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May 5, 2025
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CSR: Price of a Cup of Tea

By
Hency Thacker
-

India is among the largest consumers of tea in the world. It represents 19% of the global tea market. Tea is part of every social gathering in the country. However, the price we pay to have that tea is often overlooked by many.

Assam is the tea-growing state of India. The tea industry is mostly based there, with a lot of human rights violations. According to the government data, for every 100,000 births, 237 women lose their lives, making Assam the most dangerous state in the country to give birth.

Some of the largest tea companies of the world including Hindustan Unilever and Tata Global Beverages source tea from Assam. In fact, a spokesperson of Hindustan Unilever confirmed that 40% of their tea for the domestic Indian market comes from non-certified plantations as reported by CNN. The company aims to move this to 100% sustainably sourced plantations by 2020.

In 2009, Tata invested about $7.8 million to create Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL), the second largest tea producer in Assam. The APPL project affected 155,000 people – including 30,000 tea plantation workers and their families. However, the workers at this corporate-funded plantation too were not treated very well. The reports were filed by workers on violations of wage and labour laws, restrictions on freedom of association, poor hygiene and health, hazardous conditions for pesticide sprayers, and concerns with the share program, with the help of three local NGOs, PAJHRA, PAD and DBSS in 2013 with the World Bank’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO).

CAO released its final report after three years of investigations confirming many of the workers’ complaints. According to the report, despite a share program meant to increase worker profits, workers suffer from low wages, poor working conditions, inadequate living quarters and struggle to access basic healthcare. Additionally, the report finds that workers handled hazardous pesticides without proper training or equipment, conditions which even lead to the sudden death of at least one employee.

After China, India is the largest tea producer in the world. Assam is the largest tea producing state in India with 800 tea plantations. The state’s tea exports are valued at $250 million. But the price of a cup of tea is more than the lives of the tea plantation workers.

Thank you for reading the column until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

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The CSR Journal Team

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ICICI Academy for Skills will impart free training in key skills to youth at its new centre in Dehradun

By
The CSR Journal
-

ICICI Foundation plans to train 5 lakh individuals by 2020

With the Prime Minister’s Office taking a keen interest in enhancing skill capabilities of the youth, and PM Narendra Modi’s aim of skilling 500 million people by 2022, industry stakeholders like ICICI Group are working towards closing the gap between skill development and unemployment.

Creating vocational training centres is a huge step in reaching out to the underprivileged youth. A new centre launched in Dehradun on Friday by ICICI Academy for Skills (ICICI Academy), an arm of ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, will provide free vocational training so that this section of society can secure jobs and have a sustainable livelihood.

With this launch, ICICI Academy will have an astonishing 25 centres running across India. The impact figures are impressive: about 1.14 lakh youth trained, including 46,000 women with a 100% rate of placement. The Academy further aims to train nearly 1.50 lakh youth by FY20.

ICICI Foundation, having trained 3.87 lakh people since its inception through the ICICI Academy for Skills and other livelihood programmes, plans to take the figure up to 5 lakh by 2020.

Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, inaugurated the centre.

Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat inaugurating the new centre

At the launch event, Mr. Saurabh Singh, President, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, told The CSR Journal: “The ICICI Group has a long standing tradition of contributing to the nation’s growth through its business and CSR initiatives. In line with this tradition, we recognised skill development as an important area of focus. With this focus, emerged the idea of setting up skill training centres across the country, and the launch of ICICI Academy for Skills.”

“Our effort has been to take a holistic approach to ensure free-of-cost, job-oriented training, to the youth from the weaker sections of society and also help them to find employment through our linkages with the industry. We are delighted to partner with the Uttarakhand Government to establish a new centre of ICICI Academy in Dehradun under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model. We believe that the skills acquired through this Academy will equip the trained youth to engage in productive and remunerative economic activity and take part in the state’s growth,” he added.

The centre will provide free training in ‘Selling Skills’ and ‘Office Administration’. The curricula consists of industry relevant vocational training as well as life skills such as etiquette and grooming, communication, basic English and financial literacy. The course lasts 12 weeks and is open to people of age 18-30 years, belonging to weaker sections of society who’ve completed Standard X. Initially, the centre will train 550 students a year.

Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat with students
Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat with the students

This isn’t the only socially conscious initiative by ICICI Foundation in Uttarakhand. Another ongoing programme provides training for making handicrafts with the Lantana plant, and guides villagers about credit and market linkages in the Leti and Okhaldunga villages of Nainital.

In partnership with research centre ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, a host of the state’s people were trained on the development of sustainable freshwater fisheries, cold water aquaculture and improved nutrition of fish. The programme, conducted in the Almora and Nainital districts, resulted in increased production and better disease management.

In terms of impact through livelihood programmes, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth covers a wide spectrum. It is active in over 1,200 villages through the Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs). Since its inception, ICICI Foundation has trained 3.87 lakh people and plans to reach the 5 lakh figure by 2020.

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CSR report: Huawei Technologies India spent INR 1.43 crore on CSR last year

By
The CSR Journal
-
Huawei India R&D Centre is the first overseas software development center of Huawei, a global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Established in the year 1999 in Bengaluru, the India R&D center formally known as Huawei Technologies India, spent a total of 1.43 crore rupees on corporate social responsibility in 2017-18. Here’s a summary of what transpired.

Focus area

With an objective to support harmonious social development by undertaking and investing in basic civic infrastructure such as clean drinking water in villages, proper sanitation facilities in government-run schools in villages, etc. Huawei Technologies India Pvt. Ltd (HTIPL) undertook building of Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant facilities in nearby villages benefitting more than 4,000 families and toilet blocks in 10 government run schools.

New vision

In 2017, Huawei confirmed its new vision, which is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. Huawei India R&D Center took up CSR initiatives that will address these challenges.
Between the years 2015 to 2018, they set up four innovation labs focusing on future oriented technologies like Deep Learning, Software Defined Networking (SDN), Augmented Reality (AR), Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and cloud giving engineering students an opportunity to be industry ready.

Highlights of CSR activities

1. Clean Drinking Water Projects

Huawei India R&D Centre has built 10 drinking water facilities (RO Plant), and is building 6 more such facilities. Each RO Plant has a capacity to dispense 500 units of 20 litres of clean drinking water every day, which will benefit more than 4,000 families from these villages.
These facilities are built in a 50:50 partnership between Huawei and the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) (Under the MLA Local Development Grant Scheme).
Case study
NandhiniNandhini, a migrant labourer lives with her family of six in a rural part of Bengaluru city in India. She and her family consume about two 20-litre cans of water to drink in a week. Her family paid about 30-40 INR for a can of water bought from the nearest departmental store from their weekly wages. Today, Nandhini pays 5 INR for 20 ltrs of clean and safe drinking water saving up about 60-70 INR every week.

2. Improving Sanitation Facilities at Schools

Students from government schools in front of the toilet blocks built by Huawei
Identifying that sanitation and hygiene in school makes a visible impact on the health and hygiene of children, the company set out to build basic sanitation facilities and toilet blocks for the children at 10 government-run schools at villages in Bengaluru contributing to ‘Swachh Bharat: Swachh vidyalaya’, a national campaign driving ‘Clean India: Clean Schools’ by the Indian government.
The initiative has successfully benefitted over 3,000 children in these schools, while increasing enrolment, regular attendance making a visible impact on the health and hygiene of children through improvement in their health and hygiene practices, and those of their families and the communities.

3. Improving School Infrastructure  

One of biggest reason cited by dropouts of govt. run schools in Bengaluru among others is the lack of infrastructure resulting in a downward slide in enrolment and attendance. The students in many of the city’s government schools are forced to sit on the floor or on rugs, as the schools do not have basic infrastructure of benches and desks for children.
Students from Varthur govt. school on their new desks and benches sponsored by Huawei
To enable a better infrastructure that will benefit students of govt. run schools which is mostly attended by underprivileged children, Huawei India R&D Center provided school desks and benches reaching over 1000 students from various govt. schools located in Bengaluru.
The R&D Centre also distributed sturdy school bags with stationery items and other essentials to close to 800 children from 4 schools enabling and supporting a better education.

