India houses the largest number of people living under the poverty line. The people belonging to scheduled tribes are among the poorest in the country, according to national data. According to the National Health and Family Survey 2015-16, 45.9% of scheduled tribe members were in the lowest wealth bracket.
The ministry of tribal affairs has called for private partnerships with the corporates to initiate and undertake welfare programs of these communities. The initiative named ‘Adopt a tribal district’ would entail setting up or organising self-help groups of 30 tribals for the corporate. The organisation will also have to undertake their training in gathering minor forest produce, processing it at home, and selling it at the local market.
Karjat in the Raigad district of Maharashtra state is home to several tribal communities such as Thakar (or Thakur), Katkari, Kokna, Koli, and Warli. These communities have been living in houses made of thatched walls and roofs for centuries. In order to uplift their lifestyle, 173 Employees of Samsung C&T worked alongside the local community in Nandgoan village as part of its partnership with Habitat for Humanity India aimed at building homes for families in need of decent homes.
In order to ensure holistic development of the village, the villagers are also provided with waterwheels – a portable vessel that makes fetching drinking water from a nearby water source easier than having women headload multiple pots of water. The village has also been equipped with the smart classroom in Chafewadi Z.P. School for further development of the youth. The smart classroom will provide 380 students with access to laptops, smart t.v. and digital technology.
Tata trusts are also doing their bit towards tribal welfare. The Trusts’ Central India Initiative is looking to develop feasible technology options to bring prosperity to tribal communities in the Central Indian tribal belt. This aims to bring prosperity in the region through creating lakhpati farmers – farmers who earn upward of a lakh of rupees from agriculture and allied activities and are part of vibrant community institutions.
The Trusts have convened 40 experts ranging from technology experts and entrepreneurs, state agencies, implementation partners, researchers, media donors, and resource support organizations to identify a bunch of feasible digital technology options which can support in the making of lakhpati farmers in the tribal pockets of India.
L&T is an engineering and construction conglomerate with a concern for the community. Even before the CSR section was introduced in the Companies Act 2013, L&T had been interacting with the community around L&T facilities and providing health, education and skills development services to those who needed it most.
According to the company’s annual report 2017-2018, the prescribed CSR spend was 97.29 Cr, the actual spend amounted to 100.92 Cr in this financial year.
Building on many decades of social responsibility activities, the company contributes to inclusive growth by empowering communities and accelerating development through interventions in water & sanitation, health, education and skill development. L&Teering, a structured volunteering programme, inspires and empowers employee volunteers or L&T-eers to contribute their time to community development programmes supported by the Company. The employees’ wives and female employees power the Prayas Trust, driving CSR initiatives in their own capacity and reaching out to remote communities.
Here is a snapshot of the company’s CSR interventions across four key thrust areas: Water & sanitation, education, health and skill-development.
Water and sanitation
Water conservation structure in Tamil Nadu
The Integrated Community Development Program of L&T started in 2014-15, focused on making water – the very ‘necessity of life’ – available to four water stressed districts in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, covering 11006 households across an area of 9337 hectares. With an agenda focused on community empowerment through Integrated Community Development, they have ensured water availability for drinking, sanitation and agriculture.
Interventions
The water and soil conservation structures like check dams, anicuts, contour trenches, farm bunds and farm ponds constructed with the participation and contribution of the community helped in increasing the water level in the water bodies in these villages and retain soil moisture.
The community groups like Village Development Committees (VDCs) with 50 per cent participation from women and Self Help Groups (SHGs) were created. They assumed the responsibility to maintain the structures created through the project
Farmers were trained in agricultural practices with optimal use of water and use of zero budget natural fertilisers to retain the fertility of the land. The community members also devised methods that improve the arability of land.
Sanitation drives
The Swachha Bharat Program gave the necessary impetus to initiate the sanitation drive in villages. L&T trained local youth in masonry skills and used local materials to achieve the following:
Construction of over than 970 well-designed toilet-cum-bathrooms
Community-based monitoring committees to deter open defecation
Impact
Access to water for drinking, sanitation, irrigation, cultivation of fodder and extra crops
Two revenue villages and 13 hamlets are open defecation free, benefitting 1100 households
Improved economies, for 11000 households, raising the aspirations of the people.
Chettipalayam watershed project, South Coimbatore, enabled water holding of 47 lakh litres in one year and made 18 hectares of barren land cultivable.
Education
L&T tries to make quality education accessible to each and every child by introducing relevant curriculum, improving teaching methods and ensuring parent and community participation in creating learning environment.
