21-12-2012, 02:29 PM
Corporate Social Responsibility
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Definitions
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication Making Good Business Sense by Lord Holme and Richard Watts used the following definition.
“Corporate Social Responsibility is 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 of the local community and society at large”
Social responsibility is an ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystem.
History of CSR
“The phrase Corporate Social Responsibility was coined in 1953 with the publication of Bowen's Social Responsibility of Businessmen” (Corporate watch report, 2006). The evolution of CSR is as old as trade and business for any of corporation. Industrialization and impact of business on the society led to completely new vision. By 80’s and 90’s academic CSR was taken into discussion. The first company to implement CSR was Shell in 1998. (Corporate watch report, 2006) With well informed and educated general people it has become threat to the corporate and CSR is the solution to it.
1990 was CSR as a standard industry with companies like Price Warterhouse Copper and KPMG. CSR evolved beyond code of conduct and reporting it started taking initiative in NGO’s, multistakeholder, ethical trading. (Corporate watch report, 2006).
CSR in India
Long referred to as a company’s soul food, corporate social responsibility is finally being taken seriously by Indian tech companies as they embark on a gamut of philanthropic activities. Through Infosys foundation and other initiatives, Narayan murthy chairman and chief mentor of Infosys has always been on the forefront of philanthropic activities as a part of CSR. Mr. Narayan murthy firmly underlines the significance of CSR: “for benefit of globalization and technology to reach the poor, the private sector, philanthropic institutes and individuals should cooperate and establish partnership with government institutions. This would lift millions of our people out of the poverty, provide them with opportunities and make them participate in the process and progress of globalization”. While murthy and Infosys are proactive on the CSR front, how do other tech companies stuck up?
Helping the visually challenged:
Infoscions partner with Nethrodaya, an NGO that works with visually challenged children. Our volunteers regularly conduct weekend reading sessions. In 2009, we organized a South India inter-state sports festival with modified versions of cricket, volleyball and chess.
Facilities for rural schools:
Volunteers constructed a water tank to supply drinking water to 1,000 students of the Avanippoor Government Higher Secondary School. We have been donating notebooks to the Anoor School since 2005. In 2009, we donated a water tank to the school. We also distributed notebooks to the children of Infosys’ support staff.
Mahindra&Mahindra
At Mahindra & Mahindra, The K. C. Mahindra Education Trust was established in 1953 with the purpose of promoting education. Its vision is to renovate the lives of people in India through education and financial assistance across age groups and across income strata. The K. C. Mahindra Education Trust undertakes a number of education plans, which make a difference to the lives of worthy students. The Trust has provided more than Rs. 7.5crore in the form of grants, scholarships and loans. It promotes education mostly by the way of scholarships. The Nanhi Kali (children) project has over 3,300 children under it and the company aims to increase the number to 10,000 in the next two years by reaching out to the underprivileged children, especially in rural areas.
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.