4. Huawei Merit Scholarships

To motivate aspiring engineering students, Huawei has offered scholarships to 84 students from top engineering colleges in India. These scholarships are awarded to students based on merit and economic status.
Through these scholarships Huawei India R&D Center aims to develop long term relationships with top tier colleges and universities to foster best talent in ICT industry. In addition to scholarships, the program will also include project internships, tech talks with students by our SMEs and designing curriculum to suit industry requirements as relevant.
Huawei Merit Scholarship students visiting the
India R&D Centre campus
In 2018, they completed the third set of scholarships followed by talks at these colleges from business leaders on upcoming technologies, how students can excel and build areas of expertise and more.
The scholarship recipients visited the India R&D Centre campus as part of this program to better understand the technologies the company works on and interact with business leaders.

Blockchain: A New Momentum for Corporate Social Responsibility

By
Aayush Dutta
-
Since the launch of bitcoin in 2009, the popularity of the blockchain technology has piggybacked on the hype of cryptocurrencies. It is the technology on which cryptocurrencies run. Over the past few years, it has evolved beyond being synonymous with cryptocurrencies and is now placed on the pedestal of being a revolutionary technology with soaring expectations.
Recognizing its potential, the World Economic Forum predicts that 10 per cent of the global gross domestic product will be stored on blockchain technology by 2027. Governments around the world are chasing possibilities to harness the technology’s potential to advance social good and optimize their activities.
At the heart of the blockchain technology is the universal ledger and the resulting immutability. The universal ledger is a chain of blocks (each block consists of ‘data’, a unique hash and the hash of the previous block) that are linked to each other and are shared with all the parties in the universal ledger network. Every new entry into this ledger is a new block that has to be authenticated by the consensus of all parties on the network (run through a computer-generated algorithm). This consensus-based immutable mechanism of the blockchain technology ensures trust and transparency of the system.
Industries from healthcare to automobiles and from banking to education are already pursuing this technology for its tamper-proof record of data. The trust and transparency that blockchain assures also resonate with the values of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The synergy between blockchain and CSR could open doors for innovation to address financial transparency, reliability, impact measurement and reporting in India. By leveraging this technology, a whole new ecosystem of blockchain-based CSR could be created to ensure funds and benefits reach intended recipients and goals with enhanced visibility.
One such example of a potential synergy could be the use of Smart Contracts (digital contracts based on blockchain technology) for the execution of CSR in India. The terms of the project along with budget estimates and predetermined outcome metrics will be coded into the smart contract. This will allow near-real-time data monitoring (including spending) and a register with data accessibility for all stakeholders of the contract. The infallible traceability of records and notes from the origin to the destination will help create a reliable, measurable and transparent social impact.
However, like any new disruptive technology in its infancy, the blockchain technology is also surrounded by its questionable hype. The technology is still in a nascent phase and is to be understood to its true extent. Much will depend on its adaptability and the legal ecosystem to house the technology. In the 2018 Union Budget, the Indian Government categorically outlawed the use of cryptocurrency as a legal tender, however, signalling strong support for the use of blockchain for other applications.
To foster this technology, it is imperative to have forums for exchanging ideas, debates and collaborations between different stakeholders, including developers, corporations, NGOs, civil society representatives and governments. There is no doubt that the buzzword has hit the mainstream. What is to be known is our ability to harness this technology which will draw a clear demarcation between its hype and reality.

Shunmuga Sundaram Yadav has previously worked for an Italian consulting firm promoting Italian businesses in developing countries and assisting them to participate in projects funded by Multilateral Development Banks. He has also worked on consulting projects for strategizing market entry of Italian brands in India. He has completed a course in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. 

CSR Dilemma – Environment Vs Human Rights

By
Hency Thacker
-

The corporate sector is increasingly getting involved in solving climate problems by making a lot of changes in its operations as well as through their core product offerings. In the last several years there has been an advancement in technology that works towards solving environment-related problems.

The Indian renewable energy sector is the fourth most attractive renewable energy market in the world, according to Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness index 2018 by EY. As of October 2018, India ranked 5th in installed renewable energy capacity. Installed renewable power generation capacity has increased at a fast pace over the past few years, posting a CAGR of 19.78 per cent between FY14–18.