Interventions
Basic Infrastructural support includes construction or repair of the classrooms, toilet blocks and water stations for basic hygiene facilities, midday meal kitchens and sports ground.
Educational support: Supplies such as uniforms, textbooks, notebooks and sports kits are provided to underprivileged students in government and unaided low-income schools in rural and tribal villages.
Balwadi program: L&T strengthens early childhood development program by improving the quality of balwadis and anganwadis in urban slums and rural areas, ensuring entry into the mainstream education system and improved enrolment in the primary schools.
Supplementary food is provided in tribal balwadis.
Toy vans visiting anganwadis provide necessary childhood development activities
Training of Trainers for Balwadi teachers for capacity building.
Afterschool community study centres offer supplementary education and reach out to the first generation learners and children from weaker sections.
Efforts are directed towards designing a curriculum for easy learning that is aligned with the school curriculum.
Focus on Science Innovation and Technology
L&T has supported Government initiatives and sponsored Mini Science Centres in rural schools, simplifying complex scientific concepts
A Science on Wheels program reaches out to 3293 children in 17 schools, encouraging students to develop interest in science and technology-related subjects.
To facilitate the access of e-learning technology to rural and tribal students, L&T has provided computer labs and digital classrooms in several rural schools.
Capacity building: Teacher Training Programmes are conducted to enhance the quality of education being imparted to students studying in Government schools and low-income trust run schools.
Overall development of children:
Children are also given inputs on life-skills and extra-curricular activities such as dance, music and drawing.
Educational and recreational outings are organised
Specialised health camps are organised for children for eye check-up, early detection and treatment of anaemia, malnutrition and other childhood diseases.
Education sessions on health and hygiene with children and adolescents are conducted for preventive care and for promoting healthy sanitation practices.
Creating learning environment: The community level School Management Committee (SMC) and parents are invited for a dialogue to encourage students to continue their education, as well as for sustaining L&T’s efforts in future.
Impact
250 schools gained better facilities that increased enrolment and retention of students.
1,56,168 students covered through our education projects this year.
Health
L&T’s CSR programme in the health sector aims at making quality healthcare services accessible and affordable without anyone having to face financial hardship. L&T focuses on strengthening the Government’s health programmes like family welfare, mother and child health, HIV-AIDS, Tuberculosis, Blindness control, Diabetes detection and treatment and reproductive health services. It also provides services related to lifestyle diseases like hypertension and cardiac problems.
Interventions
Health Centres: A team around ninety well-qualified medical rehabilitation consultants and 12 professionally staffed, well-equipped multi-speciality centres provide the following services:
Physical health: Health Centre offers tertiary health services including Family Planning surgeries, Day Care General Surgeries, Endoscopy Procedures and Dental Procedures. It also provides eye checks, mother and child health care, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, infertility treatment, hearing-speech services and a skin clinic focusing on leprosy treatment and communicable diseases.
Psychological health: Psychiatric OPDs and family counselling services address mental health and stress related issues, while a Child Guidance Clinic helps younger members of the community.
Health Camps:
Mobile health vans visit the communities around the centre.
Specialised health camps covering Eye care, dental, Paediatric and Gynaecological care.
Specialised health promotion programme with focus on hygiene, reproductive health and family life education for children and adolescents in Government remand and corrective homes and homes for neglected children
HIV and AIDS Management Programme: L&T’s state-of-the-art Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) centre provides diagnostic, medical and counselling services in association with National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).
TB related services: Comprehensive TB related treatment in Mumbai including individualised treatment OPD, check-up, diagnostics, medicines and nutrition, support, home visits and counselling. L&T runs an exclusive TB clinic in Koldongri, in the suburbs of Mumbai, in partnership with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) providing CAT I, II and IV treatment to the patients, with a cure rate of 85-90%.
Dialysis centres: 2384 dialysis sessions have been conducted at the L&T-run kidney dialysis centre at Thane.
Cancer detection camps: Targeted at women, L&T promotes preventive education and early diagnosis of cervical and breast cancer through cancer detection camps.
Impact
350076 Lives touched through various health services
Skill Development
Skill development has emerged as a key strategy to realize the potential of demographic advantage of having the youngest workforce with an average age of 29 years in India. L&T’s skill building initiative aims to create human resources for improving the country’s competitiveness and growth, especially in the field of Construction skills by training the youth.
Interventions
Construction Skills Training Institutes (CSTIs): L&T runs 9 CSTIs in 9 states, providing free training in construction skills for the large unorganised workforce in the sector, making them employable.
