Intent, Implement and Follow-up: 3rd Annual Conference of IACC on CSR
Indo-American Chamber of Commerce organized their 3rd Annual Conference on Wednesday, 11th May, 2016. The conference discussed upon “issues, challenges and new paradigms” in the CSR domain today. With an agenda to create a platform to discuss challenges faced in Corporate Social Responsibility, IACC brought together eminent professionals.
“CSR is not ad-hoc anymore. It is about ensured involvement. Journalists, RTI activists and researchers will begin with India in research on CSR,” says Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director General, IICA in his keynote address. Panel discussions covered areas such as Challenges of Auditing, Transparency and Reporting in CSR.
Panelist present Ashwini Saxena, Director – Programs, Essar Foundation said, “Transparency challenges are not a one sided issue. We have to create business value and accrue a social value. The process audit is a key area to look at when creating social value.”
A key factor addressed was the gap between how it is planned and how it translates on to the field by Chaitanya Kalia, Partner, Climate Change, Sustainability and CSR, Ernst & Young. “Various elements from the programmatic point of view need to be worked on. Reporting is crucial for foreign investments and a sustainable environment for growth.
Ambassador Jonathan Addleton, Mission Director, USAID/India shared experiences of building partnership with the private sector to advance India’s development goals. Also present at the conference were Animesh Kumar, CEO, IDFC Foundation and Apoorva Oza, CEO, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme as part of the debate panel discussing the 2%ruling under CSR ACR drives nothing more than corporate tokenism.
The last panel discussion highlighted overcoming on-ground Capacity and Implementation challenges for large CSR fund deployment – Focus on PSUs and Large Corporates. Vivek Talwar, Chief Culture Officer & Chief Sustainability Officer, Tata Power says, “There should be the intent to do good and stay on course with focus points during collaborations.”
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