In the US, solar energy generation employed more people in 2016 than coal, gas and oil combined, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. In the EU, wind now generates EUR 72 billion in annual turnover, According to Wind Europe.

While this sounds very encouraging, it takes a hit at human rights. According to the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the organisation had received 94 human rights abuse allegations for renewable energy companies since 2010, till 2016. Through their outreach to the renewable energy sector, they found ‘an alarming lack of transparency, awareness and implementation of human rights responsibilities’ within the companies.

Renewable energy companies such as hydro and solar, although climate-friendly, may not necessarily be community-friendly. These companies occupy a lot of land for building the infrastructure. This may go against community interests. Unprivileged class of countries with weak governance and land rights suffer the most in this scenario.

Apart from the company’s direct operations, their supply chains might also be interfering with human rights. For example, electric cars are taking up the world by a storm. However, Lithium-ion batteries required in electric cars, cannot be made without using cobalt. According to a report by Amnesty International, some 63% of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 20% of this cobalt is mined by hand, prevalently using child labour and other inhumane conditions.

While it is important to take steps to conserve the environment, it is important to not overlook human rights in the process.

Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

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WorldClass by Deloitte to impact lives of 10 million girls and women in India

By
The CSR Journal
-
Deloitte, a large professional services organisation, Friday announced the launch of its global initiative ‘WorldClass’ in India, which aims to support 10 million girls and women by 2030 through education and skills development.
Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Govt. of India and Deloitte’s Global CEO, Punit Renjen launched the initiative in New Delhi.
Globally, Deloitte’s WorldClass initiative seeks to prepare 50 million people to be better prepared for the future of work, in-line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through WorldClass in India, new partnerships with organizations that share Deloitte’s vision will be launched to accelerate solutions that work supporting girls and women. Two of those organizations are Katha and Pratham.
Chief Guest Dharmendra Pradhan said, “The vision of new India places women in the centre of our quest for economic growth. In success of women, lies the country’s success. The onus is on us to ensure women become self-reliant, and active participants in our economy. Providing quality education and skill development, and facilitating access to opportunities, are key stepping stones. I am enthused to see that this initiative shares the vision of New India which is fueled by women led development.”
Punit Renjen, Global CEO, Deloitte, said, “Our goal with WorldClass is to empower 50 million people globally by 2030, by providing them access to the education and skills required to find meaningful work in the new economy. The world is on the brink of a seismic shift with the emergence of the Industry 4.0 wave, and to thrive in it, we must work together so that no one is left behind.”
“With our investments in the community, we aim to support the economic empowerment of women which is often a catalyst for long-term sustainable change. We are committing to help those who are left behind, develop skills required for new and better opportunities,” he added.

CSR: Closing the mobile gender gap

By
Kasmin Fernandes
-
While mobile phone ownership and mobile internet use have increased significantly among women, there is still a persistent gender gap.
Women’s lower levels of mobile ownership and use not only reflect existing gender inequalities, but also threaten to compound them. If the mobile gender gap is not addressed, women risk being left behind as societies and economies digitise.

Differences in usage

In terms of basic mobile services, there tends to be relative parity between men and women in their overall use of voice calls in most countries, although the gender gap widens somewhat for SMS use. For instance, in India, a similar proportion of male and female mobile phone owners regularly make or receive phone calls, but just 50% of women use SMS at least once a month compared to 59% of men.
This could be due to women’s lower literacy levels, given the greater difficulty of using SMS with low levels of literacy. For mobile internet use, and many specific internet-based mobile use cases such as downloading apps, the gender gap typically widens further.