Employable skills training for women
At many L&T sites, local women, young girls and physically-challenged persons are trained in various employable skills as per their interests and aptitude. The courses include Tailoring, Embroidery, Beautician Course, Food Processing, Home Management, Computer Skills, Basic Education and Basic Health.
Impact
7365 youth completed various courses at CSTIs this year
15338 people have been trained in employable vocational skills this year.
2000 women became self-reliant!
The objective of the programme run by L&T Kolkata, was to empower women in the slums of Kolkata and neighbouring villages, by providing them with alternative paid employment by manufacturing products for the local and overseas markets, and to improve the status of women and girls in the society. More than 2000 women are engaged in small enterprise such as tailoring of garments, beauty culture, home furnishing, spices, jam, pickle, crochet, weaving, knitting, block printing and Kantha stitch, etc. This programme is not only empowering the women economically but also helping instil self-confidence. Their monthly average income is between INR 5000 and INR 8000.
किसानों का कर्ज माफ़ करो और सत्ता की कुर्सी पर बैठो, इसी तरह की राजनीती देश में बरसों से हो रही है, इस कदम से ना देश का भला हुआ और ना ही लाभार्थी किसान का, चुनाव अभियान की शुरूआत करने के दौरान कांग्रेस के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष राहुल गांधी ने अपने भाषण में कहा था कि जिस प्रदेश में कांग्रेस की सरकार बनेगी, 10 दिन के अंदर किसानों का कर्जमाफ कर दिया जाएगा। कांग्रेस के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष कमलनाथ ने मुख्यमंत्री पद की शपथ ले ली है। मुख्यमंत्री का कार्यभार ग्रहण करने के बाद सबसे पहले कमलनाथ ने किसानों की कर्जमाफी वाली फाइल पर हस्ताक्षर कर दिए हैं। लेकिन इससे क्या हासिल होगा, ये कोई पहली बार नहीं है जब सरकार ने किसानों के कर्ज माफ़ किये हो, कर्ज माफ़ी के बाद किसान कर्जमुक्त हो जाता है, सरकार कर्ज में डूबती जाती है लेकिन नेता वाहवाही जरूर लूट लेता है, वही हर बार होता है और होता रहेगा, ऐसे में सवाल उठता है कि क्या किसानों की कर्जमाफी ही एकमात्र विकल्प है।
किसानों के उत्थान के लिए सरकारें दूसरा विकल्प क्यों नहीं सोचती। मध्य प्रदेश में कर्ज माफ़ी का ऐलान सरकार बनने के 10 दिन के अंदर होने का वादा राहुल गांधी ने किया था लेकिन कमलनाथ ने इसे कुछ ही घंटों में कर दिखाया लेकिन पेंच भी कई है, ऐलान तो हो गया लेकिन कर्जमाफी कब होगी, कैसे होगी, कितनी होगी इसका जवाब शायद मुख्यमंत्री कमलनाथ के पास भी नहीं होगा। मध्य प्रदेश के बाद छत्तीसगढ़ में किसानों को कर्जमाफी की सौगात मिली है लेकिन राजस्थान की जनता को अभी भी खुशखबरी का इंतजार है। राजस्थान में कांग्रेस ने जिस किसान कर्जमाफी के वादे के साथ सत्ता हासिल की है उसे पूरा करने के लिए अब महज 8 दिन शेष बचे हैं, मुख्यमंत्री अशोक गहलोत के शपथ ग्रहण करने के साथ ही कांग्रेस सरकार का कार्यकाल शुरू हो चुका है और अब किसानों को मध्य प्रदेश की तरह कर्जमाफी की घोषणा का इंतजार है।
सत्ता हासिल करने लिए कर्ज माफी राजनीतिक दलों के लिए एक औजार बन गई है। ये जानते हुए कि पहले ऐसा कदम उठाने वाली सरकारों को इसे लागू करने में काफी परेशानियों का सामना करना पड़ा है। पिछले दिनों आरबीआई के पूर्व गवर्नर रघुराम राजन ने भी साफ किया कि राजनीतिक पार्टियों को इस तरह के वादे करने से बाज आना होगा, क्योंकि अर्थव्यवस्था पर इसका प्रतिकूल प्रभाव देखा जा सकता है। कर्ज माफी जैसे लोक-लुभावन औजार के जरिये राजनीतिक दल आसानी से सत्ता पाने में कामयाब तो हो जाते हैं, लेकिन इसका खामियाजा पूरे सिस्टम को भुगतना पड़ता है। कर्ज माफ़ी से किसानों का संकट दूर नहीं बल्कि इससे मुश्किलें और बढ़ी ही हैं। कर्ज माफी से राज्य को भारी कीमत चुकानी पड़ती है। हर विधानसभा चुनाव में राजनीतिक दलों की यह जैसे आदत सी बनती जा रही है और अर्थव्यवस्था का बोझ पड़ता है आम जनता पर। किसानों और खेती के मूल कारणों का समाधान नहीं हो पाता साथ ही किसान खेती से पर्याप्त कमाई नहीं कर पा रहे हैं।
हरबार किसानों को खुश करने के लिए, किसानों का वोट बैंक पाने के लिए कर्ज माफ़ी तो कर देते है लेकिन इससे किसान स्वावलंबी नहीं बन पाता, जबतक देश की सरकारें किसान को अपने पैरों पर नहीं खड़ा करती तब तक किसान यूँ ही झेलता रहेगा, कर्जमाफी के बदले सरकारें क्यों नहीं एग्रीकल्चरल इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर पर ध्यान दे रही है, क्यों किसानों की आमदनी में इजाफा हो ऐसी नीतियां बना रही है, क्यों नहीं किसानों को बिजली, पानी, बीज और खाद मिलता, आखिरकार किसानों को क्यों नहीं मिलता उनके उत्पादों का सही मूल्य, क्यों नहीं सरकारें अत्याधुनिक तकनीक किसानों को सिखाती, जब तक सरकारें किसानों की ये बेसिक जरूरतें पूरा नहीं करती किसान कर्ज माफ़ी की मांग करता रहेगा, अगर कुछ नहीं चलेगा तो मौत की राह पर किसान चल देगा।
