Kasmin Fernandes

Since the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals have to be implemented by 2030, it requires immense effort not only from the government but also from businesses. The Indian Government is already using SDGs as a roadmap for formulating national policies and regulations. It is incumbent upon corporations to complement these actions. Reporting of SDGs is a...

Mobilisation entails not only getting people to enrol, but also ensuring that the right people, in terms of ability, interests and expectations, participate in programmes. For both companies and NGOs, an inability to mobilise properly results in a failure to meet targets and, more importantly, excludes potential beneficiaries who would be in need of...

Natural disasters kill more than 50,000 people and displace tens of millions more each year. The total economic damage amounts to more than $100 billion annually. Populations in less developed countries are hardest hit: in countries with a medium or low human development index, up to six times as many people can be affected by...

2018 drew to a close with a hotly-contested ‘Katowice Climate Package’ finalised at COP24 establishing a set of guidelines to make the Paris Agreement operational by 2020. It was also a year that saw extreme weather events cause devastation throughout most of the world as in India with unprecedented flooding in Kerala and hurricanes battering...

The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) established a centralised scrutiny and prosecution mechanism last year for enforcement of corporate social responsibility (CSR) provisions, according to P P Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for the Law and Justice and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Based on inquiry, preliminary notices have been issued to 272 companies. On...

Artificial intelligence, while not a silver bullet, could contribute to the multi-pronged efforts to tackle some of the world’s most challenging social problems. Social impact domains used by social-sector organizations and CSR committees could benefit largely, according to a report by McKinsey Global Institute. Here are 10 ways to apply AI to social good. 1....

The average consumer is not aware of the staggering and depressing extent of food wastage and food loss in retail. If food has not been sold by its best before date, or if it is unsold close to, or past the best before date, retailers can send product back to the processor or manufacturer, and...

Viscose has often been marketed as a more ecologically sustainable alternative to polyester. It is also praised by some fashion brands because it requires less water to produce compared with cotton. What is wrong? Viscose is found in a huge variety of clothes and is used by almost every major fashion brand today. Although not inherently...

About 1.7 billion people worldwide are “unbanked,” that is, they do not have an account at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider. Companies in India can also have difficulties in accessing finance. Artificial Intelligence can help address core difficulties holding back financial inclusion: difficulties in verifying identities and in a lack of...

Content analysis has emerged as a useful tool for conducting CSR research. While having been useful for CSR research, the popular content analysis approaches alone are less effective for the analysis of big data, which may include millions (or billions) of rows of text. Today, corporate reports and sustainability disclosures are increasingly available in digital...

The trees of the Jhinkargadi forest have been nurtured for three generations by the villagers of Balarampur in Odisha. For more than four decades, since 1972 the villagers, especially women have been involved in taking care of the forest. Everyone from the village is part of the traditional rotational forest patrolling routine, under which...

For India to become an inclusive society, it is important that the nation’s corporate sector sensitises itself to the country’s diversity, its gender differences, ethnicity, and tolerance, and emerges as truly inclusive. Role models In this regard, MphasiS and Vindhya E-Infomedia have put in place progressive and employee-centric policies, bringing them a social return on investment....