk management encompasses legal obligations and the expectation of stakeholders, and notes that an effective risk management involves considering factors that bear upon the companys continued good standing with its stakeholders and community.21 Further the commentary notes that stakeholders may include shareholders, employees, business partners, creditors, consumers, the environment and the broader community in which the company operates.22 The commentary advises that material risks may include operational, environmental, sustainability, compliance, strategic or external, ethical conduct, reputation or brand, technological, product or service quality and human capital, which, if not properly managed, will impact on the company.23 The Council seeks feedback as to the role the council should undertake in assisting companies reporting on risks relating to CSR matters. US reform (like Australia) has focused predominantly on the integrity of financial information and as yet has not mandated CSR. As a result, a majority of US states have adopted, and still retain, corporate constituency statutes, which permit directors to broaden the stakeholders they consider in corporate decision making 24,25. Typically the statutes allow the board, in discharging their duties, to consider the impact on employees, suppliers, customers and communities. Many argue that the introduction of prescriptive
44
regulation with regard to CSR matters is unnecessary and would in fact result in directors being less accountable. Interestingly, although many argue that existing regulation allows corporations to conduct their operations in a socially responsible manner, there is less commentary as to how corporations are held accountable in the absence of prescriptive legislation where a corporations domestic or international policy is not consistent with acting in a socially responsible manner. A variety of European legislative and regulatory development (UK, France and Austria) has increasingly required the reporting of CSR, such as the Nouvelles Regulations Economiques introduced 19 Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, Corporate Responsibility: Managing Risk and creating value (22 June 2006). 20 Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services Corporate Responsibility: Managing Risk and creating value (22 June 2006) 37. 21 ASX Corporate Governance Council, Review of the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations Explanatory and Consultation Paper (November 2006) 18. 22 ASX Corporate Governance Council, Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Good Practice Recommendations Exposure Draft of Changes (November 2006) 30, 31. 23 Ibid 30, 31. 24 Corporations and Market Advisory Committee, Corporate Social Responsibility Discussion Paper (November 2005) 7. 25 The Pennsylvania Act (23 December 1983) was the first corporate constituent statute. by France in 2001 and the UKs Operating and Financial Review effected in April 2005. Reform in the UK appears to be the most ambitious to date as it will require directors to consider the impacts of their business operations on, amongst other matters, employees, the community and the environment. 26 The UK Government has also committed to publishing advice on how directors should interpret their duties regarding the consideration of social and environmental matters. 27 Other countries have not followed the UKs approach with regard to expanding directors duties to incorporate the consideration of a broader group of stakeholders. Globalisation Twenty years ago, environmental and social issues were for activists. Ten years from now, they are likely to be amongst the most critical factors shaping government policy and corporate strategy. Twenty years ago, we were a series of local states and countries, national and regional businesses that were partially connected. Ten years from now, we will be globally interdependent as individuals and organisations. 28 International investment by MNEs is central to corporate globalisation, which inevitably will lead to a desire to harmonise laws and reporting practices. MNEs tend to be a focal point with regard to
45
CSR due to their size and complexity and the fact that they operate in more than one jurisdiction either directly or via subsidiary entities or in alliances with other entities. The most difficult issues arising with regard to CSR occurs in poor countries with weak and sometimes corrupt governments. Many MNEs are larger and more economically significant than the developing nations in which they operate. Whilst MNEs may facilitate the stimulation of a developing nations economy, they also have the capability of abusing their power in host countries which are often either unable or unwilling to hold MNEs accountable for inappropriate conduct. Poorly regulated international investment in these environments distorts local development, fuels conflict and may contribute to abuses occurring. 29 Accordingly, strengthening cross border corporate accountability and more effective international regulation of MNEs is necessary. In addition, developing countries should be encouraged to strengthen their political and economic systems to enable their governments to more effectively regulate the private sector. Historically international law remedies in relation to MNEs are considered weak. This weakness is exacerbated when domestic laws are incapable of holding MNEs accountable for inappropriate conduct in other jurisdictions. This issue is further complicated when the national law in the country where the inappropriate conduct occurred is either inadequate or the judicial system or government is not motivated to commence action against the offending corporation. These issues have led to a common criticism the MNEs operate outside the law and therefore no forum capable of holding MNEs accountable for inappropriate conduct exists. New national and international precedents are challenging the historical view. In the US, the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) of 178930 is being used in a number of cases to sue MNEs for violations of 26 <http://www.governance.co.uk/current/2006/200611 ne1.htm> at 3 December 2006. 27 <http://www.governance.co.uk/current/2006/200611 ne1.htm> at 3 December 2006. 28 PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Corporate Responsibility: Strategy, Management and Value, <http://www.pwc.com/extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/docid/B4677BCF42BFBE5985257124002432FC> at 22 June 2006. 29 David Mepham, Beyond Corporate Responsibility Rethinking the International Business Agenda <http://www.policy network.net/php/article.php?sid=4&aid=282> at 30 June 2006. 30 The Alien Tort Claims Act is the only United States law permitting MNEs with significant assets in the US to be held accountable for their unethical behavior elsewhere in the world. Passed in 1789 by the First Congress ofthe United States, it enables victims of torture, slavery, ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity to put the corporations that are responsible on trial in American courts. In recent history, plaintiffs have used it to
45
46
international law in countries outside the US. Following a number of cases in the UK, MNEs may now be legally liable for human rights violations abroad where access to local justice is restricted.31 Although lasting international precedent has not been established with regard to matters considered under either the ATCA or UK cases, the actions are a positive step towards corporate liability with regard to inappropriate conduct by corporations abroad. During the last three decades there has been a growth in bilateral arrangements which have taken the form of investment protection and promotion treaties. These treaties reflect the desire of home country governments to protect the investment of companies aboard and the desire of host countries to attract foreign direct investment. Early treaties concluded with developing countries emphasised international trade and protection of citizens aboard rather than foreign direct investment. However, from 1960 onwards treaties have focused on foreign direct investment. A criticism of these treaties is that the treaties have marginal impact on the decision making of the MNE and host country. Most attempts to regulate CSR have resulted from public international bodies and non government organisations (NGOs). Codes of conduct relating to CSR matters such as bribery, environment and human rights are voluntary and not legally binding, however, may represent subtle diplomacy by NGOs towards a consensus amongst governments which in turn may be embodied in national legislation or universally accepted standards. The trend in developed nations is to support the reporting of CSR without introducing legislation to mandate CSR practices, instead, governments appear to be content relying on initiatives introduced and championed by NGOs such as the OECD, UN and GRI. OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (the Guidelines), first adopted in 1976, are the longest standing initiative for the promotion of high corporate standards. The Guidelines contain voluntary principles and standards for responsible business conduct in areas such as human rights, supply chain management, disclosure of information, anti corruption, taxation, labour relations, environment, competition, and consumer welfare. The Guidelines aim to promote the positive contributions of MNEs to economic, environmental and social progress sue government officials involved in human rights violations, such as former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and former Serbian war leader Radovan Karadzic. Most recently, the Alien Tort Claims Act has been used to file suits against multinational corporations complicit in egregious human rights abuses. For example: Burmese villagers have sued Unocal, whose corporate headquarters is just outside Long Beach, California, on charges that its partnerthe Burmese military murdered and raped villagers and forced them to work while assisting with Unocals pipeline project.
46
47
Nigerian villagers sued Chevron Texaco for its complicity in murders at peaceful protests at a Chevron oil platform and the related destruction of two villages. Eleven Indonesian villagers are suing Exxon Mobil for human rights abuses committed by its security forces. Subcontractors in Iraq involved in the torture and mistreatment of prisoners are being held accountable under the legal authority of the Alien Tort Claims Act. <http://www.uua.org/actions/immediate/04tort.html> at 7 July 2006. 31 House of Lords judgments in cases involving Rio Tinto in Namibia and Thor Chemicals and Cape plc in South Africa. In addition, a clause in the UK Anti Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 has opened up the possibility that UK companies and nationals, including company directors, could be prosecuted in the UK for corruption offences abroad, regardless of whether they involve public officials or the private sector. David Mepham, Beyond Corporate Responsibility Rethinking the International Business Agenda <http://www.policy network.net/php/article.php?sid=4&aid=282> at 30 June 2006.
The Guidelines express the shared values of 39 countries consisting of the 3032 OECD members and 933 non member countries. The adhering countries are the source of almost 90 per cent of the worlds foreign direct investment and are home to most major MNEs. While observance of the Guidelines is voluntary for companies, adhering governments make a formal commitment to promote their observance among MNEs. The most concrete expression of this commitment is the National Contact Point (NCP), often a government office, which is responsible for encouraging observance of the Guidelines and for ensuring that the Guidelines are well known and understood by the national business community and by other interested parties. Critics consider the NCP mechanism weak and ineffective. Accordingly, it has been suggested that the Guidelines and in particular the NCPs be strengthened. The Guidelines are part of a broader package of instruments, most of which address government responsibility and promote open and transparent policy frameworks for international investment.34 Global Sullivan Principles The Global Sullivan Principles (GSP) released in 1999 consists of eight principles. It is a voluntary code of conduct seeking to enhance human rights, social justice, protection of the environment and economic opportunity for all workers in all nations. The GSP originated with suggestions made by Reverend Dr. Leon
48
Sullivan that a global code be derived from the original Sullivan Principles (which were instrumental in the fight to dismantle apartheid in South Africa). The GSP were developed in consultation with leaders of business, government and human rights organisations in various nations.35 ILO Tripartite Declaration The ILO, founded in 1919, is a specialised agency of the United Nations focusing on labour issues and has 178 member states to date. The ILO Tripartite Declaration (Declaration) also seeks to encourage the positive contribution of MNEs to economic and social progress and states, inter alia, that: MNEs should obey national laws, respect international standards, honor voluntary commitments and harmonise their operations with the social aims of countries in which they operate36; governments should implement suitable measures to deal with the employment impact of MNEs; and in developing countries, MNEs should provide the best possible wages, conditions of work (including health and safety) and benefits to adequately satisfy basic needs within the framework of government policies. Whilst the principles expressed in the Declaration are addressed to governments, employers and workers organisations in both home and host countries, the principles are voluntary 37.
32 OECD countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, US. 33 The non OECD countries are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia. 34 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
<http://www.answers.com/topic/oecd guidelines formultinational enterprises> at 25 June 2006. 35 FAQs about the GSP <http://www.unpri.org/files/pri.pdf> at 29 June 2006. 36 Caux Round Table, International Labour Organisation, <http://www.cauxroundtable.org/ILOTripartiteDeclarationofPrinciplesconcerningMultinationalEnterprisesan d SocialPolicy.html>, at 26 June 2006.
UN initiatives

(i) UN Global Compact
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Introduced in 1999, the UN Global Compact (Compact) is a voluntary initiative based on 10 core principles relating to human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption. The Compacts 10 principles enjoy consensus across many jurisdictions and are derived from: The Universal Declaration on Human Rights; The International Labour Organisations Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; and The United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
Critics argue that as adherence to the Compact cannot be enforced the Compact may be abused. The Compact itself states that a companys participation does not mean that the Compact recognises or certifies that these companies have fulfilled the Compacts principles. The Compact is considered to be the worlds largest corporate responsibility initiative, with 3000 corporate participants and other stakeholders involved. 38 (ii) UN Norms The UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises with regard to Human Rights (UN Norms) attempts to establish a comprehensive legal framework for the human rights responsibilities of companies. The Norms which endeavour to standardise existing standards are based solely on existing international law regarding human rights and labour standards and deal with issues such as workers rights, corruption, security and environmental sustainability. The UN Norms state that MNEs have an obligation to promote, secure the fulfilment of, respect and protect human rights recognised in international and national law. The UN Norms is not a formal treaty under international law and therefore is not legally binding. (iii) Principles for Responsible Investment The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), issued in April 2006, is a voluntary initiative which strives to identify and act on the common ground between the goals of institutional investors and the sustainable development objectives of the UN. The audience targeted is the global community, however the focus is on the eleven largest capital markets, with a goal of protecting the long term interests of fund beneficiaries39. The PRI were borne from the perceived disconnect between corporate responsibility, and the behaviour of financial markets, which are often influenced by short-term considerations at the expense of longer term objectives 40.
The PRI, developed by leading institutional investors and overseen by the UN Environment
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Programme Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact, includes environmental, social and 37 Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, <http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/norm/sources/mne.htm> at 26 June 2006. 38 The UN Secretary General Remarks at the launch of the Principles for Responsible Investment, New York Stock Exchange, 26 April 2006 <http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=2006> at 1 July 2006. 39 UNEP Finance Initiative <http://www.unepfi.org/work_programme/investment/principles/index.html> at 1 July 2006. 40 Principles for Responsible Investment <http://www.unpri.org/files/pri.pdf> at 1 July 2006.
governance criteria, and provides a framework for achieving higher long term investment returns and more sustainable markets. The UN Secretary General has stated it is my hope that the Principles will help to align investment practices with the goals of the UN, thereby contributing to a more stable and inclusive global economy. 41 Global Reporting Initiative The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), convened in 1997, was established to improve sustainability reporting practices, while achieving comparability, credibility, timeliness, and verifiability of reported information. 42 The Guidelines, first released in June 2000, revised in 2002 with a revision due during 2006, seek to develop globally accepted sustainability reporting guidelines. These guidelines are also voluntary and are u sed by organisations in reporting on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of their activities. The Guidelines are increasingly becoming a universally accepted method of harmonising CSR reporting in various jurisdictions. Approximately 1000 organisations worldwide incorporate the GRIs Guidelines into their reporting. Conclusion Globalisation and the significant growth and influence of the private sector have highlighted issues such as CSR and the regulation of MNEs. Whilst considerable progress has been made in holding companies accountable for their environmental performance, progress on social issues such as human rights, corruption, corporate transparency and labour standards has been more limited. Although there have been attempts to widen the scope of stakeholders directors may consider, for most companies CSR consists of voluntary initiatives designed to enhance the social impact of their practices, with some of these initiatives actively promoted by government. Many corporations have incorporated CSR into their codes of conduct, sought to work closely with NGOs in formulating corporate policy in undeveloped countries, subscribed to the UN
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Global Compact and other UN initiatives, and have incorporated GRI guidelines into their financial reporting. However despite these initiatives, there still remains a gap pertaining to legal accountability relating to CSR practices, particularly in relation to MNE operations in jurisdictions outside their home state. There are many factors as to why one solution addressing the issue of corporate accountability pertaining to CSR, particularly with regard to directors duties, may not be feasible, such as (i) the sovereignty of the many nations that make up the global community, (ii) diversity of legislation, regulation, culture and business practices of the various jurisdictions in which corporations operate and (iii) the significant uncertainty as to how to regulate the conduct of corporations in foreign jurisdictions. There is no easy solution, however this does not mean a workable solution concerning these matters is not possible or feasible. It is increasingly apparent that in modern industrialised economies, profit maximisation is facilitated by a demonstrated approach to corporate responsibility. Paradoxically, focusing solely on the traditional view of shareholder value may have a negative impact on a companys ability to maximise shareholder value by placing too much emphasis on short term performance, whilst neglecting longer tem opportunities and issues.43 To maximise the benefits of international investment corporations must 41 Principles for Responsible Investment <http://www.unpri.org/files/pri.pdf> at 1 July 2006. 42 Global Reporting Initiative, Guidelines, <http://www.globalreporting.org/guidelines/2002/dannex1.asp> at 26 June 2006. 43 Chartered Secretaries Australia, Submission to CAMAC in relation to the discussion paper Corporate Social Responsibility (24 February 2006) at 3.
operate within a clear framework of governance, underpinned at national and international level by law and regulation enforceable either by the companys home state or by a court of international standing, e.g. the International Court of Justice. It addition national laws should be widened to enable corporations to be held accountable for inappropriate conduct, undertaken either by themselves or entities controlled by them directly or indirectly, in jurisdictions outside their home state. It may be naive to believe that a meaningful system of global norms could exist without formal deterrence. Although most jurisdictions appear determined to keep CSR on a voluntary footing, regulatory changes are focusing on encouraging higher standards on CSR at home and abroad.44 In Australia, there is significant resistance from the corporate community and other interest groups regarding the introduction of prescriptive regulation regarding CSR practices and reporting. However, despite the arguments for and against
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prescriptive regulation regarding CSR matters, the threat of criminal or civil sanctions acts as a powerful deterrent. Robert Hinkley suggests that rather than adopt a prescriptive approach, corporate legislation can still be amended by imposing open ended duties on corporate directors to ensure companies do not (i) damage the environment, (ii) abuse human rights, (iii) undertake actions that are detrimental to public health and safety, (iv) engage in conduct that is detrimental to the welfare of communities or (v) is detrimental to employees rights.45 The UK reforms attempts to codify this requirement into directors duties. Although to date much regulation and law enforcement has been anchored in national economic systems, future international regulation may emerge from a gradual convergence of national practices 46 and the strength of initiatives undertaken by NGOs. Globalisation by its very nature should enable international dialogue and cooperation by various jurisdictions to facilitate the development of regulatory frameworks capable of transcending national boundaries.47 The issue of accountability in a global context is complex and manifold. However, it may not be a huge conceptual leap to extend state laws to require parent entities and home states to bear some responsibility for the foreign activities of entities controlled by those parent entities.48 Considerable incentives exist for companies to conduct their operations in a socially responsible manner. The challenge is to implement a workable mix of public and private initiatives which are consistently enforced and capable of ensuring companies are encouraged to act in a socially responsible manner whilst being accountable in a legislative context for inappropriate conduct. 44 Jennifer A Zerk, Multinationals and Corporate Social Responsibility Limitations and Opportunities in International Law (2006, Cambridge University Press) 309. 45 Robert Hinkley, Twenty Eight Words to Redefine Corporate Duties: The Proposal for a Code of Corporate Citizenship, Multinational Monitor Vol 2, Nos 7 & 8 (July / August 2002). 46 OECD Secretary General Donald Johnston Promoting Corporate Responsibility: The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises International Investment Perspectives (2004). 47 Jennifer A Zerk, Multinationals and Corporate Social Responsibility Limitations and Opportunities in International Law, (2006, Cambridge University Press) 309. 48 Ibid.
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CHAPTER 5
USE AND MEANING OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a reality of recent decades. CSR is the continuing commitment of business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their family as well as of the local community and society at large. Business owes its responsibilities towards society; first as a result of the impact of its own operations and secondly, as the unit of the society in which it operates. The former is related to what the organization does to the society by way of its specific operations, whereas the latter deals with what the society demands from it. Accordingly, CSR needs to be: (i) more inwards than outwards, (ii) more related to the character and culture of the corporate rather than its size or profitability (iii) more related to making and distributing profits and sustainability (iv) more business process oriented than philanthropic (v) focused on day to day activities by every employee of the organization rather than limited to the topical presence of key individuals in the company along with the various social partners of the corporate. CSR appears in many forms some are directly related to employees and their families whereas some others point towards outside workplace without any connection to its employees. It takes various forms such as:

Corporate Philanthropy Corporate Support Sponsorships Corporate Partnerships Responding in Emergency
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CSR also refers to business decision making linked to ethical values, compliance with legal requirements and respect for people, communities and the environment. It is a comprehensive set of policies, practices and programmes that are integrated throughout business operations and decision-making processes that are supported and rewarded by the top management. The definition for csr is often debated. Organizations that are involved in csr offer the following definitions: The World Business Council for Social Development (WBCSD) The continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to sustainable development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large European Commission (EU) - The concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) - CSR is about promoting responsible business practices which benefit business and society and help achieve social, economic and environmentally sustainable development by maximizing the positive impact business has on society and minimizing the negative ISO 26000 Working Group on Social Responsibility Social Responsibility (is the responsibility) of an organization for the impact of its decisions and activities on society and the environment through transparent and ethical behaviour that is consistent with sustainable development and the welfare of society; takes into account the expectations
55
of stakeholders; is in compliance with applicable law and consistent with international norms of behaviour; and is integrated throughout the organization. Though various definitions have been attached to the term, it can be stated that csr, in its broadest sense, delineates the relationship between business and society and the role of business in sustainable development. The fundamental idea behind csr is that a corporation or company incurs responsibilities to society beyond maximization of profit and beyond meeting the minimal requirement of the law. The term also has various aliases: community responsibility, good corporate citizenship, corporate social involvement, and corporate social conscience. csr also has numerous facets. Corporations are overwhelmed by many issues in the name of csr: stakeholder demands, environmental issues, issues of sustainability, diversity, labour conditions, ethical investment, and philanthropy among others. Clearly, there is no one agreed concept. An important distinction should be made, however, between internal and external csr practices. Internal csr refers to programmes that focus on the core business and on the workforce, such as: Human Resources (HR) practices Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) practices Codes of Conduct Fulfilling and Motivating Work Environment Employee Development Programmes Local Content Policies Assessing and Increasing the Social and Environmental Impact of a Company Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Product Responsibility External csr refers to social and environmental programmes directed towards the external environment, including: Community development programmes Sponsorships

Donations Contributions to Civil Society Organizations (CCSO) Educational programmes at various levels Supply-chain management Cluster development Involvement in the development debate
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External csr should be also distinguished from philanthropy and Public Relations (pr)/Marketing. Unlike philanthropy, csr is an investment from which companies should expect tangible returns and positive impact on their net profits. In contrast, philanthropy relates to donations or charitable giving from which companies do not necessarily expect any direct positive impacts on their business activities.7 On the other hand, csr differs from pr/Marketing, since it focuses on those areas where there is an overlapping of social and economic benefits, while pr/Marketing does not focus on any specific social benefits, but only on those activities that can provide a monetary return for the company.
We
believe
that
the
leading
global
companies of 2020 will be those that provide goods and services and reach new customersin ways that address the worlds major climate challengesincluding change, resource poverty, depletion,
globalization, and demographic shifts. Niall Fitzgerald, former CEO & Chairman, Unilever.
The Business Case for CSR: Companies that implemented CSR measures and activities experienced a wide range of bottom-line benefits, such as: More productive, motivated and committed workforce

Increased ability to attract and retain employees Reduced costs from injuries and absenteeism More sound and transparent business practices Increased capacity for managing risks and changes Reduced operating costs Enhanced brand image and reputation Increased sales and customer loyalty Increased productivity and quality Reduction of wastage and more efficient, environmentally-friendly production techniques Increased reliability of suppliers and standardization of products Reduced regulatory oversight Improved access to capital and licence to operate
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corporate SOCIAL responsibility An ACTION plan for Social Responsibility:

A simple approach to introducing CSR in a structured way.
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A Assess
Whatever you do should be relevant for your business as well as society. Think about the issues that affect you, your staff and your business and what you can do to help support these. Assess where you currently are so you have a benchmark to measure future progress against. This may be formal or informal.
C Commit
To a statement of what being a responsible business means to your business and to clear ethical values from the top down. Appoint a champion/s to ensure the commitment is followed through. You need a champion who walks the talk. The champion, like any boss, has to model the behaviour they want to see in their co-
T Tell
Set out your ethical and business cases, communicate them and
I Integrate
Responsible business
O Organise
The project management, the
N Nurture
Involve your clients and supply chain. Once your
behaviour across details, relevant different functions and business
resources and set programmes are targets. Look at one off, individual and team building activities. Look at building a long term relationship with community organisation/s. Communicate the aims and boundaries to all staff and stakeholders. Collate the established you can have greater impact and raise your profile by widening your resources. Clients and suppliers will be surprisingly grateful you asked and usually very willing to get involved. Measure and
promote them at activities within every opportunity. Make responsible business an agenda item on all team meetings. Communicate to staff, clients, customers, suppliers and others what you are doing. It is not boasting to tell people what you are doing. the business. Identify issues that are affecting your bottom line and how responsible business practices can help address these. Prioritise things which you can do as: (a) early wins; (b) things that will need to take some time to prepare; and (c) long-term
results and thank report what you any staff for their involvement. Make sure all are doing and feedback the learning into
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workers if they are going to be credible. They also need to be given the authority to make any necessary changes. Establish effective, twoway dialogue with your key stakeholders (those who can affect or are affected by your business). There are real business benefits to informing people through local/trade press, notice boards, newsletters, websites and achieving awards. goals. List the risks that your company faces or might face and the actions you need to staff know about and are able to get involved in your responsible business
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your business planning. Measuring the benefits you have made to the business and the wider community helps motivate staff, customers and investors. Reporting can be done informally through word of mouth, staff team briefings, presentations to business networks or more formally through management systems and achieving relevant standards.
take to address practices/opportu these. nities.
Effective Promotion:
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Promoting that you are approaching your business in a CSR way can enhance your business opportunities, doing this is one thing telling others about it is quite another.
Internally
Externally
Make sure your staff know about what you do and can talk about it. They are your best sales force.
Generate positive publicity through local, regional or even national media.
Get your story into relevant trade magazines. Tell your customers, suppliers, investors and other stakeholders what you are doing.
Use the intranet, website, newsletters, meetings, staff award schemes and community corridors to showcase your activities and events
Enter relevant award schemes. Commit to achieving relevant standards that you can then tell people about.
Benefit from speaking opportunities that arise from your story and attend networking events.
CSR is it not about philanthropy, but about fundamental business practices

Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, speaking at the United Nations Global Compact Summit, Shanghi, China, 2006
Why Corporate Social Responsibility is Necessary:

Corporate social responsibility may come across as a highly idealistic endeavor but it actually produces highly favorable and observable results. Recent research studies reveal that companies that are perceived by the public to adopt more socially responsible business practices and ethics are more likely to perform financially better than those companies who dont.
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corporate SOCIAL responsibility Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility
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Practitioners of Corporate Social Responsibility also gain better reputation and brand image in the process. A better reputation in business often translates into better sales and more investors. Customer loyalty also increases in the process. In 2001, Hill & Knowlton/Harris Interactive conducted a poll and the findings showed that 79% of Americans take into consideration corporate citizenship practices in their decision to buy a product. Overall, 36% of the respondents believe that corporate citizenship is an essential factor in deciding to buy a product. As a matter of fact, 91% of those surveyed said they will switch loyalty to another company if the corporation has negative citizenship image. In another survey by The Aspen Institute Initiative for Social Innovation through Business, MBA students revealed that more than half of them would look for another job if the company did not support their values. Another positive outcome of CSR is that companies who consistently demonstrate compliance to regulatory requirements are given greater freedom by both national and local government. Investors also look for companies that practice socially responsible investing (SRI). Social Investment Forum reported that social investing account for $2.34 trillion of total investments. Corporate social responsibility should be made an essential part of the wealth creation process. It is the best way to make the environment sustainable and available for future generations. With responsible corporate citizenship, wealth begets more wealth in the process.
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CHAPTER 5
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
CHAPTER 5
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
JUDICIAL DELINEATION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
NATIONAL TEXTILE WORKERS UNION ETC.