Charity begins (and ends) at home for corporate India.
Developed states which house India’s largest companies, tend to get more money from their corporate social responsibility (CSR) budgets shows an analysis of listed companies’ CSR spends from Prime Database compared to government figures on Gross State Domestic Product at Factor Cost (current prices).
A state like Bihar ranks 17th on a list of 32 states and union territories for which CSR data is available. Topping the list are industrial powerhouses like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka. The correlation between these three states’ economic output and the amount of CSR spends is 0.93. Zero indicates no correlation, and one indicates perfect correlation.
The reasons for this concentration in CSR spends may not be hard to find. Most of India’s industry is concentrated in a few states. Companies of a certain size are required to mandatorily spend two per cent of their average three-year profits on corporate social responsibility. It stands to reason that companies would spend money where they are located.
The concentration of industry has been a problem that policymakers have dealt with for decades. The RK Hazari Committee report in 1966 noted the problem of regional concentration. And it has persisted since then. A problem as long-standing and deeply entrenched as the concentration is unlikely to go away quickly. This means that CSR spends may also continue to face concentration issues.
Swetank Mishra, who runs a developmental non-governmental organisation called Sahej said that poorer regions would be better served with such funds. And interestingly, the government does prioritise certain regions when it comes to allocating funds.
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh get the maximum share of central resources shows data on the devolution and transfer of resources from the centre. This seems to follow the policy of redistribution of resources so that backward regions can develop better. And is in sharp contrast to the patterns in CSR spending.
One could make an argument for mandating spending in backward states when it comes to CSR too. But a question would arise as to whether corporates can spend effectively when they are not familiar with the territory or its problems. Would they be able to monitor such spends effectively in the most backward of regions?
A partnership model with local governments is one way to involve local governments and corporate expertise. But there may be an argument to be made to consider to let the government take up the role entirely. Corporates remit the money to governments, just like their taxes. And let central, state and local governments decide where to spend the money.
With the government, elected representatives are accountable to voters. Spending on backward, populous regions can help win votes. Governments also have the last-mile connectivity required to bring projects to fruition and monitor them. The accountability of such public projects is also likely to be higher than privately-owned ones. Companies have no accountability from voters. Shareholders are hardly directly impacted by its charity work. So well-directed spending cannot be expected to occur as a natural consequence of mandatory CSR.
CSR by large private hospitals is probably not as documented compared to their manufacturing and tech counterparts. CSR initiatives by these hospitals can be broadly classified into four buckets: rural healthcare, awareness campaigns, disaster-relief campaigns, and education. Even then, many don’t have clearly articulated CSR policies.
The rise of chronic diseases, which is the biggest killer in India, begs for an efficient preventive healthcare system. Of course, for all of this to happen, an effective public healthcare system is required – one that actually works and places enough emphasis on preventing illnesses rather than treating them. There’s no recuse for private entities who can do so much more but are caught up in the reactive cycle of dishing out a few free heart surgeries and running mobile clinics.
