Cement Energy and Environment

T I ; ' ... fourthly, full information on the company's CSR policy should be made public. However, as a matter of fact, India's performance in CSR is quite poor. Even in the Public Sector Undertaking (PSUs) of the Government of India, there is severe under-utilization of funds allocated for CSR activities - for example, that of Oil India Limited at 62 per cent un-utilized funds in 2007-08 2 . Given the important social role that the PSUs have been mandated to play, it is not a positive sign. It also sends a wrong signal for the private companies in terms of adhering to the principles of CSR. There are also other loop– holes in the CSR structure in India. It is felt that there is too little incentive for the companies to undertake CSR activities. There is need for a body that certifies CSR performance. Based on that certification, the government can provide positive 'discrimination' to companies with good CSR performance. This is not advocacy for further tax concessions or other pure economic benefits, but for preferential treatment towards them 3 . The incentive, for example, can be that a company with better CSR 'rank' will be preferred over other company with lesser 'rank' while signing up a contract for Public-Private– Partnership project. This should be clearly spelt in the government's guidelines. Hence, merely keeping everything as "voluntary" is not going to work. The economic benefits leave alone the social benefits, of a CSR activity cannot be estimated by a micro– entity i.e. a company. That macro vision is perhaps only 4 understood by a government . Based on such overall understanding, the government has to formulate, if not some sort of binding mechanism, but at least some incentive-driven framework which will entice the corporate sector to undertake socially responsible stance for their society. India Inc. The CSR performance of the corporate sector in India is also not satisfactory. India, ranks 4 1 h in Forbes list of number of billionaires in the world over. However, this sector does not show that comparable amount of social responsibility. Compared to that of the developed countries, like the United States of America or the European countries, the Indian corporate sector spt.:nds much less on CSR. There are many cases of donations being given to several educational institutions by Indian business houses across the globe. This practice may be promoted mor·J so that the cash– strapped premiere educational institutes of our country with bright minded. students could benefit from such generous patronage of our business leaders. Learning from this trend, the proposed 'incentive framework' in the above section should give primacy to activities that are directed towards the neglected sectors and regions. Sourindra Mohan Ghosh sgl1QSflW ~k_\ llt t)l_:.:; Rizwan Uz Zaman I Ctl/1/i{l/ .fl ,/L \ l_fl <I ':t! 1. Here, we won't discuss about stereotypical roles of women v1s-a-v1s gender empowerment, which is not within the scope of this article. 2. 3. 4. http //saimdia.gov.m/enqlisht horne/Our Products/Audit Report/Government Wiset union audit/recent reports' un1on compliance/2008 20 09/Commercral Audit/Report 10 22 1 chap 3.pdf For example, the normative first-come-first-serve rule is also a preferential treatment, a preference towards who comes first. This argument is similar to the argument that any externality can only be calculated by a government, not an individual company. Courtesy: Development Alternatives, July 2011, Pp1&3. INTEGRATING SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS FOR CSR Poonam Mehta pmehta@devalt. org Corporate social responsibility has been defined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development as 'the continuing commitment by businesses 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. ' There are five possible themes for corporate social responsibility which include: (1 ) human rights; (2) worker rights; (3) envi ronmental impact; (4) community involvement; and (5) stakeholder relations and monitoring. For an individual company, this means the integration of social (including human rights), environmental and economic concerns into that company's values and culture. These values are reflected in the company's policies, strategies, decision making and its operations. 49