Women are unconnected

The unconnected are also disproportionately likely to be female, with women making up 60% of the unconnected population in LMICs (low and middle income countries) according to the Mobile Gender Gap Report 2019 by GSMA in association with UK aid and Sida. Most non-mobile owners are women for two main reasons:
  1. Women make up the majority of the demographic groups listed above, and barriers to mobile ownership for women are amplified by the following factors:
  • They are less likely than men to be in paid employment, which limits their financial autonomy;
  • When they are employed, they earn less than men on average; and
  • They are less likely to be well educated, which translates into lower literacy levels.
  1. In many countries, prohibitive social norms can have an impact on women’s mobile ownership, for example:
  • Making mobile ownership appear inappropriate for women; or
  • Limiting women’s ability to visit retailers to top up their mobile phones.
Closing the gender gap in mobile ownership and use is important because of the impact it could have on the lives of women, their families and communities. It also has the potential to deliver significant commercial and economic returns, and help to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
If mobile operators could close the gender gap in mobile ownership and use in LMICs by 2023, this would provide an estimated additional $140 billion in revenue to the mobile industry over the next five years.

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Technology & Sports – A Recipe for Success

By
Sanjeev Anand, IndusInd Bank
-

Imagine you have to go to work on the day of India’s 2019 CWC final against a well-deserved side, and there is no way for you to know who won? Who scored the maximum runs? Who took the maximum wickets? Before you see it again during the late night highlights. Won’t that make us a little too anxious? Today, all the happenings in the world, with the minutest of details, are made available to us at the push of a button or touch of a screen. But this wasn’t always the case.

There was a time when we literally had to wait many-an-hour to discover the results of sporting events; but as the years progressed, and our inevitable need to grow and process information faster came calling, things changed for good! We hardly ever consider or talk about the importance of the technological advancements that bring us our daily news, world happenings, and sports in mere seconds, but today we are going to talk about precisely that!

Whenever we talk about the technological advancements that have influenced sports, it is important to acknowledge both, the advancements that have improved the way the game is played and scored, as well as the advancements that have enabled the various sporting events to reach a global audience. First, let’s talk about how advancements in technology have enhanced the sporting experience in the field.

The biggest credit for making sports safer and more viable for the younger audience goes to the advancements in the sporting equipment technology. Sporting equipment was once devoid of computers or analytical software, but thanks to these advancements, real-time data collection and analysis has now been made possible. The technology available today helps a cricket or baseball batsman understand why their shots aren’t reaching the boundary line or going for a home run, helps footballers survive for the whole 90+ minutes on the football field and helps drafters pick their team for the next NBA or NFL season. Almost all of our sporting verticals have benefitted thanks to the technological advancements. Advancements such as the simulator have helped pro-golfers practice a nice round of golf without stepping out and have also helped professional racers drive around at the comfort of their living rooms. The rapid growth in simulator technology has only helped sports reach even more people than previously imagined. Sports such as football, basketball, cricket, etc have also started using simulators to promote and enhance the viewer and player experience.

We have also seen advancements in equipment that is not placed on the players’ or athletes’ body. With the improvement in camera and video qualities and the speed at which we can now transfer data, the ability to generate Instant Replays (IR) was born. Instant replays, as you all know, have played a pivotal role in helping the referees and umpires take an unbiased and informed decision to direct the outcome of the game. With the help of instant replays, and other available technologies, a plethora of new advancements were made possible across various different sports; like the Decision Review System (DRS), Hot-Spot and Snickometer in cricket and the VAR and Goal-Line technology in football and various other sporting verticals.

Technological enhancements in sporting equipment have also helped reduce fatalities in the more injury-prone sports. Some examples of the same can be the HANS (Head and Neck Support) device in motorsports, wearable computers for athletes and prosthetic devices for the disabled and many more. The technological know-how that humanity has accumulated over the years, coupled with the analytical software at our disposal has helped us accurately measure and monitor a player’s heart, acceleration, and blood pressure rates; crucial data for the outcome of a game or race. These advancements have not only helped bring more clarity to the way the game is played but also helped the game become more self-reliant; a previously impossible feat. History suggests that as we continue to improve, the use of these technologies will only increase, in our attempt to make the sport we love and cherish, even better.

The world is also seeing a boom in the viewership and popularity of sporting events. There have been so many factors that have contributed to the growth of sporting events during the last three decades. Some of the primary factors that have helped sporting events reach a much larger audience are the increasing popularity and availability of internet in most countries of the world, the growing popularity of online ticketing platforms, the increasing reach of social media platforms like youtube, facebook, twitter, Instagram and snap chat, and the growing viewership of sporting events on streaming platforms like Twitch TV, Hotstar, etc. The growth in viewership has resulted in sporting events like the Superbowl, FIFA and Cricket World Cups, and UFC fight nights become the primary spots for advertisers to promote their products or services to the audiences.