One of the few health institutions that stand apart in this regard is Bhatia Hospital. For example, their Go green initiative programs are designed to protect human health and reserve natural resources for future generations. The principle behind the Go Green initiative is to design a world where natural resources will be equitably available, and all children will be healthier. The hospital has been carrying out its philanthropic activities by forming a Charitable Trust back in 1932.
We reached out to Dr. Rajeev Boudhankar, CEO, Bhatia Hospital, Mumbai for a chat. Dr Boudhankar is a seasoned professional, with over 30 years of experience. He has worked with government as well as international health bodies to set up public health programmes. He was elected to the Maharashtra State Council of CII in 2011-2012. Dr Boudhankar’s passion for healthcare was put to test during the infamous Mumbai floods of July 26, 2005 when he was the CEO of a Bandra Hospital that was located in a low-lying area. His quick decision-making helped save several lives and his managerial abilities ensured that the hospital was back to usual operations in two months.
Excerpts from an exclusive interview:
How important a component is healthcare in corporate social responsibility?
Healthcare and medical relief have been traditionally looked upon as a “charitable” activity and profession, especially in India. It was only in the mid-eighties of the last century (1985) that “corporate” healthcare became an entity in India. With it, corporate healthcare organizations started practicing “social medicine” too. With recent changes in the Companies Act, 2013, CSR became “statutory” from “voluntary” for all corporates.
The obvious societal mindset in India of looking at healthcare as a “charity”, helped corporates take up healthcare as a CSR activity with ease. It also gives a “soft” image to corporates if they take up healthcare as a CSR activity. Consequently, healthcare has become an important component of many CSR activities for corporate houses in India.
What are your views on CSR and the government mandate?
It is a welcome step as investments in the healthcare sector will increase. Sadly, even after so many years of independence, government spending on healthcare is a meagre 1% of its GDP. More investment in this sector is always welcome. In the long run, it will help strengthen the infrastructure in the healthcare sector.
In what ways could healthcare in our country benefit through CSR funding?
If the healthcare CSR projects can go in tier-3 towns and villages, it will vastly improve the healthcare infrastructure in our country. Moreover, the “have-nots” of society will get quality healthcare nearer their homes so that they don’t have to travel for their basic healthcare needs to far-off cities. If corporates take up projects in primary healthcare, it will reduce the burden on secondary and tertiary centres to a big extent. This will effectively optimize utilization of scarce resources of the healthcare sector.
It will also help reduce the disease burden in our country, as people have more faith in the private sector than the public sector for their healthcare needs.
What are the main CSR initiatives carried out by your team?
Bhatia Hospital was born with the vision of public service and charity in healthcare in 1932. Even then, the Founder Trustees had the vision of “giving back to society” to the best of their ability. This vision of our founders continues to be the cornerstone of all our activities even today.
Bhatia Hospital reserves 2% of its revenue for patients from the indigent class and weaker sections of society. We have free public health education sessions every week in our hospital, for the local population. Subjects like awareness on prevalent communicable diseases, diet, fitness, yoga, cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, etc are part of these preventive health sessions conducted by eminent consultant doctors. There is no fee whatsoever for these sessions.
We have two free “Janata Clinics” for the common man in Tardeo and Mahalaxmi, in Mumbai, where primary treatment and vaccination is given free of cost to all sections of society, irrespective of their social status. We hold free medical camps regularly in slums in Mumbai, schools, chawls, etc. We also conduct free medical camps in the hospital itself like orthopaedic camps and diabetic camps for senior citizens, dental check-up camps for BMC school children, etc
Recently, we offered free support as medical partners for the cricket matches of the visually handicapped and women cricket matches. In spite of the world waking up slowly to women’s causes and the rights of the differently abled, there were no takers for medical partnership for these matches, so we readily agreed. Our OPD has a special discount scheme for senior citizens as they are the most vulnerable section of our society.
Tell us about the Janta OPDs and their impact.
Our Janata OPDs (Out Patient Department) have been fairly successful in looking after the healthcare needs of the local weaker sections of the population. We treat almost 500 patients a month free of cost. Incidentally, our Janata OPDs are popular for their Rabies vaccination for dog bites!
How does the hospital make use of solar energy?
We have installed solar panels on the hospital terrace. Through these, we generate solar electricity which is used for boiling hot water for bathing. This has helped us eliminate the energy guzzling geysers in our hospital. This will reduce our carbon footprint on Mother Earth in a small way.
Have you undertaken greening measures?