-VersusP.R. RAMKRISHNAN AND OTHERS. DATE OF JUDGMENT-10/12/1982 BENCH: BHAGWATI, P.N. BENCH: BHAGWATI, P.N. REDDY, O. CHINNAPPA (J) VENKATARAMIAH, E.S. (J) ISLAM, BAHARUL (J) SEN, AMARENDRA NATH (J) CITATION: 1983 AIR 75 1983 SCR (1) 9 1983 SCC (1) 228 1982 SCALE (2)1144
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There is one very important consideration which we must bear in mind while dealing with this question and it is necessary to advert to it at the present stage. The concept of a company has undergone radical transformation in the last few decades. The traditional view of a company was that it was a convenient mechanical device for carrying on trade and industry, a mere legal frame work providing a convenient institutional container for holding and using the powers of company management. The company law was at that time conceived merely as a statute intended to regulate the structure and mode of operation of a special type of economic institution called company. This was the view which prevailed for a long time in juristic circles all over the democratic world including United States of America, United Kingdom and India. That was the time when the doctrine of laissez faire held sway and it dominated the political and economic scene. This doctrine glorified the concept of a free economic society in which State intervention in social and economic matters was kept at the lowest possible level.
But gradually this doctrine was eroded by the emergence of new social values which recognised the role of the State as an active participant in the social and economic life of the citizen in order to being about general welfare and common good of the community. With this change in socio-economic thinking, the developing role of companies in modern economy and their increasing impact on individuals and groups, through the ramifications of their activities, began to be increasingly recognised. It began to be realised that the company is a species of social organisation, with a life and dynamics of its own and exercising a significant power in
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contemporary society. The new concept of corporate responsibility transcending the limited traditional views about the relationship between management and shareholders and embracing within its scope much wider groups affected by the trading activities and other connected operations of companies, emerged as an important feature of contemporary thought on the role of the corporation in modern society. The adoption of the socialistic pattern of society as the ultimate goal of the countrys economic and social policies hastened the emergence of this new concept of the corporation. The socio-economic objectives set out in Part IV of the Constitution have since guided and shaped this new corporate philosophy. We shall presently refer to some of the Directive Principles of State Policy set out in Part IV which clearly show the direction in which the corporate sector is intended to move and the role which it is intended to play in the social and economic life of the nation. But, one thing is certain that the old nineteenth century view which regarded a company merely as a legal device adopted by shareholders for carrying on trade or business as proprietors has been discarded and a company is now looked upon as a socioeconomic institution wielding economic power and influencing the life of the people. It is now accepted on all hands, even in predominantly capitalist countries, that a company is not property. The traditional view that the company is the property of the shareholders is now an exploded myth. There was a time when a group controlling the majority of shares in a company used to say: "This is our concern. We can do what we like with it." The ownership of the concern was identified with those who brought in capital. That was the outcome of the property-minded capitalistic society in which the concept of company originated. But this view can no longer be regarded as valid in the light of the changing socio-economic concepts and values. Today social scientists and thinkers regard a company as a living, vital and dynamic, social organism with firm and deep rooted affiliations with the rest of the community in which it functions. It would be wrong to look upon it as something belonging to the shareholders. It is true that the shareholders bring capital, but capital is not enough. It is only one of the factors which contributes to the production of national wealth. There is another equally, if not more, important factor of production and that is labour. Then there are the financial institutions and depositors, who provide the additional finance required for production and lastly, there are the consumers and the rest of the members of the community who are vitally interested in the product manufactured in the concern. Then how can it be said that capital, which is only one of the factors of production, should be regarded as owner having an exclusive dominion over the concern, as if the concern belongs to it? A company, according to the new socio-enconomic thinking, is a social institution having duties and responsibilities towards the community in which it functions. The Supreme Court pointed out as far back as 1950 in Chiranjeetlal v.Union of India: "We should bear in mind that a corporation, which is engaged in production of commodities vitally
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essential to the community, has a social character of its own and it must not be regarded as the concern primarily or only of those who invest their money in it." Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant also pointed out in one of his speeches: "...industry is not an isolated concern of the shareholders or the managing agents alone. It reacts on the entire people in the country, on their economic conditions, on employment or standard of living, on everything that conduces to the material well being."
This view which we are taking is in accord with the decision of the High Court of Bombay, namely, Bhalchandra Dharmajee Makaji and Ors. v. Alcock Ashdown & Co. Ltd. & Ors. where the Company Judge, while disposing of an application for appointment of Official Liquidator as Provisional Liquidator, pending the hearing and final disposal of the main petition for winding up, said: "After the amendment of sections 397 and 398 of the Companies Act by sections 10 and 11 of the Companies (Amendment) Act (LIII of 1963), it would appear that the affairs of the company have to be conducted not only in the best interest of its members for their profit but also in a manner which is not prejudicial to public interest. The element of public interest enters into the management of the companies after 1963. The modern corporation has become the accepted instrument of social policy, because it affects a large part of the economic life of the community. It has become an instrument for the improvement of the economic standards of the people and for economic growth of the nation. Society depends for some of its needs on corporate enterprise. It has therefore an interest in its stability and efficiency as an economic institution. The element of public interest also arises from the responsibility for ensuring a minimum wage to the numerous employees in the corporate sector. It is necessary to see that people who put their labour and lives into a concern get fair wages, continuity of employment and a recognition of their jobs where they have trained themselves to highly skilled and specialized work. In deciding whether the court should wind up a company or change its management the court must take into consideration not only the interest of the shareholders and creditors but also public interest in the shape of the need of the community and the interest of the employees. This, in my opinion, is the requirement of sections 397 and 398 of the Companies Act."
If in deciding whether the court should wind up a company or change its management the court must take into consideration not only the interest of the shareholders and creditors but also amongst other things the interest of the workers, it is axiomatic that the workers must have an opportunity of being heard for projecting and safeguarding their interest before a winding up order is made by the court. The Division Bench of the Madras High Court has of course conceded in the judgment under appeal that "in considering the question whether to wind up or not the court has to take the larger point of public interest including that
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of the workers into consideration" but that in the opinion of the Division Bench would not "clothe the workers with any locus standi to file an application for being heard in the winding up petition.
With the greatest respect to the learned Judges constituting the Division Bench, we must express our emphatic disapproval of this approach. It amounts to the court telling the workers: "No doubt in deciding whether the company should be wound up or not, we are bound to take into consideration your interest but you need not be heard because we know best what your interest requires."
This paternalistic attitude towards the workers that though they are most vitally concerned and their interest is required to be taken into consideration, they need not be heard because the court in its wisdom knows,presumably more than the workers themselves, what is in their interest and they should leave their fate into the hands of the court without even a whisper of an argument sounds like a relic of a by-gone age and must be abandoned. If the interest of the workers has to be taken into account, the workers must have a say because they know best where their interest lies and they must have an opportunity of placing before the court relevant material bearing upon their interest.
CHARAN LAL SAHU ETC. ETC. -VersusUNION OF INDIA AND ORS. DATE OF JUDGMENT22/12/1989 BENCH: MUKHARJI, SABYASACHI (CJ) BENCH: MUKHARJI, SABYASACHI (CJ) SINGH, K.N. (J) RANGNATHAN, S. AHMADI, A.M. (J) SAIKIA, K.N. (J) CITATION: 1990 AIR 1480 1989 SCR Supl. (2) 597 1990 SCC (1) 613 JT 1989 (4) 582
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Union Carbide (India) Ltd. (UCIL) is a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), a New York Corporation. UCIL was incorporated in India in 1954. 50.99% of its share holding was with UCC and 22% of the shares were held by Life Insurance Corporation of India and Unit Trust of India. UCIL owned a chemical plant in Bhopal for the manufacture of pesticides using Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) a highly toxic gas. On the night between 2nd and 3rd December, 1984, there was a massive escape of lethal gas from the MIC Storage tank at the Bhopal plant resulting in the tragic death of about 3,000 people. Thousands of people suffered injuries. The environment also got polluted, badly affecting the flora and the fauna. On behalf of the victims, many suits were filed in various District Courts in the United States of America. All such suits were consolidated by the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation and were assigned to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York and Judge Keenan was the Presiding Judge throughout. Later, the legal battle shifted to Indian Courts, as it could not proceed in the U.S. Courts, on the ground of forum non conveniens. Meanwhile, the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of claims) 1985 was passed by the Government of India with a view to secure that the claims arising out of or connected with the Bhopal gas leak disaster were dealt with speedily, effectively and equitably.
Union of India filed a suit for damages in the District Court of Bhopal on 5.9.86. However, there were negotiations for a settlement; hut ultimately the settlement talks had failed. On 17.12.1987, the District Judge ordered interim relief of Rs.350 crores. On appeal, the High Court, on 4.4.88 modified the order of the District Judge and ordered an interim relief of Rs.250 crores. Aggrieved, the UCC as also the Union of India filed petitions for special leave before this Court. Leave was granted. By its orders dated 14.2.89 and 15.2.89, this Court, on the basis of a settlement arrived at between the parties, directed UCC to pay a sum of 470 million U.S. Dollars to the Union of India in full settlement of all claims, rights and liabilities related to and arising out of the Bhopal gas disaster. There is the concept known both in this country and abroad, called "parens patriae. Dr. D.K. Mukherjea in his "Hindu Law of Religious and Charitable Trusts", Tagore Law Lectures, Fifth Edition, at page 404, referring to the concept of parens patriae, has noted that in English Law, the Crown as parens patriae is the constitutional protector of all property subject to charitable trusts, such trusts being essentially matters of public concern. Thus the position is that according to Indian concept parens patriae doctrine recognized King as the protector of all citizens and as parent. In Budhakaran Chankhani v. Thakur Prasad Shah, AIR 1942 Cal. 311 the position was explained by the Calcutta High Court at page 3 18 of the report. The same position was reiterated by the said Court in Banku Behary Mondal v. Banku Behary Hazra & Anr., AIR 1943 Cal. 203 at page 205 of the report. The position was further elaborated and explained by the
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Madras High Court in Medai Dalavoi T. Kumaraswami Mudaliar v. Medai Dalavoi Rajammal, AIR 1957 Mad. 563 at page 567 of the report. This Court also recognized the concept of parens patriae relying on the observations of Dr. Mukherjea aforesaid in Ram Saroop v. S.P. Sahi, [1959] 2 Supp. SCR 583, at pages 598 and 599. In the "Words and Phrases" Permanent edition, Vol. 35 at p. 99, it is stated that parens patriae is the inherent power and authority of a Legislature to provide protection to the person and property of persons non suijuris, such as minor, insane, and incompetent persons, but the words "parens patriae" meaning thereby the father of the country, were applied originally to the King and are used to designate the State referring to its sovereign power of guardianship over persons under disability, (Emphasis supplied). Parens patriae jurisdiction, it has been explained, is the right of the sovereign and imposes a duty on sovereign, in public interest, to protect persons under disability who have no rightful protector. The connotation of the term "parens patriae" differs from country to country, for instance, in England it is the King, in America it is the people, etc. The Government is within its duty to protect and to control persons under disability. Conceptually, the parens patriae theory is the obligation of the State to protect and take into custody the rights and the privileges of its citizens for discharging its obligations. Our Constitution makes it imperative for the State to secure to all its citizens the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and where the citizens are not in a position to assert and secure their rights, the State must come into picture and protect and fight for the rights of the citizens. The Preamble to the Constitution, read with the Directive Principles, Articles 38, 39 and 39A enjoins the State to take up these responsibilities. It is the protective measure to which the social welfare state is committed. It is necessary for the State to ensure the fundamental rights in conjunction with the Directive Principles of State Policy to effectively discharge its obligation and for this purpose, if necessary, to deprive some rights and privileges of the individual victims or their heirs to protect their rights better and secure these further. Reference may be made to Alfred L. Snapp & Son, Inc. v. Puerto Rico, 458 US 592, 73 L. Ed. 2d 995, 1028. Ct, 3260 in this connection. There it was held by the Supreme Court of the United States of America that Commonwealth of Puerto have standing to sue as parens patriae to enjoin apple growers discrimination against Puerto Rico migrant farm workers. This case illustrates in some aspect the scope of parens patriae. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico sued in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, as parens patriae for Puerto Rican migrant farm workers, and against Virginia apple growers, to enjoin discrimination against Puerto Ricans in favour of Jamaican workers in violation of the Wagner-Peyser Act, and the Immigration and Nationality Act. The District Court dismissed the action on the ground that the Commonwealth lacked standing to sue, but the Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit reversed it. On certiorari, the United States Supreme Court affirmed. In the opinion by White, J. joinedby Burger, Chief Justice and Brennan, Marshall, Blackman, Rennquist, Stevens, and OConnor, JJ., it was held that Puerto
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Rico had a claim to represent its quasi sovereign interests in federal court at least which was as strong as that of any State, and that it had parens patriae standing to sue to secure its residents from the harmful effects of discrimination and to obtain full and equal participationin the federal employment service scheme established pursuant to the Wagner-Peyser Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Justice White referred to the meaning of the expression "parens patriae". According to Blacks Law Dictionary, 5th Edition 1979, page 1003, it means literally parent of the country and refers traditionally to the role of the State as a sovereign and guardian of persons under legal disability. Justice White at page 1003 of the report emphasised that the parens patriae action had its roots in the common-law concept of the "royal prerogative". The royal prerogative included the right or responsibility to take care of persons who were legally unable, on account of mental incapacity, whether it proceeds from nonage, idiocy, or lunacy to take proper care of themselves and their property. This prerogative of parens patriae is inherent in the supreme power of every state, whether that power is lodged in a royal person or m the legislature and is a most beneficent function. After discussing several cases Justice White observed at page 1007 of the report that in order to maintain an action, in parens patriae, the state must articulate an interest apart from the interests of particular parties, i.e. the State must be more than a nominal party. The State must express a quasi-sovereign interest. Again an instructive insight can be obtained from the observations of Justice Holmes of the America Supreme Court in the case of Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Co., 206 US 230, 51 L.Ed. 1038, 27 S Ct 618, which was a case involving air pollution in Georgia caused by the discharge of noxious gases from the defendants plant in Tennessee. Justice Holmes at page 1044 of the report described the States interest as follows: "This is a suit by a State for an injury to it in its capacity of quasi-sovereign. In that capacity the State has an interest independentof and behind the titles of its citizens, in all the earth and air within its domain. It has the last word as to whether its mountains shall be stripped of their forests and itsinhabitants shall breathe pure air. It might have to pay individuals before it could utter that word, but with it remains the final power ...... ..... When the States by their union made the forcible abatement of outside nuisances impossible to each, they did not thereby agree to submit to whatever might be done. They did not renounce the possibility of making reasonable demands on the ground of their still remaining quasi-sovereign interests".
It was further observed in this case, This is a question which has been suggested and articulated by learned counsel appearing for the victims. On the other hand, it has been asserted by the learned Attorney General that that part of the order dated 14/15th February, 1989 dealing with criminal prosecution or the order of this Court was by virtue of the inherent power of this Court under Articles 136 & 142 of the Constitution. These, the learned Attorney General said, were in the exercise of plenary powers of this Court.
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These are not considerations which induced the parties to enter into settlement. For the purpose of determination of constitutional validity of the Act, it is however necessary to say that criminal liability ofany of the delinquents or of the parties is not the subject-matter of this Act and the Act does not deal with either claims or rights arising out of such criminal liability.
This aspect is necessary to be reiterated on the question of validity of the Act. We have set out the language and the purpose of the Act, and also noted the meaning of the expression claim and find that the Act was to secure the claims connected with or arising out of the disaster so that these claims might be dealt with speedily, affectively, equitably and to the best advantage of the claimants. In our opinion, Clause (b) of Section 2 includes all claims of the victims arising out of and connected with the disaster for compensation and damages or loss of life or personal injury or loss to the business and flora and fauna. What, however, is the extent of liability, is another question. This Act does not purport to or even to deal with the extent of liability arising out of the said gas leak disaster. Hence, it would be improper or incorrect to contend as did Ms. Jaising, Mr Garg and other learned counsel appearing for the victims, that the Act circumscribed the liability--criminal, punitive or absolute of the parties in respect of the leakage. The Act provides for a method or procedure for the establishment and enforcement of that liability. Good deal of argument was advanced before this Court on the question that the settlement has abridged the liability and this Court has lost the chance of laying down the extent of liability arising out of disaster like the Bhopal Gas Leak disaster. Submissions were made that we should lay down clearly the extent of liability arising out of these types of disasters and we should further hold that the Act abridged such liability and as such curtailed the rights of the victims and was bad on that score. As mentioned hereinbefore, this is an argument under a misconception. The Act does not in any way except to the extent indicated in the relevant provisions of the Act circumscribe or abridge the extent of the rights of the victims so far as the liability of the delinquents are concerned. Whatever are the rights of the victims and whatever claims arise out of the gas leak disaster for compensation, personal injury, loss of life and property, suffered or likely to be sustained or expenses to be incurred or any other loss are covered by the Act and the Central Govt. by operation of Section 3 of the Act has been given the exclusive right to represent the victims in their place and stead. By the Act, the extent of liability is not in any way abridged and, therefore, if in case of any industrial disaster like the Bhopal Gas Leak disaster, there is right in victims to recover damages or compensation on the basis of absolute liability, then the same is not in any manner abridged or curtailed.
Over 120 years ago Rylands v. Fletcher, [1868] Vol. 3 LR E & I Appeal Cases 330 was decided in England. There A, was the lessee of certain mines. B, was the owner of a mill standing on land adjoining
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that under which the mines were worked. B, desired to construct a reservoir, and employed competent persons, such as engineers and a contractor, to construct it. A, had worked his mines up to a spot where there were certain old passages of disused mines; these passages were connected with vertical shafts which communicated with the land above, and which had also been out of use for years, and were apparently filled with marl and the earth of the surrounding land. No care had been taken by the engineer or the contractor to block up these crafts, and shortly after water had been introduced into the reservoir it broke through some of the shafts, flowed through the old passage and flooded As mine. It was held by the House of Lords in England that where the owner of land, without willfulness or negligence, uses his land in the ordinary manner of its use, though mischief should thereby be occasioned to his neighbor, he will not be liable in damages. But if he brings upon his land any thing which would not naturally come upon it, and which is in itself dangerous, and may become mischievous if not kept under proper control, though in so doing he may act without personal willfulness or negligence, he will be liable in damages for any mischief thereby occasioned. In the background of the facts it was held that A was entitled to recover damages from B, in respect of the injury. The question of liability was highlighted by this Court in M.C. Mehtas case (supra) where a Constitution Bench of this Court had to deal with the rule of strict liability. This Court held that the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher, (supra) laid down a principle that if a person who brings on his land and collects and keep there anything likely to do harm and such thing escapes and does damage to another, he is liable to compensate for the damage caused. This rule applies only to non natural user of the land and does not apply to things naturally on the land or where the escape is due to an act of God and an act of a stranger or the default of the person injured or where the things which escape are present by the consent of the person injured or in certain cases where there is a statutory authority. There, this Court observed that the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher, (supra) evolved in the 19th century at a time when all the developments of science and technology had not taken place, and the same cannot afford any guidance in evolving any standard of liability consistent with the constitutional norms and the needs of the present day economy and social structure. In a modern industrial society with highly developed scientific knowledge and technology where hazardous or inherently dangerous industries are necessary to be carried on as part of the developmental process, Courts should not feel inhibited by this rule merely because the new law does not recognise the rule of strict and absolute liability in case of an enterprise engaged in hazardous and dangerous activity. This Court noted that law has to grow in order to satisfy the needs of the fast changing society and keep abreast with the economic developments taking place in the country. Law cannot afford to remain static.
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This Court reiterated there that if it is found necessary to construct a new principle of liability to deal with an unusual situation which has arisen and which is likely to arise in future on account of hazardous or inherently dangerous industries which are concomitant to an industrial economy, the Court should not hesitate to evolve such principle of liability merely because it has not been so done in England. According to this Court, an enterprise which is engaged in a hazardous or inherently dangerous industry which poses potential threat to the health and safety of the persons working in the factory and residing in the surrounding areas owes an absolute and non-delegable duty to the community to ensure that no harm results to anyone. The enterprise must be held to be under an obligation to provide that the hazardous or inherently dangerous activity in which it is engaged must be conducted with the highest standards of safety and if any harm results to anyone on account of an accident in the operation of such activity resulting, for instance, in escape of toxic gas the enterprise is strictly and absolutely liable to compensate all those who were affected by the accident as part of the social cost for carrying on such activity, regardless of whether it is carried on carefully or not. Such liability is not subject to any of the exceptions which operate vis-a-vis the tortious principle of strict liability under the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher. If the enterprise is permitted to carry on a hazardous or dangerous activity for its profit, the law must presume that such permission is conditional on the enterprise absorbing the cost of any accident arising on account of such activity as an appropriate item of its overheads. The enterprise alone has the resources to discover and guard against hazards or dangers and to provide warning against potential hazards. This Court reiterated that the measure of compensation in these kinds of cases must be correlated to the magnitude and capacity of the enterprise because such compensation must have a deterrent effect. The larger and more prosperous the enterprise, the greater must be the amount of compensation payable by it for the harm caused on account of an accident in the carrying on of the hazardous or inherently dangerous activity by the enterprise. The determination of actual damages payable would depend upon various facts and circumstances of the particular case. The Bhopal Gas tragedy has raised several importantquestions regarding the functioning of multi-nationals in third world countries. After the Second world war colonial rule came to end in several parts of the globe, as a number of natives secured independence from foreign rule. The political domination was over but the newly born nations were beset with various problems on account of lack of finances and development. A number of multi-nationals and transnational corporations offered their services to the under-developed and developing countries to provide finances and technical know-how by setting up their own industries in those countries on their own terms that brought problems with regard to the control over the functioning of the transnational corporations. Multi-national companies in many cases exploited the underdeveloped nations and in some cases they influenced political and economic policies of host countries which subverted the sovereignty of those countries. There has been complaints
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against the multi-nationals for adopting unfair and corrupt means to advance their interests in the host countries. Since this was a worldwide phenomena the United Nations took up the matter for consideration. The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations established a Commission on Transnational Corporations to conduct research on various political, economic and social aspects relating to transnational corporations. On a careful and detailed study the Commission submitted its Report in 1985 for evolving a Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations. The Code was adopted in 1986 to which large number of countries of the world are signatories. Although it has not been fully finalised as yet, the Code presents a comprehensive instrument formulating the principles of Code of Conduct for transnational corporations carrying on their enterprises in under developed and developing countries. The Code contains provisions regarding ownership and control designed to strike balance between the competing interests of the Transnational Corporation and the host countries. It extensively deals with the political, economic, financial, social and legal questions. The Code provides for disclosure of information to the host countries and it also provides guidelines for nationalisation and compensation, obligations to international law and jurisdiction of courts. The Code lays down provisions for settlement of disputes between the host States and an affiliate of a Transnational Corporation. It suggests that such disputes should be submitted to the national courts or authorities of host countries unless amicably settled between the parties. It provides for the choice of law and means for dispute settlement arising out of contracts. The Code has also laid down guidelines for the determination of settlement of disputes arising out of accident and disaster and also for liability of Transnational Corporations and the jurisdiction of the courts. The Code is binding on the countries which formally accept it. It was stated before us that India has accepted the Code. If that be so, it is necessary that the Government should take effective measures to translate the provisions of the Code into specific actions and policies backed by appropriate legislation and enforcing machinery to prevent any accident or disaster and to secure the welfare of the victims of any industrial disaster. In the context of our national dimensions of human rights, right to life, liberty, pollution free air and water is guaranteed by the Constitution under Articles 21, 48A and 5l(g), it is the duty of the State to take effective steps to protect the guaranteed constitutional rights. These rights must be integrated and illumined by the evolving international dimensions and standards, having regard to our sovereignty, as highlighted by Clauses 9 and 13 of U.N. Code of conduct on Transnational Corporations. The evolving standards of international obligations need to be respected, maintaining dignity and sovereignty of our people, the State must take effective steps to safeguard the constitutional rights of citizens by enacting laws. The laws so made may provide for conditions for granting licence to Transnational Corporations, prescribing norms and standards for running industries on Indian soil ensuring the constitutional rights of our people relating to life, liberty, as well as safety to environment and ecology to enable the people to lead a healthy and clean life. A
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Transnational Corporation should be made liable and subservient to laws of our country and the liability should not be restricted to affiliate companyonly but the parent corporation should also be made liable for any damage caused to the human being or ecology. The law must require transnational corporations to agree to pay such damages as may be determined. by the statutory agencies and forum constituted under it without exposing the victims to long drawn litigation. Under the existing civil law damages are determined by the Civil Courts, after a long drawn litigation, which destroys the very purpose of awarding damages. In order to meet the situation, to avoid delay and to ensure immediate relief to the victims we would suggest that the law made by the Parliament should provide for constitution of tribunals regulated by special procedure for determining compensation to victims of industrial disaster or accident, appeal against which may lie to this Court on limited ground of questions of law only after depositing the amount determined by the Tribunal. The law should also provide for interim relief to victims during the pendency of proceedings. These steps would minimise the misery and agony of victims of hazardous enterprises. There is yet another aspect which needs consideration by the Government and the Parliament. Industrial development in our country and the hazards involved therein, pose a mandatory need to constitute a statutory "Industrial Disaster Fund", contributions to which may be made by, the Government, the industries whether they are transnational corporations or domestic undertakings public or private. The extent of contribution may be worked out having regard to the extent of hazardous nature of the enterprise and other allied matters. The Fund should be permanent in nature, so that money is readily available for providing immediate effective relief to the victims. This may avoid delay, as has happened in the instant case in providing effective relief to the victims. The Government and the Parliament should therefore take immediate steps for enacting laws, having regard to these suggestions, consistent with the international norms and guidelines as contained in the United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations. With these observations, I agree with the order proposed by my learned brother, Sabyasachi Mukharji, CJI.
M/s Ashoka Smokeless Coal Ind. P. Ltd. & Ors -VersusUnion of India & Ors DATE OF JUDGMENT: 01/12/2006 BENCH: S.B. Sinha & P.P. Naolekar The validity and/or legality of a scheme framed by the Coal India Limited for sale of coal by Electronic Auction (E-Auction) is in question in these appeals and transferred applications. "Coal"
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indisputably plays an important role in the development of economy of the country. It had been the subjectmatter of regulatory measures even under the Defence of India Rules. Production, distribution, supply and price of coal were controlled and regulated under the Colliery Control Order, 1945 (1945 Order) framed under the said Rules. The said Order was continued under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. Under the Colliery Control Order, the Coal Controller was even authorised to allot quotas of coal to the Central Government as well as the State Governments; although the said procedure is now not in vogue in view of decontrolling notifications issued there under by the Central Government from time to time. The quality as well as quantity of coal required by all consumers used to be regulated by the Coal Controller. Coal was the only mineral which was subjected to nationalisation, in terms of the Coking Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1972 and the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973. Even coal-mining leases granted to the lessees stood terminated by reason of Section 4-A of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 in the year 1976. Coal is used as a primary raw material in many core sectors which are vital for the economy of the country e.g. power, steel, oil etc. Fixation of price of coal by the Central Government, regarding the quality thereof, had all along been subjected to statutory orders. The gradation of coal dependent upon the quality thereof was to be determined by the "Coal Board" constituted under the Coal Mines (Conservation and Development) Act. Quality of coal may depend not only on the location of the coal mines but also on the particular seams wherefrom it is extracted. Requirement of maintenance of fixed price of coal on an all-India basis, as far as practicable had all along been considered to be imperative in the economic and industrial development of the country. In another article on "The Public Sector in India", quoted in Issues in Public Enterprise by Sri K.R. Gupta, Dr Rao is quoted as saying (at p. 84): "... the pricing policy should be such as to promote the growth of national income and the rate of this growth ... public enterprises must make profits and the larger the share of public enterprises in all enterprises, the greater is their need for making profits. Profits constitute the surplus available for savings and investment on the one hand and contribution to national social welfare programme on the other; and if public enterprises do not make profits the national surplus available for stepping up the rate of investment and the increase of social welfare will suffer a corresponding reduction;.... Hence the need for giving up the irrational belief that public enterprise should, by definition, be run on a no-profit basis."
In M.R.F. Ltd. v. Inspector Kerala Govt. and Others [(1998) 8 SCC 227], a question arose as to whether the rights of industrial concerns under Article 19(1)(g) are said to be affected having regard to the provisions of the Kerala Industrial Establishments (National and Festival Holidays) (Amendment) Act, 1990
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whereby the number of national holidays were increased. In view of Article 43 of the Constitution of India, the restriction imposed were held to be reasonable restrictions stating: "The plea under Article 14 also cannot be entertained. The decision by legislative amendment to raise the national and festival holidays is based upon relevant material considered by the Government, including the fact that the holidays allowed by the Central Government and other public sector undertakings were far greater in number than those prescribed under the Act. As pointed out earlier, the Act is a social legislation to give effect to the Directive Principles of State Policy contained in Article 43 of the Constitution. The law so made cannot be said to be arbitrary nor can it be struck down for being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution." Therein it was also observed: "In examining the reasonableness of a statutory provision, whether it is violative of the Fundamental Right guaranteed under Article 19, one cannot lose sight of the Directive Principles of State Policy contained in Chapter IV of the Constitution as was laid down by this Court in Saghir Ahmad v. State of U.P. as also in Mohd. Hanif Quareshi v. State of Bihar. Good governance and good corporate governance are distinct and separate. Whereas good governance would mean protection of the weaker sections of the people; so far as good corporate governance is concerned, the same may not be of much relevance. Even the coal companies in taking recourse to E-Auction did not give effect to the concept of corporate social responsibility.
CONSUMER EDUCATION & RESEARCH CENTRE AND OTHERS -VersusUNION OF INDIA & OTHERS DATE OF JUDGMENT27/01/1995 BENCH: RAMASWAMY, K. BENCH: RAMASWAMY, K. AHMADI A.M. (CJ) PUNCHHI, M.M. CITATION: 1995 AIR 922 1995 SCC (3) 42 JT 1995 (1) 636 1995 SCALE (1)354
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Occupational accidents and diseases remain the most appalling human tragedy of modem industry and one of its most serious forms of economic waste. Occupational health hazards and diseases to the workmen employed in asbestos industries are of our concern in this writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution by way of public interest litigation at the behest of the petitioner, an accredited Organisation. At the inception of filing the writ petition in the year 1986, though it highlighted the lacuna in diverse provisions of law applicable to the asbestos industry, due to orders of-this Court passed from time to time, though wide gaps have been bridged by subordinate legislation, yet lot more need to be done. So the petitioner seeks to fill in the yearning gaps and remedial measures for the protection of the health of the workers engaged in mines and asbestos industries with adequate mechanism for and diagnosis and control of the silent killer disease " asbestosis", with amended prayers as under(a) Directions to all the industries and the official-respondents to maintain compulsorily and keep preserved health records of each workman for a period of 40 years from the date of beginning of the employment or 10 years after the cessation of the employment, whichever is later; (b) To direct all the factories to adopt "THE MEMBRANE FILTER TEST"; (c) To direct all industries to compulsorily insure the employees working in their respective industries, excluding those already covered by the Employees State Insurance Act and the Workmen Compensation Act so as to entitle the workmen to get adequate compensation for occupational hazards or diseases or death; (d) To direct the authorities to appoint a committee of experts to determine the standard of permissible exposure limit value of 2 fibre/cc and to reduce to 1-fibre/cc for Chrystolite type of asbestos, 0.5-fibre/cc for Amosite type of asbestos and for the time being 0.2-fibre/cc for Crocidolite type of asbestos at par with the international standards; (e) To direct the appropriate Govenunents to cover the workmen and to extend them Factories Act or by suitable regulatory provisions contained therein to all small scale sectors which arc not covered under the Factories Act; (f) To direct re-examination of such of those persons who are found suffering from Asbestosis by National Institute of Occupational Health but not the E.S.I. hospitals; and in particular the Inspector of factories, Gujarat, be directed to have reexamined all those workmen, examined by ESI by N.G.D.H. and to award compensation; and (g) To direct the Central Goverment to appoint a committee to recommend whether dry process can be completely replaced by wet process.
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The exposure to asbestos and the resultant long tragic chain of adverse medical, legal and societal consequences, reminds the legal and social responsibility of the employer or the producer not to endanger the workmen or the community of the society. He or it is not absolved of the inherent responsibility to the exposed workmen or the society at large. They have the responsibility legal, moral and social to provide protective measures to the workmen and to the public or all those who are exposed to the harmful consequences of their products. Mere adoption of regulations for the enforcement has no real meaning and efficacy without die professional, industrial and governmental resources and legal and moral determination to implement such regulations. The preamble and Article 38 of the Constitution of India the supreme law, envisions social justice as its arch to ensure life to be meaningful and liveable with human dignity. Jurisprudence is the eye of law giving an insight into the environment of which it is the expression. It relates the law to the spirit of the time and makes it richer. Law is the ultimate aim of every civilised society as a key system in a given era, to meet the needs and demands of its time. Justice, according to law, comprehends social urge and commitment. The Constitution commands justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as supreme values to usher in the egalitarian social, economic and political democracy. Social justice, equality and dignity of person are corner stones of social democracy. The concept social justice which the Constitution of India engrafted, consists of diverse principles essential for the orderly growth and development of personality of every citizen. "Social justice" is thus an integral part of "justice" in generic sense. Justice is the genus, of which social justice is one of its species. Social justice is a dynamic device to mitigate the sufferings of the poor, weak, Dalits, Tribals and deprived sections of the society and to elevate them to the level of equality to live a life with dignity of person. Social justice is not a simple or single idea of a society but is an essential part of complex of social change to relieve the poor etc. from handicaps, penury to ward off distress, and to make their life liveable, for greater good of the society at large. In other words, the aim of social justice is to attain substantial degree of social, economic and political equality, which is the legitimate expectations. Social security, just and humane conditions of work and leisure to workman are part of his meaningful right to life and to achieve self-expression of his personality and to enjoy the life with dignity, the State should provide facilities and opportunities to them to reach at least minimum standard of health, economic security and civilised living while sharing according to the capacity, social and cultural heritage. In a developing society like ours steeped with unbridgeable and ever widening gaps of inequality in status and of opportunity, law is calalist. rubican to the poor etc. to reach the ladder of social justice, Justice K. Subba Rao, the former Chief Justice of this Court, in his "Social Justice and Law at page 2, had stated
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that "Social Justice is one of the disciplines of justice and the discipline of justice relates to the society." What is due cannot be ascertained by absolute standard which keeps changing depending upon the time, place and circumstance. The constitutional concern of social justice as an elastic continuous process is to accord justice to all sections of the society by providing facilities and opportunities to remove handicaps and disabilities with which the poor etc. are languishing to secure dignity of their person. The Constitution, therefore, Mandates the State to accord justice to all members of the society in all facets of human activity. The concept of social justice embeds equality to flavour and enliven practical content of life. Social justice and equality are complementary to each other so that both should maintain their vitality. Rule of law, therefore, is a potent instrument of social justice to bring about equality in results. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts human sensitivity and moral responsibility of every State that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." The Charter of the United Nations thus reinforces the faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person envisaged in the directive principles of State policy as part of the constitution. The jurisprudence of personhood or philosophy of the right to life envisaged under Article 21, enlarges its sweep to encompass human personality in its full blossom with invigorated health which is a wealth to the workman to can his livelihood to sustain the dignity of person and to live a life with dignity and equality. 23. Article 38(1) lays down the foundation for human rights and enjoins the State to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting, as effectively as it may, a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life. Art.46 directs the State to protect the poor from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. Article 39(e) charges that the policy of the State shall be to secure "the health and strength of the workers". Article 42 mandates that the States shall make provision, statutory or executive "to secure just and humane conditions of work". Article 43 directs that the State shall "endeavour to secure to all workers, by suitable legislation or economic organisation or any other way to ensure decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities to the workers". Article 48-A enjoins the State to protect and improve the environment. As human resources are valuable national assets for peace, industrial or material production, national wealth, progress, social stability, descent standard of life of worker is an input. Art. 25(2) of the universal declaration of human rights ensures right to standard of adequate living for health and well-being of the individual including medical care, sickness and disability, Article 2(b) of the International Convention on Political, Social and Cultural Rights protects the right of worker to enjoy just and favourable conditions of work ensuring safe and healthy working conditions.
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The expression life assured in Art.21 of the Constitution does not connote mere animal existence or continued drudgery through life. It has a much wider meaning which includes right to livelihood, better standard of life, hygienic conditions in work place and leisure. In Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, 1985(3) SCC 545, this Court held that no person can live without the means of living i.e. means of livelihood. If the right to livelihood is not treated as a part of the constitutional right to life, the easiest way of depriving a person of his right to life would be to deprive him of his means of livelihood to the point of abrogation. Such deprivation would not only denude the life of its effective content of meaningfulness but it would make life impossible to live, leave aside what makes life liveable. The right to life with human dignity encompasses within its fold, some of the finer facets of human civilisation which makes life worth living. The expanded connotation of life would mean the tradition and cultural heritage of the persons concerned. In State of H.P. v. Umed Ram Sharma, (1986)2 SCC 68, this Court held that the right to life includes the quality of life as understood in its richness and fullness by the ambit of the constitution. Access to road was held to be an access to life itself in that state. In Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, (1978) 4 SCC 494, considering the effect of solitary confinement of a prisoner sentenced to death and the meaning of the word life enshrined under Article 21, the Constitution Bench held that the quality of-life covered by Article 21 is something more than the dynamic meaning attached to life and liberty. The same view was reiterated in Board of Trustees of the port of Bombay v. D.R. Nadkarni, (1983) 1 SCC 124, Vikrant Deo Singh Tomar v. State of Bihar, (1988) Suppl.SCC 734, R. Autyanuprasi v. Union of India, (1989)1 Suppl. SCC 251. In Charles Sobraj v. Supdt. Central Jail, Tihar, AIR 1978 SC 1514, this Court held that the right to life includes right to human dignity. The right against torture, cruel or unusual punishment or degraded treatment was held to violate the right to life. In Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India, (1984) 3 SCC 161 at 183-84, this Court held that the right to live with human dignity, enshrined in Article 21, derives its life-breath from the directive principles of the State policy and particularly Clauses (e) and (f) of Article 39 and Articles 41 and 42. In C.E.S.C. Ltd. & Ors. v. Subhash Chandra Bose, 1992(1) SCC 441, considered the gamut of operational efficacy of Human Rights and the constitutional rights, the right to medical aid and health and held that the right to social justice are fundamental rights. Right to free legal aid to the poor and indigent worker was held to be a fundamental right in Khatri (11) v. State of Bihar, (1981)1 SCC 627. Right to education washeld to be a fundmental right vide Maharashtra State B.O.S. & H.S. Education v. K.S. Gandhi, 1991(2) SCC 716. and Unni Krishnan v. State of A.P., (1993)1 SCC 645. The right to health to a worker is an integral facet of meaningful right to life to have not only a meaningful existence but also robust health and vigour without which worker would lead life of misery.
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Lack of health denudes his livelihood. Compelling economic necessity to work in an industry exposed to health hazards due to indigence to bread-winning to himself and his dependents, should not be at the cost of the health and vigour of the workman. Facilities and opportunities, as enjoined in Article 38, should be provided to protect the health of the workman. Provision for medical test and treatment invigorates the health of the worker for higher production or efficient service. Continued treatment, while in service or after retirement is a moral, legal and constitutional concomitant duty of the employer and the State. Therefore, it must be held that the right to health and medical care is a fundamental right under Article 21 read with Articles 39(c), 41 and 43 of the Constitution and make the life of the workman meaningful and purposeful with dignity of person. Right to life includes protection of the health and strength of the worker is a minimum requirement to enable a person to live with human dignity. The State, be it Union or State government or an industry, public or private, is enjoined to take all such action which will promote health, strength and vigour of the workman during the period of employment and leisure and health even after retirement as basic essentials to live the life with health and happiness. The health and strength of the worker is an integral facet of right to life. Denial thereof denudes the workman the finer facets of life violating Art.21. The right to human dignity, development of personality, social protection, right to rest and leisure are fundamental human rights to a workman assured by the Charter of Human Rights, in the Preamble and Arts.38 and 39 of the Constitution. Facilities for medical care and health against sickness ensures stable manpower for economic development and would generate devotion to duty and dedication to give the workers best physically as well as mentally in production of goods or services. Health of the worker enables him to enjoy the fruit of his labour, keeping him physically fit and mentally alert for leading a successful life, economically, socially and culturally. Medical facilities to protect the health of the workers are, therefore, the fundamental and human rights to the workmen. Therefore, we hold that right to health, medical aid to protect the health and vigour to a worker while in service or post retirement is a fundamental right under Article 21, read with Articles 39(e), 41, 43, 48A and all related Articles and fundamental human rights to make the life of the workman meaningful and purposeful with dignity of person. Dalco Engineering Private Ltd. Appellant -VersusShree Satish Prabhakar Padhye & Ors. Respondents WITH CIVIL APPEAL NO. 1858 OF 2007

Fancy Rehabilitation Trust & Anr. Appellants Vs. Union of India & Ors. Respondents
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The appellant is a private limited company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. The respondent S.P. Padhye (also referred to as the employee) was employed as a Telephone Operator by the appellant for more than two decades. The respondents service was terminated by the appellant with effect from 31.12.2000 on the ground that he had become deaf (85% reduction in ability to hear). The respondent complained to the Disability Commissioner, Pune, in regard to such termination, alleging that he was fit, able and normal when he joined service of the appellant and as he acquired the hearing impairment during the period of service, he should have been continued in employment in some suitable post. The Disability Commissioner made an order dated 12.10.2001 suggesting to the employer to undertake a social responsibility, by reemploying the respondent to discharge any other work. The suggestion was not accepted by the employer. The learned counsel for the employee referred to and relied upon the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Act which states that India as a signatory to the Proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of the People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region, enacted the Statute to provide for the following : (i) to spell out the responsibility of the State towards the prevention of disabilities, protection of rights, provision of medical care, education, training, employment and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities; (ii) (iii) to create barrier free environment for persons with disabilities; to remove any discrimination against persons with disabilities in the sharing of development benefits, vis--vis non-disabled persons; (iv) to counteract any situation of the abuse and the exploitation of persons with disabilities; (v) to lay down a strategy for comprehensive development of programmes and services and equalization of opportunities for persons with disabilities; and (vi) to make special provision of the integration of persons with disabilities into the social mainstream. He submitted that keeping the said objects in view, the term establishment should be extended to all corporations incorporated under the Companies Act 1956, irrespective of whether they are in the public sector or private sector.
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The learned counsel for the employee next relied upon the principle that words in a social welfare legislation should receive liberal and broad interpretation, stated by this Court in Workman of American Express International Banking Corporation v. Management of American Express International Banking Corporation - 1985 (4) SCC 71 : The principles of statutory construction are well settled. Words occurring in statutes of liberal import such as social welfare legislation and human rights legislation are not to be put in Procrustean beds or shrunk to Liliputian dimensions. In construing these legislations the imposture of literal construction must be avoided and the prodigality of its misapplication must be recognized and reduced. Judges ought to be more concerned with the colour, the content and the context of such statutes (we have borrowed the words from Lord Wilberforces opinion in Prenn v. Simmonds - 1971 (3) All ER 237). In the same opinion Lord Wilberforce pointed out that law is not to be left behind in some island of literal interpretation but is to enquire beyond the language, unisolated from the matrix of facts in which they are set; the law is not to be interpreted purely on internal linguistic considerations.
The learned counsel for the employee next relied upon the following observations in Kunal Singh v. Union of India - 2003 (4) SCC 524, where this Court, referring to the very section under consideration, observed thus : Section 47 contains a clear directive that the employer shall not dispense with or reduce in rank an employee who acquires a disability during the service. In construing a provision of a social beneficial enactment that too dealing with disabled persons intended to give them equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation, the view that advances the object of the Act and serves its purpose must be preferred to the one which obstructs the object and paralyses the purpose of the Act. Language of section 47 is plain and certain casting statutory obligation on the employer to protect an employee acquiring disability during service.
We agree that the socio-economic legislations should be interpreted liberally. It is also true that Courts should adopt different yardsticks and measures for interpreting socio-economic statutes, as compared to penal statutes, and taxing statutes. In this case it is ordered by the Honble Justice R.V. RAVEENDRAN, R. M. LODHA, C. K. PRASAD, that the disability will not come in the way of employee of any private company, who has been terminated on
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the ground of disability, seeking or any other statute, in accordance with the
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enforcing any right available under law.
COMPARATIVE STUDY Let us walk together Let us talk together Let our heart vibrate together (Rig Veda) The Sanskrit saying, Atithi Devo Bhav, means the one who comes to you for being served, should be taken to be as God, is considered as the highest order of responsibility, be it to individuals or to the society.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a term describing a company's obligation to be accountable to all of its stakeholders in all its operations and activities. CSR has several strategic implications. The first is that CSR can be an integral element of a firm's business and corporate-level differentiation strategies. Therefore, it should be considered as a form of strategic investment. Even when it is not directly tied to a product feature or production process, CSR can be viewed as a form of reputation building or maintenance. A second strategic implication of the firms perspective is that one can generate a set of predictions regarding patterns of investment in CSR across firms and industries.. In particular, the focus is on issues relating to industry evolution, market structure, firm dynamics, and the role of asymmetric information in the context of CSR.
Emerging markets: The evolution of CSR in developing economies
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Corporate social responsibility is a term describing a company's obligation to be accountable to all of its stakeholders in all its operations and activities. Socially responsible companies consider the full scope of their impact on communities and the environment when making decisions, balancing the needs of stakeholders with their need to make a profit. A companys stakeholders are all those who are influenced by and can influence a companys decisions and actions, both locally and globally. The Emerging CSR Model The evolution of CSR in these developing economies shows widely varying results.
Chambers, Chapple, Moon and Sullivan (2003) evaluate the extent of CSR penetration in seven Asian countries (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand). And show that the mean value for the seven countries (even including industrially advanced Japan) is just 41% compared to say a score of 98% for a developed nation like the United Kingdom. However, there are exceptions to the mean scores. India for example had an average CSR penetration of 72% compared to Indonesias 24%. The concept of CSR as visualized in the emerging markets and the developed countries have very different understanding. Methods of CSR implementation 1. Moon (2002) distinguishes three types of CSR reporting community involvement, socially responsible production processes and socially responsible employee relations. During the formulation stages of development of CSR in emerging economies, the community involvement is more along the lines of a philanthropic involvement with company involvement, to operate in the business environment. 2. The other factors are internal to the firm involving the moulding of their business activities while incorporating CSR practices like, environmental and societal norms. This will mean that human rights agreements are also upheld taking into account the rights of the local communities. 3. CSR also leads to evolution of employee relations in the company in such a way that employees become major stakeholders with definite decision making powers especially in the area of formulation of CSR policy. 4. CSR also leads to evolution of employee relations in the company as a strategic partner i.e. employees becoming major stakeholders with definite decision making powers especially in the area of formulation of CSR policy
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Thus, outcome of the comparative study of the above parameters by Chambers, Chapple, Moon and Sullivan (2003), focuses that currently Asian nations are still faring strongly only in the first parameter of community involvement. Some Cases of CSR initiatives in India 1. LABS of Dr Reddys Labs Dr Reddys lab started LABS (LivilihoodAdvancement Business School) in the year 1999. It trains the under privileged youngsters, even street children for livelihood earnings in the job areas i.e. technology, healthcare, hospitality, finance and marketing issues. It involves four types of volunteers viz student volunteer Mentors, Faculty Volunteer Mentors, Network Mentors and Resource Mentors. 2. House of Sun drops Edible oil Sun drops is well known Edible oil in India, for a Rs 1,200 cr FMCG company Agro- Tech foods Limited (ATFL). Recently, it came out with an initiative in which for every liter of Sun drop sold, AFTL will contribute Re. 1 to Narayan Hrudanalay Heart Hospital for the treatment of children with cardiac disorders. 3. Care Today Foundation India Today, a leading publishing house of the country, set up Care Today Foundation during the Kargil conflict in 1999. The major contributions of Care Today Foundation include: Rehabilitation of the Kargil soldiers, Rehabilitation of the cyclone and drought victims in Orissa to name a few. Redesigning marketing paradigms for emerging markets In a newly emerged Global market, the value of competition both domestic and Globalcoupled with innovation and risk- taking has to be recognized. Today, every Global Company wants its system to be professionally managed in the light of Global competition. As competition heightens and customers become more sophisticated, companies must ensure social responsibility order to secure the fundamental relationships that fuel business growth. Building a distinctive brand is at the heart of long-term relationships between company and society. The business environment has undergone vast changes in the recent years in terms of both the nature of competition and the wave of globalization that has been sweeping across markets. Prahalad and Lieberthal (1998) point out that companies must make the transition in their business strategy of thinking globally to thinking locally as each of the merging markets represents an intriguing challenge for marketing with its vast diversities existing across nations and even within nations in culture and socio economic conditions. It is in marketing across such diverse cultures and varying conditions that the concept of corporate social responsibility becomes critical to success. The present paper has focused on two main paradigms of marketing in which CSR plays an important part:
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a. Customer Segmentation and Consumer behaviour- There is an urgent need for modifying currently existing customer segmentation techniques. While segmentation based on finer product features may have been successful in the industrially advanced nations, such fine distinctions may not strike a cord with consumers in the emerging markets. This is amply demonstrated in the case of consumer products like toilet soaps where market segmentation techniques in the developed nations are based on value provided by products, like fragrance, anti-aging etc. b. Distribution -Emerging markets, especially those in Asia have posed significant distribution challenges to multinational companies.
Violation of CSR principles: Case of Cadbury in India In October 2003, a Cadbury stockiest in Mumbai detected worms in Cadburys Dairy Milk chocolate. Then the Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration of Maharashtra examined the sealed Dairy Milk packs and found worms in them. He immediately orderly the seizure of all Cadburys Dairy Milk chocolates from the companys factory in Talegaon near Pune. This attracted lots of criticism from consumer activists on lack of appropriate laws on storage. They also demanded immediate government action against Cadbury. Another factor brought to light was that the chocolates were delivered by three wheelers, which did not have refrigeration facility for appropriate transit maintenance of the product. Case of Soft drinks: Nationwide study by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) 2006: Centre for Science and Environment (2006) in its findings on pesticide residues in soft drinks, a new nationwide study shows nothing much has changed: soft drinks remain unsafe and unhealthy. And public health remains severely compromised. Worse, even the directions given by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) have been disregarded standards for safety have been finalized but blocked because of company opposition. The 2006 CSE study tests 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands, from 25 different manufacturing plants of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, spread over 12 states. The study finds pesticide residues in all samples; it finds a cocktail of 3-5 different pesticides in all samples on an average 24 times higher than BIS norms, which have been finalized but not yet notified. The levels in some samples for instance, Coca-Cola bought in Kolkata exceeded the BIS standards by 140 times for the deadly pesticide Lindane. Similarly, a Coca-Cola sample manufactured in Thane contained the neurotoxin Chlorpyrifos, 200 times the standard.
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Hence, the above cases of chocolate and soft drinks shows that emerging markets might have loose laws which do not protect the interests of the local population or laws that are not implemented properly. However it is in the best interest of the corporations to take care of the welfare of the local community. The adverse publicity caused by the protests and media coverage brings out high degree of negative public response for the product safety of the company. Corporate social responsibility must not be defined by tax planning strategies alone. Rather, it should be defined within the framework of a corporate philosophy which factors the needs of the community and the regions in which a corporate entity functions. This is part of our cultural heritage. Mahatma Gandhi called it trusteeship.I invite corporate India to be a partner in making ours a more humane and just society We need a new Partnership for Inclusive Growth based on what I describe as a Ten Point Social Charter...first, we need to have healthy respect for your workers and invest in their welfare . Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh in 2007
Asia Pacific Perspective Corporate social responsibility is represented by the contributions undertaken by companies to society through its core business activities, its social investment and philanthropy programmes and its engagement in public policy. In recent years CSR has become a fundamental business practice and has gained much attention from chief executives, chairmen, boards of directors and executive management teams of larger international companies. They understand that a strong CSR program is an essential element in achieving good business practices and effective leadership. Companies have determined that their impact on the economic, social and environmental landscape directly affects their relationships with stakeholders, in particular investors, employees, customers, business partners, governments and communities.
The Asia Pacific context is distinct. On the one hand, there are long-standing traditions of respect for family and social networks, and high value placed on relationships, social stability and education. Diverse religions and cultures also bring distinct attitudes towards community social behaviour and engagement as well as support and philanthropic contributions. Governments in the region also play distinct roles often stronger in terms of influence on economic and social priorities, yet not as advanced in terms of social safety nets. This has resulted in the drivers for corporate citizenship being very different from those in other regions.
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Many of the large corporations in Asia Pacific are private, and many do not have the same public pressures on corporate behaviour that public companies in Europe and North America have for progress on corporate social responsibility, although this is changing. Yet many of the larger companies in Asia Pacific have strong localized philanthropic programmes. Also, regional companies that are engaged in supply chains of major global corporations, and local affiliates of global corporations from Europe and America have significant pressures and a strong business case to develop corporate citizenship policies and practices within the region, not least on the environment, human rights and labour standards.
Corporate Social Responsibility: Unlocking the value: According to the results of a global survey in 2002 by Ernst & Young, 94 per cent of companies believe the development of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy can deliver real business benefits, however only 11 per cent have made significant progress in implementing the strategy in their organisation. Senior executives from 147 companies in a range of industry sectors across Europe, North America and Australasia were interviewed for the survey.
The survey concluded that CEOs are failing to recognise the benefits of implementing Corporate Social Responsibility strategies, despite increased pressure to include ethical, social and environmental issues into their decision-making processes. Research found that company CSR programs influence 70 per cent of all consumer purchasing decisions, with many investors and employees also being swayed in their choice of companies. "While companies recognise the value of an integrated CSR strategy, the majority are failingto maximise the associated business opportunities," said Andrew Grant, Ernst & Young Environment and Sustainability Services Principal. "Corporate Social Responsibility is now a determining factor in consumer and client choice which companies cannot afford to ignore. Companies who fail to maximise their adoption of a CSR strategy will be left behind."
World Economic Forum & CSR: The World Economic Forum has recognised the importance of corporate social responsibility by establishing the Global Corporate Citizenship Initiative. The Initiative hopes to increase businesses' engagement in and support for corporate social responsibility as a business strategy with long-term benefits both for the companies themselves as well as society in general. At the Forum's Annual Meeting 2002, the Initiative
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launched a joint CEO statement, Global Corporate Citizenship: The Leadership Challenges for CEOs and Boards. This joint statement recommends a framework for action that business executives can use to develop a strategy for managing their company's impact on society and its relationships with stakeholders. This statement was endorsed by the CEOs of over 40 multinational companies, including the CEOs of Accenture, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Deutsche Bank, Rio Tinto, Siemens, Renault, McDonalds, Infosys Technologies, Coca-Cola, DHL and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
Case Studies: The case studies below demonstrate how diverse company activities can be for businesses of all sizes. SAPHere for Life is a not-for-profit public benevolent organisation focusing on education, awareness and research aimed at the prevention of youth suicide. The organization provides resources, education and school based life skills programs to help prevent suicide amongst young people. Through its charity sponsorship program SAP Australia supports Here for Life with monetary contributions, volunteering and staff involvement in the agency's programs.
Sun MicrosystemsIn 1998, Sun became Musica Viva's first and only principal sponsor. By associating itself with a leader in the IT industry, Musica Viva gains networking opportunities within the corporate sector, resulting in further sponsorship openings. It gains access to Sun's staff and customer base to increase awareness of Musica Viva's activities and performances, enabling it to achieve its own aims of taking the beauty of music into the lives of ordinary Australians and forging meaningful links between the arts and the corporate world. The exchange of expertise helps both partners. Sun provides its technological know-how and assists with market reach for Musica Viva, which in turn provides opportunities to give something back to Australia's cultural life through supporting and engaging with music in various ways.
IBMIBM - Japans e-elder initiative is a national program using training materials and other support from IBM Japan which will hire and train seniors as instructors for other seniors in an effort to help elder citizens (expected to make up one-fifth of Japans population by 2008) more fully participate in a Web-based society.
HP90 SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.
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In Singapore, HP staff raised nearly $295,000 for charity in 2003 and received a SHARE Gold Award from the Community Chest of Singapore for employee participation exceeding 50%. One event was Gladiathon, a fundraiser in support of the President's Challenge 2003. Leading by example was the Managing Director from HP Asia Pacific, who wore a gladiator costume and competed with other IT industry leaders in the battle for charity. HP was the largest corporate donor of this event, raising a total of $121,000.
MicrosoftMicrosoft works closely with international organizations such as the World Food Programme, Save the Children, and Mercy Corps to provide technology-based development assistance through the HEART (Humanitarian Empowerment and Response through Technology) program. More and more, global organizations rely on technology to improve the effectiveness of their humanitarian efforts around the world.
CSR in Bangladesh
Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility are interrelated. One technique that is being increasingly introduced to measure corporate social responsibility of firms is Triple-Bottom-Line (TBL) accounting. The triple bottom line captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success and includes information on social, environmental and sustainability matters. Most companies in Bangladesh, including both local and multinational companies, do not provide this form of disclosure. According to Bangladesh Bank(2006) in order to establish good corporate governance in banking, Bangladesh bank issued several prudential regulations specifying qualification of a Bank director and a chief executive officer. In this study we examine the annual reports of three firms within the banking sector of Bangladesh to determine the extent and nature of their corporate social responsibility disclosures. From 1990 Bangladesh commenced a move towards a free market economy. A floating exchange rate mechanism was introduced from 2003. Yet the capital market of the country has still not fully developed. Although the country is moving towards a free market economy neither government nor private initiatives have been sufficient to promote good corporate governance leading to an acceptable level of corporate social responsibility.
According to the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (2004) there are numerous potential benefits and rewards for Bangladesh by improving corporate governance, including corporate social responsibility, practices. The primary and most important benefit from implementing mechanisms such as a code of corporate governance
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is likely to be felt at the national level with an improved global perception of business procedures including improved ethical business practices. In turn, this could lead to a process of revitalization of the Bangladeshi economy. If a code of corporate governance can be fully implemented, in public corporations, joint stock companies, state owned enterprises, and non-governmental organizations, the reputation of Bangladesh as a destination for investment will be greatly enhanced. The capital market in Bangladesh is underdeveloped. The market lacks appropriate laws, transparency and the corporate disclosure system is faulty. It provides little protection to minority shareholders rights and often action against listed companies is difficult. Solaiman (2006) observed that the Bangladesh securities market has failed to achieve any significant growth since its inception in 1954. This stagnation is attributable to a number of factors that include, inter alia, the existence of weak legal and regulatory frameworks, the absence of active market professionals, the predominance of individual investors, and a serious dearth of foreign and institutional investors. Legal and regulatory weaknesses are considered to have critically hindered the market's potential growth. Some important laws are outdated, and the regulator has introduced some unrealistic reforms over the years. Most of the reforms accomplished thus far concentrate on incentives to investors and issuers alike, but nothing significant has been done for investor protection. Solaiman (2006) argues that effective legal protection to investors is indispensable for the development of, and the restoration of public confidence in the infant securities market of Bangladesh. Corporate governance initiatives have the potential to redress some of these issues and lead to an improvement in conditions affecting these important market constituents. According to the Asian Development Bank (2005) during the latter half of 1996, Bangladeshs stock market experienced a major bull run. Market capitalization rose by 265%, average daily turnover increased by over 1,000%, and the share price index jumped by over 260%. Subsequently, stock prices started falling sharply. Stock market prices at the end of April 1997 had dropped by close to 70% from their peaks in November 1996.The report of the Asian Development Bank (2005) also stated that due to the inability of the existing stock exchanges to service the requirements of small retail investors, a huge unofficial kerb market in shares developed. The report found that small investors at kerb market reached well over 25,000. According to news published in The Inpendent (2008), Bangladesh Bank through issuance of a circular on 23rd August requested commercial banks to appoint two directors from the depositors by September 30. Bangladesh Bank has undertaken the initiative as per the Bank Company Act 1991 to ensure accountability and transparency of the banking activities through appointing two representatives from the depositors to the Board of Directors. The posts of the depositor directors will be in addition to 13 Bank directors none of whom should be from the "family members" of the existing directors.
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This study has been undertaken with the following objectives. First, to identify and understand the nature and extent of corporate social responsibility reporting by banks in Bangladesh. Next, to consider the explanations of corporate social responsibility reporting and to assess the need to improve corporate social responsibility of banks in Bangladesh.
The remainder of this paper proceeds as follows. In section two a review of relevant literature in the areas of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility is examined. In section three, an explanation of the research design is provided. The cases and results are discussed in section four. Lastly, a summary of the findings and potential areas for further research is provided. Cases and findings: Case Study:1) Agrani Bank Annual Report 2006 The Agrani Bank was established as a Nationalised Commercial Bank in 1972 an took over the assets and liabilities of the Habib Bank Ltd and Commerce Bank Ltd working in the former East Pakistan. The bank faces the challenges of maintaining a safe and efficient organisation within a country in transition to a market economy. Agrani Bank indicates early in its report (p.3) that it operates ethically and fairly within the governance framework provided by the regulators, and that it believes in integrity transparency and accountability. Agrani Bank includes a separate section in its 2006 Annual Report entitled Corporate Leadership and Social Responsibility (pp.19-20). Disclosures included in this section and other disclosures in the nature of social responsibility reporting are summarized as follows. 1. Corporate Leadership and Social Responsibility : In line with the directives and guidelines of the Government and the Bangladesh Bank, our corporate leaders of tomorrow need to initiate and maintain a strong and effective corporate structure. We are very sensitive to the society that we operate within. We have a deep commitment, loyalty and a high sense of responsibility to our nation and its people. Our ethics are clear: not to earn excessive profits, but to operate in a rational and sensitive way. We conform to all of the stringent regulations issued by the Government and the Bangladesh Bank. As part or our corporate social responsibility, we contribute greatly to the nourishment of the countrys arts, crafts, culture and sports. We share all sorts of values and sentiments, irrespective of caste, creed or colour. Moreover, we uphold the concept of avoiding gender bias. We have established for women a fair and just share in matters of delegated power, promotion and placement, commensurate with their male counterparts.
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As part of its strong commitment to upholding corporate social responsibility, the Bank distributed, like before, Agrani Bank Shishu Sahittaya Award among the budding child competitors. In 2006, the Bank had set up a 500-bed cancer hospital in the capital. The Ahsania Mission will get from the Bank another Tk. 4.00 million in the next two years. Given these important statements we continued our content analysis searching for corroborating disclosures. We found a number, which are summarised as follows. 2. The Agrani Bank reports (p.14) that it assisted in bringing a wide spectrum of people into the mainstream banking economy. Its customers are engaged in trade, commerce, industry and technology and include major business leaders, small and medium traders, marginal farmers, destitute women and unemployed youths. The Bank reports that even hill-tribes and ethnic minorities have access to its institutional loan facilities. 3. Under a section entitled Employee relations (p.19) the Agrani Bank reveals that it has been providing financial assistance to distressed employees. During 2006, a sum of Tk. 3.22 million was given to employees concerned and their spouses for medical treatment A total number of 356 children of the employees were granted scholarship of Tk. 1.63 million in recognition of their outstanding results in S.S.C. and H.S.C. examinations. The Bank also discloses various contributions it has made to sporting organisations. 4. The Bank has been active in supporting the Small/Medium Enterprise sector of the economy for many years and provides disclosures about its individual and collaborative efforts in this area. Beyond conventional banking, Agrani Bank, since 1977, has also been participating in several SME programmes through its own efforts and in collaboration with different national and international agencies like BMET, BRDB, BSCIC, NGOs (BRAC, ASA, Grameen Uddag), IFAD, USAID, ADB, NORAD, SIDA etc. These are aimed at reinforcing efforts of the Government to meet strategic objectives of alleviating poverty of the rural poor, supporting small and micro enterprises/entrepreneurs, increasing output, easing unemployment problem and strengthening the rural financial market. So far, the beneficiaries under the 14 programmes implemented by the SME & Micro Credit Division include 506247 persons of different sectors. (p.24) 5. The Agrani Bank is also active in supporting Bangladeshs Agricultural sector and reports its activities in the 2006 annual report. The Bank kept financing one of the countrys priority sectors agriculture. Since 1977, it started accommodating millions of the rural poor with the mainstream development activities in areas of livestock, fishery, poultry, nursery as well as many off-farm projects and their likes in line with the government policies. Poverty alleviation through income generating activities is one of the strategic priorities that the
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Bank has kept pursuing to make the institutional help available to marginal farmers, small entrepreneurs, distressed and destitute women as well as unemployed youths. So far a number of targeted programmes with loan limits from Tk. 5000 to Tk. 50000 have been continued. In 2006, the Bank implemented 54 programmes among 3097759 borrowers, totalling Tk. 25.21 billion. (p.24) 6. Finally, we reviewed the composition of the Board of Directors and noted that of a board comprising eight members, none were women. In the case of Agrani Bank the corporate social responsibility disclosures were clustered around the issues of community involvement and responsiveness; economic support for disadvantaged sectors specifically agriculture, and the SME sector including micro financing; and support for working women. Environmental matters and issues related to sustainability were not mentioned. Issues related to child labour, an area where Bangladesh has experienced criticism at an international level, were not reported. Case Study: 2) NCC Bank Ltd. Annual Report 2007 The National Credit and Commerce Bank Ltd. (NCCBL) was incorporated in 1993. By the standards of most market economies, it is a relatively young bank. The Bank has 53 branches across Bangladesh, with its main office located in the capital, Dhaka. The NCC Bank outlines its corporate vision as including serving the nation as a progressive and socially responsible financial institution by bringing credit and commerce together for profit and sustainable growth. (p.3). It also discloses that its mission is to contribute to Agriculture, Industry and socio-economic development of the country (p.3). Bangladeshs economy has suffered many blows in recent years due to consecutive floods and cyclones. Many of its people have been left homeless and jobless as a result and improving the supply of food and the provision of shelter and employment are amongst the governments priorities. NCCBL operates within this particularly difficult social and economic environment. Support of small businesses and the agricultural sector by the banking industry is vital in the revival of the economy and the social fabric of the country. These issues are identified in the Banks annual report and a number of initiatives in this regard are disclosed. For example: To help the Flood and Sidr (cyclone) victims, the Bank has donated Tk. 1.10 crore to the Chief Advisors Relief Fund and Relief Fund of the Chief of Army Staff. (p.30) Similar to the Agrani Bank, NCCBL includes in its annual report, separate sections addressing Corporate Social Responsibility, SME-Financing and Agri-Financing.
1. Corporate Social Responsibility (pp.12-13)
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Under this section the Bank discloses its donations to various charitable, sporting and educational organizations. It also provides details of educational scholarships it has provided to talented but distressed students. Besides, financial support were given to the children of our employees whoobtained GPA-5.00 in S.S.C and H.S.C examinations of 2007 to encourage them and others. (p.13). The Bank distributed educational materials to poor students of Dahagram and Angorpata enclaves. (p.30); and Books have been distributed to educational institutes of remote areas of the country on occasion. (p.30) 2. SMEFinancing and Agri-Financing (pp.11-12) The NCC Bank discloses that it has diversified into the SME and Agro-sector on a priority basis. Specific mention is made of various projects within the agriculture industry made as part of boosting its activities in this sector. For example: We have extended credit facility to fisheries project as a part of our agro financing, which received satisfactory response from the target group. (p.12) We have a separate SME wing to meet the demand of the small and medium entrepreneurs. Under this wing, we could disburse nearly Tk. 250.00 crore up to 2007. We are considering to extend credit facility under SME financing to cover a large number of potential borrowers to create new entrepreneurs. (p.12). In regards to the NCCBLs support of the agricultural industry, it also disclosed information about credit facilities it had extended to help people living in the northern part of the country. The Bank provided flexible terms in regard to finance supporting the cultivation of maize (p.29).
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN PAKISTAN AND A STRATEGY FOR IMPLEMENTATION
State of CSR in Pakistan is still in its infancy. Only few companies have an existing CSR In 2003 a multi stakeholder forum Pakistan Compliance initiative was launched with support from international buyers, the textile sector, and the Ministry of Commerce. A draft national standard was developed for use as compliance standard approved by Government to replace many International social and environment compliance standards and buyers code of conduct. The result of this effort was inclusion of social compliance in the trade policy and initiation of a project proposal by Ministry of Science and Technology to European Union for encouraging SA800 implementation by subsidizing consulting and implementation cost.
In Pakistan CSR is frequently equated with corporate philanthropy, the terms being often mistakenly used synonymously. Some consider CSR to be a simple compliance with law. This creates a difficulty because top management is still uncertain about the true meanings of CSR. This indicates the need for a mass awareness campaign supported by the government, targeting businessmen, entrepreneurs and customers so
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that they are able to appreciate CSR and also the general perils of non-compliance in todays environment. Frequent and open discussion defining and understanding CSR, detailing its nature and promoting and developing methodologies on how local businesses adopt and manage their CSR obligations would be a useful first step.
Initiatives by Support Organizations in Pakistan; Since the inception of the concept of CSR and the awareness, several organizations have evolved over the period of time that have played a major role in creating the awareness, pointing out the issues and fighting the injustice. In Pakistan this activity has not been encouraging so far. Since the idea is hardly a decade old, few organizations have been formed to work on different issues incorporated in CSR. There is a slow growth of the CSR industry of consultant firms who are charging highly to corporations who want to ride the CSR bandwagon. They pose a risk of misguidingcorporations to get involved in green washing by doing token efforts or replicating policies and projects done by other Global Corporations or their competitors without realizing the real impact of their initiatives. These corporations sometimes claim that the driving force actually comes from their stakeholders. - AcademiaAcademia has a very important role in shaping the future Business Leaders in Pakistan. As anextension of this study, RBI asked faculties, departments and institutions recognized by the Higher Education Commission whether they taught CSR as a course or whether it was a subject for faculty or student research. The study found no CSR department or unit in any institution within the sample and no faculty member carrying out primary research on CSR issues. Also, with the exception of the Institute of Administrative Science at the Punjab University where a special elective is offered, this study found no CSR courses being taught. There are examples of conferences where CSR is made a topic for panel session, but it is often observed that the focus of these presentations labelled as CSR tends to examples of corporate philanthropy and the examples cited as CSR best practice often describe charitable acts by companies. In a situation where there is a lack of both theoretical and practical CSR knowledge and experience, this attitude invariably goes unchallenged. - MediaThe Media plays a large role in consumer awareness and in creating demand for responsible behaviour from business on globally accepted parameters. In Pakistan the Tele Media as well as newspapers are often silent on these issues. We see a few programmes or interviews on some television channels, but the
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focus is often limited to elements like labour rights or environmental compliance. A few supplements on related topics like environmental reporting and CSR best practices mainly write about the odd corporate community project or environmental reports. Main CSR parameters are still missing from media.
CSR in the Light of Islam: Islam favors fair and ethical business as the best source of income. It aims to promote mutual benefit in business interactions. Islam reinforces transparent and corruption free written contracts, acceptable working conditions, fair exchanges for both natural resources and human effort. It advocates Tazkiyah23, through active participation in this life and by behaving ethically in the midst of the tests of this dunia (world). Muslims prove their worth to Allah by upholding Huquq-ul-Ibad (Individual Rights) and care for society, and sharing wealth with poor and underprivileged. Actions and decisions are judged to be ethical depending on the intention of the individual. God is omniscient, and knows our intention completely and perfectly. Good intentions followed by good actions are considered as acts of worship. Halal (good) intentions cannot make haram (bad) actions halal)24. Islam allows an individual the freedom to believe and act however he/she desires, but not at the expense of accountability and justice.
The Shariah (Islamic law) defines codes of social behaviour, and business ethics according to which todays business investors can invest in socially responsible companies. One example of applying the Shariah in socially responsible investment is the Dow Jones Islamic Fund IMANX which invests in Shariah -compliant companies to encourage muslims seek a blend between financially rewarding and faithcompatible investment opportunities. Thus it makes a strong business case for companies in Pakistan to adopt Islamic business principles as part of a national compliance code and support a disclosure and verification system to validate performance against it.
IS THERE A CSR ROLE FOR PAKISTAN GOVERNMENT? The conduct of for-profit businesses in Pakistan is regulated through comprehensive principal legislation in the form of the Companies Ordinance, 1994, overseen by a statutory body like the SECP, and business interests are represented by duly recognized representative bodies such as trade associations or chambers of commerce. This structured and supervised mechanism imparts strength to the concept of process integrity by instituting transparency and accountability. .
- SECP is reviewing corporate governance legislation and regulations that will bring into focus elements of corporate disclosure, shareholder liability and transparent