The world has witnessed a massive surge in the amount and way sports are consumed over the past few decades, and it is just the beginning. Who knows, maybe in some years, technological advancements like the Virtual Reality, Hologram Projection, and Artificial Intelligence can take the phrase “Going to the Game” to a whole new dimension. And as audiences, it is our duty to ensure that these advancements in sport are supported while making sure the essence of the game isn’t lost.

Sanjeev Anand, Country Head - Commercial Banking, Indusind BankThe author, Sanjeev Anand, is Country Head – Commercial Banking and in-charge of Sports Vertical, IndusInd Bank and an avid sports enthusiast.

Views of the author are personal and do not necessarily represent the website’s views.

Thank you for reading the column until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

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PwC and Save the Children hosts a roundtable on Child Rights

By
The CSR Journal
-
Children of India

Save the Children along with PwC India Foundation organised a roundtable on Creating Transformational Business Partnerships for Child Rights. CSR heads of leading Electronics, IT, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Financial organisations attended the meet. Bidisha Pillai, CEO, Save the Children was also present at the event.

Businesses discussed top CSR trends and projections for 2019, and how stakeholders could leverage each other’s assets, connections, creativity and expertise to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes and collectively achieve development and business objectives.

Addressing the congregation, Bidisha Pillai said, “The quality of partnerships we want to have is of great importance. We are looking for stakeholders with a similar vision who have complementary skills that come together to tackle the difficult problems, in difficult areas where the burden is the highest and which are the hardest to reach.”

 

The discussion on Creating Transformational Business Partnerships for Child Rights is an extension of PwC’s commitment to making a marked difference in the child rights space, and spark a debate on how corporates can collaborate to leverage each other’s strengths to ensure that the rights and entitlements of children of our country are protected.

Dilip Thakore, the publisher of Education World, who moderated the open discussion, said, “India has the largest population of children and youth (550 mn), the challenge is to make them productive, to ensure that they become an asset and not a liability for the nation. It’s a panic situation as currently, the gap between India and other countries is widening in terms of educated and skilled human capital. A monumental effort is required by all stakeholders including India Inc. to focus first on education.”

The event provided an opportunity for business leaders and other stakeholders to explore how their decisions can maximise the positive impacts and minimise the negative impacts on children.

CSR: Gender Diversity on Boards improve in India

By
Hency Thacker
-
Women in Boards

The revised Companies Act, 2013 made it mandatory for all listed companies and other public limited firms to appoint at least one woman as a member of the Board of Directors. India became the first developing country in the world to have such a norm to empower women as well as promote diversity at the board level. This Act ensured that woman will be considered for leadership roles so that they can be groomed for being a part of the Board of Directors.

Ernst and Young reported that the female representation on boards in the NIFTY 500 companies has increased from 5% in 2012 to 13% in 2017. That is a whopping increase of almost 300% which is a lot for a patriarchal society like India. It has certainly put India on the road map to giving women equal rights and responsibilities in the corporate world.

According to PrimeDatabase, as of January 2018, out of 1723 NSE listed companies, 1667 companies had met the mandate of having at least one woman director in the boards. Of this, about 425 companies have appointed the women from the promoter group or family members. Data showed that 285 companies had more than one woman on board while 56 companies did not have any women directors.

Women in India have been fighting for equal rights since forever. They struggle to meet even their basic needs of education and food due to the social stigma attached to a woman from the time she takes birth. However, the country is slowly but surely moving towards developing an equal society.

The mandate of having a woman director on the board could start a trend wherein people would see that woman are capable enough to take up leadership. It will alter the mindset of the people in the country who still live in ancient times and associate women in India with household chores.

In order to achieve this equality in the country, the companies need to conform to this law and ensure that they don’t just tick the box of having a woman director in their boards but also give them equal opportunities to contribute positively at board meetings. By doing this, the companies are not only meeting the law and bringing diversity in their boards but are also bringing about a long overdue social change in one of the fastest growing counties in the world.

Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

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