We are very conscious of our environmental responsibility. We segregate bio-medical waste at source and dispose it as per the norms mentioned in the Bio-medical waste management Act. We have installed a wet waste treatment plant in the campus to treat and dispose wet waste like food, raw vegetable waste, etc. This waste is converted to organic manure and used for horticulture.
We also donate this manure to needy NGOs who in turn donate to needy farmers. This helps us keep the environment free from rodents, pests, etc and at the same time encourage organic farming for non-toxic food production, free of insecticides. Kitchen wastes are segregated at every step and eliminated when passed on through sink incinerators.
Which CSR activities were in partnership with corporate houses?
We have an ongoing CSR activity with the Jalan Foundation, which donated modern equipment for emergency medical care; this centre takes care of all medical emergencies.
How involved is the staff in volunteering?
We have shared the vision of our founders with all our employees. All social programs are enthusiastically supported by our team of dedicated doctors, nurses, technicians, patient care employees (ward boys and ayas). Even when we have social programs on public holidays, our staff members volunteer of their own accord. This says a lot about our engagement with our employees and their social awareness.
This is the Social Development space, dude! Don’t you get it, we are driven by passion and sweat and the human touch. The cold tendrils of Technology have no place here.
Thus went the reprise when I started working in the Social Development space, not such a long time ago, as a matter of fact. And this was from the mouths of grey-haired men and women, the men oftentimes having salt and pepper beards to match, who had spent years and years in the field and not the greenhorns.
Interestingly, however, the conversations I’ve been having off late have been markedly different from the ones above. There is all around acknowledgement that Technology has an increasingly important role to play in this sector. Fortunately, we have an increasing number of Technology players in the social sector providing a variety of solutions. Very recently, Namita Vikas, in an article published on May 5, 2018 on The CSR Journal portal spoke eloquently about some of the enabling technologies for the sector.
What I would like to do in the next few paragraphs is to actually take a step back and look at some of the broad ways in which Technology is being leveraged in the CSR sector in India and some of its future possibilities. Here I am assuming a more liberal definition of “Technology” being a process and including innovation rather than just products. Also, rather than looking at this from a Technology perspective, my lens will focus on the basic structure of the Social Development space and look for the gaps that need filling and what “Technology” has to offer.
So, let us start with the structure
One way to look at this sector is to visualise it like a pyramid divided into three broad layers. The bottom layer is the grassroots layer, the middle is the organisation layer and the top is the ecosystem layer. The three layers while being quite distinct, are, in fact, very intricately intertwined.
Now, let us briefly discuss the role of Technology in each of these layers:
Grassroots
This is where the maximum amount of activity is taking place. A lot of the activity is centred around product innovation. This is also the layer where a lot of start-ups and social enterprises are functioning. The product range extends from app-based marketplaces for farmers, to modularised low cost testing machines for patients, to microgrid solutions for local renewable power.
Most activity, however, tends to stay niche / local. The good news is that these innovations do not have geographical boundaries, with a lot of products and ideas flowing in and out of India. Also, there appears to be a healthy appetite among impact investors for investing in such ideas, which also acts as a sanity check for the innovations.
We should see more broad-based solutions emerging in the future, hopefully from within India. One pre-cursor for that will be establishing standards in the ‘ecosystem’ that allow different products and solutions to talk to each other, so that individual solutions can have a greater collective impact. Also, innovative Financial instruments such as Social Impact Bonds will also help innovation flourish.
Organisations
There are a number of players in this space attempting to automate the processes for both Donors and Implementors. There are several products that do so, as well as bespoke solutions built to cater to individual organisations’ needs. They mostly tend to cater to the larger organisations that have the capacity to pay for these solutions and almost always operate in silos.
Also, these solutions mostly tend to automate processes as they are, rather than do a lot of process re-engineering or introduce innovation. There are several organisations I have seen that do have some excellent ideas on innovation in this space. The future here lies in cheaper, more flexible systems that are capable of interoperability, through block chain and similar technologies.
Ecosystem
As a trickle-up effect of the silos and fragmentation at the lower two layers, the Indian social development ecosystem, including the CSR sub-ecosystem is quite deeply subdivided. These subdivisions are further accentuated by a lot of efforts being centred on individual goals such as brand-building and promotion of personal agendas. This has several ramifications, such as, creating barriers for sharing of best and worst practices, duplication of efforts, standardisation of reporting, comparable measurement of SROI etc.
This has a significant impact on the standard measures of any process / system, namely, Productivity or efficiency and Transparency or Governance, with a commensurate knock-on effect on the overall Risk.