accountability.
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- NAB has unveiled a national anti-corruption strategy that lays down parameters for corporate compliance. - The State Bank has outlined new regulatory frameworks on financial responsibility and probity. - Internationally recognized guidelines such as SA8000 is getting support from Government - In 2003 Pakistan Compliance initiative was launched with a draft national standard as a compliance standard approved by Government. - Compliance was declared a priority in the national trade policy, however, little progress was seen at the practical level. - PNAC initiated awareness seminars on SA8000, social compliance standards in 2003 at all major chambers of commerce in the Punjab. - A proposal was made by Ministry of Science and Technology to the EU for subsidizing SA800 certification among Pakistani suppliers and companies Corporations, people and innovative CSR initiatives need Governments support, in terms of policies and acceptance of the initiative, more than financial investment.
MY OBSERVATION: It is clear from the above findings that Pakistani businesses need to be supported in bridging the gap between their present state and the rapidly evolving CSR environment that is creating new benchmarks of corporate performance and customer acceptance. Pakistan needs to leapfrog from its present level of CSR into the current paradigm. The upside of this is that we have global standards to guide such a leap and professional linkages to help along the process over a relatively short timeline. Experts reflect on CSR as the main hedge against the negative tendencies of globalization. With a well-considered strategic CSR action plan Pakistan can emerge from being a potential victim of globalization to a potential beneficiary. In placing Pakistani business in a competitive place with regard to CSR, every sakeholder has a role to play and would need to be cultivated as an ally. On behalf of the Government, this requires the creation of an enabling statutory and regulatory environment, clear policy guidelines, fair and transparent rating and reporting mechanisms and tangible incentives and penalties for companies who wish to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable environmental or social investments.
CSR IN SRI LANKA
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National Business Systems and Corporate Social Responsibility:
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Research on CSR cross-nationally has highlighted significant differences in the ways in which CSR is conducted, while there has been a gap in the research on why these cross-national differences occur. Matten and Moon (2008), attempt to bridge this gap by explaining the difference in CSR across countries using the National Business Systems framework. In particular, they explain why CSR in US corporations has largely been explicit, whereas CSR in Europe has until recently, been mostly implicit (Matten & Moon, 2008). They propose that as it is longstanding, historically entrenched institutions (Matten & Moon, 2008, p.406) that shape differences in National Business Systems, these institutions will also influence the ways in which corporations express and pursue their social responsibilities among different societies (Matten & Moon, 2008, p.407). They follow Whitleys (1999) framework in their analysis, assessing the nature of the political systems, financial systems, education and labour systems and cultural systems in the US and Europe, and explain how differences in these key institutional arenas influence CSR on either side of the Atlantic (Matten & Moon, 2008). The present research is therefore inspired by Matten and Moons (2008) study as it also uses Whitleys (1999) framework in order to assess how the characteristics of a particular National Business System shapes the CSR activities of companies within it.
Chapple and Moon (2005), in their analysis of website reporting of CSR in seven Asian countries, confirm that there is no single pattern of CSR in Asia (Chapple & Moon, 2005, p.436) and that the difference cannot be explained by cross-national differences in development (Chapple & Moon, 2005).They therefore suggest that CSR is instead dependent on national factors (Chapple & Moon, 2005). They also find that international companies adapt their CSR to the specific national contexts of their host Business Systems (Chapple & Moon, 2005). It will be important to analyse this statement in the context of the present research, which also focuses on a country within Asia, in order to ascertain whether international companies adapt their CSR to the National Business System in question.
National CSR Literature: CSR literature has extended beyond the realms of purely contributing to theory, and has contributed significantly to understanding the empirical nature of CSR in different countries and what influences this. Vogel (1992) for instance, said that the importance of issues of business ethics in the United States lies in the distinctive institutional, legal, social, and cultural context of the American Business System (Vogel ,1992, p. 36).
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Matten and Moon (2008) help to understand the specifics behind Vogels (1992) claim, by describing the National Business Systems of America and Europe according to Whitleys (1998, 1999) classification of the four institutional arenas. The National Business System of America is described as consisting of a political system where the state is relatively less active, thereby allowing a greater scope for corporate discretion (Matten & Moon, 2008). The Financial system is said to place great emphasis on thestock market, which is the central source of capital for corporations, with relatively dispersed shareholding, which results in firms having to provide a high degree of accountability and transparency to their investors (Matten & Moon, 2008). Americas education system is said to have traditionally involved corporations to a great extent, due to the less involved nature of the State (Matten & Moon, 2008). The authors also say that its labour system has been weak and fragmented compared to that of Europe, resulting in more corporate level negotiations regarding labour issues (Matten & Moon, 2008). Finally, the American cultural system is described as including the propensity for philanthropy, and skepticism of big governments relative to the European view (Matten & Moon, 2008). Vogel (1992) also provides insight on the American cultural system by describing America as being a highly moralistic society (Vogel, 1992, p.43) influencedby its Protestant heritage. This is evident from Maignan and Ralstons (2002) study which found that 58.5% of U.S firms sampled presented their social responsibility involvement as a part or an extension of their core values (Maignan & Ralston, 2002, p.505). The concept of National Business Systems influencing CSR also extends to Asia. Asia, very much like the African rural communities, has been able to retain a strong sense of community and tradition reflected in their active CSR (Phillips, 2006, p. 23). This is evident in the Japanese labour and cultural system described by Fukukawa and Moon (2004) where life-time employment (Fukukawa & Moon, 2004, p.46), has encouraged a long-standing commitment to workforce welfare (Mafune, 1988, cited in Fukukawa & Moon, 2004, p.46).
Does the Sri Lankan Business System influence CSR?
CSR theories proposed in the literature, along with empirical literature on CSR in other national contexts provide suggestions on how the characteristics prevalent in the Sri Lankan Business System might influence CSR. These are described as follows, and will give rise to a number of propositions regarding CSR in Sri Lanka, to be accepted or refuted upon analysis of data. Situations of violent conflict create risk for firms (Getz et al, 2007, p.336). This could be in the form of property damage, business disruptions, death or injury of the workforce, all of which ultimately affect
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business profits and their ability to survive in such an environment (Getz et al, 2007). Businesses therefore have a strong instrumental incentive (Garriga & Mel, 2004) to engage in CSR activities that could potentially contribute towards restoring peace, or mitigate the negative consequences of conflict. Businesses also have an ethical obligation towards promoting peace in the societies in which they operate (Getz et al, 2007). These theories are an indication that businesses would engage in CSR in situations of conflict. For instance, British Petroleum (BP) operates in Colombia which suffers from a long running violent conflict involving the state and other groups, and is a country in which the state had not operated in the best interests of its citizens in the past (Gitsham, 2007). As part of its CSR however, BP ran programmes aimed at promoting tolerance, respecting human rights and encouraging non-violent methods of conflict resolution (BP, 2003, cited in Gitsham, 2007). Similarly, it should be the case that Sri Lankan companies also take the local political context into account in their CSR. InternationalAlert (2006) conducted interviews with Sri Lankan businessrepresentatives regarding the role of business in peacebuilding. A number of solutions to the problems of the ongoing conflict were proposed, The most strongly articulated was to ensure equal rights, opportunities and access for all citizens of the country (InternationalAlert, 2006, p.563). Respondents from large businesses located in the capital, Colombo, proposed that in order to ensure this, economic and social development was important, in order to redistribute wealth and resources to affected areas, thereby improving the opportunities for people in those areas, while reducing inequality withinthe nation (InternationalAlert, 2006). Similarly, Fort (2007), argued that creating the jobs that support economic development and combat povertyand being both a good citizen in a host community as well as being a good corporate community for employees (Fort, 2007, p.21), will all result in contributing to peace (Fort, 2007). Respondents of the InternationalAlert (2006) study also expressed the importance of facilitating interaction,trust, understanding and tolerance among the different communities in order to encourage them to peacefully coexist (InternationalAlert, 2006).
While respondents from businesses located outside the capital maintained that it was only the larger businesses that had the ability to lobby the government for peace due to being located in the capital and being significant players in the economy (InternationalAlert, 2006), all respondents agreed that clear government commitment to the peace process (InternationalAlert, 2006, p.567) was an important requirement for their own participation in peacebuilding (InternationalAlert, 2006). However, respondents also stated that the government lacked the capacity to lead peacebuilding and conflict prevention (InternationalAlert, 2006, p.565), and that trust in the government had diminished (InternationalAlert, 2006). This is clearly therefore a governance deficit, which is considered a driver for CSR (Moon & Vogel, 2008),
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and therefore, along with the instrumental and ethical considerations for CSR described above, this outlines the first proposition of the current research that; Businesses in Sri Lanka will engage in peacebuilding or other CSR activities to reduce the negative impacts of the ongoing conflict and political instability that characterize the political arena of its National Business System. The high literacy rate of Sri Lanka which characterizes its education system creates little need for corporate involvement in the provision of education since there is no governance deficit (Moon & Vogel, 2008) in this area, a factor that would otherwise have acted as a driver for CSR. In contrast, the perpetual unemployment, particularly amongst the youth, which portrays the labour system, is an area in which companies can make a significant contribution. This therefore directs the third proposition of the present study, that; Companies in Sri Lanka will not in fact focus on providing education as part of their CSR, but will take measures to alleviate the existing unemployment problems.
A study on the relationship between individual attitudes towards CSR and religious denomination by Brammer et al (2007) finds that out of all the denominations studied, the natural environment is perhaps viewed as being of greatest significance within Buddhism (Brammer et al, 2007, 233). It is likely that Buddhists view caring for the environment as an important aspect of CSR due to the Buddhist belief that all thingsare interconnected (Pio, 2005), and that therefore caring for ones self requires alsocaring for the environment. Brammer et al (2007) also find that Buddhism is perhaps theleast economically oriented of the major faiths (Brammer et al, 2007, p. 232), which is likely to be due to the Buddhist teaching of the importance of detachment from the purely material (Brammer et al, 2007) in all aspects of life. Buddhism also teaches Dharma, which means that individuals have a righteous duty to uphold in their day to day behaviour (Pio, 2005); Karma, which is the belief that ones present actions will be reward , or punished, in the future (Pio, 2005); and the importance of Puja, which is theact of worship which involves the offering of a gift to a deity (Pio, 2005). Being a predominantly Buddhist country, it is likely that Sri Lankas long history of corporate philanthropy (InternationalAlert, 2006) has been sustained due to these religious beliefs. Brammer et al (2007) suggest that further research should be undertaken to assess whether their findings on the attitudes of different religious denominations towards CSR, translate into actual behaviour. This directs the fourth proposition of the current research, that; CSR in Sri Lanka will reflect the Buddhist teachings that constitute a large part of its cultural system placing great importance on environmental aspects, while philanthropy will continue to play a role in CSR, influenced by the culture of giving that Buddhism encourages.
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Finally, the Tsunami of 2004 which affected all aspects of Sri Lankas Business System is also as a result, said to have brought in a new chapter in the CSR practices of Sri Lankan business organizations (Fernando, 2007, p.3). Therefore, the final proposition of this study is that; Businesses in Sri Lanka will continue to take into account the effects and implications of the disaster in their CSR decision.
CSR IN UK
Is the UK a global leader in CSR? In our early discussions, one commentator suggested that the UK provides an ideal breeding ground for CSR. We tested the idea of UK leadership when we invited participants at our first workshop to consider whether the UK is a leader or a laggard in terms of CSR. Except for one, all considered the UK to be a leader, and on a scale of 5 to +5 the mean value was around +3. But in discussion, two caveats emerged. First, some participants saw the UK as a leader in voluntary CSR but a laggard in binding corporate accountability. And second, the concrete results of leadership were questioned. There has been a lot of noise so far, but it is interesting to see what the outputs are. While the UK might be very good at creating conversations and frameworks, that does not necessarily translate into improved performance. If the UK is a leader what are the sources and nature of its CSR comparative advantage? Initial conversations pointed to a number of distinctive factors: The UKs home as the headquarters of a number of the big accountancy firms, who charged into the CSR space An environmental NGO community pioneering engagement with business A sophisticated journalistic class The UKs experiences of some of the earliest privatisation processes and of the impacts of the industrial revolution Two powerful Anglo-Dutch drivers in the shape of Unilever and Shell The Quakers, Rotary International, the Freemasons, and the notion of the benign industrialist contributors to the evolution of CSR all had a significant role in defining business practices in the UK The insurance industry, which was an important driver of change as asbestos claims impacted on the City of London
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Internationally, the UK governments unique role.. because of its international positioning and its colonial past which, suggested one interviewee, had proved valuable in launching initiatives such as the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. The balance between state and market in the UK may also be an important factor in the countrys leadership across stakeholder groups. We have been reinventing the relationship between business and society since Reagan and Thatcher said one interviewee who added: whilst the Swedes or the Swiss or the Germans might regulate, we dont do that. Instead, the same values lead us to the CSR agenda. It would be wrong to be complacent about the UKs leadership. One business person pointed to the stronger record of US businesses on issues of diversity in the supply chain. Indeed, any steps to focus consciously on building and sustaining the UKs comparative advantage might also be counterproductive: We are beating our chests here in the UK but we have to move the agenda to the South. One person went so far as to contrast what she saw as a wrong turn in CSR in Europe with the emerging agenda in parts of the developing world such as Brazil or South Africa, which engages much more with issues to do with poverty reduction and development. Understanding where the UKs leadership has come from points to a need to understand its historical context. And so at our first workshop we invited participants to add events to a timeline of key events in CSR in the UK.
Where has the UK CSR agenda got to today? Five years ago companies were mostly skeptical about CSR except for niche players whereas today, CSR is generally seen as a legitimate, even mainstream activity. A degree of maturity in the agenda now is also reflected in the splitting off of distinct themes such as business and human rights. CSR is increasingly breaking up, meaning different things in different places with the emergence of distinctive regional perspectives. There is a trend for corporate responsibility to get more sector-specific and more companyspecific as individual sectors focus on the particular issues that are most significant to them, or individual companies develop distinctive approaches and innovative CSR practices. Even if within the CSR community it may appear that there is steady progress, it is important not to forget that a larger proportion of businesses have not yet chosen to engage with the agenda at all. CSR is in the phenotype. But its not yet in the genotype, and its definitely not in the DNA, was one way in which the essential challenge was expressed. There is also a risk that companies have become adept at working the agenda to their advantage gaining credibility for their application of CSR tools, whilst carrying on businesses that many would consider fundamentally harmful for society. One person pointed to British American Tobaccos social and
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environmental reporting as technically perfect notwithstanding the harm caused by the companys core product.
Equally, gaps in the coverage of the current CSR agenda may mean that the positive contributions of some players have been overlooked. For example, one interviewee remarked that SMEs are often more likely and ready to take a longer-term perspective on the value of CSRrelated actions. And a lack of sustained NGO or consumer pressure may also be a brake on progress for companies that would like to go further. More pessimistically, there is also a view that without doubt the debate has gone backwards. Businesses operate in an increasingly cutthroat marketplace which can make it more difficult to justify CSR activities that are not accompanied by clear short term gains. Another expert suggested that ethical trading issues overall are falling down the company agenda in terms of visibility and significance. And NGOs returning to calls for regulation may mean less campaigning directed at individual companies. Taking stock: a Labour union perspective Incorporating employment relationships within the CSR agenda has been slow. The voluntary concept of CSR has made it easier for corporations to be picky on which issues they focus on in CSR. Employment issues are often seen as an issue only for human resources and nothing to do with CSR. This has changed in last five years, along with the notion of CSR as something that includes all of a companys activities. The debate about the definition of CSR has helped to bring about a more comprehensive framework. Big labour standards scandals have brought about a public recognition of these issues that is far greater than 10 years ago. Major future challenges lie in the vast number of different initiatives, and in monitoring. Many existing voluntary codes do not include labour standards. And there is also a failure to understand the meaning of worker consultation. There still is a lack of recognition of trade unions and collective bargaining in the CSR debate. Collective bargaining should be at the core of CSR. If it is not, it is not clear what CSR is.
Taking stock: an NGO perspective

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In the 1970s, green groups were the first NGOs to take action on corporates. In the beginning of the 1990s NGOs recognised that even though their work had been successful in tackling specific issues, it had not changed the corporate world as a whole. NGOs were willing to give voluntary initiatives a go. Towards the end of the 1990s many NGOs got their fingers burnt and became disillusioned. They had put a lot of resources into changing corporate behaviour, but the corporations had not changed. This was a juncture point: business continued to go forward and NGOs started to question. Where do we go next? Will we continue to see this divergence, or convergence again? Will NGOs and corporations agree on the need for both voluntary and legislative regulation? If not, there will be more and more diversion in society. A key debate for the 1st century is what kind of capitalism do we want, if we want capitalism at all? Taking stock: a Government perspective The CSR agenda as a whole is not at a crossroads. It is not a one size fits all agenda, but a broad agenda, with different, specific issues: for example climate change, carbon tax, EU emissions. Neither is the key question about making a choice between voluntary or mandatory. There are a variety of initiatives. The question is where the balance lies. In government there is no political impetus or political space for mandatory solutions. Even if all was government mandated, would that deliver the goal of 60% carbon emission reductions? The answer is no. There are no generic solutions. Taking stock of CSR: a business perspective Getting money men to understand CSR has been quite a challenge. Companies want to do CSR. But the CSR road is getting very congested. Taking the whole piece and implementing is tough. The shareholder returns are moderate We have to recognise that there are tradeoffs: companies cant deliver everything. Companies need some guidance. There is a need for metrics to measure these tradeoffs. Change will be market driven, but it includes some regulation. Business is not always against regulation.
External factors that could affect the future of CSR

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To understand the longer-term likelihood of insights into what needs to happen actually taking place, we took a step back. At our first workshop, we asking participants to consider what are the external contextual factors that are likely to affect the future CSR agenda?
Based both on initial conversations, and further discussion at the first project workshop, we identified a wide-ranging set of external contextual factors that, in some combination, would likely have an impact on the future of CSR (see the Box below). Some are already part of everyday consciousness for many CSR practitioners, others less so. External contextual factors that could impact on the future of CSR in the UK: Political factors: The probability (or improbability) of a political move back to the Left or a shift to the Right at domestic level, or other changes in the colour of government. The future of international organisations such as European Union and the United Nations: which model will the EU follow along a scale from liberalisation to social protection? Will it develop towards tighter integration or grow in size? Potential failure to meet internationally agreed goals such as the Millennium Development Goals and the Kyoto climate commitments, and a failure of collective decision making in the UN. Changes in the political or economic environment in the US, which was mentioned by a number of interviewees as a key influence on business practices in the UK. Economic factors: The likelihood that a serious economic downturn in the future could reverse progress in CSR. The increasing economic significance of middle-men companies that are neither branded nor widely known outside their sectors. A continued rise in the use of hedge funds, which now make up a significant proportion of equities, and in which stakes are typically held for between 24 hours and a week. If real money is made in hedge funds, suggested one participant, CSR could become irrelevant. The future of the current City model: Access to capital Increasing market concentration Skyrocketing healthcare costs in the US and Europe. Social factors: Change in value systems, for example, a rise of fundamentalism or the Christian right
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Change in peoples life goals and values towards emphasis on social and environmental satisfaction, which could affect the CSR agenda by providing an underpinning for increasing challenges to pro-market philosophies. Environmental factors: The threat of climate change disaster, which might not only create chaos but also challenge current attitudes to economic growth. Recognition of the increasing scarcity of natural resources such as oil and water, which would bring a threat of increasing instability, conflicts and war. Technological factors: Whether new technologies and innovations create new problems or solutions to existing problems, the future of communications technologies and the digital divide has significant contextual implications for the future of CSR in the UK. Growing significance of BRIC countries: The growing economic and political significance of countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (the so-called BRIC countries) provides a general context for the future of CSR. The longer-term impacts of Chinas participation in the global economy and its implications for standards of social responsibility are already widely recognized as a significant issue: but what kind of capitalism will China choose for the future? One interviewee cautioned against the view that Chinas increasing presence in the global marketplace would necessarily drive down standards: Here in Europe, were not more unemployed than we were fifty years ago. And increasingly the costs of employing a worker in South Korea are the same as those in parts of Europe. A continued rise in the importance of Asian business and the potential for a shift towards predominantly Southern-based workforces in some sectors or businesses may have a significant implications for the geographical rootedness of CSR strategies and approaches.
Breaking the boundaries of CSR in the UK: new roles for government, trade associations and NGOs: The scenarios and insights that were developed during CSR at a Crossroads point the way to institutionalised break-up of existing positions on CSR across stakeholder groups. One faultline for such a shift was in fact revealed by a remarkable degree of convergence: CSR business leaders and NGOs alike agreed at our second workshop on the need for a clear, progressive public policy framework, including a role for regulation.
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If the UK government is to play, as we think it should, a stronger, more active role in promoting CSR, that means getting beyond rhetoric. Any UK government needs to be prepared to intervene in the marketplace where a clear societal case can be made. It should lead the way to greater citizen concern for sustainable development and the lives of people in other countries; not act belatedly to follow market signals from consumers. For the future, collaboration between businesses and NGOs to develop a clear statement on the appropriate mix between legally binding regulation and market-driven initiatives or voluntary action for different specific outcomes could be a catalyst for progress. Trade associations too must reform if they are not to become significant obstacles to progress in CSR. In the marketplace, the frustration of leading businesses at the governments unwillingness to intervene in the market, even with mechanisms like the OFR that facilitate the free flow of information, shows clear potential for the emergence of a progressive UK business coalition on sustainable development. Intensified competition from goods sold on the basis of lowest cost marketing could hasten the process. But alongside CSR leaders in business, pressure needs also to come from government. UK plc is ill-served by lowestcommon-denominator lobbying. Progressive coalitions are already emerging on an issue-specific basis for example the Business Leaders Initiative on Climate Change11 and the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights. The emergence of a group of business stakeholders expressing their collective concern following Chancellor Gordon Browns decision in November 2005 to drop the Operating and Financial Review is another example.12 But for such an initiative to have real clout, its members must be prepared not to hide behind the conservative positions taken by mainstream trade associations when that is what appears to suit them better. One thing is clear: the CSR agenda, whatever its content or its labelling, will not remain static. Seeking to future-proof CSR against all eventualities isnt feasible. But if the practices associated with CSR are not to be knocked off course by currently unforeseen events, there is a need to continue the long-term tasks of ensuring that government and citizen commitments to sustainable development are strong; that NGOs working for responsible business or sustainable development carry real legitimacy in the eyes of their publics here in the UK and internationally; that the capacity exists within think-tanks and the research community to develop ways of tackling and pre-empting challenges; and that the financial business case for CSR, whatever its sources, is put beyond the reach of short-term boom and bust. No small challenge. For some it may read like business as usual. But it is clear to others ourselves among them that business as usual will simply not be enough to deliver wide-ranging markers of success that CSR at a crossroads has identified for 2015.
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corporate SOCIAL responsibility Child Labour and Right of Organization
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India is member of the International Labour Organization, and has ratified 40 of the ILO conventions. However, Indiahas not ratified four of the ILO core conventions:
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087 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize (1948) 098 Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining (1949) 138 Minimum Age Convention (1973) 182 Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999) Indias domestic law on child labour, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (1986), ban
employment of children in some dangerous occupations, such as factories and mines, and regulate the working conditions in others. According to this law, anyone above the age of 14 will be regarded as an adult and will not protected by the child labour regulations. According to UNICEF, insufficient attention has been given in India to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. The 1986 child labour law does not cover children in all sectors. India has the worlds highest number of child labourers under14 years.
Labour Laws:
India has altogether ratified 333 labour laws. The ways these laws are supervised and implemented, vary. Sub-contracts are common in India. One challenge is that 90% of the Indian labour is in the informal sector, which is not protected by the labour regulations. Most Indian states have enforced an act for minimum wages for labourers in scheduled employment, as stipulated in the Minimum Wage Act from 1948. However, the minimum wage is often not paid. According to ILO, labour under minimum wage is considered a form of forced labour. According to ILO estimates, there are more than one million forced labourers in India, particularly in the southern part. Many of these are children. India was in 1976 the first country in the South Asian region to enact legislation against bonded labour. Contract labour in India is another complex area. The contract workers do not get the same protection and benefits as permanent workers. Many work as contract labour for longer periods of time. Although the ILO Conventions related to forced Labour have been ratified, certain forms of bonded labour still persists, especially in the informal sector.
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India has enacted legislation that prohibits discrimination due to gender, religion, ethnicity or caste. Again, the record of implementation is varied. ILO has observed some violations in Indias implementation of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, (No 111, from 1958). This convention obligates the state parties to hinder discrimination due to e.g caste or gender, such as different salary scales and labour conditions.
The Environment:
The main law on environment and production is The Environment (Protection) Act (1986). This law gives the central government the authority to protect and improve environmental quality, as well as control and reduce pollution from all sources. The responsibility for environmental governance is shared between the corporations and the government. Many Indian institutions have come up with voluntary guidelines on environmental friendly practice. Among these is a partnership on voluntary pollution control, developed by the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests together with the industrial sector. Other initiatives include the Energy Efficient Initiative by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Indian Ecomark and the Clean Technology initiative by the Confederation of Indian Industry and others. With regard to the implementation of environmental laws, a challenge has been lack of knowledge on how to fulfil the laws in practice. There are also weaknesses in the implementation and control mechanisms, The budget and infrastructure for control has not been sufficient, although greatly improved over the last years.
Right to information and corruption

In the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index in 2008 in was ranked as number 85 out of 180 countries. The biggest problems were found in regards to politics and governance. According to a Global Compact report, there are low levels of government capacity for law enforcement and implementation in India, causing relatively high levels of corruption. In 2005, Right to information (RTI) act was established, This law gives the general public right to government information, and is meant to promote transparency and responsibility in the work of all governmental institutions.
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The introduction of RTI has led to changes in the transparency regarding establishment and implementation of strategies, programmes and laws. It is also opening for access to information in areas where the authorities have left out important aspects, and give the public a possibly to require important information. RTI is additionally an important tool in regards to environmental management.
Corporate Social Responsibility in India Putting Social-Economic Development on a Fast Track

Four years ago, Reliance Industries Ltd. launched a countrywide initiative known as Project Drishti, to restore the eye-sights of visually challenged Indians from the economically weaker sections of the society. This project, started by one of Indias corporate giants has brightened up the lives of over 5000 people so far. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) defined as the ethical behavior of a company towards the society, manifests itself in the form of such noble programs initiated by for-profit organizations. CSR has become increasingly prominent in the Indian corporate scenario because organizations have realized that besides growing their businesses it is also vital to build trustworthy and sustainable relationships with the community at large. This is one of the key drivers of CSR programs. Another reason fuelling this rapid adoption of CSR is the state of the Indian society. Though India is one of the fastest growing economies, socio-economic problems like poverty, illiteracy, lack of healthcare etc. are still ubiquitous and the government has limited resources to tackle these challenges. This scenario has opened up several areas for businesses to contribute towards social development. CSR is not a new concept in India. Corporates like the Tata Group, the Aditya Birla Group, and Indian Oil Corporation, to name a few, have been involved in serving the community ever since their inception. Many other organizations have been doing their part for the society through donations and charity events. Today, CSR in India has gone beyond merely charity and donations, and is approached in a more organized fashion. It has become an integral part of the corporate strategy. Companies have CSR teams that devise specific policies, strategies and goals for their CSR programs and set aside budgets to support them. These programs, in many cases, are based on a clearly defined social philosophy or are closely aligned with the companies business expertise. Employees become the backbone of these initiatives and volunteer their
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time and contribute their skills, to implement them. CSR Programs could range from overall development of a community to supporting specific causes like education, environment, healthcare etc. For example, organizations like Bharath Petroleum Corporation Limited, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, and Hindustan Unilever Limited, adopt villages where they focus on holistic development. They provide better medical and sanitation facilities, build schools and houses, and help the villagers become self-reliant by teaching them vocational and business skills. On the other hand GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals CSR programs primarily focus on health and healthy living. They work in tribal villages where they provide medical check-up and treatment, health camps and health awareness programs. They also provide money, medicines and equipment to non-profit organizations that work towards improving health and education in under-served communities. Many CSR initiatives are executed by corporates in partnership with Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are well versed in working with the local communities and are experts in tackling specific social problems. For example, SAP India in partnership with Hope Foundation, an NGO that works for the betterment of the poor and the needy throughout India, has been working on short and long-term rebuilding initiatives for the tsunami victims. Together, they also started The SAP Labs Center of HOPE in Bangalore, a home for street children, where they provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education. CSR has come a long way in India. From responsive activities to sustainable initiatives, corporates have clearly exhibited their ability to make a significant difference in the society and improve the overall quality of life. In the current social situation in India, it is difficult for one single entity to bring about change, as the scale is enormous. Corporates have the expertise, strategic thinking, manpower and money to facilitate extensive social change. Effective partnerships between corporates, NGOs and the government will place Indias social development on a faster track. Conclusions: Business is recognised and challenged as a new player in social development, setting standards and protecting human rights **Kofi Annan Corporate social responsibility is a term describing a company's obligation to be accountable to all of its stakeholders in all its operations and activities. Socially responsible companies consider the full scope of
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their impact on communities and the environment when making decisions, balancing the needs of Stakeholders with their need to make a profit. Emerging Asian markets like India has drawn attention of Multinational Companies for the potential global market. A companys stakeholders are all those who are influenced by and can influence a companys decisions and actions, both locally and globally. Business take holders include (but are not limited to): employees, customers, suppliers, community organizations, subsidiaries and affiliates, joint venture partners, local neighborhoods, investors, shareholders (or a sole owner), and the environment. The case of pesticide and chocolate proves without doubt that irresponsible corporate behaviour can lose good will of the product throughout global markets and company's obligation towards the society.
CHAPTER 5
RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
OPEN YOUR EYES TO WHAT WORLD IS DOING A JOURNEY TO CSR

Good Corporate Governance includes socially responsible business practices. A socially responsible approach to business would involve attention to social and environmental concerns in addition to economic goals and encourage companies to balance financial profits, economic value addition and social good. The high level of public accountability attached to Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) as a result of their public ownership makes socially responsible reporting by PSUs particularly important. The Committee of Public Undertakings (COPU) in 1992 examined the issue relating to social obligation of Central Public Sector Enterprises and observed that being part of the State, every Public Sector Enterprise (PSE) has a moral responsibility to play an active role in discharging the social obligations endowed on a welfare state, subject to the financial health of the enterprise. Based on the recommendation of the COPU, Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) issued general guidelines in November 1994. These guidelines basically left it to the Board of Directors of the PSEs to devise socially responsible business practices in accordance with their Articles of Association, under the general guidance of their respective Administrative Ministry/Department.
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Corporate Social Responsibility:
Social responsibility is the responsibility of an organisation for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the environment, through transparent and ethical behaviors that is consistent with sustainable development and the welfare of society and takes into account the expectations of stakeholders Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one such niche area of corporate behaviour and governance that needs to be addressed and effectively implemented in the organisation. CSR is one of the effective tools that synergizes the efforts of corporate and the social sector agencies towards sustainable growth and development of social objectives at large. CSR is at heart a process of managing the costs and benefits of business activity to both internal (employees, shareholders, investors) and external (institution of public governance, community members, civil society groups, other enterprises) stakeholders. Keeping in view the importance of PSUs in discharging social obligation, a limited review on the initiatives taken by the PSUs in selected sectors viz. Oil and Natural Gas Sector, Coal and Power Sector towards CSR was conducted. The main focus of the review was on the following aspects: CSR Policy System of planning for CSR activities System of fixation of targets for CSR activities Budget allocation and budget utilisation for CSR activities Monitoring mechanism for implementation of CSR activities
CSR Policy:
Out of the total 28 companies in Coal Sector, Power sector and Oil and Natural Gas Sector selected for examination, it was observed that 19 companies (5 companies in Power Sector, 8 companies in Coal Sector and 6 Companies in Oil and Natural Gas Sector) had approved CSR policy during 2007-08. The list of companies having CSR Policy and a list of companies not having CSR policy covered in the review are given in Appendix XV and Appendix XVI.
System of Planning for CSR activities: Planning plays a vital role while implementing any policy. It was, however, observed that North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited, NTPC-SAIL Power Company (P) Limited, Bokaro Power Supply Company (P) Limited and Power Finance Corporation Limited in the Power Sector had no system of planning for CSR activities. Other companies planned their CSR activities as detailed below:

(A) Oil Sector Bongaigaon Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited, Numaligarh Refinery Limited and Oil India Limited had formed Community Development Committee/ Steering Committee for planning CSR activities.
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Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited planned CSR projects with the help of operating Partner Non Government Organisations. The company signed MOUs with the Non Government Organisations. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited planned CSR projects based on requests from neighbouring local self-governments like Panchayats, Municipalities & Corporations and Non Government Organisations. GAIL (India) Limited and Indian Oil Corporation Limited fixed thrust area wise targets with the help of its officials in consultation with local/district authorities for the activities of local significance and potential benefit to the local public. (B) Power Sector NTPC Limited had dedicated CSR Cell, which was responsible for policy matters, compilation of information, annual reports and facilitating the process of allocation of funds. In Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited the local management in consultation with the local authorities finalised the CSR scheme and the same is presented to a Committee. The Committee recommends CSR schemes to the Chairman and Managing Director. (C) Coal Sector Central Coalfields Limited, Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Coal India Limited, Eastern Coalfields Limited, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and Northern Coalfields Limited had area community development committee constituted for the purpose at the area level, which was taking decisions regarding identifying the activities, preparation of budget, reviewing and approving the action plan and monitoring the activities during implementation. At headquarter level the Welfare Board oversees the Community Development activities. However, there was no specific department dealing with the entire aspects of CSR.
System of fixation of targets for CSR activities:

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The Oil and Natural Gas Sector and Coal Sector Companies made the budget allocation for CSR activities as per the policy directions of their respective Ministries. While the Coal companies provided one rupee per tonne of coal produced, companies in Oil and Natural Gas Sector provided 0.5 per cent to one per cent of the profit for CSR activities. However, in case of Power Sector companies no structured guidelines existed for budget provision as emerged from the following: NTPC Limited had a policy of earmarking Rs.17 crore every year for CSR activities. Power Finance Corporation Limited had not made any budget provision for CSR activities during the year the 2007-08. However, during the year the company donated surplus office furniture/material (valuing Rs.20 lakh) to 26 Non Government Organisations. Power Grid Corporation of India Limited during the year 2007-08, allocated an amount of Rs.45 lakh in the budget which was subsequently reduced to Rs.35 lakh towards community development programme. However, the Company released an amount of Rs.37.50 lakh during the year 2007-08 for the purposes indicated below: (i) Financial assistance of Rs.5 lakh to National Foundation for Communal Harmony, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. (ii) Financial assistance of Rs.25 lakh to the Social, Cultural, Educational & Sports Development Trust of Silchar, Assam. (iii) Financial assistance of Rs.7.50 lakh to Global Cancer Concern India towards two cancer camps in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh in addition to one mobile unit. Bokaro Power Supply Company (P) Limited had no budget allocation for the year 2007-08 in respect of CSR activities.
From the above table it is evident that the companies in all the three sectors, the utilisation of the allocated budget was less than the allocated budget except in four companies in the Coal Sector. While Eastern Coalfields Limited and Northern Coalfields Limited have spent more than their budget allocation by 93.84 per cent and 76.53 per cent respectively, in the case of Mahanadi Coal Fields expenditure matched the
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budget allocation. In North Eastern Coalfields Limited Rs.14.19 lakh was spent though the same was not provided in the budget. In Oil and Natural Gas Sector the unutilisation of budgeted amount ranged from 4.17 per cent to 62.61 per cent. In Power Sector the unutilisation of budget amount ranged from 16.67 per cent to 51.98 per cent.
Further analysis revealed the following: The budget for CSR on Omkareswar Project (OSP), a unit of Narmada Hydro Development Corporation funds for 2007-08 was Rs.20 lakh, out of Rs.55 lakh budget for the whole company. The OSP unit showed the expenditure as Rs.18.73 lakh. However, audit verification revealed that the actual expenditure in this case was only Rs.12.37 lakh. The expenditure of Rs.6.36 lakh relating to incomplete activities had been carried forward without the approval of the Board of Directors. Thus total unutilised funds amounted to Rs.20.87 lakh, which was 37.95 per cent of total budgeted funds. NTPC Limited sanctioned Rs14.01 crore against Rs.17 crore required to be provided as per the policy document. Audit analysis indicated that the actual amount spent was Rs.7.59 crore which was short by Rs.6.42 crore. The shortfall against the amount sanctioned worked out to 45.82 per cent and the shortfall against the amount stated in the policy document stood at Rs.9.41 crore which accounted for 55.35 per cent. GAIL (India) Limited allocated Rs.17.51 crore against the norms of Rs.23.87 crore. Out of the allocated amount of Rs.17.51 crore, the amount spent was Rs.16.66 crore.
Monitoring mechanism for implementation of CSR activities: A review of the monitoring mechanism relating to CSR activities revealed the following:(A) Oil Sector Bongaigaon Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited and Numaligarh Refinery Limited formed Community Development Committee/ Community Development Steering Committee for monitoring of the various projects. Balmer Lawrie & Co. Limited held regular reviews of the CSR activities at the level of Executive Director and progress reported to the Board on an annual basis. Biecco Lawrie Limited monitored the CSR projects through Management Committee comprising of senior officers of the Company. Hindustan Petroleum Company Limited monitored the execution of plan and budget utilisation by a project leader through Operating Partner Non Government Organisations.
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Bharat Petroleum Company Limited reviewed the projects on a regular basis depending on the nature of the activity. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited planned and executed the CSR activities directly by its officials. However, the involvement of Government Institutions/ Non Government Organisations was also considered when MRPL participated as a joint contributor.
(B) Power Sector As per M.P. Government, Building and Other Construction Workers Cess Act, 1996, one per cent cess was to be recovered on each contract value awarded for Civil/Building Construction work except for construction contracts for residential purposes, up to Rs.10.00 lakh. Although the Narmada Hydro Development Corporation has loaded this factor in the contract value but the quantum of recovery made on this account was unascertainable due to absence of relevant data. NTPC Limited had a dedicated CSR Cell, which was responsible for monitoring of CSR activity and facilitating the process of allocation of funds. It has, however, been noticed that each station was required to identify compulsorily a specific day/week for organising annual rural sports meet as per CSR Policy, none of the stations complied with the above mandatory requirement of the Policy. There was no monitoring mechanism in Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, except reviewing the compliance certificate on the projects forwarded by the site/station by a Committee at the corporate office. In North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited also there was no monitoring mechanism for implementation of CSR policy.
(C) Coal Sector Central Coalfields Limited, Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Coal India Limited, Eastern Coalfields Limited, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and Northern Coalfields Limited had no specific department dealing with the entire aspects of CSR. There is a need to promote a drive in Government Companies towards greater accountability on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In order to attain the social objectives, there is a need for framing a CSR Policy in every company for prioritization of activities for social spending and allocation of separate funds for this purpose. Moreover, to have an impact of the CSR spending and utilisation of allocated budget, there should be a system of periodical monitoring and reporting to the Board of Directors.
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corporate SOCIAL responsibility The four phases of CSR development in India:
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According to Sundar (2000), the following four phases of CSR development can be identified (see Figure 2).13 These phases parallel Indias historical development and resulted in different CSR practices. The division into four phases must be regarded as an analytical tool. However, it is not static, and features of one phase can also be observed in the others, as is particularly evident from the last phase. First phase: CSR motivated by charity and philanthropy: The first phase of CSR14 is predominantly determined by culture, religion, family tradition, and industrialization. Business operations and CSR engagement were based mainly on corporate self-regulation. Being the oldest form of CSR, charity and philanthropy still influence CSR practices today, especially in community development. In the pre-industrial period up to the 1850s, merchants committed themselves to society for religious reasons, sharing their wealth, for instance, by building temples. Moreover, the business community occupied a significant place in ancient Indian society and the merchants provided relief in times of crisis such as famine or epidemics throwing open godowns of food changed CSR from the 1850s onwards.
13 Mrs Sundar is the Executive Director of the Delhi-based Sampradaan Indian Centre for Philanthropy (SICP). It aims to promote and strengthen Indian philanthropy by motivating all sections of society to go beyond giving of alms in charity to the giving of money, time, talent, skills, and other resources for bringing about social change and progress; and by assisting donors to make informed choices so as to ensure that charitable funds have a maximum impact.
14 The term corporate social responsibility did not exist at that time, being coined only in the 20th century. A companys engagement in social aspects was seen rather as philanthropy. and treasure chests (Arora 2004, 24). Under colonial rule, Western types of industrialization reached India and The pioneers of industrialization in the 19th century in India were a few families such as the Tata, Birla, Bajaj, Lalbhai, Sarabhai, Godrej, Shriram, Singhania, Modi, Naidu, Mahindra and Annamali, who were strongly devoted to philanthropically motivatedCSR (Mohan 2001, 109). The early pioneers of industry in India were leaders in the economic, as also in the social fields (Arora 2004, 25). Nevertheless, it has been
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pointed out that their engagement was not onlyaltruistic and stimulated by religious motives: It had business considerations in supporting efforts towards industrial and social development of the nation and was influenced by caste groups and political objectives (Mohan 2001, 109).
The underlying pattern of charity and philanthropy15 means that entrepreneurs sporadically donate money (e.g. to schools or hospitals) without any concrete or long-term engagement. Charitable and philanthropic CSR is practised outside the company, focusing on such external stakeholders as communities and general social welfare bodies. Second phase: CSR for Indias social development The second phase of Indian CSR (1914-1960) was dominated by the countrys struggle for independence and influenced fundamentally by Gandhis theory of trusteeship, the aim of which was to consolidate and amplify social development. During the struggle for independence, Indian businesses actively engagedin the reform process. Not only did companies see the countrys economic development as a protest against colonial rule; they also participated in its institutional and social development (India Partnership Forum 2002, 11). 15 Both charity and philanthropy can be regarded as sponsoring. Charity is understood as consisting solely of donations of money, whereas philanthropy includes the practical involvement of businesses. 16 For further clarification on internal and external stakeholders see Chapter 2. The corporate sectors involvement was stimulated by the vision of a modern and free India. Gandhi introduced the notion of trusteeship in order to make companies the temples of modern India: businesses (especially well established family businesses) set up trusts for schools and colleges; they also established training and scientific institutes (Mohan 2001, 109). The heads of the companies largely aligned the activities of their trusts with Gandhis eform programmes. These programmes included activities that sought in particular the abolition of untouchability, womens empowerment and rural development (Arora 2004, 25). Third phase: CSR under the paradigm of the mixed economy: The paradigm of the mixed economy, with the emergence of PSUs and ample legislation on labour and environmental standards, affected the third phase of Indian CSR (1960-1980). This phase is also characterized by a shift from corporate self-regulation to strict legal and public regulation of business activities.
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Under the paradigm of the mixed economy, the role of the private sector in advancing India receded. During the Cold War, India decided to take a third course between capitalism and communism. In this scenario, the public sector was seen as the prime mover of development. The 1960s have been described as an era of command and control, because strict legal regulations determined the activities of the private sector (Arora 2004, 8). The introduction of a regime of high taxes and a quota and licence system imposed tight restrictions on the private sector and indirectly triggered corporate malpractices.17 As a result, corporate governance, labour and environmental issues rose on the political agenda and quickly became the subject of legislation. Furthermore, state authorities established PSUs with the intention of guaranteeing the appropriate distribution of wealth to the needy (Arora 2004). 17 The controls and regulations pertained to industrial licensing, capital issues, loans, import licensing, allocation of resources, prices, and concentration of economic power and growth monopolies (Arora 2004, 8).
The fourth phase: CSR at the interface between philanthropic and business approaches: In the fourth phase (1980 until the present) Indian companies and stakeholders began abandoning traditional philanthropic engagement and, to some extent, integrated CSR into a coherent and sustainable business strategy, partly adopting the multi-stakeholder approach. In the 1990s, the Indian government initiated reforms to liberalize and deregulate the Indian economy by tackling the shortcomings of the mixed economy and tried to integrate India into the global market. Consequently, controls and license systems were partly abolished, and the Indian economy experienced a pronounced boom, which has persisted until today (Arora and Puranik 2004, 97). This rapid growth did not lead to a reductionin philanthropic donations; on the contrary, the increased profitability also increased business willingness as well as ability to give, along with a surge in public and government expectations of businesses (Arora 2004, 28).
Against this background, India has meanwhile become an important economic and political actor in the process of globalization. This new situation has also affected the Indian CSR agenda. With more TNCs resorting to global sourcing, India has become an attractive and important production and manufacturing site. As Western consumer markets are becoming more responsive to labour and environmental standards in developing countries, Indian companies producing for the global market need to comply with international standards.
Current state of CSR in India

