CSR Essentials

State Governments Must Ensure Business Fulfills its Social Responsibility to the Community

2012-02-01T02:47:00.000-08:00

State Governments Must Ensure Business Fulfils
its Social Responsibility to the Community

Suresh Kr Pramar
CSR Consultant & Executive Director,
Centre for Training & Research
In Responsible Business

Like many of his contemporaries the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh has woken to the pitfalls of unabridged, uncontrolled industrialization and the failure of companies to fulfill the promises made at the time of starting the project. Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, in a meeting with NEEPCO Chief Managing Director (CMD) P C Pankaj lamented that the public sector power units in the state were deliberately violating in a ‘brazen manner’ their agreement with the government regarding employment of locals.”
The Chief Minister pointed out that the terms and conditions of the MoU with NEEPCO in regard of assured employment to locals in the projects was very clear. All jobs in the group C and D posts against each project was reserved for local affected people. He expressed grave doubt that the condition was being fulfilled in full by the undertakings. He said there was urgent need to recruit locals at least in the reserved categories as mentioned in the MoU.
“We have been cooperating with the NEEPCO since it began its first project on the Ranganadi at Yazali. As leaders we have given commitments to the people based on assurances from NEEPCO authorities. If these are not fulfilled, we will have to face the ire of the people,” Tuki cautioned.

Most state governments have been working hard to attract private investments to their states. Liberal sops in the form of attractive subsidies, and concessions in tax and power and water charges and also allotment of land at cheap prices are being offered. All this is being done in the belief that massive industrialization would mean increased employment for the people and a betterment in their economic condition.

This thinking has taken a massive beating in almost all the new industry promoting states. Business is making liberal use of the concessions and subsidies offered by the states on the assurance that it would provide employment to the local people. In none of these states has this promise been fulfill in any appreciable measure.

Where locals have been provide employment they have been offered menial jobs like gate keepers, messengers etc. The cream of employment has invariably gone to outsiders. The common excuse offered is that the locals do not have the required qualifications or skills.

This writer is a witness to the plight of the locals in states which are new entrants on the road to industrialisation. Touring one of these states with a team from the Planning Commission we heard countless stories from local people, mostly tribal, about how they had been deprived of their land and denied the promised jobs.

In one particular state tribal lands had been acquired by the state government and handed over to the investors. The tribals received payment at the prevailing rate. Not well versed in the money economy they soon became penniless and on the road to abject poverty. The irony of this was the fact that the investors were racking in crores of rupees by extracting the rich minerals from the land.

Even as the dawn of independence seemed visible in the horizon the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi was seemed concerned about the birth of the new class of businessmen following independence and self rule. He drafted the concept of Trusteeship. He said while it was right that the businessman made money he or she should not forget his or her responsibility towards the people and society, particularly those who were economically deprived.

Gandhiji’s theory of Trusteeship laid down that businessmen after having met their requirements should set aside a part of their profits for the welfare of the people and the society. According to Gandhiji the businessman should hold the excess profits in Trust for the people. Gandhiji’s theory of Trusteeship has developed into what is today come to be known as Corporate Social Responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development is “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the work force and their families as well as the local community and society at large.”

Business is now being increasingly called upon to pay heed to the needs and aspirations of its many stakeholders. These include its employees, the community, suppliers, customers, the environment etc. Each of these stakeholders has an important role to play in the success or failure of any business enterprise.

For the state governments the two important stakeholders would without doubt be the employees of the company and the community in which the enterprise is located. It is now an established fact, worldwide, that locals have the first priority in the matter of employment, at least in the case of unskilled labour. In the case of semi skilled and skilled labour business is required to provide training facilities to eligible employees so that they can be absorbed in suitable positions on equal wages.

In his address to an Annual Session of the Confederation of Indian Industries in 2007 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked industry to “invest in people and in their skills”. He had said “ Indian Industry must allocate sufficient funds for human resource development…industry must be proactive in offering employment to the less privileged at all levels of the ladder.”

In as far as the community is concerned business has added responsibilities. While government grants licences and permits for the establishment of industrial units it is the community and the society, on whose land the unit has been set up, that provides the licence for trouble free continued operations. No business can be sustainable if people in the community where it is located feel deprived or cheated.

It is now universally acknowledged that business is required to play a wider and more expansive societal role and that companies should be held fully responsible for their roles over which they have direct control. These include providing quality products at reasonable prices, ensuring that their operations are environmentally friendly, treating employees fairly without any discrimination based on gender, race, religion etc.

Businessmen owe it to the community and other stakeholders for the wealth they earn. There is some amount of sacrifice of the stakeholders involved in the creation of wealth by business houses. Governments, both centre and states, offer sops by way of tax concessions, subsidies etc, to businessmen to help them in the creation of wealth. The moneys being offered could well have gone for the welfare of the poor. Companies need to actively promote the well being of the community where they are located. In addition to providing employment to the local people they are required to create income generating activities to raise the economic standard of the people.