While part of the solution lies in fixing the gaps identified in the layers lying below this one, there is significant amount of ecosystem level work that needs to be done. Big Data clearly has a role to play here, but we also need the Software Development Project Management kind of disciplined approach, need to evolve standards like in the Technology sphere, create platforms like NASSCOM for sharing best practices etc.
Additionally, there is a need to align these efforts with the UN SDGs, which India has committed to, but does not have a formal framework in place to encourage, measure and report progress along the same.
BSE Sammaan CSR Ltd. is a fully owned Subsidiary of BSE Ltd. The author holds a Management degree from IIM Kolkatta and an Engineering degree from IIT Chennai. He has taken over the helm of BSE Sammaan after 26 years in the Financial Services industry, both in India and overseas.
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.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) works should be part of the long term strategy of companies and should not be treated as ad hoc activities, Union minister P P Chaudhary said on Tuesday.
The Minister of State for Corporate Affairs also emphasised the CSR activities help in bridging the gap between rural and urban areas. Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain class of profitable entities are required to shell out at least two per cent of their three-year annual average net profit towards CSR activities.
“The principle behind the CSR legislation was that it should not be treated as a peripheral or ad hoc activity… CSR now forms part of the overall long term strategy and finds a place on boardroom agendas and annual reports,” Chaudhary said.
Speaking at the National CSR Summit organised by industry body CII here, he said that companies spend around Rs 4,330 crore on healthcare, eradicating poverty, hunger and malnutrition as part of CSR in 2015-16. Around Rs 4,690 crore was spent in the area of education and livelihood and Rs 1,327 crore on spent on rural development, he added.
“Although the concept of CSR is prevalent in other countries, you will appreciate that India is the first country to mandate the corporates to spend some parts of their profits for the welfare of the society,” Chaudhary said. Noting that CSR activities help bridge the gap between rural and urban areas, the minister said such works can be made more impactful through innovation.
In 2013, the government of India mandated the companies that makes a net profit above a specified threshold level, to spend to per cent of it on CSR. The law came into effect in April 2014. The law has brought in a lot of participation from corporate India in national development. However, there are certain limitations to the law which has caused the country to not reach its potential development level.
Over exaggeration of facts
Since the CSR legislation, the corporates are required to report their CSR spending each year. The corporates who were spending less than the required 2 per cent, did start to spend more. However, because of an inability to allocate resources after a certain extent, the money started flowing in the government schemes such as ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’. This negates the whole concept of CSR.
Also, since CSR needs to be reported, the organisations view it as an opportunity to claim a higher impact. They paint an unreal picture in the media generating a lot more goodwill and reputation than they deserve.
Reduction in Foreign Investments
The mandatory nature of the law can cause the corporates to view it as another tax. According to KPMG, an audit and consulting company, the corporate tax rate in India is one of the highest at 34.61 per cent, against the global average of 24.09 per cent. An addition to this can discourage foreign companies to invest in India.
Uneven distribution of resources among causes
The law sets a limit of minimum spending a corporate is required to spend. However, it does not define the exact cause that it needs to spend on. The spending has thus not been allocated to democratically determined priorities. For example, in the 2016-17, combating various diseases and education causes received about 45 per cent of total CSR expenditure. However, no funding was allocated for reducing the child mortality rate. Eradication of extreme hunger and poverty also received only 6 per cent of the total CSR expenditure.
Uneven distribution of resources among regions
According to a report generated by CSRBOX, Maharashtra received the biggest chunk of CSR spending in the last 2 years. Five states including Maharashtra. Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu accounted for more than 25 per cent of all CSR spending. Whereas, the north-eastern states, that required lot more attention, were among the bottom 5 beneficiaries of the total funding.
The abstractness of the concept
CSR is too abstract a term to have a perfect legal action and definition. It is not possible to define an ‘excellent school’ that is required to be built by a corporate. The only thing that can be done to tackle illiteracy would be to spend money on promoting education and making it accessible.
There is always a limitation to a law. In the absence of voluntary actions, desire to do something good and determination to execute it, the mandate will have no meaning. The CSR law is not the answer, but the first step towards national development.
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Companies undertake many types of responsible business activities. It is difficult to comprehend easily the breadth and scope of their work. A new study uses a measure called the Spread, which is indicative of how broad-based the responsible business activities of a company are and is a combined score of the four criteria: Disclosure, Governance, Stakeholders, and Sustainability.