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Indias economic reforms and its rise to become an emerging market and global player has not resulted in a substantial change in its CSR approach. Contrary to various expectations that India would adopt the global CSR agenda, its present CSR approach still largely retains its own characteristics, adopting only some aspects of global mainstream CSR. The empirical results of the present study show that Indian CSR is still in a confused state (Arora and Puranik 2004, 98). This is evident from the following: The Indian understanding of CSR seems to be shifting from traditional philanthropy towards sustainable business. Nevertheless, philanthropic patterns remain widespread in many Indian companies. Community development still plays the decisive role in the Indian CSR agenda.
Perceptions of CSR: Where Indian companies perceptions of CSR are concerned, the findings of the study paint an ambiguous and even contradictory picture. On the one hand, companies point out that CSR is now no longer philanthropic but an important aspect of a sustainable business strategy. On the other hand, they continue to feel a strong responsibility to give something back to society.18 When expressing this responsibility, companies in India are thinking not of such internal stakeholders as employees but of surrounding communities. Accordingly, CSR can still be described as being in a confused state. When Indian companies are asked what their understanding of CSR is,19 only a minority regard their own commitment as purely philanthropic. Interestingly, all the PSUs interviewed saw their CSR as philanthropic. This attitude reflects the special role PSUs have been allotted in the last fifty years. About one third of Indian companies detect a recent change in their understanding of CSR, stating that giving something back to society is now no longer merely philanthropic. Half of the Indian companies and all of the foreign companies included in the survey consider CSR to be part of sustainable business. 18 Like CSR itself, giving something back to society is a popular phrase in the current CSR debate. Its overfrequent use has eroded its previous meaning: philanthropy. D pending on the company using the phrase, it can now also include being a responsible citizen or even paying ones taxes. Hence, in the present study, the phrase giving something back to society is not only understood as philanthropy but also seeks to reflect the understanding which each company conveyed during its interview. 19 Generally, there was no significant difference between Indian UNGC and Indian nonUNGC companies in their understanding of CSR. It can therefore be said that Indian

companies understanding of CSR is shaped primarily by the long Indian tradition of CSR and not by such global initiatives as the Global Compact. 20 In line with the World Banks understanding of CSR, a careful balance needs to be struck between internal and external stakeholders interests (World Bank 2002, 1). 21 A critical discussion of community development as viewed by stakeholders follows in Chapter 3.2.2.
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Despite the Indian companies assertion that CSR is seen as part of sustainable business rather than as philanthropy, the imbalance between internal and external CSR dimensions is huge.20 The vast majority of Indian companies include only the external dimension in their understanding of CSR. In contrast, less than 20 per cent of the Indian companies surveyed referred to such internal aspects as working conditions and environmental practices.
Professionalism of community development: According to the statements made by the companies, community development in recent times has become more professional than before. Indian companies covered by the survey put considerable effort into identifying beneficiaries, since they regard correct identification as one of the major challenges in their CSR engagement. Various Indian companies either seek assistance from established trusts or leave the identification process to NGOs or development agencies. More than half of the Indian companies surveyed claim that they try to engage with their external stakeholders in a sustainable manner. However, what they meant by sustainable engagement was not absolutely clear from the companies answers. Typical of the statements made were: Our aim is to make the village self-sufficient. We build sustainable partnerships with communities. With our sustainable engagement we want to provide livelihoods for the villagers.
Integration and organization of CSR: Today CSR is more integrated into business operations, as activities of top management and the introduction of codes of conduct show.22 The majority of the respondents in Indian and foreign companies claimed that CSR is firmly rooted in top management.23 The extent to which companies incorporate CSR into their business processes was questioned by several of the stakeholders included in the survey, and doubts have been expressed by other empirical studies (Arora and Puranik 2004, 97). Yet only a few companies surveyed explicitly stated that their CSR activities were aligned with their business.
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However, according to the empirical data gathered, CSR has been substantially institutionalized. Nearly all the Indian companies have designated a department or person to be responsible for CSR. More than one third of the companies surveyed have a CSR body in place (in most cases a CSR council or committee at company level). Where there is no organizational body exclusively for CSR, CSR is administered by the human resource or communications department. Only four companies reported having no underlying structure for CSR below top management level.
22 This extremely good result reflects the self-selection bias of the survey, as most of those interviewed were best performers in CSR. 23 No significant difference was observed between Indian UNGC companies and Indian non-UNGC companies.
CSR in foreign companies: Foreign companies include both external and internal CSR aspects in their understanding of CSR. The empirical findings show that external and internal CSR dimensions are equally important for foreign companies. Almost all foreign companies adopt their home countrys or regional head offices CSR policies and codes of conduct. Yet the companies enjoy the freedom to adapt them to country-specific needs. A German company, for example, places the emphasis on tackling corruption within its external business operations, including its supply chain management. In accordance with the specific Indian CSR agenda, foreign companies commit themselves to the communities in which they operate by engaging in community development. To some extent, the resulting activities are undertaken with other companies through the German Business Foundation or the American Chamber of Commerce.
Community development 25: As the results of the study underline, community development is a key element of Indias CSR agenda. Indian companies regard their community development projects as a way of contributing some of their profits to social welfare objectives.26 However, community development also needs to be seen in business terms, i.e. companies enhance their reputation and improve relations with communities. From the findings it is obvious that companies engage mainly in education and vocational training. Indian companies also focus on health, especially HIV/AIDS. Among Indian companies, the volunteering of staff for social projects is widespread. Interestingly, foreign companies are also heavily involved in natural calamity relief
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projects. For example, all major German companies had contributed funds to regions affected by the Tsunami. 25 For the purposes of the survey, community development means a wide range of actions of companies to maximise the impact of their donated money, time, products, services, influence, management knowledge, and other resources on communities in which they operate (British Council 2004, 6).
Despite the numerous positive implications mentioned by companies, stakeholders take a more critical view of community development, their criticism focusing on four aspects: wrongfully taken something from society. The extent to which companies have been granted a license to operate should therefore be reassessed. be presented to the public. They do not, however, take account of possible violations of environmental and social standards within the company. representatives may not have the same skills, know-how and experience in the negotiation of business-driven community engagement. The bargaining position of the communities is therefore weaker. projects. Very few companies disclose their motive and objective in making commitments to communities. The question of responsibility for the success or failure of community development projects and for decisions on the area of engagement must also be addressed.29
28 A detailed discussion of the business case in community development will follow in Chapter 5.1. 29 For a further discussion of critical issues in community development see Newell 2005.
The CSR multi-stakeholder approach in India: In India the CSR multi-stakeholder approach is rather fragmented, and interaction between business and civil society organizations, especially trade unions, is still rare, taking place at best on an ad-hoc basis. Although
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many civil society organizations are active in India, the empirical findings did not show that their initiatives play a significant role in shaping the countrys CSR agenda. According to the empirical data, the understanding of CSR in India is not directly linked to the idea of a multi-stakeholderapproach. NGOs and networks in IndiaIf the current state of CSR in India is to be understood, the Indian NGO scene and its networks need to be considered. The number of NGOs in India is estimated at between 50,000 and 100,000. Civil society organizations engage in a wide range of activities throughout India. They include business and professional organizations and trade unions (EESC 2005) and are engaged in traditional development activities associated with NGOs: running literacy programmes, operating dispensaries and clinics, helping such artisans as weavers to market their products, etc. As they usually operate at the local level, they also support government agencies in providing public goods. Furthermore, they conduct in-depth research with a view to lobbying the central and state governments and try to raise the political awareness of various social groups and to encourage them to assert their rights (EESC 2005).
A weak civil society and self-regulating corporate-CSR policiesThe general picture revealed by the survey is that the participation of Indian civil society groups in the CSR process is inadequate. CSR in India cannot therefore be considered a multi-stakeholder approach. This is partly because NGOs are not sufficiently well organized and partly because managers general understanding of CSR policy-making does not include the participation of civil society. However, in a few respects, awareness of pressure from society was also apparent. The weakness of civil society is reflected in the fact that Indian companies do not regularly face pressure from NGOs on CSR issues. Only 10 per cent said that changes in corporate CSR policies had been due to civil society activities. A large proportion of companies (31 per cent) answered this question in the negative, and a further 13 per cent claimed that they had tried to cooperate with their critics. Interestingly, two companies explicitly mentioned that civil society in India is currently too fragmented to bring about change in corporate policies. The inadequate capacity of civil society organizations is also mentioned by companies as a major challenge for CSR engagement. Several respondents pointed out that the NGO structure in India is weak and that too few NGOs involve themselves in the field of CSR in a cooperative manner. As one private Indian company put it, there is a lack of NGOs trying to partner with corporations to find solutions. Another company manager complained about the lack of sustainability of some NGOs activities. As he saw it, NGOs are often only issue-oriented and disappear afterwards.
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The Global Compact in India-
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At the Davos World Economic Forum in 1999, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, initiated the process of forming a Global Compact of shared values and principles, which will give a human face to the global market (McKinsey 2004, 1). The Global Compact (UNGC) is a voluntary and value-based initiative, complementing regulations and other, voluntary CSR initiatives. Its main objectives are to mainstream the ten CSR principles in business activities around the world and to catalyseactions in support of UN goals (Global Compact Office (GCO) 2005d). The UNGC seeks to achieve these objectives through a multi-stakeholder network, which supports the debate and development of CSR with collective learning, policy dialogue and partnership projects at global and local level. The basis is formed by ten principles on human rights, labour, environmentand anticorruption, which the companies must pursue within their sphere of influence. In India, the UNGC is characterized by a high rate of participation. It comprises national UNGC networks and is interlinked with the regional and global levels. However, the UNGCs own goal has not yet been fully achieved, as the present survey demonstrates: -stakeholder approach has not been achieved because nonbusiness stakeholders are not equally integrated into the Indian network and the activities undertaken are limited. -sharing through reporting and policy dialogue are highly appreciated by the participants; however, their potential is not fully exploited. in India. This is due, firstly, to Indias long tradition of CSR, secondly, to the perceived weakness of the network, which limits collective learning, and thirdly, to what companies see as a lack of support from the UNGC. Consequently, companies CSR activities still focus on community development and such common CSR areas as social and environmental issues rather than human rights and anti-corruption.
Participation and motivation at global and national levelIn India the UNGC features a high rate of participation, although not all intended stakeholder groups, especially labour organizations, are represented. According to the empirical findings, companies and stakeholders operating in India join the UNGC mainly in the expectation of benefitingfrom knowledgesharing and networking. Participation in the Global CompactIn terms of the number and variety of participants, the UNGC is the largest CSR initiative worldwide. Yet, participants are not evenly spread over the globe. The national branches of the UNGC played an important
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role in recruitment in the initial years. Regionally, the UNGC is concentrated in Europe, with poor representation in North America. However, its strong presence in developing countries is interesting, more than half of the participants (55 per cent) being headquartered outside the OECD countries (McKinsey 2004, 11). Through their participation many Indian companies express their interest in the UN initiative. Even in India, the national launching of the UNGC in December 2000 turned out to be decisive, as more than 50 per cent of the participants joined in the first year. In India, 101 companies joined the UNGC, among them nine described as SMEs and two listed on the FT Global 500.33 It should be remembered in this context that 50 per cent are public-sector undertakings. In addition, nine Indian stakeholder organizations joined to promote the mechanisms and networks. Among them are three local business associations, five local NGOs and the city of Jamshedpur, a Tata corporate township.
33 The FT500 provides an annual snapshot of the worlds largest companies, ranked by market capitalization: the greater the value allotted to a company by the stock markets, the higher its ranking (Financial Times 2005).
Motivation to join the Global Compact The general motivation of companies to join the UNGC is the opportunity for knowledge-sharing and the exchange of best practices. This also applies to India, where CSR is already deep-rooted. At global level, OECD and developing countries differ as to their motivesand activities. In OECD countries, most companies join the UNGC for networking, as a means of improving their current CSR engagement. Companies in developing countries, on the other hand, are trying to become more familiar with CSR, which is often new to them (McKinsey2004, 6 et seq.). Activities also differ. OECD companies review their humanrights policies, which are in formal respect relatively new to them. In contrast, companies from developing countries prioritize health and safety procedures (McKinsey 2004, 6 et seq.). The survey shows that companies and stakeholders in India join the UNGC mainly for knowledge-sharing and networking. A high proportion of corporations referred to their long CSR tradition and to the fact that they were already complying with the ten principles. In addition, many companies expected support from the UNGC by joining it. In several cases it was said that top management (CEO) was the driving force in CSR engagement and participation in the UNGC. The risk then is that engagement will cease if and when the manager leaves the company and there is no follow-up. On the other hand, the stakeholders strongly emphasized the UNs reputation as an important reason for companies joining the UNGC.
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The Indian networks Facilitating collective learning is the main support networks provide for their participants. However, the Indian UNGC networks do not adopt the multi-stakeholder concept, since it is business-centred and does not represent the whole range of stakeholders. Furthermore, the shortage of resources limits the activities undertaken and the support the networks are able to provide. Awareness of the networks among the UNGC participants in India is therefore poor. They should play a more proactive role to meettheir participants expectations. According to the results of the survey, knowledge-sharing and best practice exchange are the main support the networks offer to their participants. Reference was also made to the opportunity to influence policymakers through collective action and to benchmarking at international level. However, itmust be remembered that most interviewees did not even know the networks existed or were active. If they provided more practical support on a sectoral basis and for the implementation of the ten principles by increasing awareness of certain issues, companies would see the networks as helpful.
The Global Compact Society (India) The Global Compact Society (GCS) is the main national network, emerging after the launch of the UNGC in India. The GCS is now in the process of improving its conditions and activities. The survey showed the GCS to be a very business-centred network which has so far failed to open its doors to all stakeholders, as intended by the UNGC. The UNGC companies awareness of this network is very low. Activities undertaken by the GCS have been criticized for a lack of follow-up. On the basis of the personal experience of its representatives, the GCS has canvassed some 300 to 400 larger companies aware of CSR as well as business associations and training institutes. No labour organizations or NGOs have so far been approached. Representatives of the GCS fear that the involvement of trade unions will give rise to conflict because they are mostly linked to political parties and, like NGOs, defend specific interests. The UNGC is perceived as a self-regulatory mechanism, which limits the stakeholders ability to support companies at project but not at strategic level. However, GCS representatives mentioned that they would like to see these organizations integrated through an ancillary body. In May 2005, it was decided to include NGOs and unions, and the Society is considering the establishment of a national coordinating body for them. In addition, theGCS has launched its own website, it has organized two national conventions,and it encouraged companies to participate in the Global Compact Leaders Summit held in New York in 2004. To
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judge from the activities referred to above, the GCS at least meets the requirement34 of contributing to the dialogue between companies and, to a limited extent, other stakeholders as well as participating in global events.35
The India Partnership Forum The India Partnership Forum (IPF) exists in parallel to the GCS, but does not directly align itself with the UNGC36 by having its own business code. Awareness of this network is just as low as that of the GCS. The IPF (founded by the CII37 and UNDP in 2001) acts as a forum for Multi-stakeholder Dialogue for Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility in India. It has developed a Social Code for Business,38 which includes a set of principles and standards of good corporate citizenship (IPF 2005). According to a UNDP representative, the code has been developed to operationalize the UNGC principles and to provide more specific guidelines. Nevertheless, the content of the code seems as vague and immeasurable as the UNGC principles.
34-Seven indicators are defined in the Network Self-Assessment. They concern performance as reagards the way the networks increase the engagement of its participating companies, promote the UNGC at local level, engage in global dialogues, participate in global learning events and encourage Communications on Progress, identify and implement partnership projects, promote communication among participants and with the Global Compact Office and involve new companies in the UNGC (GCO 2003b). 35 Authors database. 36 This network is seen by UNDP as a UNGC network, a view contested by the CII. Despite this, it is shown as a national network on the UNGC website. 37 The CII encourages businesses to participate in voluntary activities through its volunteer arm, the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust, and its industry members to take up social projects through its Council for Community Initiatives (India Partnership Forum 2002, 15).
The 10 principles of the Global Compact
Human Rights:
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Principle 1- Businesses should support and respect the protection of international human rights within their sphere of influence; and Principle 2- make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses. Labour: Principle 3- Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; Principle 4- the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour; Principle 5- the effective abolition of child labour; and Principle 6- the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. Environment: Principle 7- Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; Principle 8- undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; And Principle 9- encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. Anti-Corruption: Principle 10-* Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
*The tenth principle was added in 2004.
Major challenges for the introduction of CSRWhile the overall perception of the UNGC in India is quite positive, its practical relevance is now almost negligible. As a rule, a CSR instrument has to address some major challenges that CSR engagement always faces. Assessing the UNGC must therefore include its contribution to tacklingthe following major challenges: 1. CSR must proof the business case, i.e. the financial benefits must outweigh the costs in the long run at least to ensure that CSR engagement is financially sustainable. 2. The question of monitoring, certification and reporting is crucialfor the credibility and reliability of CSR activities. 3. The inclusion of the supply chain is another important issue, particularly with respect to the reach of CSR, since many suppliers are SMEs reaching far more people than the relatively few TNCs. 4. Public policy can play an important role in promoting CSR since it can provide an enabling environment. For the effective and sustainable introduction of CSR, all these areas must be addressed if businesses are to be motivated to participate (deepening) and more companies are to become involved (broadening). However,
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the Global Compacts role in these areas is now very limited. While the UNGC label was referred to as a relevant business case, the present survey reveals that suppliers and the public sector had been omitted and that verification is also lacking.
Recommendations for strengthening CSR and the Global Compact in India

The recommendations are addressed, in particular, to the Indian Global Compact Society, private and public corporations operating in India, Indian public authorities, civil society organizations and development agencies. They focus on the following areas: CSR in general The Global Compact The business case for CSR Monitoring and verification of CSR CSR in the supply chain The role of public policy.
General suggestions for strengthening the impact of CSRThe comprehensive CSR approach, which Indian companies are beginning to adopt, needs to be strengthened further. Companies should therefore integrate the UNGC principles and their CSR engagement into their business processes; anchor the UNGC principles/their CSR commitment in top management and create a specific CSR body to supervise the companys CSR engagement; proactively disseminate CSR throughout the company to raise awarenessamong employees. Such measures might include regular staff meetings on specific CSR aspects to ensure that CSR does not remain an abstract term and the development of a code of conduct to be signed by each employee or the participation of employees in stakeholder meetings at which CSR issues are discussed. As community development is a very important feature of the Indian CSR agenda, these projects should be aligned with a companys main business. 83 Likewise, to tap their full potential, community development projects need to be coherently planned, implemented and monitored, preferablyin partnership with NGOs and local government. Owing to the weakness of the multi-stakeholder approach and civil societys engagement in CSR, interaction between NGOs and companies is still rare and needs to be strengthened.
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As regards civil society in India, a stronger NGO scene is needed to give civil society a respected voice in the shaping of the CSR multistakeholder agenda. Companies should be more open to stakeholder engagement andbroaden their definition of stakeholders to include NGOs other than agencies implementing community development projects. Development cooperation can fuel the interaction process with capacity-building relating to CSR issues and by bringing together different networks and players from both companies and stakeholders.
Suggestions for improving the Global CompactAs this survey concentrates on the UNGC in India, the recommendations will focus on Indias specific concerns and so have no bearing on the Global Compact Office in New York. The Global Compact Society (GCS) should improve its interaction with the UNGC participants by means of continual communication. The GCS should insist on an increase in awareness of the UNGC inIndia and in the number of participants so as to lengthen its reach. 83 The following example illustrates what is meant by aligning CSR with a business: an IT company does not distribute medicine to the local population, but offers capacitybuilding in IT skills for chemists and computerization of stocks. As intended by the UNGC, the GCS should open its doors to a variety of stakeholders, including labour organizations and other civil society organizations involved in the CSR agenda. The GCS should improve its support in two areas to facilitate knowledge- sharing: first, it should initiate follow-up to conventions, and second, it should concentrate on specific issues (i.e. sector-wide approaches, SME concerns, diffusion throughout the supply chain) with a view to translating abstract guidelines and principles into practical and business-oriented advice on ongoing implementation. The GCS should further encourage companies to report their CSR activities in the required Communication on Progress format and stakeholders to oversee and comment on these reports. To put these recommendations into practice, the resources (funds and manpower) of the GCS need to be increased. As the GCS depends on financial contributions from members, the implementation of the recommendations may be constrained and restricted. However, a merger of theIPF and GCS may have synergetic effects and increase the UNGCs impact. Technical and financial support provided by the international development community might also increase the GCSs efficiency and efficacy.
corporate SOCIAL responsibility Strengthening the business case for CSR-
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The considerable credibility and reputation enjoyed by the UNGC provide companies with fertile ground for the business case. This fact should therefore be made known to more companies. Generally speaking, the role of the business case as a precondition for sustainable CSR engagement should be emphasized in the knowledgesharing and collective learning forums. The exchange of best practices and experience of the business case could significantly enhance companies CSR activities. In particular, the relevance of efficiency gains and employee productivitycan be easily understood. This is also extremely important for SMEs, which are expected to benefit in particular from information and capacitybuilding measures.
Suggestions for improving the monitoring and verification of CSRThe existing certification and reporting schemes can be regarded as important, though not yet widespread among Indian companies. Since the publication and use of the COPs are still very limited, awareness-raising will play a major role in strengthening the reporting on CSR. As an example, the Global Compact should encourage companies to publish their COPs in accordance with the GRI guidelines. As regards CSR awards in India, more holistic monitoring and reporting mechanisms should be used as selection criteria so that comparisons of companies overall CSR performance can be more easily made. The wholeprocess of monitoring, reporting and publicizing the engagement of smaller companies in particular needs to be further improved, which should be made possible with financial assistance and capacity-building measures.
Suggestions for the diffusion of CSR along the supply chainSupply chain managements awareness of CSR must still be regarded as weak. Consequently, the awareness of supply chain responsibility and the diffusion of CSR among business partners must be strengthened among companies, stakeholders and even public policy agencies. Furthermore, companies must do more to make a greater commitment to monitoring regularly and effectively their business partners compliance with standards. This accords with fostering dialogue and knowledgesharing and also capacity-building and training for suppliers. If companies adopt a sector-wide CSR approach and standardize their introduction of CSR to some extent, downward pressure from competitors aimed at lowering standards and creating competitive disadvantages can be minimized. A cooperative and sector-wide CSR approach would further help to disseminate CSR along the supply chain.
The role of public policy in improving CSR-
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Public policy should rethink its role in CSR. In particular, public policy agencies need to accept companies as partners in development. They should acknowledge the potential of the business communitys dynamic and modernizing elements, and partnerships with companies and stakeholder organizations should therefore be fostered. International cooperation could also be more active in promoting dialogue and collaboration on CSR between companies and development agencies. As law enforcement is said to be poor in India, public agencies and officials need to enhance their commitment to the more effective application of national regulations. To create an enabling environment for CSR, government agencies should also foster stable and transparent policies and regulations. Where corruption is concerned, public institutions should advocate zero tolerance of all forms of corruption, and public-sector undertakings should act as role models.
Ten Point Social Charter By Manmohan Singh May 25, 2007 Our better-off must understand the need to make our growth process more inclusive: In a modern, democratic society, business must realise its wider social responsibility. The time has come for the better-off sections of our society to understand the need to make our growth process more inclusiveto eschew conspicuous consumption, to save more and waste less, to care for those who are less privileged, to be role models of probity, moderation and charity. Indian industry must, therefore, rise to the challenge of making our growth processes both efficient and inclusive. If those who are better off do not act in a more socially responsible manner, our growth process may be at risk, our polity may become anarchic and our society may get further divided. I invite corporate India to be a partner in making ours a more humane and just society. We need a new Partnership for Inclusive Growth based on what I describe as a Ten Point Social Charter. First: have healthy respect for your workers and invest in their welfare. Two: corporate social responsibility must not be defined by tax planning strategies alone. Rather, it should be defined within the framework of a corporate philosophy which factors the needs of the community and the regions in which a corporate entity functions. Three: industry must be proactive in offering employment to the less privileged, at all levels of the job ladder.
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Four: resist excessive remuneration to promoters and senior executives and discourage conspicuous consumption. Five: invest in people and in their skills. Six: desist from non-competitive behaviour. Seven: invest in environment-friendly technologies. Eight: promote enterprise and innovation, within your firms and outside. Nine: fight corruption at all levels. Ten: promote socially responsible media and finance socially responsible advertising. This is not an exhaustive list. You may wish to add to it, and adopt your own Social Charter for inclusive growth. The objective would be to encourage a culture of caring, sharing and belonging. We must end forever the debate whether our countrys march of progress has benefited India and not Bharat. India is Bharat.
The business benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) isn't just about doing the right thing. It means behaving responsibly, and also dealing with suppliers who do the same. It also offers direct
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business benefits. See the page in this guide on how to benefit from corporate social responsibility. Building a reputation as a responsible business sets you apart. Companies often favour suppliers who demonstrate responsible policies, as this can have a positive impact on how they are perceived by customers. Some customers don't just prefer to deal with responsible companies, but insist on it. The Cooperative Group, for instance, place a strong emphasis on its corporate social responsibility and publishes detailed 'warts and all' reports on its performance on a wide range of criteria from animal welfare to salt levels in its pizzas. Reducing resource use, waste and emissions doesn't just help the environment - it saves you money too. It's not difficult to cut utility bills and waste disposal costs and you can bring immediate cash benefits. For more information read our guides on how to save money by reducing waste and use your resources more efficiently - an overview. There are other benefits too:

A good reputation makes it easier to recruit employees. Employees may stay longer, reducing the costs and disruption of recruitment and retraining.
Employees are better motivated and more productive. CSR helps ensure you comply with regulatory requirements. Activities such as involvement with the local community are ideal opportunities to generate positive press coverage.
Good relationships with local authorities make doing business easier. See the page in this guide on how to work with the local community.
Understanding the wider impact of your business can help you develop new products and services.
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CSR
can
make
you more
competitive and reduces the
risk of sudden damage to your Investors recognise this and are CSR and the Business Model:
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reputation
(and
sales).
more willing to finance you.
The idea is to integrate CSR into your business model as a corporate strategy right from the inception stage. And mere lip service or green washing will not do. If your company has to reap the benefits of practicing CSR, it must implement defined and quantifiable metrics to measure the same. To achieve this, I recommend a bottom up approach. First, identify what your stakeholders expect from you in terms of CSR. Then find out ways to integrate all the feasible requirements into the business model you are building. This way, the firm can reap the benefits of a sustainable CSR programme that adds to its revenue stream.
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The history of social and environmental concern about business is as old as trade and business itself. Commercial logging operations for example, together with laws to protect forests, can both be traced back almost 5,000 years. In Ancient Mesopotamia around 1700 BC, King Hammurabi introduced a code in which builders, innkeepers or farmers were put to death if their negligence caused the deaths of others, or major inconvenience to local citizens. In Ancient Rome senators grumbled about the failure of businesses to contribute sufficient taxes to fund their military campaigns, while in 1622 disgruntled shareholders in the Dutch East India Company started issuing pamphlets complaining about management secrecy and self enrichment. With industrialisation, the impacts of business on society and the environment assumed an entirely new dimension. The corporate paternalists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used some of their wealth to support philanthropic ventures. By the 1920s discussions about the social responsibilities of business had evolved into what we can recognise as the beginnings of the modern CSR movement. In 1929, the Dean of Harvard Business School, Wallace B. Donham, commented within an address delivered at North Western University: Business started long centuries before the dawn of history, but business as we now know it is new - new in its broadening scope, new in its social significance. Business has not learned how to handle these changes, nor does it recognise the magnitude of its responsibilities for the future of civilisation.
Almost seventy five years later, these words ring just as true. Although today we face some novel concerns about the role of business in society, from internet spam to genetically modified foods, many of the issues under discussion are not very different to those being
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raised in the 1920s. There is a danger that social and environmental concern about business is an issue which, like sex, every new generation thinks that it has discovered. The interactive timelines below provide details of the evolution of the history of our environment, the history of business corporations, the evolution of the concept of sustainable development and the history of business law and socially responsible investment as forces seeking to shape the social and environmental impacts of business.
Environmental History Timeline: Human activity has impacted our physical environment in ways which stretch back before the dawn of civilisation. The deliberate use of fire to clear land, for example, began tens of thousands of years ago. As human civilisations arose, so the impact of economic activity on local environments became an important issue. Deforestation and soil erosion caused the decline of many ancient cities and civilisations. By the time of the Greek and Roman empires, we can see new concerns arising about issues such as pollution and occupational health. With industrialisation, concerns about localised environmental impacts gradually evolved into concern about the global environment. During the Twentieth Century, this concern has developed into a debate about the sustainability of our economy and the societies and environment within which it exists. Also during the last century, we have witnessed the rise of global companies, and individual companies and their actions now feature prominently in discussions about the environment.
Tracing the History of CSR:
Our research found that the history of CSR is as old as the history of business itself, even though the concept was not formally formulated until recently. Even then as we saw in the review of the meaning of CSR, the concept is still evolving and there isnt complete
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agreement as to what the concept is all about. We are going to divide the history on CSR into two broad periods before 1900 and from 1900 to present.
CSR Activities Before 1900
As earlier stated, the history of social and environmental concerns about business is as old as trade and business itself. For example, commercial logging operations and laws to protect forests can both be traced back almost 5,000 years (BRASS Centre, 2007). King Hammurabi of Ancient Mesopotamia in around 1700 BC is known to have introduced a code in which builders, innkeepers or farmers were put to death if their negligence caused the deaths of others, or major inconvenience to local citizens. Meanwhile, history has equally recorded the grumblings of Ancient Roman senators about the failure of businesses to contribute sufficient taxes to fund their military campaigns. In 1622 disgruntled shareholders in the Dutch East India Company, are said to have started issuing pamphlets complaining about management secrecy and self enrichment (BRASS Centre).
Talking to individuals, thinkers and business people in Africa, we found out that the CSR concept is very much part of their business history. Our research found that hunters in the Southern Cameroons, as well as other parts of Africa were expected to bring part of their catch to the chief (traditional rulers). Farmers in Eastern Nigeria (Igboland) brought their first harvest for the famous communal New Yam Festival. Professional craftsmen were seen as custodians of history and many of their artworks were kept in the palaces of the chiefs (they were not paid for such pieces of arts).
In all parts of Africa that we talked to people, we found out that vital professionals such as doctors were not allowed to charge exorbitant fees for their services. In fact their fees were normally so nominal that no one could say s/he was unable to pay. All these point to the fact
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that in traditional African societies, businesses were seen first and foremost as providing benefits for the whole society, and the individual businessperson came only second place.
A similar view of business is presented in the Bible, where there is condemnation for charging interests on debts. In addition, Jesus in some of his parables, such as the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, exemplifies the sharing of wealth. The beatitudes too also foster that sense of community. Indeed, CSR can be seen as a very Christian concept. No doubt, many of the social teachings of the Catholic Church support CSR. The concern on the part of the Catholic Church for the poor and underprivileged has continued even to the 20th and 21st centuries. For example the most recent popes (Benedict XVI and his predecessor, John Paul II) are known to be supporters of corporate philanthropy. The Catholic Church in Latin America developed Liberation Theology in the 1960s to address the social needs of the wretched of the earth. Although the theology later ran into conflict with Church authorities in Rome because of its use of Marxist theories, it emphasized the fact that Christ had a preferential option for the poor. The Catholic Church also supports sustainable development, a concept which we earlier saw to be closely linked with CSR.
With industrialization, the impacts of business on society and the environment assumed an entirely new dimension. The corporate paternalists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries used some of their wealth to support philanthropic ventures.
CSR Activities From 1900-Present
As early as the 1920s, discussions about the social responsibilities of business had evolved into what could be recognized as the beginnings of the modern CSR movement. In 1929, the Dean of Harvard Business School, Wallace B. Donham, commented within an address delivered at North Western University as follows:
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Business started long centuries before the dawn of history, but business as we now know it is new new in its broadening scope, new in its social significance. Business has not learned how to handle these changes, nor does it recognize the magnitude of its responsibilities for the future of civilization (BRASS Centre, 2007). While there are new concerns about the role of business in society from internet spam to genetically modified foods many of the issues under discussion are not very different to those being raised in the 1920s. The BRASS Centre (2007) thinks that the social and environmental concerns about business are perennial problems, which like sex every new generation thinks that it has discovered.
The Kellogg Company is a good example of how CSR has been practiced by a modern company for over a hundred years. The company claims that since its founding in 1906, it has been conscious of its social responsibility. The company understands that its social responsibility extends to the quality of its products, and states that Kellogg is a company its customers can rely on for great-tasting, high-quality foods. The companys 2006 sales stood at almost $11 billion, making Kellogg Company the worlds leading producer of cereal and a leading producer of convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, frozen waffles and meat alternatives. Its CSR activities have contributed to this success story, as the company claims that it has a rich history of corporate social responsibility, a history that has grown and evolved to meet the complexities of todays business world and the challenges of a global society (Mackay, 2007). The company states that its founder, W.K. Kellogg, sought to invest my money in people, and that legacy continues to guide the company and its people. It further claims that social responsibility is a way of life at Kellogg, and it involves investing in and enriching our communities, encouraging employee volunteerism, as well as a commitment to being a good corporate citizen. Broad areas of the companys CSR activities include: protecting our environment; selling nutritious products and advocating healthy lifestyles;
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acting with integrity and adhering to the highest ethical standards; promoting diversity in its work force and partnering with diverse suppliers; and ensuring a safe, healthy workplace (Mackay, 2007). Indeed Kellogg Company has a robust CSR program.
The current emphasis on the role of businesses in society has been promoted by increased sensitivity to and awareness of environmental and ethical issues. Issues such as environmental damage, improper treatment of workers, and faulty production that inconveniences or endangers customers are highlighted in the media. In some countries like the UK and other EU member states, government regulation regarding environmental and social issues has increased. In addition, standards and laws are often set at a supranational level for example the European Union has its own set of law about the environment. Some investors and investment fund managers have begun to take account of a corporations CSR policy in making investment decisions this is called ethical investing, or socially responsible investment (SRI). According to Freeman and Liedtka (1991), the idea of corporate social responsibility has its roots in the writings of Andrew Carnegie and others in his time.
Carnegie, who founded U.S. Steel, articulated two principles he believed were necessary for capitalism to work. First, the charity principle required more fortunate members of society to assist its less fortunate members, including the unemployed, the disabled, the sick, and the elderly. These have nots could be assisted either directly or indirectly, through such institutions as churches, settlement houses, and other community groups.
Second, the stewardship principle required businesses and wealthy individuals to see themselves as the stewards, or caretakers, of their property. Carnegies view was that the rich hold their money in trust for the rest of society. Holding it in trust for society as a whole, they can use it for any purpose society deems legitimate. However, it is also a function of business to multiply societys wealth by increasing its own through prudent investments of
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the resources that it is caretaking. It is speculated that the reason why these ideas found popularity over the years is because corporations, especially multinationals operating in several countries worldwide wish to preempt government intervention and regulation. By actively participating in local community development and spearheading projects that advocate societal change, these corporations can focus on one aspect or responsibility and veer away from others.
Freeman and Liedtka (1991) have also pointed to the now-famous argument by Milton Friedman (1962) that corporations should pursue their economic self interest, and that any attempt to promote corporate social responsibility, however it might be defined, amount to moral wrong. Friedman questioned the logic of CSR as it had developed, insisting that in a democratic society government was the only legitimate vehicle for addressing social concerns. Friedmans thinking on this issue is very conservative, restricting corporations to the sole economic purpose of guiding supply and demand. It is the governments purpose to act as guardian and create legislation to regulate its citizens as well as its corporations to impose order and balance within society. By engaging in CSR, corporations have found a burrow through which they can escape from the hound dog sniffing of the governments regulating bodies.
The response of management thinkers was to develop more sophisticated models corporate social responsibility, variously called corporate social
of
responsiveness, the social policy process, social issues in management, business and public policy, corporate social performance, and so forth. While there are real and relevant differences among these models, they share an important common ground. They seem to accept the terms of the debate on Friedman's ground: that business can (or cannot) or should
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(or should not) address social issues in addition to economic ones (Freeman and Liedtka, 1991).
Murray (2003) has observed that the public discourse on CSR has evolved into a quite stylized debate which tends to focus on one particular facet of multinational economic behavior. This has to do with the treatment of workers in manufacturing factories in the developing world producing goods for multinational enterprises with particular attention the manufacture of textiles, clothing and footwear. This has brought with it renewed interest in sweatshops, the concept of extreme exploitation of vulnerable workers in terms of living wages and dangerous working conditions. The resultant effect of the focus on this aspect of CSR, especially by the media, is that more is known about this sector than just about any other, and theoretical work tends to deal with the subject of corporate self-regulation through the lens of the production and consumption of these arguably idiosyncratic goods. For Murray it is important to identify the potential distorting power of this emerging discourse and to broaden the attention to labor markets conditions in general. In Corporate Social Responsibility as Business Strategy, Rowe (2005) basically supports Murrays view in his treatment of CSR. He thinks that corporations do not have a genuine intention of being socially responsible and their CSR programs are basically designed to prevent government from implementing compulsory regulation of businesses with regards to their contribution to society. By implication, there are no truly good corporate citizens, just clever executives or managers trying to avoid government regulations. In Rowes contribution to Globalization, Governmentality and Global Politics: Regulation for the Rest of Us? he analyzes the corporate response to the global justice movement, from intent to impact, over a 40-year span. For him, CSR isnt about business ethics it is about a business strategy to forestall popular power that might result in effective regulation. He
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thinks that if corporations were serious about social responsibility, they would support having these responsibilities formalized in law. The importance of Rowes work to this paper is that it outlines an aspect of CSR history over a 40-year period. He calls the global justice movement the second wave of public outcry over corporate malfeasance. The first wave took place in the 1960s and 1970s following revelations about corporate corruption, tax evasion, and involvement in clandestine political activities, including the U.S.-backed coup that ousted Chilean president Salvador Allende. These ills fueled populist attempts to rein in corporate power and increase accountability, and in 1976 the UN began negotiating a binding international code of conduct for corporations.
The pro-business Reagan administration created a stumbling block as they accelerated deregulation. Corporate profits soared as global markets opened up in the 1990s under free-trade agreements negotiated by the Clinton administration, meanwhile negotiations on the UN code stalled permanently in 1981, after it had been made voluntary instead of binding. Since then the quest for profits has encouraged corporations to spread across the globe in search of cheap labor and lax environmental standards. Social, environmental, and human rights protections have largely neglected in the absence of strong government regulation (Rowe, 2005).
Prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, international rganizations such as Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions had initiated a program to develop voluntary codes of conduct with industry that will focus on improving wages, working conditions, and environmental degradation. The terrorist attacks shifted attention and resources away from concerns about corporate behavior, but the spotlight is focusing once more on corporations. The consensus now is that voluntary CSR isnt working, and these organizations are ready to bring government back into the marketplace to protect workers and the environment
corporate SOCIAL responsibility (Rowe, 2005).
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It was Karl Marx who observed that those who ignore their history are bound to repeat it. To make further progress towards more socially responsible and sustainable business practices, we will need a mixture of new ideas about the future and wisdom drawn from the lessons of the past.
CSR & WROLD
A United Nations Proposal Defining Human Rights: The social responsibility of
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Corporate Social Responsibility For
corporations has been a growing issue
over the past 50 years. The United Nations has emerged as a central forum in this debate and has focused attention on the scope of businesses responsibilities concerning human rights. Leading this effort, a Special Representative to the Secretary-General recently completed a report with broad implications for global business and particularly for companies that operate on a global basis, in emerging markets, in underdeveloped countries, or in countries that lack a democratic system. The Special Representatives Report, which will be considered in a June session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, proposes that corporations bear the responsibility to respect human rights, that the State has a duty to protect against human rights abuses by companies, and that both the State and businesses must provide more effective access to remedies for human rights violations. Despite the assurance that corporations duty to respect human rights essentially means not to infringe on the rights of others put simply, to do no harm, the framework recommended to the United Nations could impose on businesses an array of expansive obligations that require close attention by corporate management and boards. To discharge their responsibility to respect human rights, corporations would be required to conduct
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a broad due diligence process to become aware of, prevent and address adverse human rights impacts, purportedly in the same way as corporations already must assess and manage financial and related risks.
The effect of this proposal would be to impose on corporations the obligation to compensate for the political, civil, economic, social, or other deficiencies of the countries in which they conduct business. Further, corporate boards of directors may even be expected to monitor and ensure the vindication of broad-textured principles enshrined in various international human rights instruments. The following sets forth the core principles which the U.N. Human Rights Council may endorse to guide corporate responsibilities for human rights and additionally considers their implications for directors. Corporations and their boards should carefully weigh the consequences of this development in the corporate social responsibility debate.
I. PROTECT, RESPECT AND REMEDY: Under the Special Representatives proposal to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights would require a process of due diligence that ensures compliance with national laws but also manages the risks of human rights harms in order to avoid them. To meet their due diligence obligation, companies would be expected to: (a) establish a human rights policy, (b) integrate the policy as a key factor in decision-making throughout company management systems, (c) conduct human rights impact assessments in order to understand how existing and proposed activities may affect human rights, and (d) track and respond to their performance. Importantly, the responsibility to respect human rights also would require the establishment of effective means for those who believe they have been harmed to bring this to the attention of the company and seek remediation, without prejudice to legal channels available.
The responsibilities involved in a human rights impact assessment warrant particular scrutiny. The Report only briefly addresses the shape of an impact assessment but specifies that it should take place before significant project activity begins and, [b]ased on the information uncovered, companies should refine their plans to address and avoid potential negative human rights impacts on an ongoing basis. According to a more detailed methodological report which the Special Representative submitted to the U.N. Human Rights components:
Council in 2007, a human rights impact assessment would include the following