Tata group companies occupy the prime position, according to the report Responsible Business Rankings 2018 by IIM Udaipur and Futurescape. Like the previous years, this year too there is no foreign company in the top ten list. Ambuja Cement has moved up to the second position. Infosys, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Hindustan Zinc and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd joined the top 10 list. Two public sector companies have entered the top 10 list – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
Top 10 Companies for Sustainability & CSR in 2018
1. Tata Chemicals
2. Ambuja Cement
3. Infosys Ltd.
4. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
5. Tata Motors Ltd.
6. Tata Power Company Ltd.
7. Bharat Petroleum Corporation
8. ITC Ltd.
9. Hindustan Zinc Ltd.
10. Indian Oil Corporation
Performance across years and parameters
Aggregate performance has improved over years and across all four parameters because of better disclosure. The latter is being primarily driven by SEBI mandate. The number of Business Responsibility Reports in the year increased by 57% over the previous year and the number of Sustainability Reports too rose by 11% year on year. This improvement in reporting helped companies gain vital points in their total scores.
Manufacturing companies, on an average, score far better than service companies (total score of 59 for manufacturing versus 45 for service companies) overall and across criteria. This difference is especially marked for sustainability scores indicating that these issues are more important for the manufacturing sector. As compared to 2016, there is an increase in scores across all parameters for both manufacturing as well as service companies.
Top 5 Manufacturing Companies in CSR
1. Tata Chemicals
2. Ambuja Cement
3. Mahindra & Mahindra
4. Tata Motors
5. Tata Power
Top 5 Service Companies in CSR
1. Infosys
2. Wipro
3. YES Bank
4. HCL Technologies
5. Tech Mahindra
Public sector companies perform somewhat similar to private companies. Again, sustainability is the primary cause for the difference. Compared to 2016, both public, as well as private companies, improved their scores across the four parameters.
Top 5 Public Sector Companies in CSR
1. Bharat Petroleum Corporation
2. Indian Oil Corporation
3. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation
4. Steel Authority of India
5. GAIL (India)
Top 5 Private Sector Companies in CSR
1. Tata Chemicals
2. Ambuja Cement
3. Infosys
4. Mahindra & Mahindra
5. Tata Motors
All industries have performed better compared to the previous year, according to the 2018 Responsible Business Rankings. Information Technology and Energy are the top performing industries, while Other Industrials and Financials are laggards.
Five states in India banned single-use plastic viz. Plastic bags, in the last one year and there was a huge uproar about the same but no one gave a moments notice to the massive amounts of plastic waste generated by corporations in India.
GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) conducted a survey in 2018 wherein ten GAIA member organizations and partners conducted clean-up and waste and brand audits in 18 states in India. Of the total waste collected, 46,100 pieces of plastic waste were branded, of which 47.5% were multilayer plastic packaging which can neither be recycled or composted.
The results were surprising but there is a clear pattern. The companies which get a lot of revenue from India are also its major polluters albeit indirectly.
Results showed that both local and international brands are responsible for plastic waste pollution in the country. PepsiCo India topped the multinational polluters list. Other multinational brands in the top 10 list of polluters are Perfetti van Melle, Hindustan Unilever, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s, and Ferrero SpA.
In the list of Indian polluters list, Amul, Britannia, ITC, Parle and Karnataka Milk Co-operative emerged as the top corporate polluters. Considering that these companies, national and international alike, milk the resources to earn their profit, it is their duty to protect its environment.
Froilan Grate, Regional Coordinator, GAIA Asia-Pacific says, “As the biggest producers of throwaway plastic packaging, brands carry the heaviest responsibility for the plastic problem,”. “Plastic packaging from brands is endangering wildlife and the health of the oceans, and poisoning the water we drink and the food we eat. But the current commitments on plastic reduction and package redesign means business as usual for at least the next decade. So far corporations have given us lip-service when what is needed is an urgent and drastic reduction.”
CSR can be used as a potent weapon to fight this plastic menace. The companies can use solutions like plastic bottle deposit scheme and involve the local community to encourage plastic recycling. Instead of using plastic bottles to sell mineral water, the companies can come up with mobile water ATM’s so that people can fill their reusable bottles at a cost. The right to clean water is indisputable and many of the companies in the above list are responsible for polluting our water resources. The companies need to understand that sustainability is not a one-time PR exercise but an ongoing initiative with a long-term plan and results.
If the companies need encouragement, then MediaCom’s research comes in handy. MediaCom’s research found that 49% of consumers are willing to pay more for a brand or product that supports a cause that is important to them. People have started caring about the environment. It is time the companies too start caring about the environment for their own benefit.
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