i. ii. A description of the proposed business activity;
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A catalogue of the legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks to which the activity is
subject, as well as the international human rights frameworks that apply to the area in which the business will operate; iii. A description of the human rights conditions in the area surrounding the business activity
before significant activity begins; iv. A statement of what is likely to change because of the business activity, which may include
identifying multiple scenarios or predicting outcomes based on varying levels of intervention. Relevant factors include country-specific human rights challenges as well as the potential human rights impact of the companys activities and of the relationships associated with those activities; v. vi. A prioritization of the human rights challenges for the company; A management plan that includes both recommendations to address identified human rights
Challenges and provisions for the monitoring of baseline indicators. As standard practice, human rights impact assessments would always be published in full, but reasonable political, legal, or security risks must also be considered and may force a partial or summary publication. Companies would be expected to implement and respond tomonitoring and auditing processes that provide regular updates on the business activitys human rights impact. Finally, the Special Representatives Report proposes that a businesss evaluation of its human rights impact and performance should be measured, at a minimum, according to the substantive benchmarks of international human rights instruments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The expansive procedural imperatives and the substantive standard proposed by the Special Representative would impose on corporations sweeping duties to compensate for deficiencies which a State has been unable, or unwilling, to address in the political, civil, economic, social, or other systems of the areas in which business activities will take place. In particular, officers and directors should consider three specific consequences. First, the proposal of international rights conventions as the substantive standard for the due diligence process would impose on corporations the States responsibility but not its power and legitimacy to vindicate the broad-textured guarantees of international human rights instruments according to local circumstances.
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Second, the measure a corporate activitys human rights impact would be tied inextricably to deficiencies in the political, civil, economic, or social conditions left unaddressed by the State. In fact, one U.N. Discussion Paper proposed that the human rights impact assessment must evaluate the state of realization of a broad spectrum of rights rather than only those obviously impacted by the proposed business activity. Third, the burden imposed on companies to predict outcomes and prioritize human rights challenges, in ways allegedly comparable to financial and other risk management strategies, would expose businesses to enormous liability. Indeed, this is readily apparent from an earlier report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in which the Special Representative acknowledged that stating a projects likely impact is a difficult and subjective exercise. The report noted that in predicting outcomes, a human rights impact assessment actually might have to look beyond a projects likely effects to consider as well community perceptions of what is likely to change; even though a new petrochemicals plant might produce no local pollution, community fears about air or water quality will necessitate action by the company. Whatever the good-faith efforts applied by corporations, these far-reaching process requirements for respecting rights would furnish any number of liability claims, whether based on erroneous predictions of possible human rights outcomes, a boards decision not to follow every recommendation in an impact assessments management plan, or a companys prioritization of human rights challenges and corresponding project designs.
II. THE STATE DUTY TO PROTECT: Directors also should take particular note of the Reports focus on the State duty to protect against human rights abuses by businesses. The Special Representative urges States to improve their protection against corporate human rights abuses by fostering corporate cultures in which respect for rights is an essential part of doing business. The Report suggests that one way to exert market pressures on companies to cultivate such a corporate culture would be to expand fiduciary duties to include the obligation to consider the human rights impact of corporate activities. Lest this dramatic expansion of board monitoring duties appear to be an unlikely development, consider two recent expressions of this reform trend. Following a process safety accident that occurred in 2005 in BPs Texas City refinery, an independent panel led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III was established to review the companys corporate safety culture, management systems and oversight, and to make recommendations to improve BPs process safety performance. In a report describing the evolving understanding of the role of boards of directors in health and safety matters, the independent panel noted the United Kingdom Health and Safety Commissions recommendation that the board of directors needs to accept formally and publicly its collective role in
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providing health and safety leadership in its organisation. The panel urged that, in pursuit of best practices, directors role in governing the process safety issues in their business should be supported by formal individual terms of reference, covering as a minimum setting process safety policy and strategy development, setting standards, performance monitoring and internal control. Such an expansion of the monitoring and oversight obligations of boards would mark a significant change in the distribution of responsibilities in corporations. Moreover, to demonstrate how States can increase the pressure on companies to respect human rights, the Special Representatives Report specifically references the binding legal obligations which British law began imposing on directors by redefining fiduciary duties. Under Section 172 of the United Kingdoms Companies Act 2006, for directors to act in good faith to promote the success of their company they must have regard to the impact of the companys operations on the community and the environment. In fact, during its consideration by Parliament, an earlier version of the legislation had attributed this new responsibility to directors only so far as reasonably practicable, but the Government removed this reasonableness clause before final passage of the law. To the extent the U.K. Companies Act forms one of the bases on which the U.N. Human Rights Council may endorse the States duty to protect against human rights abuses, such a new legal standard would mark a dramatic expansion beyond traditional constituency statutes. Further, even if the U.N. Human Rights Council does not specifically address the redefining of fiduciary duties or best practices, the Special Representatives Report reflects a trend in reform proposals to which corporations and boards may wish to respond. Instead of fostering a corporate culture in which boards of directors develop the best balance between their monitoring of human rights compliance by the corporation and advising management as to strategy, the Reports proposed pressures would force directors to navigate a maze of procedural imperatives and evolving best practices. An expansion of fiduciary duties would make the work of boards of directors more difficult without yielding a correlative improvement in the targeted corporate focus on human rights. In particular, a challenge which boards must confront is the procedural focus that animates the Special Representatives definition of respect for human rights. The proposal places a premium on broad process duties from the due diligence obligation of human rights impact assessments, to the board monitoring of corporate compliance but these should not form the anchor of corporations social responsibility to respect human rights. To be sure, procedural attention to potential human rights harms before they occur, and throughout the lifecycle of a business project, can provide valuable safeguards for human rights, but the Special Representatives Report goes much further. Consequently, directors must cautiously evaluate the repercussions of the Special Representatives proposal, for corporate boards and for global business more generally.
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MY OBSERVATION:
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The Report of the Special Representative marks an important development in the global debate over corporate social responsibility. It advances the discussion of how we may better harness globalizations benefits while redressing and eliminating the gaps that permit the abuse of human rights. It also advances the cause of social responsibility activists who propose proxy resolutions and take other actions to pressure companies. Experience shows that these proposals resonate most strongly with public pension funds and in the academic community with pressure on endowments to disinvest securities of companies that are not responsive to the activists proposals.
The Report bears significant, potentially harmful implications for global business and for meaningful accountability in various social actors duties to fulfill the promises of international human rights instruments. The proposal to the U.N. Human Rights Council thus requires close scrutiny by the business community. The Report will invite immense pressure on corporations and their directors, and boards should work closely with management to address this development through a special committee or a public affairs committee. CSR assessing the Uns Global Compact role: Indias CSR tradition and current trendsTo understand the current state of Indian CSR, including the role of the UNGC, Indias long tradition must be taken into account. Its CSR approach is closely linked to its political and economic history, in which four phases can be distinguished:
During the first phase (1850-1914) CSR activities were mainly undertaken outside companies and included donations to temples and various social welfare causes. The second phase (1914-1960) was largely influenced by Mahatma Ghandis theory of trusteeship, the aim of which was to consolidate and amplify social development. The reform programmes included activities geared particularly to abolishing untouchability, empowering women and developing rural areas. The third phase (1960-1980) was dominated by the paradigm of the mixed economy.
In this context, CSR largely took the form of the legal regulation of business activities and/or the promotion of public-sector undertakings (PSUs). The fourth phase (1980 until the present) is characterized partly by traditional philanthropic engagement and partly by steps taken to integrate CSR into a sustainable business
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strategy. Contrary to various expectations that India would follow the global agenda, its current approach still largely maintains its own features, elements of the global CSR mainstream being only marginally integrated.
Specifically, the philanthropic approach is still widespread: while the Indian understanding of CSR shows a slight shift from traditional philanthropy to sustainable business, philanthropic CSR patterns are still apparent in many Indian companies. In addition, the imbalance between the internal and external CSR dimensions is still huge.
The Indian CSR agenda continues to be dominated by community development activities, particularly in the areas of health and education. While most Indian companies view their community development projects as important contributions to the existing development challenges in their region of operation, many stakeholders are more critical of this approach. Where community development is concerned, Indian stakeholders criticism focuses on the following aspects: a companys community development approach based on the argument that it needs to give something back to society lacks transparency and specific standards; community development approaches often amount to little more than window-dressing and must be compared to violations of social and environmental standards within companies; public authorities in local communities very often lack the required know-how and experience to negotiate business-driven commitment to community development; very few companies disclose their motivation and business interests when engaging in community development.
In India the CSR multi-stakeholder approach is still rather fragmented, and interaction between business and civil society organizations, especially trade unions, is still rare and takes place, at best, on an ad-hoc basis. Although many civil society organizations are active in India, the empirical findings did not show that these initiatives play a significant role in shaping the CSR agenda in India. Despite these general
observations, there are numerous networks that could form a basis for an effective and powerful CSR multistakeholder approach in the future. The Global Compact in India: The Global Compact (UNGC) is a voluntary, value-based initiative, complementing regulation and other, voluntary initiatives. Its main objective is to mainstream the ten CSR principles in business activities throughout the world and to catalyse actions in support of UN goals.
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The UNGC seeks to achieve these objectives through a multistakeholder network, which supports the development of CSR with collective learning, policy dialogue and partnership projects. Its basis is formed by ten principles relating to human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption which companies are expected to adopt within their sphere of influence. In India, the UNGC is characterized by a high participation rate, although not all intended stakeholder groups, especially labour organizations, are represented. According to the empirical findings, companies and stakeholders operating in India join the UNGC mainly to benefit from knowledge-sharing and networking. However, the CSR approach of the UNGC has not yet realized its full potential in India. Many companies therefore expressed the hope of receiving more support and benefits by joining the UNGC.
-The UNGC network structureThe goal of an inclusive multi-stakeholder approach has not been achieved because stakeholders are not equally integrated into the Indian network and the activities undertaken are limited. A striking feature is the absence of participation by Indian labour organizations and the limited participation of civil society organizations, some of which are directly linked to specific companies, and stakeholder involvement is still not appreciated by all participants, since most companies adopt a self-regulatory approach. Besides having these shortcomings, the UNGC network structure in India is very weak. It is business-centred, its activities are limited, and support is lacking. Two networks exist, operating in parallel: the Global Compact Society (India) and the India Partnership Forum. The Global Compact Society (GCS) is the main national network, having evolved after the launch of the UNGC in India. As the survey showed, the GCS is a rather business-centred network. Yet few UNGC companies are aware of the network. Of the Indian GC companies interviewed, 25 per cent had not heard of the GCS, and among the subsidiaries of foreign companies the figure was as high as 70 per cent. Awareness of the GCS is equally low among stakeholders. The India Partnership Forum (IPF) is not directly linked to the UNGC, but has its own social code for businesses to operationalize the UNGC principles. However, awareness of this network is even lower than that of the GCS.
International organization of employees report, 2010 on CSR

International Standardisation Organisation ISO 26000:
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Late September 2010 saw the adoption responsibility guidance standard 26000. BIAC, though not entitled to vote,
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of the draft text of ISOs social
CHAPTER 5
In a united front, the IOE, ICC and conveyed to ISO the formal position
of the business community with regard to the text which, despite sustained opposition throughout the lengthy, multi-stage, drafting process, remained far too long, overly detailed and needlessly complex. The IOE together with the ICC, BIAC and national member federations was highly successful in making sure that ISO 26000 is not for certification and is not a management standard. However, a major bone of contention for business is that the guidance standard is targeted at large organizations and particularly multinational enterprises. From the IOEs point of view, this potentially sends the wrong message that social responsibility is applicable only to the largest and most advanced organizations; another concern is the push for certification. The joint statement to ISO also expressed disappointment at their rejection of the business request to make the published version of the guidance standard freely available, given its intended benefit to society as a whole, rather than to the commercial interests of business. ISO HR Management System Proposal: Towards the end of 2010, ISO proposed that its national committees vote on the development of a human resources management system. The IOE expressed its opposition to such an initiative, impinging as it does on the labour- related standard setting mandate of the ILO. Human resources management lies outside the traditional scope of ISOs competence and, as a result of IOE alerting its members, additional expressions of opposition were expressed at national level. This will be an area for the IOE to monitor in 2011. OECD MNE Guidelines: Throughout 2010, the IOE continued to work with BIAC on inputting the environment and labour related chapters of the OECDs Investment Committee review of its MNE guidelines covering human rights, employment and labour, due diligence, supply chains and procedural provisions. The IOE supports a new chapter on human rights if it is consistent with the work of Professor Ruggie as outlined later. Employers underlined the need for the ILO to maintain ownership of areas within its mandate, noting that the ILO Declaration and the OECD guidelines are two distinct documents.
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HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT AND CSR :THE INDIAN MODEL:
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Background The role of business in society has been debated in economic literature for a long time. By the term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), what is generally understood is that business has an obligation to society that extends beyond its narrow obligation to its owners or shareholders. This idea has been discussed throughout the twentieth century, but it was Howard R. Bowens book on Social Responsibilities of Businessman published in 1953, which was the origin of the modern debate on the subject. Bowen reasoned that there would be general social and economic benefits that would accrue to society, if business recognized broader social goals in its decisions.
Corporate Social Responsibility is nothing but what an organization does to positively influence the society in which it exists. It could take the form of community relationship, volunteer assistance programmes, healthcare initiatives, special education / training programmes and scholarships, preservation of cultural heritage and beautification of cities. The philosophy is, basically to give back to the society, what it (business) has taken from it, in the course of its quest for creation of wealth.
There is no single, commonly accepted definition of Corporate Social Responsibility. But following the US UK tradition, it can be defined as follows: Corporate Social Responsibility is operating a business in a manner which meets or excels the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that a society has from business.
The debate, on whether responsibility of a business enterprise is only to its shareholders (owners) or to all stakeholders, including environment and the society at large, is an ongoing one and continues. In received literature Stakeholder, as an expression is fairly recent in origin, reportedly appearing first in an internal memorandum of the Stanford Research Institute in the year 1963. According to a definition given by Edward Freeman A stakeholder is any group or individual who can effect, or is effected by the activities and achievements of an organisation. Friedrich Neubauer and Ada Demb in The Legitimate Corporation identify six groups of distinguishable stakeholders (not necessarily in this order) as follows

a) Providers of funds b) Employees c) General public d) Government e) Customers and f) Suppliers.
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On the one hand experts have argued that shareholders put their risk capital in a Joint Stock Company (or business) and therefore, companies should be managed in the interest of the owners or the shareholders. This primacy of treatment given to the shareholders is being justified on the grounds of ownership and shareholding. It is felt that maximisation of profits or the bottom line should be the ultimate objective of the management. On the other hand, a number of experts will not agree with this position. For example, in Japan employees are treated as family. It is felt that an employee who devotes his or her life to the company has a bigger stake in it as compared to a shareholder. Germany is another nation where stakeholder recognition is high. Prominent among the experts who has taken a broader view is Minks who has argued that any company with a short term in view, only maximising profits for the shareholders, will destroy value in the medium to long run.
It is felt that the moot point here is the time frame. And that in the long run, the sustainability of the enterprise will be of paramount importance. In the long run, interests of both the stakeholders and the shareholders are not only likely to converge, but also have to be balanced. In the tradition of Hobbes, Locke & Jean Jacque Russeau (writing in year 1762), society and corporations must co-exist and contribute to the well being of each other. There is a contract, which is at once explicit and implicit, that governs the operation of business within a given community. Benjamin Franklin has also expressed a similar sentiment when he says that Doing good is not a private act between a bountiful giver and a grateful receiver, it is a prudent social act. The objective of the present study is to understand, document and review the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives of relatively large companies in India, with a view to understand their current thinking on the subject and draw lessons for future.
CSR is the continuing commitment of business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their family as well as of the local community and society at large. Business owes its responsibilities towards society; first as a result of the
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impact of its own operations and secondly, as the unit of the society in which it operates. The former is related to what the organization does to the society by way of its specific operations, whereas the latter deals with what the society demands from it. (Pandey, 1991).
Chakravarty (2004) has interpreted the fundamental characteristics of CSR. Accordingly, CSR needs to be: (i) more inwards than outwards, (ii) more related to the character and culture of the corporate rather than its size or profitability (iii) more related to making and distributing profits and sustainability (iv) more business process oriented than philanthropic (v) focused on day to day activities by every employee of the organization rather than limited to the topical presence of key individuals in the company along with the various social partners of the corporate. CSR appears in many forms some are directly related to employees and their families whereas some others point towards outside workplace without any connection to its employees. It takes various forms such as: Corporate Philanthropy Corporate Support Sponsorships Corporate Partnerships Responding in Emergency. CSR also refers to business decision making linked to ethical values, compliance with legal requirements and respect for people, communities and the environment. It is a comprehensive set of policies, practices and programmes that are integrated throughout business operations and decision-making processes that are supported and rewarded by the top management.
TATA
Tata
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Group is
an
Indian multinational conglomerate company
headquartered
in Mumbai,
Maharashtra, India. It is one of the largest conglomerates in India by market capitalization and revenue. It
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has interests in communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. Tata Group has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents and its companies export products and services to 80 nations. It comprises 114 companies and subsidiaries in eight business sectors, 27 of which are publicly listed. 65.8% of the ownership of Tata Group is held in charitable trusts.Companies which form a major part of the group include Tata Steel (including Tata Steel Europe), Tata Motors(including Jaguar and Land Tea (including Tetley), Tata Rover), Tata Chemicals, Titan Consultancy Industries, Tata Services, Tata Power, Tata
Technologies, Tata
Communications, Tata Sons, Tata Teleservices and the Taj Hotels. The group takes the name of its founder, Jamsedji Tata, a member of whose family has almost invariably been the chairman of the group. The current chairman of the Tata group is Ratan Tata, who took over from J. R. D. Tata in 1991. The company is currently in its fifth generation of family stewardship. The group has more than 100 companies and Tata Sons is the promoter of all key Tata companies and holds the bulk of shareholding in these companies. The chairman of Tata Sons has traditionally been the chairman of the Tata group. About 66% of the equity capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the Tata family. The 2009, annual survey by the Reputation Institute ranked Tata Group as the 11th most reputable company in the world. The survey included 600 global companies. The Tata Group has helped establish and finance numerous quality research, educational and cultural institutes in India. The group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 in recognition of its long history of philanthropic activities. Tata gets more than 2/3 of its revenue from outside India. In June 2011, based on market value Tata Group has become India's wealthiest group with $98.7 billion. Tata Group and CSR The Tata Group is one of India's largest employers in the private sector. Founded by Jamsetji Tata in the 1860s, the Tata Group's early years were inspired by the spirit of nationalism. The name Tata is synonymous with not only Indias industrialization but also social responsiveness. It is India's one of the most respected private business Group. The Tata Family: The Pioneers A brief account of people who with their visionary leadership spearheaded the Tata group is discussed: J.N.Tata In 1898, Jamsetji offered to set aside 14 of his buildings and four landed properties in Bombay for an endowment to establish a university of science. The Taj chain was set up because Jamsetji wanted luxury
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hotels that did not discriminate among its guests. The first building in Bombay to be lit by electricity, the Taj opened in 1903. During World War I (1914 to 1918), the hotel was converted into a 600-bed hospital. Sir Dorabji Tata Sir Dorabji saw through the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, a premier institution for scientific research in India. He was knighted in 1910. As president of the Indian Olympic Council, he financed the Indian contingent to the Paris Olympiad in 1924. JRD Tata In 1945 he gave the founding grant to Homi Bhabha to set up the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. In 1970, he started the Family Planning Foundation jointly with the Ford Foundation. JRD Tata was bestowed with the United Nations Population Award in 1992. He was awarded the countrys highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1992. The Tata Values The main aim of the Tata Group is to improve the quality of life of the communities it serves. The Groups founder believed: our heritage of returning to society what we earn evokes trust among consumers, employees, shareholders and the community. This heritage will be continuously enriched by formalizing the high standards of behaviour expected from employees and companies. The five core values of Tata Group are: Integrity Understanding Excellence Unity Responsibility
Social Initiatives of the Tata Group The visionary leaders of the Group thought of national development in various spheres starting from steel to education. The historical perspective of Tata Groups social initiatives is as follows: Envisaging a Long-Term Impact on National Welfare Bequeathing Most of Ones Personal Wealth to Philanthropic Trusts Ensuring Sustainability of Such Initiatives
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Individual Organizations to Contribute to Realizing the Groups Purpose: To improve the quality of life of the communities it serves.
The Tata Trusts About 66 per cent of the equity capital of Tata Sons, the promoter company of the Tata Group, is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by the members of the Tata family. There are two principal trusts operating under the Tata umbrella: (i) Sir Dorabji Tata and allied Trusts and (ii) Sir Ratan Tata Trust. Between themselves, the Tata Trusts have given India its first institute for social sciences, its first cancer hospital and research centre, and its first institute for fundamental research, which gave India a head start in its atomic energy programme. The Allied Trusts comprises of (i) Tata Social Welfare Trust, (ii) R D Tata Trust, (iii) Tata Education Trust, (iv) JRD Tata Trust, (v) JRD Tata and Thelma Tata Trust, (vi) Jamsetji Tata Trust, (vii) JN Tata Endowment, (viii) Lady Meherbai Tata Memorial Trust and (ix) Lady Meherbai Tata Education Trust.
Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) TCCI was established as a result of the need felt within the Tata Group to co-ordinate all Tata Companies in meeting their social responsibilities. It was recognized that these objectives could be better realized by the sharing of experiences, collective learning and enhanced participation. The TCCI mission is as follows: We will evolve a common direction for community development programmes from diverse activities of all Tata business units through sharing and participatory networking. We will strive together constantly to strengthen our professional and organizational abilities to fulfill our commitments towards society at large. TCCI has been created on the following objectives: (i) To promote concept of corporate citizenship in all Tata Companies. (ii) To reinforce voluntary efforts in community development and (iii) To increase awareness of programmes that enable communities to become self-reliant. The council is the apex body in the Tata group to provide direction and management support for corporate social responsibility and environmental management of Tata companies. It is structured to be a network of representatives from the Group Executive Office, senior Tata Directors and Executives along with working level facilitators.
Tata Index for Sustainable Human Development The Tata group has evolved a CSR index, which is known as the Tata Index for Sustainable Human Development. The index has been prepared by TCCI to benchmark the contributions of Tata companies toward social development and protection of the environment.
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The TCCI worked closely with United Nation Development Programme to develop this index, which establishes a correlation between the Tata Business Excellence Model and the UN's human Development index. Group companies are required to undertake a points-based self-evaluation based on several criteria such as leadership commitment, strategy development, review mechanism, employee involvement, volunteer schemes, and managing change. They have to rate their performance on these parameters on a scale of 01000, called the 'scale of human excellence', which has five sub-bands, namely, human consideration (scale: 0-250), human concern (251-450), human achievement (451-650), human development (651-875) and human excellence (876-1000). CSR in Select Industrial Organizations of the Tata Group A close analysis of the strategies of the Tata Group indicates that employee development and social development are being integrated into the long-term goals of the organizations. A diagrammatic representation of the Groups social work philosophy and strategic roles are given in figure 1.
Figure1: Social Work Philosophy of Tata: An Overview: CSR practices in select Tata organizations are described below:
EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT CORE VALUES OF TATAS SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Welfare Measures
TATA strives to serve the community in which it operates
Urban and Rural Community Development Integrated Rural Development
Progressive HR Practices Trusts and Institutions Transparent and Proactive IR Practices
Nations interest in Business
Empowerment of disadvantaged sections of the society
Employee Volunteerism
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TOWARDS NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Employee welfare: The Tata Firsts The Tata group has been a pioneer in implementing welfare programmes in their organizations, voluntarily. Even before the government assumed the role of welfare state and entered into legislative protection, many provisions of different legislations were already in practice in Tata group of industries. Many welfare firsts of Tata Steel Limited, (formerly TISCO) is given in Table 1 that was subsequently enacted as laws by the Government:
Table 1: From Tata Group to the Nation: Some Welfare Firsts: S. No. PARTICULARS INTRODUCED AT TISCO IN (YEAR) ENFORCED BY LAW IN (YEAR) LEGAL ENACTMENT by the Indian Government 1 2 8 hour working day Free medical aid 1912 1915 1948 1948 Factories Act Employees Insurance Act 3 Establishment of welfare department 4 Schooling facilities for children 5 Formation of Workers Committee for handling complaints concerning service conditions 1919 1947 Industrial Disputes Act 1917 None None 1917 1948 Factories Act State
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6 7 Leave with pay Workers Provident Fund Scheme 8 Workmens Accident Compensation Scheme 9 Technical Institute Apprentices, Craftsmen and Engineering Graduates 10 Maternity Benefit 1928 1946 /1961 Bihar 1921 1961 1921 1961 1920 1920 1948 1952 Factories Act Employees
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Provident Fund Act Workmens Compensation Act Apprentices Act
Maternity
Benefit Act & in 1961 by Govt. of India 11 Profit Sharing Bonus 1934 1965 Payment of Bonus Act 12 Retiring Gratuity 1937 1972 Payment Gratuity Act 13 Ex-gratia payments for road accidents while coming to or returning from duty 1979 of
14
Social audit
1980
First in India
15
Pension scheme
1989
Thus, the Tata Group has the unique distinction of introducing welfare measures that were at that point of time non statutory, but later on became guiding lines for government action.
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Employment Opportunities to the Disabled
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Titan Industries of Tata Group employs several disabled persons in the blue-collar workforce in Hosur. Appropriate selection procedure for each type of disability was adopted. Considering aspirations that might not be satisfied at a later stage of the individuals career, disability-related limitations in career opportunities were conveyed to the individuals well as their families. The disabled were housed with others, in an attempt to integrate them with the rest of the workforce. The supervisors were trained in the use of sign language.
Srishti Complex The complex earlier housed a mushroom factory of the company. When it was closed due to various reasons, utility of the infrastructure available was discussed. The idea of using it for a developmental cause was suggested and accepted. A survey was conducted into the needs of the workers. A team consisting of labour welfare officers, doctors, field officers under the auspices of the Industrial Relations Department carried out the exercise. It emerged from the survey that a large number of employees children were either physically or mentally challenged (the reason could be attributed to congenital marriages). The fact that both the spouses are employed in the company meant that these children were left at home with no one to attend to them. A large majority of them had never attended schools or undergone any sort of training. Keeping these factors in mind, Srishti was carved out. The following projects are functional at the Complex: Developmental Activities in Rehabilitative Education (DARE Project) Children with physical or mental impairment having learning disabilities are imparted special education and related services. Awareness programmes and counseling for parents are conducted at regular intervals. All the children are given free uniform, tea, healthy lunch and snacks. Strawberry Unit Aranya and Athulya Aranya unit provides vocational rehabilitation for youth with physical disability. Company vehicles are provided to transport them from their place of residence to the complex and back. The profit made from these centers is given to the employees who are designated as trainees. It is important to mention that Srishti is not an NGO, but a welfare wing of the company, and that its profits are ploughed back to the centers.
Community Welfare The underlying philosophy behind community welfare initiatives was to improve the quality of life of communities in which they operate. The Tata group has adopted various approaches towards community welfare and community development. Some of them are Community Based Business Opportunity
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Under this programme, Tata organization has entered into business partnerships with nongovernmental organizations. TELCO Grahini Udyog TELCO Grahini at Pune started in 1973 as an organization for the women, by the women, the aims of which were to provide work for women. The TELCO Grahini movement was started so that housewives were provided with an opportunity to work in the spare time available to them. Tata Relief Committee In November 1974 the Jamshedpur based Tata Relief Committee (East) was incorporated. The objective of TRC is to render help to those affected by natural calamities by offering them food, medical aid, rehabilitation etc. Life-line Express TataSteel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) has been involved with the Life Line Express also called Jeevan Rekha. This is a fully staffed hospital on wheels equipped with modern operation theatre to provide diagnostic, medical and surgical treatment for prevention and curative interventions for the handicapped. Tata Policies on Social Issues In addition to human resources policies such as recruitment, selection, promotion etc, Tata organizations have framed written policies on social issues of significance such as follows: Policy on HIV Positive Status and AIDS Control Alcohol and Drugs Policy Policy on Equality Opportunity Employment Policy on Employee Volunteering Scheme Policy on Social / Welfare Audit
Special Initiatives One of the Organizations studies has collaborated with ILO in the project SAVPOT (South Asia and Vietnam Tripartism and Social Dialogue) from the year 1998 in order to enhance the partnership process with the Union office bearers who were sent to China and Hong Kong to study the prevailing labour practices and market conditions. Union leaders also attended an ILO delegation at Sri Lanka. In another Organization, once in every three months the Managing Director presents the performance of the
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organization to the trade union at their union office. Facilitating open communication and transparency, this initiative came from the MD himself.
The Tatas have pioneered development of employees, community and the nation. They have to a large extent been consistent in their efforts. On an understanding of their established practices, a Tata Model on Holistic Development is presented in Figure 2. It is suggested that the industrial organizations implement whatever is feasible to enable effective contribution towards development.
It is indeed a tough task to design a single model of CSR for whole India because Indian psyche is culture specific and moreover the work culture is very much influenced by regional differences, specific geographical conditions values, attitude towards work and practices. Thus depending upon the specific requirements of each area some modifications have to be incorporated in the model to suit the particular requirements of the area.
Conclusion This paper has attempted to describe CSR practices in Tata Group. It also reiterates need for replication of the Tata Model on Holistic Development through CSR. As Ratan N.Tata, chairman, Tata Sons Ltd, said, "We are not doing this for propaganda or visibility. We are doing it for the satisfaction of knowing that we have really achieved and given something to the community in which we are working. We are doing it because we really wish to do it by choice."
- Aditya Birla Group The Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. It operates in 33 countries with more than 133,000 employees worldwide. The group has diversified business interests and is dominant player in all the sectors in which it operates such as viscose staple fibre, metals, cement, viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom, BPO and IT services. The Aditya Birla group is a US$ 35 billion conglomerate which gets 60 % of its revenues from outside India. The Aditya Birla Group has been adjudged the best employer in India and among the top 20 in Asia by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007.The origins of the group lie in the conglomerate once held by one of India's foremost industrialists Mr. Ghanshyam Das Birla.
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The Aditya Birla Group, reaching out to underserved communities is part of our DNA. We believe in the rusteeship concept. This entails transcending business interests and grappling with the quality of life challenges that underserved communities face, and working towards making a meaningful difference to them. Our vision is to actively contribute to the social and economic development of the communities in which we operate. In so doing build a better, sustainable way of life for the weaker sections of society and raise the countrys human development index. (Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development).
Implementation process: Identification of projects All projects are identified in a participatory manner, in consultation with the community, literally sitting with them and gauging their basic needs. We recourse to the participatory rural appraisal mapping process. Subsequently, based on a consensus and in discussion with the village panchayats, and other influentials, projects are prioritised. Arising from this the focus areas that have emerged are Education, Health care, Sustainable livelihood, Infrastructure development, and espousing social causes. All of our community projects are carried out under the aegis of The Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development. In Education, our endeavour is to spark the desire for learning and knowledge at every stage through Formal schools Balwadis for elementary education Quality primary education Aditya Bal Vidya Mandirs Girl child education Adult education programmes.
In Health care our goal is to render quality health care facilities to people living in the villages and elsewhere through our Hospitals Primary health care centres Mother and Child care projects Immunisation programmes with a thrust on polio eradication Health care for visually impaired, and physically challenged Preventive health through awareness programmes.
In Sustainable Livelihood our programmes aim at providing livelihood in a locally appropriate and environmentally sustainable manner through Formation of Self Help Groups for women empowerment Vocational training through Aditya Birla Rural Technology Parks Agriculture development and better farmer focus Watershed development Partnership with Industrial Training Institutes.
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In Infrastructure Development we endeavour to set up essential services that form the foundation of sustainable development through Basic infrastructure facilities Housing facilities Safe drinking water Sanitation & hygiene Renewable sources of energy. To bring about Social Change, we advocate and support Dowryless marriage Widow remarriage Awareness programmes on anti social issues De-addiction campaigns and programmes Espousing basic moral values.
Activities, setting measurable targets with timeframes and performance management. Prior to the commencement of projects, we carry out a baseline study of the villages. The study encompasses various parameters such as health indicators, literacy levels, sustainable livelihood processes, population data below the poverty line and above the poverty line, state of infrastructure, among others. From the data generated, a 1-year plan and a 5-year rolling plan are developed for the holistic and integrated development of the marginalised. These plans are presented at the Annual Planning and Budgeting meet. All projects are assessed under the agreed strategy, and are monitored every quarter, measured against targets and budgets. Wherever necessary, midcourse corrections are affected.
Organisational mechanism and responsibilities The Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development provides the vision under the leadership of its Chairperson, Mrs. Rajashree Birla. This vision underlines all CSR activities. Every Manufacturing Unit has a CSR Cell. Every Company has a CSR Head, who reports to the Group Executive President (Communications & CSR) at the Centre. At the Company, the Business Director takes on the role of the mentor, while the onus for the successful and time bound implementation of the projects is on the various Unit Presidents and CSR teams. To measure the impact of the work done, a social satisfaction survey / audit is carried out by an external agency.
Partnerships Collaborative partnerships are formed with the Government, the District Authorities, the village panchayats, NGOs and other like-minded stakeholders. This helps widen the Companys reach and leverage upon the collective expertise, wisdom and experience that these partnerships bring to the table. In collaboration with FICCI, we have set up Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence to make CSR an integral part of corporate culture. The Company engages with well established and recognised programmes and national platforms such as the CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM to name a few, given their commitment to inclusive growth.
Management Commitment
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Our Board of Directors, our Management and all of our employees subscribe to the philosophy of compassionate care. We believe and act on an ethos of generosity and compassion, characterised by a willingness to build a society that works for everyone. This is the cornerstone of our CSR policy. Our Corporate Social Responsibility policy conforms to the Corporate Social Responsibility Voluntary Guidelines spelt out by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India in collaboration with FICCI (2009).
- NOKIA Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation headquartered devices,
in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Helsinki. It manufactures mobile electronic
mostly mobile telephones and other devices related to communications, and in converging Internet and communications industries, with 130,000 employees in 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries and global annual revenue of over 38 billion and operating loss of 1 billion as of 2011. It was the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones in 2011, with global device market share of 23% in the second quarter.[3] Nokia produces mobile devices for every Nokia major market offers segment and protocol, services such
including GSM, CDMA,
and W-CDMA (UMTS).
Internet
as applications, games, music, maps, media and messaging through its Ovi platform. Nokia's joint venture with Siemens, Nokia Siemens Networks produces telecommunications network equipment, solutions and services. Nokia also provides free-of-charge digital map information and navigation services through its wholly owned subsidiary Navteq. Nokia is a public limited-liability company listed on the Helsinki, Frankfurt, and New York stock exchanges, and plays a very large role in the economy of Finland, accounting for about a third of the market capitalization of the Helsinki Stock Exchange (OMX Helsinki) in 2007. The Nokia brand, valued at $25 billion, is listed as the 14th most valuable global brand in the Interbrand/BusinessWeek Best Global Brands list of 2011.It is the 14th ranked brand corporation in Europe (as of 2011),the 8th most admirable Network and Other Communications Equipment company worldwide in Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies list of 2011,[ and the world's 143rd largest company as measured by revenue in Fortune Global 500 list of 2011.
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On 11 February 2011 Nokia announced a partnership with Microsoft; all Nokia smartphones introduced since then were to run under Microsoft's Windows Phone (WP) operating system. On 26 October 2011 Nokia unveiled its first Windows Phone handsets, the WP7.5 Lumia 710 and 800. Environmental management: In order to operate responsibly, environmental issues are fully integrated into the way we work. This means we have a standardized approach to managing our environmental impact in our operations around the world, and in the operations of all of our suppliers. Since the introduction of Nokias Environment Policy in 1994, weve based our approach to environmental management on global principles and standards. Our targets go way beyond legal requirements. Environmental issues are a key factor in decision making across our business, and we believe they are everyones responsibility at Nokia.
Environmental management systems:
Our environmental management system is an integral part of our common global management structure. Nokia has used the international ISO14001 standard as the foundation for our environmental management system for over 15 years. The ISO 14001 identifies the elements needed for a continuously improving the environmental management system, building the backbone of the system together with the Nokia Environmental Policy. The Nokia ISO 14001 certificate covers all ten of our factories globally. In 2000, the first Nokia production sites were certified against this international standard. When all our factories had achieved their individual certificates, we combined them under a single company-wide certificate. If Nokia devices are assembled at our contract manufacturers site, they also are obliged to have a certified environmental management system according ISO 14001 at that specific site. Nokia also requires a certified EM S from all of our suppliers. Our environmental management system consists of: Nokias Environmental Policy Clearly identified environmental issues and evaluations of their significance Objectives and programs for achieving environmental targets Compliance mechanisms for meeting legal and other regulatory requirements Audits, assessments, management reviews and other mechanisms for continuous improvement Operational management (data and processes) for key indicators such as energy and water use The Environmental Management System is integrated with the quality management system, and we use the overall management processes to address both issues in our production. We have set global guidance and reporting to follow up these agreed activities.
Audt ing of the environmental management systems:

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To ensure we continuously improve and maintain our environmental management system we run ISO 14001 audits through external auditing organizations, such as the Det Norske Veritas. Research & Development (R&D) is audited against ISO 9001, and factories are audited against the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO14001:2004. About 50% of our factories are audited each year. The following factories were audited during 2010: Masan, Cluj, Vertu, Komarom and Manaus. The global demand-supply network management process is audited every year. Setting targets in our factories We are working to reduce our environmental impact by setting global and local targets in our factories. We verify improvements to our processes through internal assessments and external verifications. Any deviations are followed up, corrected and monitored until they are resolved. Our main environmental focus areas in factories are: Increasing the energy efficiency of our production processes and factory premises Reducing CO 2 emissions Increasing waste utilization Improving the material management Monitoring the use of water Monitoring air emissions (such as Volatile Organic Compounds). Our factory targets are to: Reduce energy consumption per manufactured unit by 5% annually between 2008 and 2012, compared to a 2008 base year Reduce waste sent to landfill from our factories by half annually between 2008 and 2012, compared to a 2008 base year Supplier requirements In regards to environmental impact,
Nokia requires all our suppliers to have environmental management systems in place. In 2010 91.7 % of our direct hardware suppliers sites serving Nokia were certified to ISO 14001.
Environmental impact: Nokia aims to be a leading company in environmental performance. We continue to find new ways of reducing our own emissions and managing waste across our factories, facilities and offices. By setting ourselves new targets to reach and developing new partnerships both inside and outside our industry, we can minimize our negative impact and drive positive change.
Climate strategy and energy efficiency: The way we address the global challenge of climate change through energy efficiency in our products and operations is an integral part of our overall environmental strategy. We created a separate climate strategy (which is part of our environmental strategy) in 2006 and it has been updated twice since then, including
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in 2010. It includes a range of targets and our performance for certain targets is externally verified. Although Nokia is not part of an energy intensive industry, our operations do have an impact through energy consumption and resulting emissions. As we aim to connect the next billion, we need to decouple the growth of our business from the many ways we consume energy in our operations. We work to achieve this through energy-saving initiatives across our business, and by purchasing green electricity where we can.
Green logistics: Reducing the negative impact of our logistics is important part of our environmental strategy, although logistics are conducted by a third party. Our approach takes all processes into account, from transportation of components to care logistics for repair, reuse and recycling. The new smaller sales package can reduce transportation-related CO 2 emission levels by 20 - 40% compared to previous types of packaging.
Supply chain: With a complex supply chain that stretches around the world, involving thousands of people, understanding and managing our environmental impact is an ongoing challenge. Supply chain environmental issues are covered in the Suppliers section (4.3.)
Reducing waste: Our goal is to reduce all waste to a minimum, especially waste destined to end up in landfills and to find uses for the waste material instead. Non-hazardous packaging waste from our factories is the biggest percentage of our total waste, and we monitor with detailed reporting the amounts of both hazardous and non-hazardous waste from our factories and offices.
Water usage: Although our own water consumption is small, we continue to monitor our usage throughout our operations. Most of our water use occurs for sanitary and catering purposes, and to a smaller extent in gardening and facilities management, such as cooling towers. Our production processes do not consume water.
Protecting biodiversity: Our natural ecosystem is crucial for all life on Earth, and scarcity of natural resources poses risk for business. At the same time, safeguarding biodiversity gives an opportunity to create new value and
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contributes to sustainable development. Nokia believes that halting biodiversity loss requires a multistakeholder effort, and wants to take an active role in protecting the variety of life.
Health, safety and well-being:

3 PROG RESS IN DETAIL : PEOPLE In 2010, our internal Wellbeing Survey was launched on a global scale. It includes elements such as health and habits, job satisfaction, organizational resources, personal resources, life balance and recovery and stress management. The survey can be used to get an understanding of the wellbeing level of teams and individuals and it provides information on the areas where actions to promote wellbeing are needed the most. During 2010, the injury and illness rate among all our employees at our nine major production facilities was 0.32%. This represents continuation of a four-year downward trend (from 0.82% in 2006).
There is no global industry average to compare against, but as an example of the range, our injury and illness rate in 2009 was lower than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics injury and illness rate, which was 1.8% for computer and electronic product manufacturing in 2008. The health, safety and wellbeing of our employees are vital to our business. Our Occupational Health and Safety (OH S) Policy sets out our commitment to provide safe and healthy working conditions for all our employees and promote wellbeing at work. We work with our contractors, suppliers and customers to continuously monitor health and safety issues and meet our commitments. As a global company, we have selected the Occupational Safety &Health Administration (OSHA ) guidelines for accident and illness reporting. OSHA has issued specific guidelines and reporting instructions (documented in part 1904: Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illness) that we use for all global reporting. If we need to report locally, we refer to the appropriate local standards. Local reporting is not within the scope for Form 20-F, corporate responsibility reporting or assurance procedures. Health and safety is managed by the global OH S unit, part of our human resources department. The unit is responsible for developing our health and safety strategy and the annual action plans. The global OH S team coordinates and facilitates health and safety arrangements in individual countries, each of which have their own health and safety services. The team also develops standard operating procedures for hazard identification, risk assessment and incident reporting across our global operations.
Responding to a fatal accident: On the October 31, 2010, a female operator working at the Nokia Chennai factory had a fatal accident during a work shift. She was rescued and alive on the scene but passed away at the hospital later
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that night due to severe injuries. As a mark of respect, we closed our facility in Chennai on November 1 for a day and members of our senior management met with her family. Internal investigations managed and conducted by a third party started immediately, accompanied by official police and factory inspectorate investigations. The internal investigation led to both immediate and long-term actions. We have already implemented more rigorous monitoring of operations procedures and clearer warning signs on the machines. In the longer term, the entire OH S management system will be enhanced to target better communication and behaviours. Raising awareness on health and safety: We run a range of campaigns and training programs to raise awareness about health and safety issues. During 2009, a comprehensive program was developed and deployed at all our sites in response to the H1N1, the so-called swine flu virus. This included education about the virus, advice on methods to control the spread and additional hygiene supplies in cafeterias and bathrooms. Where possible, the vaccine was offered to employees and contingency plans were developed in case large numbers of employees became sick. We continued to follow the situation in 2010.
OUR PROGRESS IN 2010In 2010, our internal Wellbeing Survey was launched on a global scale. It includes elements such as health and habits, job satisfaction, organizational resources, personal resources, life balance and recovery and stress management. The survey can be used to get an understanding of the well being level of teams and individuals and it provides information on the areas where actions to promote well being are needed the most. During 2010, the injury and illness rate among all our employees at our nine major production facilities was 0.32%. This represents continuation of a four-year down ward trend (from 0.82% in 2006). There is no global industry average to compare against, but as an example of the range, our injury and illness rate in 2009 was lower than the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics injury and illness rate, which was 1.8% for computer and electronic product manufacturing in 2008.
Labour conditions
Meet ing global standards and our own guidelines It is extremely important to Nokia that labour conditions at all our production sites meet recognized international standards. Each of our sites must comply with our global employment guidelines. We assess our performance as well as our suppliers performance regularly. Our global employment guidelines determine how we handle employment issues at each site. They cover: Compensation Working time and location Employee wellbeing Equal opportunities

Confidentiality and privacy issues Guidance on external assignments Conflicts of interest Efficient communications Freedom of association, including collective bargaining rights
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- RURAL ELECTRIFICATION CORPORATION LTD. (A Government of India Enterprise)

Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) is a leading public Infrastructure Finance Company in Indias power sector. The company finances and promotes rural electrification projects across India, operating through a network of 13 Project Offices and 5 Zonal Offices, headquartered in New Delhi. The company provides loans to Central/ State Sector Power Utilities, State Electricity Boards, Rural Electric Cooperatives, NGOs and Private Power Developers. REC is a Navratna Company[1] functioning under the purview of the Ministry of Power Government of India. The company is listed on both National Stock Exchange of India and Bombay Stock Exchange. The company is currently among the top 500 Global Financial Services brands by UK-based plc Brand Finance (Brand Finance @ Global Banking 500 for 2010). The company is also among the Forbes Global 2000 companies for 2010. The company is primarily engaged in providing finance for rural electrification projects across India and provides loans to Central/ State Sector Power Utilities, State Electricity Boards, Rural Electric Cooperatives, NGOs and Private Power Developers. The company sanctions loan as a sole lender or co-lender or in consortium with or without the status of lead financer. It also provides consultancy, project monitoring and financial/ technical appraisal support for projects, also in the role of nodal agency for Government of India schemes or projects. POLICY STATEMENT: For achievement of its mission: To facilitate availability of electricity for accelerated growth and for enrichment of quality of life of rural and urban population and to act as a competitive, client friendly and development oriented organization
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for financing and promoting projects covering Power Generation, Power conservation, Power Transmission and Power Distribution network in the country RECs Corporate Social Responsibility Policy is To remain a responsible corporate entity mindful of its social responsibilities to all stakeholders including consumers, share holders, employees, local community and society at large. RECS APPROACH TOWARDS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
The approach of REC towards Corporate Social Responsibility would be oriented to identify and formulate projects in response to felt societal needs in diverse areas and to implement them with full involvement and commitment in a time bound manner. In cases where other agencies/organizations are involved, approach would be to focus on collaboration and partnership. It will act as an agency to ensure delivery of services satisfying strongly felt social and community needs rather than merely financing and funding of programmes.It will also provide financial assistance in the form of grant-inaid assistance, interest free loans, corpus fund support and soft loan support etc.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES As a responsible corporate entity, Rural Electrification Corporation will consistently strive for opportunities to meet the expectation of its stake holders by pursuing the concept of sustainable development with focus on the following:1. To facilitate demonstration of commercially viable rural electricity delivery models with appropriate intervention and support on a selective basis such that they can be replicated elsewhere. 2. Promotion of rural enterprise and livelihood including skill development and training. 3. Providing development support to common facility centres / production centres in rural areas. 4. Promotion and development of rural technologies for micro enterprise promotion. 5. Making sustained efforts for environmental preservation. 6. Promotion of sports and games. 7. Promotion of the development and well being of employees and their families. 8. Undertaking relevant community development programmes. 9. Supporting initiatives of vocational, technical and higher education to the most disadvantaged and marginalized section of the society.
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10. To be a part of national/local initiatives to provide relief / rehabilitation in times of natural disaster/ calamities.
ACTIVITIES UNDER CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITYREC would endeavor to adopt an integrated approach to address the community, societal & environmental concerns by taking up a range of the following activities:MANDATORY CSR ACTIVITIES i) To offer employment opportunity to members of, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, in conformity with various guidelines from Government of India as may be applicable from time to time. ii) To offer employment opportunity to persons who are physically challenged persons (suffering from various disabilities such as visual, orthopedic disability etc.) in compliance to various mandatory guidelines issued by Government of India as applicable from time to time. iii) To offer necessary social security benefits to the employees of the Corporation in the form of benefits under Contributory Provident Fund Scheme, payment of gratuity etc. as may be applicable from time to time under various statutory provisions or otherwise under companies policy. iv) To offer necessary facilities to the employees and their dependent family members in the area of health and medical facilities including prevention of various diseases, disabilities etc. as may be outlined in various policies of the company or statutory provisions under various laws. v) To provide necessary measures of social security to women employees of the Corporation in terms of allowing maternity benefits as applicable under various statutory provisions or as may be decided by the Company from time to time.
OPTIONAL CSR ACTIVITIES:

RURAL INDUSTRY PROMOTION i) Promotion of rural enterprise and livelihood including skill development and training. ii) Providing development support to common facility centres / production centres in rural areas. iii) Promotion and development of rural technologies for micro enterprise promotion.
EDUCATION i) Providing grant in aid assistance to schools in rural/remote areas for development of necessary infrastructure like building, electricity, furniture, computers etc.
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ii) Scholarships or financial support to children of employees with extra ordinary talent in the field of academics, sports, performing arts like dance, singing etc. iii) Supply of study material like bags, books, stationery etc. to children belonging to the under privileged class of the society. HEALTH i) Organizing health check up camps, with particular focus on women, children, disabled and old age persons. ii) Organizing periodical immunization programmes and health checkup camp in schools. iii) Organizing health awareness programmes /campaigns and publicity of health related issues through printed materials/ films etc. OTHERS i) Identification of young talent in the various fields of sports and games and promoting them to achieve their potential. ii) Promotion of art and culture by organizing/sponsoring programmes in the field of fine arts, music and dance etc. iii) Promotion of sports and organizing annual sports meet in rural/semi urban areas etc., iv) Sponsoring deserving and outstanding employees children for training and development at reputed institutions or providing scholarship in the areas of interest, demonstrated potential for special coaching etc. v) Promote community plantation and forestry programmes. vi) Contribution to rehabilitation programme undertaken in the after math of natural calamities like earthquake, cyclone, flood, famine/ draught in any part of the country. vii) Taking measures to promote ecological balance, prevention of environmental degradation, pollution etc. through promotion of suitably conceived projects including awareness campaign etc. viii) Supplementing development programmes of the Government etc. ix) To offer employment opportunity to other deprived sections of society such as migrants from J&K State, Ex-serviceman etc. in compliance to various directives from Government of India as applicable from time to time. x) Adoption and maintenance of places of Public / cultural heritage sites on selective basis. In addition to the above, the Corporation after approval may adopt any of the activities not defined above, for the interest of the Corporation at large.
PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES UNDER CSR:
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The Corporation will abstain from carrying out following activities under CSR which may create dissatisfaction among any section of the Society:i) Activities concerned with religion like construction of temple/mosque etc. ii) Activities disturbing social harmony in any manner.
INSTITUTIONAL SET UP The Corporate Social Responsibility function will be carried out by the REC FOUNDATION which will operate as a Trust under the Indian Trust Act / Society under Societies Registration Act , 1860 and will be governed by the Board of Trustees/ Governing body under Societies Registration Act , 1860 as under:-. CMD Chairman of Board of Trustee Director (Fin.) Trustee Functional Director Trustee Independent Director Trustee E.D (HR) Trustee Professional with eminence in the fields of CSR operations stated above on an honorary basis. Secretary to the Trust Trust/Society will be registered under the Indian Trust Act by a separate Deed of Trust / Memorandum of Association under Societies Registration Act, 1860. Three trustees shall form the quorum for transaction of the business at the meeting of the Board. The REC Foundation will be responsible for overseeing the planning, coordination and implementation of CSR activities including compilation of information and preparation of annual reports etc. The foundation will also be responsible for organizing periodic meetings (not less than once every six months) and facilitating the processing of allocation of funds for various activities.
IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISM While identifying the CSR initiative, REC would consider the following broad parameters while identifying/selection of schemes/projects: Thrust of the schemes/projects should be in the areas of business related to REC. The assistance under CSR Activities should be project based rather than in the form of donation, so as to create social impact and visibility. While implementing the identified projects, time frames and milestones may be predefined. The CSR projects may be based on fundamentals of sustainable development.
PLANNING AND COORDINATION The specific programme will be identified and formulated based on need assessment surveys for identifying the specific areas of concern. Based on the survey, a detailed programme report will be prepared detailing
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the need for the specific programmes, time frame for implementation and budget. If felt necessary assistance and guidance of specialized agencies/NGOs operating in these areas will be taken to help identify and implement projects. The REC Foundation will prepare an annual plan for each year within the budgetary provisions and will be placed before the Board of Trustees for approval. The target beneficiaries, the local authorities, professionals and institutions etc. Involved in similar activities if need be, may be consulted/ associated in the process of planning and implementation of the CSR programmes. REC Foundation will hire professionals on need basis wherever considered necessary to plan and implement various projects. 8.5 The focus of delivering services /benefits will be predominantly rural & semi urban areas covering underprivileged sections of the society as far as possible.
MONITORING AND EVALUATIONREC may institutionalize the process of assessing the CSR initiative in terms of the initiatives to integrate the business and social responsibilities of the Corporation. Further, the impact of the CSR activities may be quantified to the extent possible. The CSR activities undertaken by the REC Foundation will be reviewed on half yearly basis and progress review report will be submitted by the REC Foundation to the to the REC Board of Directors.
POST IMPLEMENTATION IMPACT ASSESSMENT If considered necessary, the effectiveness of the various programmes/ activity undertaken under the CSR may be got evaluated through external agencies for providing the required feed back and inputs to formulate and improve the programmes in future.
ALLOCATION OF FUNDS A total allocation of amount upto a maximum of 0.25 % of the profit after tax will be earmarked every year for implementation of CSR programmes. The said amount shall be transferred to the account of REC Foundation. The Foundation will be responsible for its utilization for the projects identified its account audit and other compliances as may be necessary etc. The un-utilized amount if any, will not lapse, if not spent that year and will be carried over to the next year which may accumulate. The allocation of funds may vary depending on the need and requirement and provision for the national calamity in the respective year and will be decided on year to year basis.
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The amount transferred to REC Foundation shall be deemed to have been committed to by REC to CSR activities. For the purpose of MOU compliance, it shall be deemed to have been spent on CSR activities.
REPORTING An annual report of the activities undertaken under the CSR initiatives will be prepared mentioning the activities identified, benefits accrued as a result thereof and the number of people benefited there from. Six monthly report on activities/projects identified /implemented shall be submitted to REC Board of Directors.
-Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives Of Nse Nifty Companies-
he National Stock Exchange (NSE) is a stock exchange located at Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is the 16th largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization and largest in India by daily turnover and number of trades, for both equities and derivative trading. NSE has a market capitalization of around US$985 billion and over 1,640 listings as of December 2011. Though a number of other exchanges exist, NSE and the Bombay Stock Exchange are the two most significant stock exchanges in India, and between them are responsible for the vast majority of share transactions. The NSE's key index is the S&P CNX Nifty, known as the NSE NIFTY (National Stock Exchange Fifty), an index of fifty major stocks weighted by market capitalisation. NSE is mutually-owned by a set of leading financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries in India but its ownership and management operate as separate entities. There are at least 2 foreign investors NYSE Euronext and Goldman Sachs who have taken a stake in the NSE. As of 2006, the NSE VSAT terminals, 2799 in total, cover more than 1500 cities across India. NSE is the third largest Stock Exchange in the world in terms of the number of trades in equities. It is the second fastest growing stock exchange in the world with a recorded growth of 16.6%. Origin: The National Stock Exchange of India was promoted by leading Financial institutions at the behest of the Government of India, and was incorporated in November 1992 as a tax-paying company. In April 1993, it was recognized as a stock exchange under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. NSE commenced operations in the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment in June 1994. The Capital
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market (Equities) segment of the NSE commenced operations in November 1994, while operations in the Derivatives segment commenced in June 2000. Most of the Nse Nifty companies that have co-operated in our effort for documentation have expressed the desire that the company's name should not be directly mentioned while documenting the case. In difference to the wishes / request from the companies we have not mentioned the names of companies. The documentation tries to highlight the strategies adopted while undertaking social responsibility initiatives. As each case has different points to be highlighted and specific areas as learnings for the broader implementation and impact, the structure for each of the case study is also not the same.
1) A Large, Progressive Financial Institution / Company: As an important player in the Indian economy, the Bank believes that its role should extend beyond the commercial sector to include the social sector as well. It, therefore, aims to participate in the all round development of the country by focussing on some of its fundamental needs. The Bank seeks to perform this role primarily as a funding agency, through a dedicated not-for-profit group, the Social Initiatives Group (SIG). The changed economic climate in India, with a greater emphasis on the market, requires an informed and participatory socio-economic order. As a large participant in the financial system, it lies in the longer-term interests of the Bank to actively contribute in bringing the above to fruition. In the current environment, the Social Initiatives Group (SIG) feels that its purpose would be served best by focussing exclusively on improving the capacities of India's poorest people to participate in socioeconomic processes.
The mission statement of the SIG is "to identify and support initiatives designed to improve the capabilities of the poorest of the poor to participate in the larger economy". The group seeks to achieve its mission by supporting initiatives that are Cost effective, Measurable, Capable of large-scale replication and Have the potential for both near and long-term impact.
For the poorest of the poor to be able to participate in the larger economy, the SIG feels they must be equipped with certain fundamental capacities. These capacities are in health, education and money. However, give the broad scope of these areas, in order to have a definitive impact, it was felt that SIG should
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focus on much sharply defined areas for work, within these broad areas. The three focus areas that SIG has chosen are: Health: Infant Health at Birth (Maximizing the proportion of infants born healthy): This focus seems to have the potential for maximum long and short-term impact and appears achievable in the most cost effective and therefore scaleable manner. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is measured as the number of deaths per 1000 live births within the first year of birth andprovides the best available indicator for gauging progress. The target for the SIG is to work to ensure a steady and significant decline in this rate at a national level, while seeking to reach a goal of 30 per thousand by 2010.
Education: Elementary Education (Maximizing the number of 14 year olds who have a basic level of elementary education): Education (and not just literacy) up to the elementary level seems to be almost a necessary condition for any individual (rich or poor) to be able to participate in any manner in the larger economy - whether at the local farm or in an industrial job. Here the goal of SIG is to work towards the universalisation of elementary education all across India by 2010; rural and urban. An appropriate indicator that comprehensively captures learning in a standardized manner nationally is not available. Until it is available, the drop out rate and its reduction will serve as an indicator.
Money: Micro-financial Services (Maximizing access to basic financial services): These services would include basic banking (savings and cash management), financial (debate and equity), insurance (life and health) and derivatives. The goal here is to facilitate universal access to these four services by the year 2010.
Overall Strategy: At a very basic level, the programmes and projects supported by the SIG must cater to the poorest. They must enable them to become active and informed participants in socio-economic processes as opposed to passive observers. These initiatives should, above all, be output oriented, with a focus on producing measurable outcomes that meet a minimum quality requirement. The initiatives need to be cost-effective. This is in recognition of the fact that resources are limited and their efficient use is imperative if the maximum number is to benefit.
The initiatives must be scaleable. Scalability implies the ability to draw upon important elements of a programme and adapt them to suit the needs of specific situation. It should be possible to do so at a national
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level. Even if the programme itself is not directly scaleable, it should be possible to take away significant lessons from it in order to enrich work in other settings. All supported initiatives must have the potential for both near and long-term impact. As a consequence, it is important that the impact of this programmes, in the near and long term, be carefully measured, understood and analyzed in a rigorous manner and not through anecdotes. It is critical to clearly understand how an initiative is performing in terms of its predetermined goals and in comparison to alternatives. There is little doubt that a complex of factors, very often beyond the control of the programme and / or the organization, will influence the outcome. Yet, serious and regular impact measurement and analysis can only make the programme richer and is essential. The SIG assigns greater value to programmes and organizations that carefully examine the short-term and long-term implications of their actions.
In pursuit of its goals in the three focus areas, the SIG tends to support reasonably large sized initiatives so that issues such as cost-effectiveness, scaleability and impact assessment can be dealt with more directly. These initiatives not only have the potential to provide key research inputs to other programmes, but also tend to have a large impact that benefits the communities they work with. The approach of the SIG may thus be characterized more broadly as 'action research', to distinguish it from pure academic research. However, in its research work and impact assessment, the SIG seeks to adhere to the highest standards of academic rigour.
It has often worked in partnership with academic institutions such as Institute of Rural Management, Anand, KEM Hospital Mumbai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, University of California, Berkeley and University of Southampton It is crucial that the programmes supported by SIG be time-bound. This lends clarity to the aim of the programme and prevents its intent from getting diluted over time.
The SIG works by identifying gaps in knowledge and practice in its focus areas and locating initiatives that address these gaps in a manner consistent with the SIG's mission. The identification of research needs is followed by an in-depth analysis of the short -term and long-term implications of various forms of action. Among other things, this requires taking a comprehensive overview of work already done in the country and outside. The SIG thus, seeks to answer certain fundamental questions in its focus areas through the projects it support and thereby, contribute to findings that help the sector. It should be pointed out that the SIG does not function as a rollout agency.
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An important feature of the SIGs strategy is the belief in strengthening or supplementing already existing systems rather than investing in parallel structures. Another key element of its strategy is the building of long-term relationship with suitable partners. As part of this effort, the SIG works to improve the efficiently of these partners and ensure sustained impact.
In pursuit of its goals, the SIG seeks to work actively with research agencies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), corporates, government departments, local stakeholders and international organizations. It should also be noted that the group believes modern technologies, particularly Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can prove to be important facilitators if used appropriately.
In addition to units core areas of focus, the SIG, in a limited manner, supports some other initiatives: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): promoting the concept of CSR among Indian companies so that more partnerships emerge in pursuit of common goals. NGO Capacity Building: This is supported through the GIVE (Giving Impetus to Voluntary Effort) Foundation and a specially created web site for the purpose. The web site seeks to provide a verity of services to NGOs listed on this site including facilitating the receipt of donations online (Give Online), sale of NGO products (Shop Online), volunteering of time and skills (Volunteer Online) and news (News Online). Modernization of the Indian Financial System: This involves encouraging appropriate research and institution building efforts on a national basis. Another web site, is a virtual non-profit research centre that acts as a platform to address and encourage debate, and develop a non-partisan opinion on various issues of concern and interest ion financial economies relating to emerging markets. The Bank has supported the development of various financial institutions such as the national Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange. It has also supported the Institute for Financial Management and Research, Chennai. The important features of the CSR intervention by company are a) A well thought through strategy, taking into account the historical evolution of the company and its strengths in raising resources. b) Well defined focussed areas, with long term impact. c) Centralised operations only at the Corporate office. d) Information and communication technologies being used as facilitators. Indias Largest Bank with Wide Branch Network:
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Community Services Banking is one of the instruments through which the bank plays the role of a responsible and responsive corporate citizen. It represents the Banks commitment to the society, to serve even those who are not appearing on the radar screen called the market or sub market economy. It is obvious that this is liable to change from time to time according to changes taking place in social and economic conditions of the people the bank serves. The concept of Community Service Banking (earlier known as Innovative Banking) was first introduced by the Bank in 1973 with a view to assisting the identified target group belonging to the weaker and downtrodden sections of the society both under its Banking and Non-banking activities.
Community Service Banking: The Bank was among the first to accept, as part of its corporate philosophy, that human and financial resources at their command should be mobilized in discharging the social role. The two dimensions of their social role are A) The Bank as a corporate citizen, with resources at its command and the benefits it derives from operating in the society in general, owes a solemn duty to the less fortunate and under-privileged members of the same society. B) Another dimension is the contribution the staff members are expected to make by understanding the urges and aspirations of the public around them and by trying to work out measures for removing in an apolitical fashion, indisputable social and developmental lacunae.
The bank undertakes both fund-based and non-fund based activities, which have been presented in the following chart: Range of CSB Activities
Fund Based
Non-Fund Based Blood Donation Camps Medical Check-up Camps Drug Banks Family Planning Camps Veterinary Camps Adult Literacy Classes Special Programme for Women & Children
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Tree Plantation Programme Environment protection/Pollution Control Promotion of Sports/Culture
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Awareness about Aids / Cancer / T.B. / Drug Vocation Guidance / EDP
Fund based & Banking Activities
Donations
R&D Fund
SBI Childrens Loaning
Grants
National
Normal
Loans to weaker sections such as women, physically handicapped,
Loans under 20-Point prog.
Loans to Minorities under 15-Point prog.
slum dwellers, ex defense persons, prisoners, victims of natural calamities, etc.
The bank reviews its initiatives on a regular basis and detailed periodical returns to be submitted to Corporate Centre have been specified. These include I) Quarterly returns for donation sanctioned under CGMs discretionary powers Half-yearly utilization certificate of donations sanctioned Half-yearly review of R & D Fund assistance Half yearly review of 15 point programme on welfare to minority communities Yearly reporting & review of advances under 20 point programme Half yearly review of CSB activities Submission of statement of account and other annual certificates in respect of children welfare fund.
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In respect of donations the bank has a decentralised structure and detailed written guidelines are available in the following areas: Ceiling: The bank has fixed a ceiling for the donations, which is up to 1 % of the previous years published profits. This is inclusive of earlier exempted categories.
National Donations: Granted to Government sponsored National Funds such as CMs Relief Funds, PMs National Relief Fund, etc. For Relief / Rehabilitation during natural calamities. 50 % of donation ceiling can be utilized for national donations.
Normal Donations: Granted to voluntary organizations / NGOs / charitable institutions, etc. for acquiring equipments for implementing socially-oriented projects. 50% of total donation ceiling can be utilized for normal donations. Eligibility criteria include a) Well established institutions, with proven track record b) Individuals not eligible c) Registered society or trust d) Donation to be exempt from Income tax
Quantum of Donations: I) Maximum ceiling for individual donation is 2 % of the normal donations ceiling for the Bank in a year. II) In case of multi-branch organisations, 5 % of the normal donation ceiling for the Bank in a year.
Purpose: Normal donations should usually be considered for acquiring equipment by the Institutions for undertaking socially oriented projects for long term impact for sustained growth /welfare, preferably for the benefit of under-privileged / weaker sections of the society, such asI) Women empowerment II) Children development III) Welfare and rehabilitation of poor/handicapped persons

IV) Environment protection V) Health VI) Education VII) E.D.P.
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Authority Structure for Sanction of Donations: (Subject to ceiling of Rs. 1 Lac in a year) Up to Rs. 20,000/Rs.20, 001/- up to Rs.50, 000/Above Rs. 50,000/Childrens Welfare Fund (Trust): Established in 1983, with contributions by the Bank & staff to extend grants to various institutions engaged in the welfare of underprivileged & downtrodden children like orphans, destitute handicapped etc. The beneficiaries should be really needy children. The Projects to be funded for their medical relief, promotion & encouragement of training in handicrafts, cottage industries as well as for children welfare centres. Quantum of grants should not be too big (As in case of donations), As these grants are disbursed out of interest earned on the Corpus Fund of the trust. The proper end-use of the grant must be ensured and grant must be utilised within the same year in which sanction was accorded. : : : Circle Chief General Manager Managing Director & GE (Non Banking) ECCB
Research & Development Fund (Established In 1977): Under this fund research grants are extended to universities and reputed academic & research institutions for undertaking research projects which are of direct relevance to the Bank / Banking Industry or which relate to the emerging scenario in banking industry / economy. Research Grants should be considered only to Universities or highly reputed academicinstitutions - Chairs can be considered only in exceptional cases. - The Research Projects/ Studies should be utilised properly by user department Social Policy group Meeting: Social Policy Groups (SPGs) were constituted by the Bank at all Local Head Offices and Modules to provide continued thrust to the community services banking activities through periodic meeting and discussions. The main objective of the SPGs are to review the CSB activities in the Circles / modules.
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Exchanging / developing innovative ideas, devising ways for their effective implementation and giving the much needed impetus to CSB activities at various levels in the Bank. Accordingly, it has been stipulated that these meetings should not only review the activities already undertaken but also work towards generating a climate conducive to enhancing the scope and coverage by undertaking more innovative activities.
Discretionary Powers: Expenditure on public relations & Community Services Banking: Since this department is placed under the Circle CGM directly, the authority to incur expenditure that is intrinsic to the role and functions of the department like advertisment, publicity, public relations is vested only in the Chief General Manager. The important features of the CSR intervention by company are a) Both fund (banking as also others) and non-fund based activities being undertaken b) Monetary ceilings laid down at the board level c) Large programmes for under-privileged sections of the society as part of government announced schemes d) De-centralized operations with detailed authorisations, reporting and review mechanisms e) Active in too many areas
Large, Multi Location Cement Manufacture: The company was formed in 1936, with a historic merger in 1936 of eleven Indian cement companies belonging to four rival groups. This was long before the term 'mergers and acquisition' was even coined or became commonplace. In a sense, the formation of the company represents a quest for the synergy of good business practice, values and shared objectives. This unique merger laid the foundation for giving the company its rich blend of culture, tradition, and values, spanning different parts of the country. It incorporates in its Mission Statement a para onResponsibility Fulfill our obligations to society, specifically in the areas of integrated rural development and in safeguarding the environmental and natural ecological balance. Most of the companys plants and mines are located in backward and remote tribal villages spread over eleven states of the country. Each plant is closely involved in the development of the rural areas around it as well as in fostering selfreliance to enrich the quality of life of the local community. The range of activities undertaken by the
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Company to improve the living conditions of the people in rural areas, around its factories begin with extending educational and medical facilities for the local populace and goes on to cover income-generation projects such as agriculture and animal husbandry development; employment oriented projects through rural and cottage industries by developing local skills, utilizing local raw material and in helping create marketing outlets for the end-products. The company does not have a separate department or budget to undertake CSR activities. These are implemented by the local managements and employees of individual units which plan and allocate funds needed to maintain their own on-going programmes and to meet special and urgent needs. Expenditure on environmental protection and conservation schemes are, however, part of company's regular planning and budgeting exercise. As such it is difficult to make a clear distinction of expenditure incurred in respect of CSR oriented activities but the company has endeavored to assemble the following chart based on information collated from different units. Some of the CSR policies are integrated with the companys existing manuals and guidelines (such as the company's HR Manual). The company also has formal code for trading in its shares by its Directors and Employees. In addition, instructions and information in regards to dealings with their suppliers and customers and other stakeholders are given through circulars, letters, e-mails messages and communication meetings. Likewise at each of the cement factories, certain officers are made responsible for overseeing the rural and community welfare development activities under the supervision of the unit head. Progress on this front is reported on a regular basis to the corporate office. At corporate office, matters relating to CSR are dealt with at different levels. For example, all matters concerning employee welfare are dealt with by Human Resources Division. Likewise, matters pertaining to laying down of policies relating to our valued suppliers/customers are dealt with by Materials Management/ Marketing Divisions. Matters relating to our esteemed shareholders are dealt with by share department & the Secretarial Division and other matters generally are dealt with by the Corporate Communication Division. The concerned departmental heads regularly report the developments on CSR activities relating to their area of work to the Whole time Directors to whom they report. The Shareholders of the company have by a resolution determined the maximum limit up to which the company can make donations /contributions for charitable purposes not related to the business of the company. Any expenditure in excess of the above limits would require shareholders approval. Within the aforesaid limits the Board has delegated to the Managing Director the power to sanction donations subject to certain fixed limits up to which any individual donation can be sanctioned as also the maximum amount of donations that could be sanctioned in any financial year.
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The aforesaid donations/contribution made for the charitable purposes is over and above the various CSR programmes / activities undertaken by the company. At each plant, the scope of CSR activities and the area of operations are clearly defined. The amount to be incurred on these activities is clearly allocated. These activities and expenditure are reviewed on a quarterly basis.
The criteria for selection of the activities, includes consideration such as: Expenditure involved, Number of people covered or benefited, Time period, Availability of other resources whether other agencies or sponsors are also involved in the same activity Sustainability of the initiative and A critical examination of the relevance of the activity to the company's core stakeholders.
The key consideration is the welfare of the community that surrounds the immediate vicinity of the companys cement plants and are thus more dependent on the company. Priority is also given to measures that have long-standing benefits by way of income generation, self-reliance and employment opportunities. Since most of the companys plants are located in backward and rural areas, the officials of the company act in close coordination with various levels of local administration such as Panchayat, Block Development Officers, Tehsildars and the District Collector. Effectiveness of CSR programmes is taken care of while designing the programme itself. Feedback is also taken from the target groups to evaluate the effectiveness. The implementation ofCSR programme and the feedback received there from provides a learning curve for future projects. For example, in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Gujarat, the company realised that after tackling the immediate problems of rescue, providing first aid, food, clothing andtemporary shelter, the next major task to repair / rebuild the houses in the affected areas. The company foresaw a scarcity of skilled masons and site supervisors, especially in rural and interior areas in the affected districts. No formal training course in the country was available for this trade. The company therefore provided free training for construction practices to unemployed rural youth in the quake affected districts and trained over 1500 persons in this area. The important features of the CSR intervention by company are

a) Environmental protection and tribal welfare as two focused areas of activity b) Well defined focussed areas, mainly geographical close areas, surrounding the plants
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c) Completely de-centralised operations, with employees participation both in decision making and implementation
Some of the large educational, medical and other institutions that have received support from the company in the last few years in a substantial way are as follows: - SNDT Womens University - Gujarat Vidyapith - Institute of Gandhian Studies - Indian School of Business - Indian Burns Research Society - K. E. M. Hospital & Research Center - Poona Medical Research Foundation - Indian National Theatre The important features of the CSR intervention by company are a) A strong Gandhian influence in thought and practice b) Most operations through Trusts specifically formed for charitable purposes by the Company c) Focus areas are many including education, medical care, income generation.
The company has a separate department at each of the plant locations that are responsible for Community Development activities. These Departments draw up annual activity plans and submit their budgets. The Company has been at the forefront of social activities for over two decades. The scope of activities was decided in Pune according to the geographical placement of the project area, whereas the social activities at Jamshedpur and Lucknow are need-based. Social Sanction in respect to decisions on undertaking proactive actions are done through assessing community needs by deployment of tools like PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) and survey. Also Media Reports, Scope of Government Schemes & Collaboration with partners like and expectations of the top management of the company are taken in to consideration As mentioned above, project-based reviews both, mid-term and upon completion, are undertaken using scientific tools and methodologies. All important social issues are reviewed before planning yearly targets and action plan is decided for the issues finalized for intervention. Even though there is no standard mechanism for review, the
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issues are reviewed at every step once implementation is initiated. The action plan is decided during mutual interaction and responsibilities of organization and community. People involved are motivated to utilize their available resources so that a sense of ownership is developed amongst the community and then the program becomes sustainable because of their participation.
Further, CSR activities and initiatives form a part of divisional / plant Balanced Score Card (BSC). The review is conducted before planning yearly targets and the action plan is decided for the issues finalised for intervention. As mentioned above, project-based reviews both, mid-term and upon completion, are carried out on compilation and mid-term. The Community Initiative Index (CII) is used to assessing the impact of community development initiatives. The important features of the CSR intervention by company are a) A well thought through strategy, taking into account the groups focus on ethics in various areas of business activity. b) Decentralised operations with need based interventions at each of the plants /offices. c) Scientific review and impact assessment of CSR projects. Concluding Observations & Learnings: Discussion about the role and responsibilities of a corporate entity in a society is not new. The idea, that business has an obligation to society that extends beyond its obligations to its owner or shareholders, has been discussed in the economic and management literature for a long time. The term being used more recently for the debate is "Corporate Social Responsibility" or "Corporate Citizenship" One commonly accepted definition of CSR is "Corporate Social Responsibility is operating business in a manner which meets or excels the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has from business". The four major factors, which are catapulting the CSR issue in the forefront and encouraging anddemanding the corporates to expand their efforts in these areas are as follows: a) Large size of the modern days corporations. b) Rolling back of the State -both on account of liberalisation and shrinking of resources with the Governments c) A growing number of companies recognising the business benefits of CSR interventions. d) Increasing pressures from customers, suppliers, employees, communities, investors and other activist organisations representing stakeholders.
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Among the four theoretical views on CSR ( Milton Friedman, Andrew Carnegie, Keith Davis & Tom Cannon) the researcher tends to concur with Cannon's views. i.e. Business creates wealth, produces goods and services, creates employment and generates income. Society provides a means of exchange, legal and banking systems, trained manpower and social infrastructure like roads, schools, hospitals etc. In addition to the above, with the advent of the joint stock company as a form of organisation society has granted to business two very special rights, the first is potential immortality i.e. the concept of going concern and the second is limited liability. Thus, business does have social responsibility to fulfil.
A large and increasing number of companies are reporting to the their social environmental and ethical performance, both as a communication to their stakeholders and as a management tool. Many companies are choosing to have these reports externally verified - both to meet the demand for quality information from shareholders and to strengthen the credibility of their reports. This movement though small is growing and in particular is being led in large part by European companies. Though standardisation in reporting is yet to be achieved, a number of multilateral organisations voluntary agencies and international standard organistions have launched reporting initiatives, important among these being - Sustainability Guidelines launched by Global Reporting Initiative in1999 - Social Accountability 8000, modelled on ISO 9000 pattern launched in 1997 - International Standards on Auditing (ISA) - Coalition of Environmentally Responsible Economics (CERES)
Large auditing firms like KPMG & Price Water House Coopers continue to audit "Tripple Bottom lines: The financial bottom lines, environmental bottom lines and social /ethical bottom lines.
In the Indian context, very little systematic documentation of CSR initiatives is available so far. One such study was done by Business Community Foundation for TERI. Some of the findings of the study are as follows a) Serious and committed approach to CSR is increasing its reach, but there is vast ground yet to be covered. b) Collaboration work between companies & NGOs is increasing. c) Corporates are realising that "Good for business is good business". d) Most interventions so far philantrophic in nature, rather than strategic.
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The main findings of present study, based on a questionnaire sent to all NSE Nifty Companies and five case studies from among the respondents, are as follows:1. Approximately 57 % of the responding companies, have a formally adopted "ethics code" while only one-third of the companies have an "Ethics Officer" or "Ethics Counselor ". 2. Large proportion of the responding companies are active in the areas of Education / Training (80 %), Healthcare (66 %), Environment (60 %), Welfare of underprivileged sections (57 %) and Rural development (23%). 3. Two surprising results as far areas of activity is concerned are Non of the responding companies have said they are doing anything in the areas of religious and/or spiritual developments. - Less than 50 % of the companies have done anything during natural / other calamities. 4. One third of the responding companies have shared the information regarding the actual monetary expenditures incurred. For these companies actual / authorised expenditure has varied between 1 % to 12 % of Net Profits/ Profits after Tax (PAT). Another 40 % of the responding companies have not shared the expenditure information and have mentioned that there is no authorisation or limits as such and expenditure tends to be ad hoc in nature. 5. In the context of decision making process, more than one-third of the companies have institutionalised the process through specially constituted committees or Board of Trustees (in case if the activity is undertaken through trusts created for the purpose). An additional 40 % of the sample companies, have mentioned that the CMD or the Chief Operating Officers have been authorised to take the decisions in this respect. 6. Four distinct implementation strategies have been identified and companies seem to have adopted more than one strategy. Most frequently adopted strategy has been making monetary Contributions, the second most popular one collaborating with other government semi government and voluntary organisations. Very few companies have an in house department for CSR activities, even fewer seem to involve their employees in the effort. 7. Almost three fourths of the companies have mentioned that they review their CSR interventions, but very few of these seem to be taking it seriously. The way replies have been sent gives the impression that they are only paying a lip service. More than half have said that they do assess the impact on the target groups and the information so gathered is used for future decision making.
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In addition to the above findings, we discuss in the following paragraphs, my observations and learnings from the study. Many of these have emerged- both out of the questionnaire responses, but also from the personal interaction we had with the representatives from the corporate and their stakeholders while working on the case studies. These offer some learning for other sample companies and other small and medium enterprises, who are yet to strategise their social responsibility activities and interventions: Corporate have adopted different models for their CSR interventions, in terms of type of activities, in terms of implementation strategies, in terms of decision making processes and in terms of involvement of voluntary agencies as also employees. Our case studies have brought out and discussions have revealed that different companies may well adopt very different types and methods of involvement while still getting real benefits. There is no one universal model, which will be appropriate for all types and sizes of companies. The appropriateness of the intervention may also vary with type of industry in which the company operates. There cannot be any universally applicable standards, codes or models. These will very depending on a) size of the companies, b) nature of operations, c) its core competence, d) role being played by state / local governments and many such factors. The benefits that social responsibility initiatives bring, do not happen just as a matter of course. Business and corporate have found that they need to plan, manage and measure what they do. The very best results are usually achieved when the involvement has natural links with the companies core business. Some professionals planning and managing CSR activities have opined that somehow the company must focus on those areas which ultimately (if not in the short-term, in medium to long term) increase business opportunities. It is felt otherwise, during difficult times, when the companies are facing recessionary market conditions, CSR is the first to be axed. At all levels, there is felt need for companies to graduate to strategic interventions in the CSR, which at present in many cases remain ad hoc and one of. There are many companies that may spend for urban development one year, and promote culture and music the next and probably look at environmental up-gradation the third year. A sense of strategic direction is a vital component in an effective approach to corporate responsibility. It allows the firm to deploy its resources effectively, while ensuring that expertise is developed within the firm to improve effectiveness. Strategy will perform a number of related functions. a) Define the scope of activity b) Match activities to the external environment both natural and built. c) Match the activities to the organisations resource capabilities.
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It is also felt that rather than dissipating energy and resources in all and sundry areas, it is important to focus one or two broad areas like education or healthcare. Within these areas too, it would be important to focus on just one or two specific targets / target group so as tocreate a measurable impact. Some pro-active corporate have expressed the opinion that it will be worthwhile if some co-ordinate efforts are made by those companies which are working in same areas i.e. Education". Pooling of resources and skills can generate a much larger impact, it was felt. For companies with a large branch / plant network a centralised strategy may not be appropriate. For these organisations and especially those spread into for flung and remote areas, which are often economically backward and with large tribal population, it will be necessary to take a holistic new about a particular geographical area and look at large number of activities including primary healthcare, education, environment pollution abatement and income generation. This is exactly the opposite of what we have said earlier To achieve an impact, there is a need to focus one/ two activities. Here, the focus in on a geographical area or a district. This again substantiates our earlier point, there cannot be universal models, codes etc. For each company, there will be an appropriate strategy to match its internal resources and strengths with the external environment. Again for companies with multi location plants/ branches, it will be necessary to authorise and empower the managers at the local level, because they are best able to appreciate and assess the needs at their local levels. Appropriate authorisations, reporting and review mechanisms have to be put in place, as two of our companies covered under the case studies have done. This will be necessary not to loose the focus and effectiveness. There are two different views as for as Ethics Counselors are concerned. Those companies that have consoler feel it is important to have such expertise and authority vested in one person or department. Others have expressed the view that Ethics, Value or the social responsible behavior is something, which must permeate all the departments and is important that these are understood, appreciated and practiced across board. Some of the companies have created outside ombudsman to look after these functions. There is no consensus about the effectiveness of involving employees in the CSR activities. Some companies have found it very effective in spreading the message and inculcating certain values within their
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organisations. Some others feel that if employees are to be involved, it should be completely on a voluntary basis. Making it compulsory would completely defeat the purpose, it has been argued.
Evolving Future Agenda: That corporate have social obligations, seems to be a foregone conclusion. The need to have multiple goals is also increasingly being recognised. Instead of a single bottom line on which most executives have been taught to fixate, the corporate are required to pay attention to multiple bottom lines- social, environmental, information and ethical bottom lines - all of which are interconnected. There is a need for Indian corporates to graduate from thinking in terms of just charity, to the concept of responsibility. Both managers at the individual level and the corporates need to accept that neither office nor position gives immunity from responsibility. There is also an urgent need to integrate CSR with business strategy i. e. to link companys core business and strengths on the one hand with resources available with the organisation internally and needs of the external environment, on the other. CSR activities are known to achieve best results when these activities have natural links with the companys business. Proactive intervention by selecting some areas and concentrating on them will go a long way.
CSR Management at Hitachi

A roadmap to support a better, more affluent society for all humankind.
The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group as part of the larger DKB Group companies. Hitachi has been a diversified company that has 11 business segments: Information and Telecommunication Systems, Electrical Systems, Social and Industrial Systems, Automotive Systems, Electronic Component Devices, Construction, and Financial services. On the 2011 Forbes Global 2000 list, Hitachi was ranked number 473. I intend and wish to contribute to the development of Japans machinery industry and to a prosperous destiny for the nation. All should know that working for the company is not merely
about making profits. I believe that you well understand that this is the essence of Hitachis Founding Spirit, which has been cultivated.
-Namihei Odairas address to new employees in 1935.


Striving to Be a Global Leader in CSR:
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In fiscal 2006, we established a three-year roadmap to guide us in becoming a global leader in CSR. The following are the fiscal 2009 results of the implementation plans for each item of the CSR Policy of the Hitachi Group. Implementation plans for fiscal 2010 are also shared below.
In fiscal 2010, we created a new Five-Year CSR Roadmap with the goal of becoming a truly global enterprise by 2015. The new roadmap uses key performance indicators to guide our efforts in the effective implementation of that goal.
Structure of Hitachi Group CSR Promotion:

CSR Policy of the Hitachi Group
1. Commitment to corporate social responsibility
Hitachi Group Activities in Fiscal 2009
Results in Fiscal 2009
Achieve ment Level
Fiscal 2010 Goals / Plans
Implement CSR e-learning courses in Asian countries
Implemented CSR elearning courses in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, and Vietnam (average attendance rate was 80 percent)
Increase number of companies worldwide using the Hitachi Group CSR Self-Assessment Tool
Strengthen management system
risk
Increase the number of Group companies using Hitachi Group CSR SelfAssessment Tool globally
Twenty-four Group companies in Japan used our CSR Self-Assessment Tool in fiscal 2009 (up from 22 in fiscal 2008).
Produced an English version that eight Group companies outside Japan used (four each in North America and India).
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2. Contribution to society through business our
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Introduce materiality process*1 and incorporate it into corporate strategy, business operations, and management decision making
Launched projects to assess businesses from CSR perspective
Implement CSR-oriented business assessments and reflect the results in business strategy, operations, and/or management issues
Put a stop to serious accidents and foster global QA (quality assurance) leaders
Continued to implement process improvement for business divisions, prioritized by the need for quality improvement
Continue to implement process improvement for business divisions prioritized by the need for quality improvement and to reinforce OCHIBO HIROI*2 activities
Increase sales ratio of Eco-Products
Conducted reliability courses to educate quality assurance staff in China and Thailand (basic course four times and intermediate course once) Strengthen Group network of Web sites for general customer inquiries In fiscal 2009, launched Web Inquiry Responsiveness Improvement Course, with 76 Group employees participating Published Hitachi Group Environmental Sustainability Report 2009 (in Japanese and English), focusing on environmental Reporting
Help reduce CO2 emissions through Hitachi products and services
Set up global, Groupwide Internet inquiry response network
Expand access to and enhance Web Inquiry Responsiveness Improvement Course Engage in global stakeholder dialogues
3. Disclosure of information and stakeholder engagement
Issue clear, concise environmental Sustainability Report
Strengthen internal dissemination of CSR information
Began using third-party reviews of environmental performance data in fiscal
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2009
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Conduct dialogues with stakeholders in all overseas regions
Engaged in dialogue with stakeholders, particularly with EU policymakers Disclosed details of progress on causes and responses to an issue that arose in fiscal 2009: misleading representations of refrigerators
Improve transparency and disclose more information on CSR Web site
Improved disclosure of diversity Initiatives
4. Corporate ethics and human rights
Develop a global education program on human rights
Implemented e-learning courses on human rights for all 260,000 Group employees in Japan (more than 207,000 employees, or around 80 percent, participated) Implemented compliance e-learning courses in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia (average attendance rate was 80 percent)
Expand global human rights initiatives
Continue to hold Hitachi Group Corporate Ethics Month every October
Implement e-learning compliance programs in Asian countries
Raise compliance awareness relating to operations outside Japan
5. Environmental conservation
Promote and expand integrated EMS certification
Certification acquired: Industrial & Social Infrastructure Systems Company of Hitachi, Ltd.; Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems Co., Ltd.; Hitachi Life, Ltd.; Hitachi Inter
Help reduce CO2 emissions through Hitachi products and services
Target amount for the
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medix Co., Ltd.; and Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd. (Five Group companies certified, compared with a target of three.) year: 14 million tonnes
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Increase Super EcoProduct ratio to 30 percent.
Increase Super EcoProduct ratio to 22 percent .
Achieved Super EcoProduct ratio of 22 percent
Register eight more Super Eco-Factories and Offices (for a total of 24).
Registered seven more Super Eco-Factories and Offices (accumulated number of sites reached to 32, exceeding fiscal 2010 target of 30)
6. Corporate citizenship activities
Continue implementing programs on global environmental themes
Continued tree planting and other programs in China, Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan
Deploy programs where employees contribute to society, focusing on biodiversity
Continue implementing programs for emerging countries and markets to meet their social needs
Undertook programs to support training for young South African and Indian engineers
Implement social contribution programs in emerging countries and markets to meet their social needs
Implemented educational support programs for children in China
Undertake social contribution programs covering the environment, energy, and other areas
Expand educational support programs (further improve visiting lectures on Universal Design)
Held Universal Design (UD) classes at 18 schools
Strengthened and improved programs for volunteers to raise the quality of their
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activities
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7. Working environment
Promote diversity awareness in the Hitachi Group (encourage information exchange and development of shared tools through the Diversity Development Group Committee)
Held Diversity Development Group Committee meetings, sharing information on best practices and Group examples (19 Group companies participated in four gatherings in fiscal 2009)
Promote more female employees as executives and managers
Encourage employment of more people with disabilities within the Hitachi Group
Continued to participate in Work-Life Balance Promotion Project of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
8. Responsible partnership with business partners
Revise the Guidelines for Procurement Activities and publish Hitachi Group Supply-Chain CSR Deployment Guidebook and implement it among suppliers
Completed revisions of Hitachi Guidelines for Procurement Activities and Hitachi Group Supply-Chain CSR Deployment Guidebook and shared them with Group companies Surveyed 255 companies to monitor suppliers (compared with 100 in fiscal 2008), with 132 companies responding
Rebuild supply chain from global perspective
Support voluntary environmental management initiatives by suppliers through New MMM Club*3
Expand the scope of monitoring of suppliers
*1 The materiality process includes activities where stakeholders participate to clarify important issues influencing society and management. *2 OCHIBO HIROI (gleaning) is Hitachis program for adopting the customers perspective when reflecting on past incidents and working to prevent recurrences. *3 MMM Club is an organization run primarily by suppliers who have acquired environmental certification through Hitachis activities to support suppliers environmental safety programs. The three Ms come from the first letter of mottainai (regrettable waste), now an international environmental term. *** Achieved

**Partially achieved
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RELIANCE
Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (usually referred as Reliance Group) is one of India's largest conglomerates, headquartered in Navi Mumbai, India. The company, which was formed after Dhirubhai Ambani's business empire was divided up, is headed by his younger son Anil Ambani. It has a market capitalization of US$ 15 billion, net assets US$ 7 billion. The ADAG Reliance Group has a business presence that extends to over 20,000 towns and 4.5 lakhs (450,000) villages in India, and across the globe. The shareholder base is over 12 million, among the largest in the world. The group is present in many sectors including Telecom, Capital, Power, Infrastructure, Entertainment and Health.
Social Responsibility & Community Development : Social welfare and community development is at the core of Reliances Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) philosophy and continues to be a top priority for the Company. It revolves around the Companys deeply-held belief in the principle of symbiotic relationship with the local communities, recognizing that business ultimately has a purpose - to serve human needs. Close and continuous interaction with the people and communities in and around the manufacturing divisions has been the key focus while striving to bring around qualitative changes and supporting the underprivileged. Reliances contributions to the community are in the area of health, education, infrastructure development (drinking water, improving village infrastructure, construction of schools etc.), environment (effluent treatment, tree plantation, treatment of hazardous waste), relief and assistance in the event of a natural disaster, and miscellaneous activities such as contribution to other social development organizations etc. The Companys CSR teams at all manufacturing divisions interact with the neighbouring community on regular basis. The Company takes pride in the fact that its CSR representatives are known by their first names in the regions that it operates.
Education Teach them young is the very motto of Reliance as the Company believes that the quality of inputs received by an individual at an early age contributes to his or her growth as a capable human being. To ensure high quality of teaching, Reliance has made significant efforts towards value enhancement of teachers
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through professional and institutionalized training. Dahej Manufacturing Division conducted educational and excursion tours of students and teachers from the primary schools of neighbouring villages, and also organized Balmela and Science and Mathematics Fair. To provide training in the field of effective techniques and modern methods of teaching to high school teachers in the Hazira area, the Company organized training of teachers in various subjects. Reliance has launched the Sky is the limit programme at Hazira, to address the problem of school dropouts in the local community. The Company also provides opportunities to engineering and management institute students to undergo in-plant training/projects as part of their academic curriculum, thus enabling them to appreciate application of theoretical knowledge and get an exposure to the industrial practices. Efforts were made to enhance employability/skill development of local youths. This was done by giving opportunities to them to work in the Companys operating plants, which in turn improve their job prospects. Executive Development Programs for officers of neighbouring industries were organized in coordination with PRIA (Patalganga Rasayani Industries Association). The Companys major manufacturing locations provide good quality education to the children of all employees and also cater to the needs of surrounding villages. Jamnaben Hirachand Ambani School, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Vidya Mandir, and Jamnaben Hirachand Ambani Saraswati Vidya Mandir are schools near the Companys manufacturing locations at Patalganga, Hazira and Jamanagar respectively. A modern educational infrastructure coupled with extracurricular activities and recreational facilities distinguish all these schools. To encourage school children from neighbouring villages, Nagothane Manufacturing Division based CSR cell MGCC Area Development Research Foundation (MADER) Trust took following initiatives: Felicitated meritorious students from neighbouring villages and tribal hamlets: Each student received a set of note books, stationary items and a school bag. There are several Zilla Parishad schools located on the hilltop near Nagothane: Manufacturing Division where all the children who are attending school are tribal.With an objective to encourage the tribal students, Reliance also provided school uniforms.
Barabanki Manufacturing Division renovated a primary school in an adjoining village. Hoshiarpur Manufacturing Division provided free uniform (winter and summer), books, bags, shoes and stationery to the school-going children of neighbouring village. Health Health Awareness Programs, covering diverse topics such as noise pollution, hazards substance abuse, prevention of HIV/AIDS and First Aid were conducted for students of schools at the neighbouring towns
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and villages of Patalganga. Barabanki Manufacturing Division provides medical service and awareness programs on health, hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation in neighboring villages. Hoshiarpur Manufacturing Division too conducts monthly check up camps at neighbouring villages. Free medicines and spectacles were also provided. Round the clock free ambulance service has been provided to roadside accident victims. Hazira Rehabilitation Centre for the Physically Challenged has been set up in partnership with Disabled Welfare Trust of India for capacity building of physically challenged children from the weaker sections of society. Initiatives to Combat HIV / AIDS and TB: The Company provides Community Medical Centres near most of its manufacturing divisions. These centres cater to the Governmental health care programmes like maternal and child health, TB, malaria, HIV / AIDS etc., besides providing curative treatment. These Centres have been well received and go a long way in providing the medical relief for the community. The Company has implemented HIV / AIDS and DOTS programme at Hazira and Jamnagar, and is in the process of replicating the same at the other manufacturing divisions. This initiative is a public private partnership between the Government, NGOs and Reliance. This comprehensive project extends from creating awareness to providing treatment, care and support. Reliances initiative to combat HIV / AIDS has been recognized by UNAID, World Bank and other national and international institutions. Adoption of Public Health Centre (PHC): Reliance has adopted a Primary Health Centre (PHC) from the State Government of Gujarat and converted it into a model primary health centre. The PHC located at Dahej in Bharuch District, Gujarat, has attained the status of the best PHC in the District in a short-span of 6 months and has established itself as a centre of excellence. Highway Rescue Intervention: To provide emergency and trauma care to victims of highway accidents, Hazira has tied-up with an NGO to run the project on the State Highway in Gujarat starting from Sachin to Bharuch, and the State Highway via Hazira - Olpad - Hansot - Ankleshwar. The project will benefit thousands of commuters who use this highway on a daily basis. Traffic Police personnel are the first government agency to respond to an emergency involving a chemical tanker or a truck. With the increase in the number of accidents on roads and the unending addition of new chemicals, it is important that these personnel understand the hazards and the basic steps to be taken to safeguard themselves and the general public from the hazards of chemicals. The Companys initiative of training traffic police personnel by its Kurkumbh Manufacturing Division in handling road transport emergencies involving chemicals will go a long way in serving the objective of community well-being.

Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Lodhivali:
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Reliance also operates the Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Lodhivali and renders quality medical services to the rural population and highway accident victims. Moti Khavdi Medical Centre: As part of corporate social responsibility services, a community medical centre was established in Moti Khavdi, a village near Jamnagar Manufacturing Division, during the pre-commissioning stage of the refinery in November 1995. This Community Medical Centre provides comprehensive medical services free of cost and round the clock. About 1.2 lakh villagers of nearby areas like Moti Khavdi, Nani Khavdi, Padana, Meghpar, Gagva, Jogvad, Baid, Kanalus, Sikka, Sarmat, Navaniya, Mungani, Jakhar, Bara, Vasai and Amra benefit from the same. Community Medical Services at SEZ, Jamnagar: A massive workforce from all parts of India are working at the mega construction activities in the SEZ at Jamnagar. The Company has given shelter in several colonies.Each labour colony has a separate medical centre. Each medical centre is manned round the clock by doctors, nurses and ambulances. Thalassaemia detection camp and Parental counselling: The tribal areas in regions near Surat, Gujarat, are highly endemic to the prevalence of a thalassaemic trait, which is a genetic disorder. The Company launched a thalassaemia detection camp in association with the Indian Red Cross in the local high school. Children from the nearby school were tested for the disorder. The opportunity was also used for detecting aneamia and sickle cell aneamia. A post-test counseling session was organized for the parents of these children. Project Cancer-Aid for Cancer patients: In partnership with the Lions Cancer Detection centre, the Company provides monetary assistance for purchase of medicines to cancer patients. Mobile Dispensaries: Reliance also operates free medical diagnostic and therapeutic services at neighbouring villages of several of its manufacturing locations. Blood Donation Drives: The Companys employees organize and participate in blood donation campaigns every year across its manufacturing divisions and offices. Public Health Care: Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Hospital and Research Centre (HNHRC) Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation (DAF), with financial and technical services support from the Reliance Group, joined in 1997 the Management of HNHRC, a charitable hospital offering tertiary health care facilities to all strata of society
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and providing free and subsidized services to the poor and indigent patients availing of various diagnostic and treatment facilities. Thousands of patients have received treatment indoors in the various wards and specialized care areas and at OPD services at P.T. Clinic, the popular Diagnostic Centre of the Hospital. The Hospital continues its age-old tradition of rendering free service to all in the casualty ward. More than 4,000 surgeries were performed during the year, of which a major portion was special and super major surgeries. The Hospital carried out several Cadaver Transplants in the recent past. Further, the eye Donation drive initiated by the hospital witnessed an increased response. Some of the important outreach programmes conducted during the year included a Senior Citizen Health Screening Program in association with Rotary Club, and a medical back-up for the Special Olympics event organized by the Lions Club - International. Twice a month, the hospital continues to conduct free health check-up for senior citizens and physically challenged in Mumbai. These programmes have gone a long way in educating the community on prevention of diseases, and promoting a healthy lifestyle. The hospital is in the process of building a multi-storied ultra modern tertiary care hospital with state-of-art facilities and infrastructure embracing the entire spectrum of health care services. Several new facilities would be added, and many of the existing facilities would be significantly upgraded in areas like Neurology and Neurosurgery, Urosurgery, Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Cardiovascular Surgery and Cosmetology. A chain of blood banks would be established at various centres under a new initiative by the DAF. Educational and research activities at the hospital shall receive significant boost by way of advanced facilities and better funding. The project, when completed, would be a landmark healthcare facility in this city. Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Medical Research Society (HNMRS) DAF, through the Reliance Group, supports the scientific research activities of HNMRS. The Society has been carrying out scientific research activities since 1974 -75 and has completed more than 130 research projects. The scientists from HNRMS have presented over 180 papers at various national and international conferences. More than 130 papers have been published in peer reviewed scientific journals, about half of them being highly rated as prestigious international journals. Topics of national health priority constitute a major share of the research projects undertaken. The researchers are motivated to expand their research avenues to carry out epidemiological studies and community-based surveys. As part of such studies, children from nearby schools and susceptible population from neighbourhood communities are regularly screened by medical / paramedical professionals. Those in need of medical care are offered special attention and treatment at the institution free of cost. Drishti: Project Drishti, a nation-wide corneal grafting drive to bring light into the lives of visually challenged from the underprivileged segment of society has restored the gift of sight to over 5,500 Indians. A unique joint
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initiative of Reliance Industries Limited and National Association of Blind (NAB), Project Drishti has undertaken over 5,500 keroptoplasty surgeries in less than 4 years since it was started - all free of cost. It is now the largest corneal grafting surgery project enabled by a single corporate entity in India. Drishti Painting Competition: As a part of corporate initiative to propagate awareness of Project Drishti, Drishti painting competition is organized for school children at several manufacturing divisions and offices of the Company. Community Development: Jamnagar Manufacturing Division continues to extend a helping hand to surrounding villages and the community at large. Activities during the year focussed on improving village infrastructure, supply of drinking water, education support etc. During the year, in a unique initiative to improve rural housekeeping and sanitation, a totally fresh approach was adopted to beautify Moti Khavdi; Reliances adopted village. Cleaning and sanitation drive at Moti Khavdi was taken up as an ongoing project. Three MoUs were finalized with the State Government of Gujarat for development of Dwarka during the year. They are to (i) develop the temple square in front of the famous Dwarkadheesh temple (ii) construct Sudama Setu-a bridge to connect both the banks of Gomati river behind Dwarkadheeshs temple and (iii) develop Panchkui area on the sea-shore where five wells, believed to be dug by Pandavas, still give fresh potable water right on the seashore. To maintain and support village cows in surrounding villages, two more brand new cow-sheds for Kanalus and Kanachikari were constructed and handed over to the respective villages. These cows and cow-sheds (Gaushala) receive regular fodder supply from the Companys Jamnagar Manufacturing Division. Construction of a public lavatory, water tank and avedo (common drinking water facility for villagers) was done at Nani Khavdi during the year under report. Drinking water through water tankers was supplied during a crisis period in Sikka, Nani Khavdi, Meghpar and Padana. At Kanachikari, Drinking water pipelines were laid during the year. A new primary school building at Navagam was constructed and repairing of some village schools was taken up. Participation and distribution of sweets in village schools during the Independence Day and the Republic Day; support to Government of Gujarats drive for girls education; distribution of gifts to girls of villages during Navratri festival; supporting Navratri celebrations in Jamnagar were some of the salient aspects of Jamnagar Manufacturing Divisions Community Welfare Cell as part of routine and regular activities. In a major initiative to celebrate Navratri, the worlds longest dance festival on a large scale; Jamnagar manufacturing division took a lead to form Gujarat Industries Navratri Festival. A gala festival was organized and celebrated at state capital Gandhinagars helipad ground for nine days jointly with leading industries of Gujarat. The event brought to fore the role of industries, handicrafts, art and culture etc in the
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development of Gujarat as a vibrant state. The event evoked tremendous response and applause from every quarter of the society at large. Reliance Rural Development Trust (RRDT): The work to improve the rural infrastructure under the Government of Gujarats rural development plans was continued with full energy by RRDT. During the year under report, the RRDT created 760 facilities in the rural areas at a cost of Rs. 24.07 crore. The facilities included 247 concrete roads, 465 anganwadis, 38 drinking water facilities, 1 panchayat office, 2 community halls, 5 check-dams and 2 other amenities in the rural areas of the State of Gujarat. RRDT has turned out to be an exemplary corporate NGO steadily and silently implementing governments developmental plans for rural areas of Gujarat. It is a unique synergy between a corporate giant like Reliance Industries Limited and the Government of Gujarat, formed to carry out rural development projects in private public partnership. Dahej Manufacturing Division has been playing a pivotal role in the development of the society. Social initiatives undertaken by Dahej Manufacturing Division are concentrated towards promotion of education, health awareness and medical facilities, infrastructure development and supply of safe drinking to the villages. Some of the initiatives undertaken by the Companys E&P Division near KG-D6 include 1) gainful employment for local communities, 2) vocational training for the youth, 3) employment for members of Gadimoga panchayat, 4) financial assistance for community activities, 5) sponsoring of cultural and sports events, 6) financial relief to affected communities, 7) compensation to local fishermen, 8) academic and financial assistance and educational support through distribution of books, 9) improvement of village school infrastructure and 10) medical help to local communities.
After successfully implementing zero garbage concept at Nagothane Manufacturing Division, the Companys CSR cell took the initiative to propagate the concept of solid waste (dry and wet waste) management in the neighbouring villages so as to help villagers in keeping their village environment neat, clean and garbage-free. Reliance has also solved the long-standing drinking water problem of villages near its Manufacturing Divisions located at Naroda and Nagpur. Further, Reliance has created public bathing facilities and toilets for truckers and residents of villages for improving hygiene near its Allahabad Manufacturing Division. Empowerment of Women and Youth: Reliance has conducted many training programmes, which would help the rural women and youth to be self sustaining and generate income for themselves and support their families. The training programmes conducted at Vadodara for the rural women and youth of surrounding villages of Vadodara Manufacturing Division during the current year are:
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1) Women Empowerment, 2) Dress making & Designing, 3) Beauty Culture & Healthcare, 4) Hospital attendant (Helpers for Hospital & Nursing Homes), 5) Plumbing & Hand Pump repairing training, 6) Computer Hardware, 7) Motor Vehicle Driving, 8) Mobile Repairing and 9) Doormat making. Several persons participated and benefited from the above training programmes.
Nagothane Manufacturing Division based CSR cell-MADER Trust is supporting several Self-Help groups in income generating activities such: Hatsadi tandul (brown rice cultivation), phenoyl making, agarbatimaking, candle-making, papad-making and supplying it to industrial canteens and also hand-carry-bag making. Hoshiarpur Manufacturing Division conducts free stitching courses for the women of nearby villages. Skill Up-gradation: Reliance runs special training programs to equip the young people of neighboring villages with life and work skills necessary for sustaining livelihood. Nagothane Manufacturing Division conducted training in fashion designing courses for the ladies to upgrade the skills of those women who are already trained in basic tailoring. This division also conducted computer education courses and nursing assistant training courses. The trainees also received hands on training at the local hospitals and primary health centres at Nagothane. The Company also trains the youth in vehicle driving courses and also helps them in getting a drivers license so that they can earn a livelihood by starting their own business as motor drivers. The Companys Polymer business division organised technical training programmes at 50 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) all over India to enhance skills of artisans for new and advanced technique of plumbing with PPR pipes. The Company also offers plumbing kits, free of cost, to various plumbers as well as to ITIs to promote this new energy efficient application in the building industry. PPR pipes are faster to install than metal pipes. This results in improving daily productivity of plumbers thereby increasing in their earnings. This initiative covered many plumbers across the country. Eco-friendly Initiatives: In addition to the above initiatives, the Company also focuses on the development of the eco-system and improvement of the green belt across its manufacturing and E&P sites. Transforming lives at the bottom of the Pyramid: Reliance constantly aims at creating and living up to rising expectations among its valued stakeholders. The Company cares for providing clean and green environment on a sustainable basis. It recycles used bottles to produce value added products. When most of the environmental concerns are subsidised, Reliance has found a solution for being environmental friendly on a sustainable basis. In the case of recycling bottles, Reliance
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is indirectly providing livelihood to around 200,000 individuals. This business has transformed lives of those at the bottom of the pyramid. Packaging solution to farmers (Leno bags): Reliance organised extensive awareness programmes on improved packaging solutions for potato and other vegetables for farmers all over India. This included demonstration on use of Leno bags, which are more durable, functionally more efficient and cheaper than traditional materials. This programme helped the farmers reduce the cost of packaging of potato. These bags also helped farmers to reduce wastage while keeping in cold storage. The Companys efforts helped the farmers to improve their earnings. The programme covered more than 10,000 farmers across India. Polyethylene (PE) Biogas Domes for Renewable Energy Source: Biogas technology for rural development has been a focus area for Government of India. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) promotes family-type biogas plants under the National Project on Biogas Development (NPBD). The project was launched in 1981-82 with the objective of producing clean and alternate renewable energy for cooking and lighting, enriched organic manure for agricultural usage, improving sanitation and hygiene and reducing drudgery of women. The two cubic metre Deenabhandu model is the most popular family type fixed dome biogas plant developed with conventional brick and cement. Many of these plants get defunct due to dome cracks leading to gas leakages. The Company has developed a 100 per cent leak-proof Rotomolded PE Dome, which gives end-users a unique combination of properties like good strength, stiffness, light weight, seamless construction, ease of installation and very little maintenance. The PE-based dome has been developed by Reliance and has been approved by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India. Sports for the Physically Challenged: Reliance has joined hands with the organising team of Special Olympics Gujarat (Bharat) for the physically challenged children of Gujarat. Several hundred children participated in the events that were organised at the Reliance Sports Complex, Vadodara. Real Indian Heroes: On the occasion of Shri Dhirubhai Ambanis 75th birthday, 60 years of Indian Independence and 30 years of Reliance, the Company took up a unique initiative to salute the Real Indian Heroes of Independent India. Partnering with the TV Channel, CNN-IBN, a series of programmes to felicitate the unsung heroes of India was launched. CNN-IBN identified 24 Real Heroes, which included six each from the four zones of India. In recognition for their outstanding contribution to society, Reliance felicitated each of these 24 Real Heroes to further encourage their contributions. Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation (DAF):
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Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation (DAF) was established in 1995 by Shri Dhirubhai Ambani, the Patron Trustee of the Foundation. A public charitable trust registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, DAF has for its objectives a broad spectrum of worthy causes ranging from health and environment, to promotion of social and economic welfare, and rural development. However, its main thrust has been on education and public healthcare. DAF systematically pursues philanthropic activities to promote national welfare and social good. Reliance lends valuable support to DAF in terms of financial contribution and wherever necessary, infrastructural support. Reliance also draws on the DAF expertise in evolving and coordinating the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives and other group companies also help DAF initiatives wherever possible. Thus, DAF initiatives reinforce Reliances commitment to social responsibility. Education: Rewards and Scholarships: DAF SSC Merit Reward and Undergraduate Scholarship Schemes: The Foundations much acclaimed SSC Merit Reward and Undergraduate Scholarship Schemes continued to encourage and assist meritorious students at the district level to pursue higher education in different vocations to enhance the Human Resource potential of the country. Now in their twelfth year, both the schemes are currently applicable in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and the Union Territory of Daman, Diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli. The first three in overall merit and one physically challenged student securing the highest marks in each of the 64 districts at the annual SSC and HSC examinations of the respective state Boards, as well as the first ten CBSE students from Maharashtra and Gujarat and 2 from Goa, in the merit list of CBSE New Delhi, are eligible for the Rewards and Scholarships. Reaching out to other states: To offer equal opportunities to the physically challenged meritorious students from the rest of the country, the Foundation has extended the Rewards and Scholarship Schemes to the first five physically challenged students from all the States and Union Territories of India that provide the list of such meritorious students. Accordingly, in 2007-08, physically challenged meritorious students from Rajasthan received SSC Merit Rewards and Undergraduate Scholarships at a function held in Jaipur, whereas at a function held in Hyderabad, 20 Physically Challenged meritorious students from the state of Andhra Pradesh received the Rewards and Undergraduate Scholarships for the years 2006-07 and 2007-08. Reliance Kargil scholarships scheme: Children of martyrs / disabled soldiers of the Kargil war received financial support under this Scheme for their education from Std. V to XII. The unique feature of the Scheme is that the corpus was created with contributions from Reliance Group employees, with the Management responding by making equal contribution. Dhiruhbai Ambani Scholars scheme for Meritorious Children of Reliance Shareholders The
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Scheme was announced in 2003 as a one-time measure to commemorate the silver jubilee of the companys listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange. In the first year, 900 meritorious children of the shareholders received the scholarships. Of these, in 2007 - 08 which is the 4th year of the Scheme, a total of 101 scholars continued to receive the scholarship for their education, leading to Degree / Diploma course, the rest having completed their education.
Sony CSR
Environmental Conservation Activities Established Partnership with NGO to Address the Issue of Climate Change: In July 2006, Sony signed an agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) global environmental NGO, to join its "Climate Savers Programme". Under the program, Sony has agreed to partner with the WWF to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Sony's sites around the world, reduce CO2 emission from product use by lowering the annual energy consumption of major Sony products and cooperate with the WWF to raise consumer awareness of global warming prevention.
Promoting Product Energy Saving: In February 2007, Sony received a Sustainable Energy Europe Award from the European Commission, the first consumer electronics and entertainment company to earn this prestigious prize. The award recognized Sony for its voluntary commitment and efforts to improve the energy efficiency of its products, as well as its disclosure of information to consumers. As of February 2007, all Sony televisions sold in Europehad a standby power consumption below 1 watt, with 30 models achieving a standby power consumption of only 0.3 watts, below the market average. In Japan, Sony's KDL-40J3000 model BRAVIA LCD television has achieved an energy-conservation level of 180% relative to Japan's energy-saving laws, representing the industry's highest energy-saving performance.
Environmental Conservation at Sites: Sony is engaged in a variety of environmental conservation activities at its sites as it works towards its "Green Management 2010" mid-term group environmental targets, to be achieved by 2010. In fiscal 2006, Sony's emissions of greenhouse gases (calculated in terms of CO2) totalling approximately 2.03 million tons, down 9% from fiscal 2000 levels. Furthermore, waste from Sony sites was approximately 193,000
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tons, down 30% from the fiscal 2000 level, while the amount of water used dropped approximately 16% from fiscal 2000 to 24.18 million cubic meters.
SONY ESTABLISHES FIRST NATIONWIDE ELECTRONICS RECYCLING PROGRAM WITH WASTE MANAGEMENTS RECYCLE AMERICA: Program Open to All Consumer Electronics Devices NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2007 To encourage consumers to recycle and dispose of electronic devices in an environmentally sound manner, Sony has established a national recycling program for consumer electronics. The Sony Take Back Recycling Program allows consumersto recycle all Sony-branded products for no fee at 75 Waste Management (WM) Recycle America eCycling drop-off centers throughout the U.S. The program, which begins on Sept. 15, was developed in collaboration with WM Recycle America, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc. The program also allows consumers to recycle other manufacturers consumer electronics products at market prices, and may include a recycling fee for some types of materials. This is the first national recycling initiative in the U.S. to involve both a major electronics manufacturer and a national waste management company. As the Sony Take Back Recycling program expands, the number of eCycling drop-off centers will increase to at least 150 sites within a year, with at least one location in every state through a combination of WM Recycle America locales and WM external service partners. Sony and WM Recycle America are also working towards the goal of having enough drop-off locations in all 50 states so there is a recycling centre within 20 miles of 95 percent of the U.S. population. Consumers will also have the option of shipping their used Sony electronics products to select WM Recycle America locations. The Sony Take Back Recycling Program is part of Sonys broader global commitment to environmental stewardship, which spans product design, recycling, facilities management and energy conservation across all categories. "Providing the highest level of service and support doesnt stop once a purchase is made. We believe it is Sonys responsibility to provide customers with end-of-life solutions for all the products we manufacture, said Stan Glasgow, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics. Through the Take Back Recycling Program, our customers will know that their Sony products will be recycled in an environmentally responsible manner.
Glasgow said that by making the recycling of Sony products easy and convenient, the company expects to reach its goal of recycling one pound of old consumer electronics equipment for every pound of new products sold. People are seeking services to help them recycle electronic waste responsibly andeconomically, said Patrick DeRueda, president of WM Recycle America. This program serves
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consumers needs by offering a convenient and cost-effective waste management solution, while demonstrating our shared commitment to providing outstanding customer service and environmental stewardship.
As the technology industry sees continued growth, the amount of electronic waste is also increasing. A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that in 2005 used or unwanted electronics amounted to about 1.9 to 2.2 million tons. Of that, some 1.5 to 1.9 million tons was primarily discarded in landfills, and only 345,000 to 379,000 tons were recycled. By recycling old electronics products, useful materials -- such as glass, plastic and metals can be collected and re-used in the manufacture of other products. Recycling not only minimizes the amount of waste disposed, it also minimizes the extraction of new raw materials from the earth and resources required for processing, saving energy and reducing greenhouse gases in the process.
Case Study on BPCLs village adoption at Karjat

Arming Them Towards Self Sufficiency: The rationale behind selecting Karjat for community development initiatives was that the company wanted to work for vulnerable groups.. The Karjat endeavour began with construction of a community hall, which was like a meeting place for villagers and way of reaching out to village women. Later many programs like medical assistance, grain bank, marketing artifacts, conducting certified vocational training courses, etc were carried out. From last 10 years farmers in 21 villages of karjat are helped through our interventions. There are eight villages, which are covered through BPCLs projects in and around Washala. Washala is situated in Shahpur taluka in Thane district. It is made up of tribal population. The various ongoing activities are: Farm facts: For agricultural upliftment, we arrange training through Pune Agricultural University, distribute seeds and fertilizers every year. There are lectures arranged on technical guidance, use of less water for farming, teaching newer methods of agriculture, etc. They also educate the farmers about fish farming and provide them all necessary information. Guidance is also given as regards buying of seeds. The methods of multiple cropping are taught. Every year farmers are given free fertilizers. Bamboo cultivation is also promoted. 5000 Bamboo saplings are planted every year, by giving it to villagers who will take care of it. Along with it, even mango, chikku and guava saplings are provided.
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Cattle care: At Karjat, We conduct exhibitions of cattle of various breeds, training sessions are arranged for improving the health of available cattle, there is vaccine program conducted on regular basis for all pet animals. Competitions are also held among cattle and prizes are given to the best cattle. Once a year there is a camp organized in which doctors from veterinary inspect all the cattle.
Education: For motivating intelligent students coaching is provided to students. Balwadis is available for small children as pre-school intervention.. Tree plantation programs are held at Adivasi ashram schools.
Health: A dispensary with a doctor is available and regular health camps are conducted. General health camps are organized twice a year. To cater to the needs of all villagers, may it be men, women, senior citizens, children and so on. To ensure proper eyesight, eye camps are conducted periodically. their sight back through this endeavor. There are camps held for pregnant women regarding guidance in pregnancy, stress on nutrition, etc.
Grain Bank: In the villages of Karjat, Institute Of Rural Farmers were dependent on moneylenders for money as well as seeds and grains and thus in turn fell in the debt trap. The moneylenders would harass them and exploit them. For e.g. for every one quintal of grain borrowed, the farmer would have to return it three quintals. To avoid such exploitation, IRCED came out with the grain bank scheme. The concept of grain bank was to make grains easily accessible to the farmers and to keep them away from the clutches of the moneylenders. Grains are made available to the farmers without any advance and they also do not have to return anything extra than what they had taken. Through BPCL, there is also a small room allocated for the purpose of maintaining the grain bank in every village so that the grains do not get spoilt.
Community centre: We have provided a multipurpose Samaj Mandir at Pinglas Karjat for the Villagers to have a meeting point. There is a community centre which encompasses classes for villagers on tailoring, mehendi, beautician course, bamboo article making, multi-skill training, etc. Cane Weaving and Bamboo making classes are
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conducted regularly. Tailoring is helping the girls in income generation. Later there is also an exhibition held in Mumbai for sale of the bamboo articles made in these villages.
Rain water harvesting: To make available water in case of scarcity, there was a need felt to start a project on rain water harvesting. The work has just begun. As this is a hilly area the problem of ground water and land water still remains. For provision of water, tube wells and small dams are made for the villagers.
Infrastructure development: We have constructed shed for schools. For e.g. repairing the fans, replacing broken furniture, etc jetty for fishermen so that they can rest in the night when they are not fishing. We have also constructed a public toilet. We are vigilant in keeping the surroundings clean. Timely garbage disposal is also taken care of. Tree plantation programs are carried out on a regular basis.
Every village: Sakhi Shejarni: A group of women came together in Karjat who felt the need of being together and saving some amount of money. They started meeting regularly and since then they collect savings and deposit in the bank This is a scheme whereby every village will have one woman leader. This leader is trained in such a way that she is able to manage the whole group of other women, take training sessions for them, conducts awareness programs and also provides counselling help. Such women leaders are termed as SAKHI, which means a friend in Marathi. Thus the groups serve a double purpose, that of starting a small-scale business and that of learning through various sessions. These meetings help them to improve their quality of life.
Counselling: Initially counselling began in BPCL to overcome the different problems of employees at work. But now, the company have come closer to their lives. Thus now counselling does not only aim at solving disputes at work but involves a whole gamut of issues ranging from employees overall development to the development of their families. Thus there is a shift from what used to exist earlier as our orientation is towards prevention. Over the time, recoveries and success stories started flowing in resulting in values of counselling being upheld as an important contribution for employees well being. Thus at the refinery counselling is seen as a mission which aims at making people live lives fruitfully. The help received through counselling is what is valued by most of our employees. As a continuation to individual help, We feel proud to say that we are one of very few companies who regularly visit employees at their plant. This helps us to
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understand employees better and plan intervention. Accordingly, Plant talks have made a positive effect in the minds of the employees as they get an idea that the company is really interested in their issues.
Addiction-The Slow Poison: Alcohol and drug use is extremely common in todays world. In spite of the awareness of the ill effects of these substances, people continue to get addicted to it. The abuse and addictions result in malfunctioning of an individual in major spheres of life. Addictions lead to poor work performances, disrupted relationships and adjustment problems. The rising awareness about employee welfare and raising the quality of work, various companies today make efforts to reduce addictions. We have been one of the first companies to engage in continuous endeavours to help our addicted employees to overcome their problems. We have successfully partnered with Kripa Foundations De-addiction Center for sustainable efforts in this direction. Kripa foundation is one of the largest Non- Governmental organization in India helping people suffering from Chemical Dependency and HIV Infection. Kripa offers a non-discriminating, supportive community living, helping people to introspect and bring about change in lifestyle.
Our Success- Strength Of Sobriety: Although difficult to believe, the success ratio is 60% at the refinery level, whereas the addiction improvement rate worldwide is 45.50%. Through counselling employees who recovered from alcohol addiction and the other personal problems became our biggest strength for extending our chain of human help. These peer educators are very efficient at work and they aid our CSR activity by being of help to the other addict employees and the community too.
The Pune Centre: A de-addiction center has been set up at Pune for both men and women addicts for all over Maharashtra. The Kripa Foundation runs it. We are supporting them and helping them in their efforts.
Family Wellbeing: Through all the Employee assistance programs, prominence is given to family as a system. It is a known fact that family is one of the most closely knit system which needs to be enriched to cope with the stresses and strain of life. Thus when an employee comes with a problem, joint counselling sessions are also conducted including his family members to ensure resolving of problems amicably.
Grooming Children As Caretakers Of Next Generation:

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Children are tomorrows future, and when it comes to our own employees children, We ensure their development through various activities like Career guidance, aptitude tests, etc.
Parenting During training or workshops, one of the main topics covered is parenting. This is important because in todays competitive world it is very difficult to manage both work and house Thus to ensure care of children, parenting sessions are conducted about emotional problems and problems encountered by children at different stages, puberty issues, etc. Women Empowerment In women lie natures best qualities of motherhood, compassion, humanity and love. Because they have been blessed with the capacity for giving and nurturing life, women also have the capacity for a deep commitment for preserving and nourishing not only their own offspring, but of the entire planet as well. BPCL is also blessed with efficient women staff who are enthusiastic and who come forward to helpothers. Women power in the true sense is seen when women meet regularly and discuss on varied issues and the stands they take.
Safety Ambassadors: This is a new activity being started at the refinery. Some of women employees are made safety ambassadors to ensure safety in the plant. These women would co-ordinate with the safety observers at the plant level and ensure that their co-employees take adequate safety measures. It is process to help the employees help themselves for their own safety and that of the others.
HIV/ AIDS Care And Prevention: AIDS is a major concern worldwide. It is forth killer of human beings. It has spread far and wide across nations, caste, creed, sea and racial boundaries. The UN AIDS estimates 5.3 million zero positive people housed in India alone in 2004. The growing number of zero positive people in the productive age group affects the economy in the long run. BPCL too encountered presence of zero positive employees. However the comprehensive health policy of the company protects the employees and their family. Considering the significance of interventions in this area, the Social Welfare dept. Initiated plant talks on Family Life Education and Health and Well being. Various awareness programs were conducted in the refinery on HIV/AIDS. Avert Society, a triplicate body of USAID, NACO and Government of Maharashtra, noticed the efforts of BPCL. The Avert Society invited BPCL for long-term partnership for an AIDS Intervention Project in the refinery, and the adjacent community. The project identifies three major areas of intervention,
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viz. workplace intervention (including around 30000 workers), Mahul and 25 villages from Karjat. The activities under this project include one to one intervention at village level, counselling at workplace, behaviour change communication, street plays and folk media to spread awareness about the same.
'Generation Next' BPCL is passionate about the Generation Next, and thus also supports various education initiatives at all levels. This involves granting aid to schools, acknowledging and rewarding meritorious students and an initiative called BPCL scholars. BPCL scholars are a group of approximately 100 Indian students, who yearly, seek full study-assistance from BPCL in doing their post graduation, both in India and abroad. We support these students, the future of tomorrow, the fuel of tomorrows growth, with all humility and passion.
Our Success Mantra- What Is It That Actually Worked? Bringing people together for a common cause: We were able to bring people together for a common cause, the cause being wellbeing of all. We were blessed with committed staff who also took the initiative to work for their own good. Employees also sustained their enthusiasm and motivation throughout which added to our strength.
Non-biased attitude: May it be a worker or an engineer or a driver or any administration staff, we give equal treatment to all. Never do employees feel that some are favoured and others are not.
Trust: Employees do have the trust in whatever the department does. The department has helped them help themselves in such a way that it has left a long lasting effect on their minds. This trust made it obvious for them to keep participating actively in all the activities.
Transparency: The department has been totally transparent regarding all its activities. Employees were made equal partners in conducting any activity. Because of this there was no point where employees felt left out.
Need based activities:
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We at BPCL have never arranged activities for the sake of doing it. We have conducted activities as and when people demanded, may it be our own employees or people from the communities. Thus we have indirectly given onus to the people to decide when, why and which activity they need.
Involvement of all: We have been successful in involving people of all cadres at the refinery level, right from the managers to the workers, and from the various departments to the different unions. This helped us to get the opinions and contributions of all. At the community level, all the people are involved right from the planning level. People take decisions along with us.
Human stories of revival helped: We had many success stories of our employees which constantly motivated us to work consistently. The recovered addicts are our strength. They help us to help the others who are in similar problem. The hands of social welfare have touched the lives of many, including the beneficiaries, the employees, families of employees, the management, families of management staff, etc. due to this strength of people, it gave rise to a snowball effect, year after year the department started doing better than early and even today its work has been recognized and appreciated. Leveraging Indias title for the second largest oil major, we are making every effort spent in social commitment count for that much more BPCL believes in sustainable efforts and not sporadic attempts at community development. It goes beyond charity to capacity building. This is reflected from the change in the lives of people whom we have touched through our various programs and activities. Corporate commitment is the beacon that guides our community development activities. Through various interventions in community development, we strive towards reinforcing the brand image of Energizing lives.
Anand Corporate Services Limited

Anand has a longstanding commitment to addressing the needs of the society, in view of its belief that for any economic development to be meaningful, the benefits from the business must trickle down to the society at large.Anand is of the firm view that the corporate goals must be aligned with the larger societal goals. 25 years ago, the SNS Foundation, an expression of Anands corporate social responsibility, was born. The objective of SNS foundation was comprehensive community development. The Foundation has created programs in the fields of health, education, natural resource management and life skills training, only to make sure that fellow humans could breathe easy.
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The long term goal of Anand CSR is to implement concepts like Zero Tolerance Zone for Child Labour, Zero Waste Zone using strategies like Reduce, Recycle and Reuse not only at Anand/SNSF locations but extend to Anand residential areas.
Aptech Limited
Aptech Limited, a leading education player with a global presence, has played an extensive and sustained role in encouraging and fostering education throughout the country since inception.As a global player with complete solutions-providing capability, Aptech has a long history of participating in community activities. It has, in association with leading NGOs, provided computers at schools, education to the underprivileged and conducted training and awareness-camps. Aptech students donated part of the proceeds from the sale of their art work to NGOs. To propagate education among all sections of the society throughout the country, especially the underprivileged, Aptech fosters tie-ups with leading NGOs throughout the country, including the Barrackpur-based NGO, Udayan, a residential school for children of leprosy patients in Barrackpur, established in 1970.The company strongly believes that education is an integral part of the countrys social fabric and works towardssupporting basic education and basic computer literacy amongst the underprivileged children in India.
Avon Cycle Limited

The poor and ignorant of Indias rural population turnto nearest towns and cities for healthcare. They face indifferenceand exploitation. Hope gives way to despair.This gave inspiration to AVON for locating MATAKAUSHALYA DEVI, PAHWA CHARITABLE HOSPITAL.Mr. Sohan Lal Pahwa, AVON's Chairman and Principal Trustee of the hospital,spent a good part of his workinglife devoted to philanthropy. The hospital, in its 5th yearof inception, has risen to serve a model healthcare facility boasting of some bold experiments in its very early yearsof existence. Its support since inception has been of the order of Rs. 3 crore to date and it continues uninterrupted.Reaching out to the needy farther afield, the hospitalholds regular camps in surrounding villages to propagate scientific approach to healthcare. Recently the hospital took the social responsibility concept a step further and formulated a scheme titled 'Celebrated Female Child' to enable and inspire positive and enduring environment for society's allconsuming passion for 'sons only' to end.
CISCO System Inc.

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Philanthropy at Cisco is about building strong and productive global communities - communities in which every individual has the means to live, the opportunity to learn, and the chance to give back. The company pursues a strong triple bottom line which is described as profits, people and presence. The company promotes a culture of charitable giving and connects employees to nonprofit organizations serving the communities where they live. Cisco invests its best-in-class networking equipment to those nonprofit organizations that best put it to work for their communities, eventuating in positive global impact. It takes its responsibility seriously as a global citizen. Education is a top corporate priority for Cisco, as it is the key to prosperity and opportunity.
ICICI Bank Ltd

The Social Initiatives Group (SIG) of ICICI Bank Ltd works with a mission to build the capacities of the poorest of the poor to participate in the larger economy. The group identifies and supports initiatives designed to break the intergenerational cycle of poor health and nutrition, ensure essential early childhood education and schooling as well as access to basic financial services.Thus, by promoting early child health, catalyzing universal elementary education and maximizing access to micro financial services, ICICI Bank believes that it can build the capacities of Indias poor to participate in larger socio-economic processes and thereby spur the overall development of the country. The SIG works by understanding the status of existing systems of service delivery and identifying critical knowledge and practice gaps in their functioning. It locates cost effective and scalable initiatives and approaches that have the potential to address these gaps and supports research to understand their impact. This is undertakenin collaboration with research agencies, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), companies, government departments, local stakeholders and international organisations.
Infosys Technologies Limited

Infosys is actively involved in various community development programs.Infosys promoted, in 1996, the Infosys Foundation as a not-for-profit trust to which it contributes up to 1%PAT every year. Additionally, the Education and ResearchDepartment (E&R) at Infosys also works with employee volunteers on community development projects. Infosys leadership has set examples in the area of corporate citizenship and has involved itself actively in key national bodies. They have taken initiatives to work in the areas of Research and Education, Community Service,Rural Reach Programme, Employment, Welfare activities undertaken by the Infosys Foundation, Healthcare for the poor, Education and Arts & Culture.
corporate SOCIAL responsibility ITC Limited
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ITC partnered the Indian farmer for close to a century. ITC is now engaged in elevating this partnership to a new paradigm by leveraging information technology through its trailblazing 'e-Choupal' initiative. ITC is significantly widening its farmer partnerships to embrace a host of value-adding activities: creating livelihoods by helping poor tribals make their wastelands productive; investing in rainwater harvesting to bring muchneeded irrigation to parched drylands; empowering rural women by helping them evolve into entrepreneurs; and providing infrastructural support to make schools exciting for village children.Through these rural partnerships, ITC touches the lives of nearly 3 million villagers across India.
Mahindra & Mahindra

The K. C. Mahindra Education Trust was established in 1953 by late Mr. K. C. Mahindra with an objective topromote education. Its vision is to transform the lives of people in India through education, financial assistanceand recognition to them, across age groups and across income strata. The K. C. Mahindra Education Trust undertakesa number of education initiatives, which make a difference to the lives of deserving students.The Trust has provided more than Rs. 7.5 Crore in the form of grants, scholarships and loans. It promotes education mainly by the way of scholarships. The Nanhi Kali project has over 3,300 children under it. We aim to increase the number of Nanhi Kalis (children) to 10,000 in the next 2 years, by reaching out to the underprivileged children especially in rural areas.
Satyam Computer Services Limited

Alambana (support) is the corporate social responsibility arm of Satyam Computer Services Limited, formed to support and strengthen the vulnerable and underprivileged sections in urban India. Registered as Satyam Alambana Trust in 2000, Alambana aims at transforming the quality of life among urban population. Alambana's services are directed primarily at the disadvantaged sections in all the cities that Satyam has offices in. Volunteers from among Satyam associates and their family members lead the services and perform the required tasks.
Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited
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The water source for the villages in and around the Dalmia Cement factory is dependent on rains. During summer months, the villagers, particularly women folk, travel long distances to fetch water for drinking and other purposes. Considering the difficulties and hardship faced by the people, the company, after discussing with the village elders and concerned Government authorities, took the initiative of making water available by Providing deep bore wells. So far, 45 bore wells have been provided in various villages, namel y Kallakudi, Palanganathan, Malvoi, Elakkurichi, Muthuvathur, Pullabmadi,
Edayathankudi etc. Approximately, 300 to 400 people get adequate drinking water from each bore well.
Water tanks to store the water.:

Rain and seepage water is harvested in the quarries of the company is pumped into a tank and supplied to inhabitants. 44,000 trees were planted and nurtured over a period of eight years. The presence of large trees and vast greenery has considerably improved the ecology in the area.
DCM Shriram Consolidated Limited

Shriram Fertilisers and Chemicals, is a unit of DSCL, located at Kota, 475 kms. Over the last 3 decades, various initiatives have been undertaken by the unit, in the Hadoti region (Kota, Bundi, Jhalawar districts) in ICU, ambulances, family planning, medical assistance;schools, scholarships, emphasis on girl child education;water to people and infrastructure.
Goodearth Education Foundation (GEF)

Work of GEF was initiated in 1996 with a project in the Rai Bareilly district in Uttar Pradesh. The four-year project covered 63 government schools and benefited 15,000 children. GEF is currently implementing projects in Thane district, Maharashtra (in 56 schools & balwadis), Alwar District, Rajasthan (this Project is being implemented in partnership with the NGO Bodh Shiksha Samiti, covering 71 schools & balwadis) and Solan district, Himachal Pradesh (10 Balwadis). GEF Objectives include providing equal opportunities in pre-primary& primary education to all children, and quality of education by ensuring that it is relevant, effective and activity based.
Hindustan Construction Company (HCC)

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HCC plays an active role in CSR initiatives in the fields of Health, Education, Disaster Management, and Environment.Disaster Resource Network DRN is a worldwide initiative,promoted by the World Economic Forum (WEF).Trained volunteers and equipment resources from Engineering Construction & Logistics companies will complement the existing efforts of Government, NGO's and International Organizations in disaster management. It was during the WEF annual meet that the massive earthquake struck Gujarat in January 2001. The need for a trained and effective participation from industry was first felt there. The members of Engineering and Logistics segment of WEF came together to establish this network. The idea was further strengthened during the 9/11 incident where again the industry participated in the relief operations. DRN Worldwide was formally launched in New York in January 2002. And shortly thereafter, DRN - India Initiative was launched.
India Aluminium Company Limited

The Women's Empowerment project was initiated by Indal-Muri in Jharkhand where the Company operates an alumina refining plant. It was implemented in collaboration with an NGO, CARE-Jharkhand. The central problem this project has attempted to address is the very low socio-economic condition of the rural and tribal population of Silli block caused by low agricultural productivity,lack of or low cash income, unresponsive health/ Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)schemes.The Project has helped set up around 100 Self Help Groups so far, which are running successfully with members trained in various vocational incomegenerating skills, agricultural methods for better yields and health care initiatives. About 2000 women have been brought into the fold of this activity helping to improve not justtheir own lives but the quality of life of their children and families as well. The Indal Women's Empowerment & Child Care project employed integrated package of strategies and interventions, such as: Establishment and Strengthening of Self Help Groups (SHG) in 30 strategically selected villages; Promotion of Nutrition Gardens and improved land / agricultural and natural resource management practices; and Creation of demand for improved ICDS/ health services through Self Help Groups and strengthening ICDS/ Health Department's service delivery
JCB India Ltd.


JCB India adopted a Government premises as its social responsibility. the foundation of our nation and they
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CHAPTER 5
school, in the vicinity of the company They strongly believe that children are could be helped, we could build a better
community and society tomorrow. The reason for adopting this particular school was the poor management of the school in terms of infrastructure, resources and qualityof education. The companys commitment to the school goes much beyond just providing monetary support towards infrastructure and maintenance of school building.
Larsen & Toubro (L & T) Limited

Considering that construction industry is the second largest employer in India after agriculture, employing about 32 million-strong workforce, L&T set out to regulate and promote Construction Vocational Training (CVT) in India by establishing a Construction Skills Training Institute (CSTI) on a 5.5 acre land, close to its Construction Division Headquarters at Manapakkam,Chennai. CSTI imparts, totally free of cost, basic training in formwork, carpentry, masonry, bar-bending, plumbing and sanitary, scaffolder and electrical wireman trades to a wide spectrum of the rural poor. As a result of the good response it received in Chennai, CSTI set up a branch at Panvel, Mumbai, initially offering training in formwork, carpentry and masonry trades. The Manapakkam and Panvel facilities together provide training to about 300 candidates annually who are inducted after a process of selection, the minimum qualification being tenth standard. Since inception, these two units have produced about 2,000 skilled workmen in various trades, with about sixty percent of them being deployed to L&Ts jobsites spread across the country. The success of this training-initiative demonstrates that adoption of systematic training techniques are bound to yield efficient and skilled personnel in the shortest possible time, and in the power to convert the potential of the Rural Youth in Construction and upgrading Rura Economy in a small way.
CONSLUSION
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The first conclusion is that there are many useful definitions of CSR, but there is not and probably cannot be a unique, precise definition of CSR, because its content and application will vary from one country to another, will change over time and also will differ among firms.
CSR is the result, implicit or explicit, of a reflection on the nature of a firm, its role in society and its relationships with its internal and external stakeholders. This reflection is the task of the managers (and sometimes of the owners), but also of other stakeholders who have an impact on the firm or are being impacted. The outcome will vary depending on historical events, political systems, ideology, geography, social expectations and, as we have recently seen, global economic and financial pressures. Together, this constitutes the framework in which a company operates and defines how it can and wants to develop its CSR policies. I dare say that, because we live in a plural, diverse and changing world, it is not possible to reach a universal agreement on the concept of CSR because ideas and facts, philosophy and history, society and the environment are interrelated. Moreover, CSR is also a dynamic concept that will change over time, as we have experienced in recent decades (and not only because of the contributions of experts).
Recently, we have observed that companies become social agents when taking on social and environmental responsibilities both at home and abroad. This may lead to a wider definition of a firms role in society, especially in the light of globalization. But this change does not necessarily mean that new definitions will supersede the old ones: new definitions may be an evolution, but it need not necessarily be so. The challenge is to resist the temptation to develop a unified standard of CSR, because such a standard would be devoid of richness, variation and flexibility and, from the viewpoint of the developing world, could likely be regarded as a new form of colonization through Western concepts. What we said of the differences between Europe and the United States can also be applied to many emerging economies: the fact that they have different views on CSR does not mean that those views are inferior.
I recognize that there are valid reasons for such a call for a unified standard: the use of common theoretical backgrounds by academicians and of common tools by consultants; the interest of the financial analysts in finding simple and comprehensive measures of CSR for companies in different environments; the sharing of experiences by CSR managers from different companies and their interest in finding common and
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universal metrics for assessing their results; the interest of the politicians in promoting state-of-the-art CSR instruments in their countries, and the preference of multinational corporations for a level playing ground in the different places in which they do business. But these reasons are not convincing: if CSR is an ethical concept, there is nothing that can replace prudent analysis of each decision. We cannot expect two managers in different companies to react the same way, even in the same sector, country and time and if the problems look alike, when their firms history and environment and their personal experience, training and personalities are different. This is valid for every management situation, and also for CSR decisions. There is no set of universal best practices in CSR.
The above-stated conclusions have many different implications. For example, as we explained earlier, it is only natural that there are unique differences between the Anglo-Saxon (American and British) and the European (Continental, Scandinavian, Mediterranean, Eastern European, etc.) models of CSR, even though there are also many common elements. It does not make sense to discuss which approach is best: they are different, because their settings are also different, and they will change, in part because of changes in the environment, and also because of competition between models. We can compare two models, but there are obvious limitations when judging one with the criteria of the other, since a full translation is neither possible nor desirable. And this is also valid when judging previous models of CSR using present criteria.
Even using the same words does not guarantee that we are comparing the same concepts: as we said before, in some European countries the term social in CSR is translated as societal, because the first word has a limited meaning, as is the case in the Scandinavian countries. This is a caution against possible imperialism in the use of words, and also suggests that the use of English as a common language may sometimes be more of a hindrance than an advantage. I held also that Corporate Social Responsibility is mainly an ethical concept and even if there are other managerial dimensions, we cannot forget that to be responsible is a moral category.26 CSR is, then, neither an exercise of costs and benefits, of merely behaving according to the more or less arbitrary expectations and demands of society or of the different stakeholders, nor a management tool, nor even a mere social practice. Every decision in a company has a relational dimension, but we do not think that there is a relational responsibility, meaning a responsibility attributed by society to the behavior of firms. We think that such a relational responsibility would open the door to an arbitrary attachment of responsibilities for political, ideological or private, even immoral, reasons.
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I also think that, when social responsibilities are understood as a mere response to the demands and expectations of society and not as ethical duties, it opens the door to a tick-the-box mentality. As incentives and control theories show, such a mentality has undesired effects, hinders ethical practices and even affects the firms socially expected behavior. This instrumental, making the business case thinking about CSR has led to a variety of arguments claiming that it is profitable for businesses to engage in CSR in order to improve their bottom line. However, the many attempts to measure corporate social performance with the aim of making a connection between CSR and financial performance have not yielded any convincing results; they remain inconclusive (Vogel, 2005).
I think that the ultimate reasons for being responsible are not external results for employees, consumers or society, but peoples and the organizations inherent moral quality. To show that being a socially responsible manager is, in the final analysis, equivalent to being a good manager could be the strongest reason for winning the support of managers and experts for CSR. Unfortunately, we are still a long way from this, and the fear of many managers regarding ethics, still often understood as an external imposition on a profit-maximizing behavior, remains a big hurdle. They prefer a tick-the-box CSR, or a list of obligations that managers can negotiate with the other stakeholders. To say that a companys social responsibilities are ethical in nature does not contradict the fact that the scope and content of CSR changes with time and place. It is the same relationship that we find between ethical principles and their application in specific settings: many ethical schools will acknowledge that firms have duties towards the environment, but the detailed content of these duties will not be the same in the United States, China or Germany, or in any of these countries in the 21st Century and one hundred years ago, or in a small rural area and a big city, or in a chemical factory and a travel agency. This is not ethical relativism. This argument helps us understand the social nature of CSR: it is a responsibility that emerges in society, cannot be understood without reference to this specific society (or societies), and needs the continuous interaction and dialogue between the firm and its stakeholders (including academia and practitioners). As we said before, a firms role in society and, hence, its social responsibilities, cannot be defined in a vacuum. And this definition will depend on the responsibilities of all agents in society: governments, politicians, trade unions, non-governmental organizations, consumers, etc. When we define CSR, we are implicitly defining the whole set of interrelated responsibilities and roles in society: CSR is not only business ethics, but also social ethics and even political ethics, and besides the corporate
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responsibilities, there are also the responsibilities of government, public administration, trade unions, the media, consumers, etc. It is tempting to add that this observation leads us automatically to view firms not only as economic actors but also as political agents. In particular, the changing interplay between state and private actors locally and when doing business globally requires rethinking. The new political role of firms that is emerging globally challenges both business managers and academics to reflect on how the core of ethical social responsibility can be sustained. I challenge the research community to address these issues further.
The Failure of CSR Why has CSR failed so spectacularly to address the very issues it claims to be most concerned about? This comes down to three factors the Triple Curse of Modern CSR, if you like: Curse 1: Incremental CSR One of the great revolutions of the 1970s was total quality management, conceived by American statistician W. Edwards Deming, perfected by the Japanese and exported around the world as ISO 9001. At the very core of Demings TQM model and the ISO standard is continual improvement, a principle that has now become ubiquitous in all management system approaches to performance. No surprise, therefore, that the most popular environmental management standard, ISO 14001, is also build on the same principle. There is nothing wrong with continuous improvement per se. On the contrary, it has brought safety and reliability to the very products and services that we associate with modern quality of life. But when we use it as the primary approach to tackling our social, environmental and ethical challenges, it fails on two critical counts: speed and scale. The incremental approach of CSR, while replete with evidence of micro-scale, gradual improvements, has completely and utterly failed to make any impact on the massive sustainability crises that we face, many of which are getting worse at a pace that far outstrips any futile CSR-led attempts at amelioration. Curse 2: Peripheral CSR Ask any CSR manager what their greatest frustration is and they will tell you: lack of top management commitment. This is code-speak for saying that CSR is, at best, a peripheral function in most companies. There may be a CSR manager, a CSR department even, a CSR report and a public commitment to any number of CSR codes and standards. But these do little to mask the underlying truth that shareholder-driven capitalism is rampant and its obsession with short-term financial measures of progress is contradictory in almost every way to the long-term, stakeholder approach needed for high-impact CSR. The reason Enron collapsed, and indeed why our current financial crisis was allowed to spiral out of control, was not because of a few rogue executives or creative accounting practices, it was because of a culture of
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greed embedded in the DNA of the company and the financial markets. Joel Baken goes so far as to suggest that companies are legally bound to act like psychopathsvii. Whether you agree or not (and despite the emerging research on responsible competitiveness), it is hard to find any substantive examples in which the financial markets reward responsible behaviour. Curse 3: Uneconomic CSR If there was ever a monotonously repetitive, stuck record in CSR debates, it is the one about the so-called business case for CSR. That is because CSR managers and consultants, and even the occasional saintly CEO, are desperate to find compelling evidence that doing good is good for business, i.e. CSR pays! And indeed, the lack of sympathetic research seems to be no impediment for these desperados endlessly incanting the motto of the business case, as if it were an entirely self-evident fact. The rather more inconvenient truth is that CSR sometimes pays, in specific circumstances, but more often does not. Of course there are low-hanging fruit like eco-efficiencies around waste and energy but these only go so far. Most of the hard-core CSR changes that are needed to reverse the misery of poverty and the sixth mass extinction of species currently underway require strategic change and massive investment. They may very well be lucrative in the long term, economically rational over a generation or two, but we have already established that the financial markets dont work like that; at least, not yet. CSR 1.0: Burying the Past What would be far more productive than all this wishing and pretending that CSR is good and fluffy and cuddly and will help to solve the worlds problems is to simply see it for what it is: an outdated, outmoded artifact that was once useful, but whose time has past. We need to let the old CSR die gracefully and give it a dignified burial. By all means, let us give it the respect it deserves a fitting eulogy about brave new frontiers of responsibility that it conquered in its heyday. But then, let us look for the next generation of CSR the newborn that will carry the torch forward.viii If we succeed in admitting the failure of CSR and burying the past, we may find ourselves on the cusp of a revolution, in much the same way as the internet transitioned from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. The emergence of social media networks, user-generated content and open source approaches are a fitting metaphor for the changes CSR will have to undergo if it is to redefine its contribution and make a serious impact on the social, environmental and ethical challenges the world faces. For example, in the same way that Web 1.0 moved from a one-way, advertising-push approach to a more collaborative Google-Facebook mode, CSR 1.0 is starting to move beyond the outmoded approach of CSR as philanthropy or public relations (which has been widely criticised as greenwash) to a more interactive, stakeholder-driven model. Similarly, while Web 1.0 was dominated by standardised hardware and software,
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but now encourages co-creation and diversity, so too in CSR, we are beginning to realise the limitations of the generic CSR codes and standards that have proliferated in the past 10 years. CSR 2.0: Embracing the Future Let us explore in more detail this revolution that will, if successful, change the way we talk about and practice CSR and, ultimately, the way we do business. There are five principles that make up the DNA of CSR 2.0: Connectedness (C), Scalability (S), Responsiveness (R), Duality (2) and Circularity (0). Principle 1: Connectedness (C) In order to succeed in the CSR revolution, business has to break the hegemony of shareholders. It is as if companies are mere serfs in the kingdom of shareholder-value capitalism. They may appear to wield extraordinary power, but in reality they are subservient to invisible shareholders, bowed before the throne of financial markets and at the beck and call of City analysts. Most CEOs dont last more than 3 years and are slaves to stock price fluctuations during that time. The only way to take the power back is to move from subservience to connectedness. Business has to start to institutionalise (and thereby legitimise) multi-stakeholder relationships. When the chemicals industry created their Responsible Care programme in 1985, in the wake of a spree of disasters like Seveso and Bhopal, it was a typical CSR 1.0 approach unilateral, defensive and incremental. By contrast, the emergence of various multi-stakeholder initiatives in the 1990s, like the Forest Stewardship Council and AccountAbility 1000, begins to give a glimpse of how the connectedness principle of CSR 2.0 may increasingly manifest. In 1994, when McDonalds took two activists to court for criticising the company, their bullying tactics backfired and McLibel (as the case came to be known in the popular media) turned into the longest trial in British legal history (313 days), creating a public relations disaster for the company. By contrast, when Rio Tinto actively sought out a cross-sector partnership with the World Conservation Union to progressively tackle its biodiversity impacts, it showed a sensitivity to multi-stakeholder connectedness that was so patently lacking in McDonalds approach. Principle 2: Scalability (S) The CSR literature is liberally sprinkled with charming case studies of truly responsible and sustainable projects. The problem is that so few of them ever go to scale. It is almost as if, once the sound-bites and PRplaudits have been achieved, no further action is required. They become shining pilot projects and best practice examples, tarnished only by the fact that they are endlessly repeated on the CSR conference circuits of the world, without any vision for how they might transform the core business of their progenitors. The sustainability problems we face, be they climate change or poverty, are at such a massive scale, and are so urgent, that any CSR solutions that cannot match that scale and urgency are red herrings at best and evil diversions at worst. How long have we been tinkering away with ethical consumerism (organic, fairtrade and
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the like), with hardly any impact on the worlds major corporations or supply chains? And yet, when WalMarts former CEO, Lee Scott, had his post-Katrina Damascus experience and decided that all cotton will be organic and all fish MSC-certified, then we are started seeing CSR 2.0-type scalability. There have always been charitable loans for the worlds poor and destitute. But when Muhammad Yunus, in the aftermath of a devastating famine in Bangladesh, set up the Grameen Bank and it went from one $74 loan in 1974 to a $2.5 billion enterprise, spawning more than 3,000 similar microcredit institutions in 50 countries reaching over 133 million clients, that is a lesson in scalability. Or contrast Toyotas laudable but premium-priced hybrid Prius for the rich and eco-conscious with Tatas $2,500 Nano, a cheap and ecofriendly car for the masses. The one is an incremental solution with long term potential; the other is scalable solution with immediate impact. Principle 3: Responsiveness (R) Business has a long track-record of responsiveness to community needs witness generations of philanthropy and heart-warming generosity following disasters like 9/11 or the Sichuan Earthquake. But this is responsiveness on their own terms, responsiveness when giving is easy and cheque-writing does nothing to upset their commercial applecart. However, the severity of the global problems we face demands that companies go much further. CSR 2.0 requires uncomfortable, transformative responsiveness, which questions whether the industry, or the business model itself, is part of the solution or part of the problem. When it became clear that climate change posed a serious challenge to the sustainability of the fossil fuel industry, all the major oil companies formed the Global Climate Coalition, a lobby group explicitly designed to discredit and deny the science of climate change and the main international policy response, the Kyoto Protocol. In typical CSR 1.0 style, these same companies were simultaneously making hollow claims about their CSR credentials. By contrast, the Prince of Waless Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change has, since 2005, been lobbying for bolder UK, EU and international legislation on climate change, accepting that carbon emission reductions of between 50-85% will be needed by 2050. CSR 2.0 responsiveness also means greater transparency, not only through reporting mechanisms like the Global Reporting Initiative and Carbon Disclosure Project, but also by sharing critical intellectual resources. The Eco-Patent Commons, set up by WBCSD to make technology patents available, without royalty, to help reduce waste, pollution, global warming and energy demands, is one such step in the right direction. Another is the donor exchange platforms that have begun to proliferate, allowing individual and corporate donors to connect directly with beneficiaries via the web, thereby tapping the long tail of CSR.ix Principle 4: Duality (2) Much of the debate on CSR in the past has dwelt in a polarised world of either/or. Either your company is responsible or it is not. Either you support GMOs or you dont. Either you make life-saving drugs available
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for free or you dont. This fails to recognise that most CSR issues manifest as dilemmas, rather than easy choices. In a complex, interconnected CSR 2.0 world, companies (and their critics) will have to become far more sophisticated in understanding local contexts and the appropriate local solutions they demand, without forsaking universal principles. For example, a few years ago, BHP Billiton was vexed by their relatively poor performance on the (then) Business in the Environment (BiE) Index, run by UK charity Business in the Community. Further analysis showed that the company had been marked down for their high energy use and relative energy inefficiency. Fair enough. Or was it? Most of BHP Billitons operations were, at that time, based in southern Africa, home to some of the worlds cheapest electricity. No wonder this was not a high priority. What was a priority, however, was controlling malaria in the community, where they had made a huge positive impact. But the BiE Index didnt have any rating questions on malaria, so this was ignored. Instead, it demonstrated a typical, Western-driven, one-size-fits-all CSR 1.0 approach.x Carrolls CSR pyramid has already been mentioned. But in a sugar farming co-operative in Guatemala, they have their own CSR pyramid economic responsibility is still the platform, but rather than legal, ethical and philanthropic dimensions, their pyramid includes responsibility to the family (of employees), the community and policy engagement. Clearly, both Carrolls pyramid and the Guatemala pyramid are helpful in their own appropriate context. Hence, CSR 2.0 replaces either/or with both/and thinking. Both SA 8000 and the Chinese national labour standard have their role to play. Both premium branded and cheap generic drugs have a place in the solution to global health issues. CSR 2.0 is a search for the Chinese concept of a harmonious society, which implies a dynamic yet productive tension of opposites a Tai Chi of CSR, balancing yin and yang. Principle 5: Circularity (0) The reason CSR 1.0 has failed is not through lack of good intent, nor even through lack of effort. The old CSR has failed because our global economic system is based on a fundamentally flawed design. For all the miraculous energy unleashed by Adam Smiths invisible hand of the free market, our modern capitalist system is faulty at its very core. Simply put, it is conceived as an abstract system without limits. As far back as the 1960s, pioneering economist, Kenneth Boulding, called this a cowboy economy, where endless frontiers imply no limits on resource consumption or waste disposal. By contrast, he argued, we need to design a spaceship economy, where there is no away; everything is engineered to constantly recycle. In the 1990s, in The Ecology of Commerce, Paul Hawken translated these ideas into three basic rules for sustainability: waste equals food; nature runs off current solar income; and nature depends on diversity. He also proposed replacing our product-sales economy with a service-lease model, famously using the example of Interface Evergreen carpets that are leased and constantly replaced and recycled. William McDonough
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and Michael Braungart have extended this thinking in their Cradle to Cradle industrial model. Cradle to cradle is not only about closing the loop on production, but about designing for good, rather than the CSR 1.0 modus operandi of less bad. Hence, CSR 2.0 circularity would create buildings that, like trees, produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water; or factories that produce drinking water as effluent; or products that decompose and become food and nutrients; or materials that can feed into industrial cycles as high quality raw materials for new products. Circularity neednt only apply to the environment. Business should be constantly feeding and replenishing its social and human capital, not only through education and training, but also by nourishing community and employee wellbeing. CSR 2.0 raises the importance of meaning in work and life to equal status alongside ecological integrity and financial viability.
Shapeshifting: From CSR 1.0 to CSR 2.0 Table 1: Shifting CSR Principles CSR 1.0 Paternalistic Risk-based CSR 2.0 Collaborative Reward-based
Image-driven Performance-driven Specialized Standardized Marginal Western Integrated Diversified Scalable Global
Even revolutions involve a transition, so what might we expect to see as markers along the transformational road? The table above summarizes some the shifts in principles between the CSR 1.0 and CSR 2.0. Hence, paternalistic relationships between companies and the community based on philanthropy give way to more equal partnerships. Defensive, minimalist responses to social and environmental issues are replaced with proactive strategies and investment in growing responsibility markets, such as clean technology. Reputation-conscious public-relations approaches to CSR are no longer credible and so companies are judged on actual social, environmental and ethical performance (are things getting better on the ground in absolute, cumulative terms?). Although CSR specialists still have a role to play, each dimension of CSR 2.0 performance is embedded and integrated into the core operations of companies. Standardised approaches remain useful as guides to consensus, but CSR finds diversified expression and implementation at very local levels. CSR solutions,
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including responsible products and services, go from niche nice-to-haves to mass-market must-haves. And the whole concept of CSR loses its Western conceptual and operational dominance, giving way to a more culturally diverse and internationally applied concept. How might these shifting principles manifest as CSR practices? The table below summarises some key changes to the way in which CSR will be visibly operationalised. Table 2: Shifting CSR Practices CSR 1.0 Premium markets Charity projects CSR indexes CSR departments Ethical consumerism Product liability CSR 2.0 Base of the Pyramid markets Social enterprise CSR ratings CSR incentives Choice editing Service agreements
CSR reporting cycles CSR data streams Stakeholder groups Process standards Social networks Performance standards
CSR will no longer manifest as luxury products and services (as with current green and fairtrade options), but as affordable solutions for those who most need quality of life improvements. Investment in selfsustaining social enterprises will be favoured over cheque-book charity. CSR indexes, which rank the same large companies over and over (often revealing contradictions between indexes) will make way for CSR rating systems, which turn social, environmental, ethical and economic performance into corporate scores (A+, B-, etc., not dissimilar to credit ratings), which analysts and others can usefully employ to compare and integrate into their decision making. Reliance on CSR departments will disappear or disperse, as performance across responsibility and sustainability dimensions are increasingly built into corporate performance appraisal and market incentive systems. Self-selecting ethical consumers will become irrelevant, as CSR 2.0 companies begin to choiceedit, i.e. cease offering implicitly less ethical product ranges, thus allowing guilt-free shopping. Post-use liability for products will become obsolete, as the service-lease and take-back economy goes mainstream. Annual CSR reporting will be replaced by online, real-time CSR performance data flows. Feeding into these live communications will be Web 2.0 connected social networks, instead of periodic meetings of rather cumbersome stakeholder panels. And typical CSR 1.0 management systems standards like ISO 14001 will
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be less credible than new performance standards, such as those emerging in climate change, that set absolute limits and thresholds. CSR 2.0: The New DNA of Business : All of these visions of the future imply such a radical shift from the current model of CSR that they beg the question: do we need a new model of CSR? Certainly, Carrolls enduring CSR Pyramid, with its Western cultural assumptions, static design and wholesale omission of environmental issues, must be regarded as no longer fit for purpose. Even the emphasis on social in corporate social responsibility implies a rather limited view of the agenda. So what might a new model look like? The CSR 2.0 model proposes that we keep the acronym, but rebalance the scales, so to speak. Hence, CSR comes to stand for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility. This change acknowledges that sustainability (with roots in the environmental movement) and responsibility (with roots in the social activist movement) are really the two main games in town. A cursory look at companies non-financial reports will rapidly confirm this they are mostly either corporate sustainability or corporate responsibility reports. However, CSR 2.0 also proposes a new interpretation on these terms. Like two intertwined strands of DNA, sustainability and responsibility can be thought of as different, yet complementary elements of CSR. Hence, as illustrated in Figure 1, sustainability can be conceived as the destination - the challenges, vision, strategy and goals, i.e. what we are aiming for while responsibility is more about the journey solutions, responses, management, actions, i.e. how we get there.
In March 2001 Unilevers high profile Indian operation, was found to have dumped over 300 mt of mercury outside its thermometer plant at Kodia kanal in South India. The manufacturing facility was almost exclusively catering to US markets, and represented but a drop in its over USD 2.0 billion annual turnover in India. Hindustan Lever, as the Indian operation is called, has for decades been the favorite destination for the elite from Indias prestigious business schools, and makes huge investments in providing human and challenging environments for its professional staff. Why then did it fight tooth and nail to deny the mercury contamination only to be finally chastised by the community and government itself? As a contrast the Unilever website states, We are committed to conducting our operations with integrity and with respect for the interests of our stakeholders.. We are also committed to making continuous improvements in the management of our environmental impacts and to working towards our longerterm goal of developing a sustainable business.
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18 years earlier, in 1984 a chemical gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Often referred to as the worst industrial disaster in human history, on the horrific night of December 2nd and 3rd, more than 40 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate escaped from the pesticide factory. Approximately half a million people were exposed to the gas and 20,000 have died to date as a result of their exposure. More than 120,000 people continue to suffer from severe health ailments related to the accident and contamination. In 2001, the US-based gigantic Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide, thereby acquiring its assets and liabilities. However it has been steadfastly refusing to clean up the site, provide safe drinking water or compensate the victims, or even disclose the composition of the gas leak, Dow, like UCIL earlier, claims that it has no liability of the past. The Dow Chemical Company, with an annual sales of $28 billion, says it is committed to the principles of Sustainable Development, and its approximately 50,000 employees seek to balance economic, environmental and social responsibilities.
Figure 1: Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility (The New CSR)
The DNA of CSR 2.0 (Figure 2) can be conceived as spiralling, interconnected, non-hierarchical levels, representing economic, human, social and environmental systems, each with a twinned
sustainability/responsibility manifestation: economic sustainability and financial responsibility; human sustainability and labour responsibility; social sustainability and community responsibility; and environmental sustainability and moral responsibility.
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Figure 2: The DNA of CSR 2.0 (Double-Helix Model)
I.
Has anything changed?
What in effect has changed during the past two decades in India, the time span between the above examples? Undoubtedly on the one hand, the business operating environment has turned from one, which was openly hostile (The Coca Cola Company was asked to leave India in 1977) to being very warm and welcoming in Indias new era of economic liberalization (India is now marketed as new global business destination1). This though has not reflected in any new responsible behavior on the side of the corporates themselves. In fact while some cases come to light, others remain hidden. For example multinational companies exploring new markets in India have been known to esist more stringent environmental legislation in India, which may be more at par with those in developed countries2. Many international brands, marketing new materials such as plastics, food packaging or electronics do not bring along systems of waste minimization or management, which they readily incorporate into their western operations. Corporate Social Responsibility then does not seem to be a globally practiced work ethic.
II.
New Terminology:
On the other hand, during the same period, Responsible Care, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the UN based Global Compact are new terms to have found increasing international legitimacy as todays way of doing business. But are they real? As corporates become more global and enter newer developing country markets, such as in India and China, these terms are widely used on websites, in corporate literature and in presentations, evidently to convince people that things have changed and that a new ethical global business practice is underway. However the nature of engagement on the ground leaves a lot to be desired.
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India and CSR: In India, the market is the new mantra. Globalization has brought in new players and alluring products into markets. The growing middle class, which has been bereft, of goods in the past, is too happy consuming, to want to pay heed to what may lie underneath. American style, glass lined shopping malls teem with the newly rich. Plastic money has made hitherto inaccessible goods merely a signature away. It is a new ethos, expectant and eager, which draws in glitzy brands supported by nubile advertising. The dismal human condition of the rest of the country does not exist here, and the fact that over 25 % of the country does not have even a meal a day is a mere statistic3. It is an engagement, which for many is an uncomfortable one, and a willingness to believe in corporate literature an easy out of any possible guilt. In such a context the picking seems to be easy for businesses with the system available to be beaten for profit. Terms like ethical behavior can put an uncomfortable hurdle in that path and for a powerful corporate bending rules, is not too difficult. Corporate philanthropy helps as well. NGOs are funded to carry out community development work, and these too are advertised as part of the
1 US$ 3.4 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India in 2001- 2002, compared to over USD 43 billion in China. India policy is to pursue higher FDIs. 2 Various environmental norms in India are much more lax than EU norms for example and resisted by multinationals. 3 India is home to the largest number of hungry people in the world, According to the United Nations Development Programs Human Development Report, this exceeds 233 million hungry people.
branding process4. Cynically, such donations also obtain local tax rebates. But even though some people may benefit from such charity, it does not translate into changing the way business itself is done. Can Corporate Social Responsibility truly be a reality in such a context? Or does it need other legal and institutional pushes which empower the citizenry to function adequately? Such provisions can include effective liability laws, information disclosure requirements, corporate accountability and an impartial implementation of various citizens rights through various bodies.
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Take the case of producer responsibility for waste management. Many countries in Europe, including Switzerland, Sweden, Germany etc, by law need companies to collect used cars, television sets, computers, and batteries and to dispose them off. It is another matter that much of this is often collected and exported to the South! However these responsible models work in the given legal and social milieu. The same companies however do not show such enlightened behavior in India, and in fact often resist the setting up of such systems through their immense lobbying powers with governments. It would be futile to expect CSR to work in such an environment.
It can be argued that without such enabling conditions in a society, CSR cannot effectively work. It would need a functioning democracy that delivers not only in its intent but also in its institutions. When the balance of power in areas of civil liberties, environmental and social rights between industry, the citizens, and the state is equal then CSR could guide the larger role business has to play. Under such political conditions CSR, even when voluntary, puts a high degree of accountability onto the corporate entity. Shareholders would then accept that business goes beyond profits and dividends, into the manner in which these have been achieved. In another realm, where institutions meant to protect rights of society are not firmly in place and the power to influence processes is not vested enough in the citizenry, CSR could become out of place and misleading. No doubt India is a democracy, one that is very successful at ensuring a peaceful transference of power through an electoral system every five years. Yet, the country faces gross social inequities of poverty and a new affluence for a few. Human, consumer and environmental rights are contested terrains, and corporate scandals are commonplace. Many environmental and social legislations have been enacted under its strongly democratic Constitution.
However implementation is dismal and reflects the fact that Institutions responsible for this are weak and unaccountable to public pressure. In some areas, especially relating to marginalized sections like workers, there is also an 4 Unilever website for example states Community involvement is one element of our corporate social responsibility. Around the world our brands and companies engage with a wide variety of social and environmental causes to help people, their communities and the environment.
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inadequate legal focus. For example there is no comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Act, nor are Information Right laws in place. Though India is party to several international environmental and labour conventions, many including International Labour Organization (ILO) and United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) treaties have not been ratified5. Corruption in high circles is regularly reported,6 but convictions are almost non- existent. In such a scenario, CSR then becomes a mere web site declaration, with no pressure to deliver on the ground.
Forced or Voluntary? CSR needs an enabling condition in society for it to be effective. That it can be merely an internalized ethic, may be a rather romantic notion. This line of reasoning of course takes away the voluntary nature of CSR. In such a case, the corporate is probably responsible and even it is voluntarily so, there may be societal compulsions of survival at work. Corporate Social Responsibility is then not only a way of doing business, rather it may have to be enforced through public pressure. That is similar to the manner in which historically environmental, consumer and labour organizations have effected changed i.e. through activism and people playing an assertive role. However, a true CSR approach would entail that business embodies an internalized set of ethics, which go beyond profit maximization in a proactive manner even in societies where there is not enough demand for this. This must be independent of the local operating conditions and be a character of the business entity itself. The term responsibility implies an internal work ethic as well as a practice in the everydayness of doing business. At a minimum level it needs an adherence to laws and a respect for environment in which the business operates,7 but must go beyond in locating itself into social values. Else CSR relegates to mere lip service. To take it out of its context and then try and promote it as a voluntary activity for corporates in less demanding environments could be unproductive. It is with this caution that developing countries need to adopt and believe in CSR principles. But this is not always so. A new initiative in India, CREP, or The Corporate Responsibility for Environmental Protection initiated by the Indian government recently this year in 2003, is a case in point. A guideline for a set of non-mandatory norms for 17 polluting industrial sectors has been set but there is
5 Amongst them for example, the UNEP POPs as well as PIC Conventions, the ILO Freedom of Association and Protection of
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Right to Organised Convention (No.87) ,Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (No.98) ,Minimum Age Convention (No.138) Worst forms of Child Labour Convention (No.182) 6 In a new scandal in October 2003, a Cabinet Minister was caught on videotape accepting bribe from a representative of an Australian mining company. He had to resign. The case is under investigation. Earlier, 2001, a news website. Tehlka.com had implicated the Indian Defense Minister amongst others in high places in a bribery scandal through a videotaped sting operation. No convictions have been made. 7 The Unilever website states All Unilever companies must comply with local laws and adopt the same standards for occupational health and safety, consumer safety and environmental care.
claims to respect the earth cannot have discontinuities in its practices. Ethical practices have to place in an integrity framework, and that implies at the very least a lack of multiple ways of being. This can be no different for individuals as for companies. Mahatma Gandhi believed this strongly. According to him ethics were universally applicable to an individual, businesses of all sizes as well as to individuals in business. Though he acknowledged the right of business to make profits it had to give what was not needed back to the community. Like Andrew Carnegie, he too believed in the ideal of Trusteeship, where the spirit of community ownership was considered prime. All this implied an internally realized and practiced way of being, rather than something, which was forced from the outside, through Societal laws. Yet what seems to be more effective today is a pressure to ensure an acceptable social code, which has to be complied with. This arena needs social pressures to be brought upon businesses to conform irrespective of their own beliefs.
New Possibilities:
Of course the changing nature of business into new global forms can also be an opportunity of bringing on that level of accountability. Global brands are more vulnerable to public perceptions about their being good simply because much more is at stake, both in terms of money that is invested in building such brands8 as well in the markets which they affect. Recent disclosures of pesticides in soft drinks of Pepsi and Coke by an India NGO plummeted their urban sales in merely a few days9. It was revealing that no matter what the
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companies said to deny the reports, people simply did not believe them! If anything this was an indictment of generally how powerless people felt against the global force of such multinationals and at the first opportunity hit back by stopping buying the products.
CSR has a long way to travel. Today it operates in an environment, which is politically unfavorably balanced for the consumer, and corporates have a larger say in how things are. Even though CSR relates to ethics in business, at this time it seems that this is more a socially and legally enforced practice. It does not as yet emerge from an internalized position of a respect of people, nature and the environment. It plays out not as a self-willed moral and ethical self-realized way of being of the kind Gandhi might have envisaged, but rather more as a practice which may have to socially and legally enforced from the outside, as acceptable behavior, which an activist organization like Greenpeace may have to ensure.
8 Coca-Cola the drinks giant, alone is said to spend about $7bn a year in advertising to sell their products. 9 Many schools, as well as the Indian Parliament banned sales of these soft drinks after the controversy of pesticides in them was reported by the Center for Science and Environment, an Indian environmental non-governmental organization in September 2003.
I have agreed on the following working hypotheses for the project: Hypothesis 1: Corporate social responsibility is an ethical concept. Hypothesis 2: The demands for socially responsible actions have existed since before the Industrial Revolution, and firms have usually responded to them. Hypothesis 3: The content of Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved over time, depending on historical, cultural, political and socio-economic drivers and particular conditions in different countries and also at different points in time. One global CSR standard is, therefore, unlikely.
The first conclusion is that there are many useful definitions of CSR, but there is not and probably cannot be a unique, precise definition of CSR, because its content and application will vary from

one country to another, will change over time and also will differ among firms.
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CSR is the result, implicit or explicit, of a reflection on the nature of a firm, its role in society and its relationships with its internal and external stakeholders. This reflection is the task of the managers (and sometimes of the owners), but also of other stakeholders who have an impact on the firm or are being impacted. The outcome will vary depending on historical events, political systems, ideology, geography, social expectations and, as we have recently seen, global economic and financial pressures. Together, this constitutes the framework in which a company operates and defines how it can and wants to develop its CSR policies.
We dare say that, because we live in a plural, diverse and changing world, it is not possible to reach a universal agreement on the concept of CSR because ideas and facts, philosophy and history, society and the environment are interrelated. Moreover, CSR is also a dynamic concept that will change over time, as we have experienced in recent decades (and not only because of the contributions of experts).
Recently, we have observed that companies become social agents when taking on social and environmental responsibilities both at home and abroad. This may lead to a wider definition of a firms role in society, especially in the light of globalization. But this change does not necessarily mean that new definitions will supersede the old ones: new definitions may be an evolution, but it need not necessarily be so. The challenge is to resist the temptation to develop a unified standard of CSR, because such a standard would be devoid of richness, variation and flexibility and, from the viewpoint of the developing world, could likely be regarded as a new form of colonization through Western concepts. What we said of the differences between Europe and the United States can also be applied to many emerging economies: the fact that they have different views on CSR does not mean that those views are inferior. 25- Berthoin Antal et al. (2009, pp. 14-15) also point out that most scholars acting in the field [of CSR] in Germany in this period [since the 1990s] had little or no awareness of the work that had been conducted in earlier decades. By overlooking We recognize that there are valid reasons for such a call for a unified standard: the use of common theoretical backgrounds by academicians and of common tools by consultants; the interest of the financial analysts in finding simple and comprehensive measures of CSR for companies in different environments; the sharing of experiences by CSR managers from different companies and their interest in finding common and
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universal metrics for assessing their results; the interest of the politicians in promoting state-of-the-art CSR instruments in their countries, and the preference of multinational corporations for a level playing ground in the different places in which they do business. But these reasons are not convincing: if CSR is an ethical concept, there is nothing that can replace prudent analysis of each decision. We cannot expect two managers in different companies to react the same way, even in the same sector, country and time and if the problems look alike, when their firms history and environment and their personal experience, training and personalities are different. This is valid for every management situation, and also for CSR decisions. There is no set of universal best practices in CSR. The collection of papers in this special issue provides evidence for the claim that also in Europe, the demands for CSR and CSR practices have existed since before the Industrial Revolution. They are part of normal business activity, not something newly added in recent years. Companies cannot disregard them: even when they say that their only goal is to maximize profit, they are formulating a statement about their responsibility towards stakeholders and society, albeit a very limited one. CSR is an integral part of a firms strategy and its competitiveness and must continue to be highly diversified, even firm-specific, in order to be successful. We held also that Corporate Social Responsibility is mainly an ethical concept and even if there are other managerial dimensions, we cannot forget that to be responsible is a moral category.26 CSR is, then, neither an exercise of costs and benefits, of merely behaving according to the more or less arbitrary expectations and demands of society or of the different stakeholders, nor a management tool, nor even a mere social practice. Every decision in a company has a relational dimension, but we do not think that there is a relational responsibility, meaning a responsibility attributed by society to the behavior of firms. We think that such a relational responsibility would open the door to an arbitrary attachment of responsibilities for political, ideological or private, even immoral, reasons.
26- It can also be a legal category, but we are talking here of responsibilities whose origin is not law or regulation. To say that a companys social responsibilities are ethical in nature does not contradict the fact that the scope and content of CSR changes with time and place. It is the same relationship that we find between ethical principles and their application in specific settings: many ethical schools will acknowledge that firms have duties towards the environment, but the detailed content of these duties will not be the same in the United States, China or Germany, or in any of these countries in the 21st Century and one hundred years
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ago, or in a small rural area and a big city, or in a chemical factory and a travel agency. This is not ethical relativism. This argument helps us understand the social nature of CSR: it is a responsibility that emerges in society, cannot be understood without reference to this specific society (or societies), and needs the continuous interaction and dialogue between the firm and its stakeholders (including academia and practitioners). As we said before, a firms role in society and, hence, its social responsibilities, cannot be defined in a vacuum. And this definition will depend on the responsibilities of all agents in society: governments, politicians, trade unions, non-governmental organizations, consumers, etc. When we define CSR, we are implicitly defining the whole set of interrelated responsibilities and roles in society: CSR is not only business ethics, but also social ethics and even political ethics, and besides the corporate responsibilities, there are also the responsibilities of government, public administration, trade unions, the media, consumers, etc. It is tempting to add that this observation leads us automatically to view firms not only as economic actors but also as political agents. In particular, the changing interplay between state and private actors locally and when doing business globally requires rethinking. The new political role of firms that is emerging globally challenges both business managers and academics to reflect on how the core of ethical social responsibility can be sustained. We challenge the research community to address these issues further.
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BIBLOGRAPHY
Prieto-Carrn,Marina; Lund-Thomsen, Peter; Chan, Anita; Muro, Ana and Bhushan, Chandra, 2006, CONCLUSION Critical perspectives on CSR and development: what we know, what we don't know, and what we need to know, International Affairs, Vol. 82 Issue 5, p977-987 Payne, Adrian, 2006, Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, Journal of CONCLUSION Public Affairs, Vol. 6 Issue 3/4, p286-297 Sharp, John, 2006, Corporate social responsibility and development: An anthropological perspective, Development Southern Africa, Vol. 23 Issue 2, p213-222 Blowfield, Michael, 2005, Corporate Social Responsibility: reinventing the meaning of development?, International Affairs, Vol. 81 Issue 3, p515-524 Luetkenhorst, Wilfried, 2004, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Development Agenda, Intereconomics, Vol. 39 Issue 3, p157-166 Michael, Bryane, 2003, Corporate social responsibility in international development: an overview and critique, Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Management, Vol. 10 Issue 3, p115-128
Frynas, Jedrzej G., 2005, The false developmental promise of Corporate Social Responsibility: evidence from multinational oil companies, International Affairs, Vol. 81 Issue 3, p581-598 Williams, Oliver F., 2004, The UN Global Compact: The Challenge and the Promise, Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 14 Issue 4, p755-774 Blowfield, Michael, 2007, Reasons to be cheerful? What we know about csr's impact, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 28 Issue 4, p683-695 Gulbrandsen, Lars H., 2007, BP in Azerbaijan: a test case of the potential and limits of the CSR agenda?, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 28 Issue 4, p813-830 Ite, Uwem E., 2004, Multinationals and corporate social responsibility in developing countries: a case study of Nigeria, Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Management, Vol. 11 Issue 1, p1-11
Aupperle, K., Carroll, A. and Hatfield, J. (1985). 'An empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability'. Academy of Management Journal, 28, 44663.
Ashok Leyland Report on Corporate Social responsibility (2005-06.)


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Akabas, S.H., & Gates, B.L. (1993b). Managing disability in the workplace: A role for social workers. In P.A., & Akabas, S.H. (Eds.), Work and well-being: The occupational social work advantage. (pp.239-255). Washington, DC: NASW. Badhani, K.N. (1992). Corporate social accounting in public enterprises in India. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Commerce, Kumaun University Campus. Bhatt, S., & Abraham, P.F. (2005). Corporate social responsibility: An area of occupational social work practice. Paper presented in the national seminar on Voluntary Initiative of NGO and Corporate Sector for Social Development: Issues and Challenges, Faculty of Social Work, M.S. University, Baroda. Coulshed, V., & Mullender, A. (2001). Management and social work. New York, USA: Palgrave Publishers. Chakravarty, M. (2004). Corporate social responsibility in India: A study. Department of Social Work, University of Delhi, Delhi. Kamatchi, P. (2003). A study on corporate social performance with special reference to ethical issues in marketing. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Commerce, University of Bangalore. Lala, R.M. (1993). Beyond the last blue mountain: A life of J.R.D. TATA (1904-1993). New Delhi: Penguin Books India (P) Limited.
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Moxley, D. P. (2002). Social work strategies and tactics in the workplace: Socialization of people with disabilities. Journal of Social Work in Disability and Rehabilitation, 1(3), 43-60. Murthy, B. S., & Patro, G. C. (1977). Social responsibilities of industry: A study of the Belpahar experiment. The Indian Journal of Social Work, 37 (4), 343-355. Nalini, R. (2004). Industrial social work for employee development: A case study. Social Work Review, special issue, 107-113. Nalini, R. (2005). Social work and industry in India. In Singh, S., & Srivatsava, S.P. (Eds.) Teaching and practice of social work in India: Realities and responses. (pp. 255-266). Lucknow: New Royal Company. Naidu, Y. (2005). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India: Interventions on HIV/AIDS. Perspectives in Social Work, 20(1), 18. Pandey, S.N. (1989). Human side of TATA Steel. New Delhi: TATA McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited. Pandey, S.N. (1991). Social side of TATA Steel. New Delhi: TATA McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited. Report of the Tata Council for Community Initiatives. (2001). Mumbai: Tata Services Limited. Sarkar, S. (2004). Industrial social work to corporate social responsibility: Is it a shift in object from curbing loss to making profit? Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 40 (2), 273-284. Shah, A. (2000). Mainstreaming the corporate initiatives in social development: Insights from experiences in Gujarat. Social Change, 30 (3&4), 88. Sinha, D. (1998). Social work in business and industry: Challenges for the 21 century. Perspectives in Social work, 13(1), 12-18. Sundar, P. (2000). Beyond business: From merchant charity to corporate citizenship. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited. Tata Council for Community Initiatives. (2000). Guidelines for community development. Mumbai: Tata Services Limited. Tata Council for Community Initiatives. (2002). Tatas in the environment. Mumbai: Tata Services Limited. Tata Council for Community Initiatives. (2003). Tata volunteers report. Mumbai: Tata Services Limited. Thomilson, R.J. (Ed.), (1983a). Perspectives in industrial social work practice. Ottawa, Canada: Family Service Canada Publications
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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility 2.http://www.google.co.in/search?q=corporate+social+responsibility&hl=en&biw=1360&bih=677&prm d=ivnsb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=-e7PTd6dGMOurAe5zcjCCg&ved=0CEEQsAQ. 3.http://www.suite101.com/content/what-is-corporate-social-responsibilitya92588#ixzz1MRCZCkao 4. http://www.csr.gov.uk/pdf/2002_report.pdf
5. *http://www.ey.com/Global/content.nsf/Australia/News_Release_Corporate_Social_ Responsibility_26Aug 02 6. http://www.cseindia.org/misc/cola-indepth/cola2006/cola-index.htm(graphs& figures).
7. 8. 9. 10. 11. or information not sought
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corporate SOCIAL responsibility Child Labour and Right of Organization
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India is member of the International Labour Organization, and has ratified 40 of the ILO conventions. However, Indiahas not ratified four of the ILO core conventions:
o o o o
087 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize (1948) 098 Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining (1949) 138 Minimum Age Convention (1973) 182 Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999)
Indias domestic law on child labour, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (1986), ban employment of children in some dangerous occupations, such as factories and mines, and regulate the working conditions in others. According to this law, anyone above the age of 14 will be regarded as an adult and will not protected by the child labour regulations. According to UNICEF, insufficient attention has been given in India to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. The 1986 child labour law does not cover children in all sectors. India has the worlds highest number of child labourers under14 years.
Labour Laws:
India has altogether ratified 333 labour laws. The ways these laws are supervised and implemented, vary. Sub-contracts are common in India. One challenge is that 90% of the Indian labour is in the informal sector, which is not protected by the labour regulations. Most Indian states have enforced an act for minimum wages for labourers in scheduled employment, as stipulated in the Minimum Wage Act from 1948. However, the minimum wage is often not paid. According to ILO, labour under minimum wage is considered a form of forced labour. According to ILO estimates, there are more than one million forced labourers in India, particularly in the southern part. Many of these are children. India was in 1976 the first country in the South Asian region to enact legislation against bonded labour. Contract labour in India is another complex area. The contract workers do not get the same protection and benefits as permanent workers. Many work as contract labour for longer periods of time. Although the ILO Conventions related to forced Labour have been ratified, certain forms of bonded labour still persists, especially in the informal sector.
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India has enacted legislation that prohibits discrimination due to gender, religion, ethnicity or caste. Again, the record of implementation is varied. ILO has observed some violations in Indias implementation of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, (No 111, from 1958). This convention obligates the state parties to hinder discrimination due to e.g caste or gender, such as different salary scales and labour conditions.
The Environment:
The main law on environment and production is The Environment (Protection) Act (1986). This law gives the central government the authority to protect and improve environmental quality, as well as control and reduce pollution from all sources. The responsibility for environmental governance is shared between the corporations and the government. Many Indian institutions have come up with voluntary guidelines on environmental friendly practice. Among these is a partnership on voluntary pollution control, developed by the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests together with the industrial sector. Other initiatives include the Energy Efficient Initiative by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Indian Ecomark and the Clean Technology initiative by the Confederation of Indian Industry and others. With regard to the implementation of environmental laws, a challenge has been lack of knowledge on how to fulfil the laws in practice. There are also weaknesses in the implementation and control mechanisms, The budget and infrastructure for control has not been sufficient, although greatly improved over the last years.
Right to information and corruption

In the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index in 2008 in was ranked as number 85 out of 180 countries. The biggest problems were found in regards to politics and governance. According to a Global Compact report, there are low levels of government capacity for law enforcement and implementation in India, causing relatively high levels of corruption. In 2005, Right to information (RTI) act was established, This law gives the general public right to government information, and is meant to promote transparency and responsibility in the work of all governmental institutions.
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The introduction of RTI has led to changes in the transparency regarding establishment and implementation of strategies, programmes and laws. It is also opening for access to information in areas where the authorities have left out important aspects, and give the public a possibly to require important information. RTI is additionally an important tool in regards to environmental management.
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Corporate Social Responsibility: A Gentle Approach to Our Earth and Its People

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2011

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Child Rights Programming Corporate Social Responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

should be taken to be as God, is considered as the highest order of responsibility, be it to individuals or to

L.N. Rangarajan, Kautilya, The Arthashastra, Penguin Books India

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is:

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Corporate Sector - Company - Firm - Industry - Organization

Three Dimensional Aspects of CSR:

Economic aspects of CSR:

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Being a good citizen in the community

Social Aspects of CSR:

a) Responsibility towards Customers -

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Environmental and Ecological aspects of CSR:

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Is CSR the same as business ethics?

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Corporate responsibility: a false notion?

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Poor practices can be expensive:

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

Conclusion and Recommendations:

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

OBJECT OF THE TOPIC

SURAJ GUHA THAKURTA. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY, KERALA.

corporate SOCIAL responsibility

The concept of corporate

USA and the

public debate during the 1960s and