State governments need to become proactive in ensuring that business honors its commitments to its employees and the community. Across the country there is the feeling that the government needs to do more to make Corporates undertake really CSR and fulfil their obligations to the stakeholders. Surveys have indicated that people feel that government needs to become more active to exert pressure and monitor company CSR but that the choice of the welfare programmes should be left to the discretion of the companies.
(Suresh Kr Pramar, CSR Consultant and the Executive Director, Centre for Training & Research in Responsible Business is a veteran journalist presently actively involved in promoting CSR through his publication CRBiz and by conducting workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility. He can be reached at suresh.pramar@gmail.com 09213133042/9899305950)

Promoting CSR in India

2011-08-02T05:16:00.000-07:00

Suresh Kr Pramar:
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011 | Filed under CSR ICON, Special Reports |
Posted by : indiacsr

By Monika Dutt
A journalist by profession, Suresh Kr Pramar, is presently actively
involved in the promotion of responsible business. He is possibly the
strongest advo cate of the Gandhian concept of Trusteeship and its
Westernised version, Corporate Social Responsibility. Over the past
ten years he has been actively involved in pushing the CSR agenda
among corporates, governments and civil society.
After over 40 years in journalism, he still claims to be a journalist
at heart, Pramar in 2004 started the first print publication on CSR in
India, possibly in South Asia as well, called CRBiz(corporate
responsibility in business). The publication soon caught the attention
of the CSR world but failed to impress the advertisers. The
publication is presently on hold pending a reorganization.
In 2006 he set up a Trust called the Global Gandhian Trusteeship and
Corporate Responsibility Foundation and launched the CSR Essential
Training Workshop series, again a first, for middle level corporate
management, NGO’s and students.
The workshops have so far been held in seven different locations in
the country, including New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore,
Bhubaneswar, Nagpur and Raipur. According to Pramar “these workshops
have attracted participation from almost all major corporates, both
private and public sector. A number of major NGOs have also
participated. Over three hundred participants have attended these
workshops.
“ The response from the participants has been very encouraging. Almost
all of them are people who are actually involved in the implementation
of the CSR community service agenda in their respective companies.
Unfortunately these, vital employees, have little or no avenues to
enhance their knowledge and awareness about the changing trends in
CSR.
“ Because of the lack of adequate knowledge these practitioners are
not able to contribute very much to the development of the CSR agenda
of their companies. We have through our workshops managed to raise
awareness levels among these participants and also instill some amount
of confidence. Feed back from our participants have been excellent
with a majority of them wanting to attend more such workshops.”
Suresh strongly believes that Corporates have a duty to contribute to
society. CSR cannot be treated as charity it is a duty which
corporates owe to society. Unfortuately most community programmes
undertaken by many corporates smell of charity. Even the attitude and
body language of the officials of these companies suggest that they
are doing a favour to society says Pramar.
There is a very strong business case for CSR. The chief being the fact
that it helps their sustainable development. It secures for them the
goodwill of the community and provides them a trouble free environment
to build and grow.
Though most of those incharge of implementing CSR have little training
in CSR and how to go about their work they have developed the heart
and the desire to help the society. A majority of them are very
dedicated and ground to earth.
“ Unfortunately these persons do not always get the type of support of
their seniors where it is most essential. At a recently workshop a
participant said that the management expects them to be firefighter
and to ensure that there are no public demonstration against the
company because it was spending several crores on CSR. CSR
practitioners can only create a climate of goodwill for the company
among the community. They cannot be expected to guarantee a complete
ban on agitations.”
According to Pramar CSR has still a long way to go in India. While
there are examples of excellent work being done these are not
adequate. “ There is a need to bring about a mind change among
corporate leaders. Among other things they need to learn that they are
not doing charity when they undertake CSR. The other important issue
is that merely spending money does not ensure trouble free operations.
Community leaders expected to be respected and not be treated as
beggars.”
While these workshops have help CSR practitioners to raise awareness
levels they have also contributed to build bridges between the
corporates and NGOs. “We encourage NGOs to participate in these
workshops because this helps them to network with corporate
participants and also to understand how companies undertake their CSR
responsibilities. These workshops have been successful in developing
partnerships between corporates and civil society.”
According to Pramar while companies have the money and desire to
contribute to the community and society they are handicapped by the
fact that there are very few trained and experienced CSR practitioners
available. He says surveys have indicated that one of the three major
problems facing companies involved in CSR is the non availability of
trained manpower. This is particularly so in public sector units where
money is not a major issue.
“This an area where we can help. Unfortunately those incharge of
training in corporate bodies do not seem to realise the need to
training their staff involved in CSR. A major problem is that most
corporate HR heads to no give adequate weigthage to CSR training.
Without training and experienced CSR teams which have the capacity to
contribute to the developing CSR agenda of the company most CSR
expenditure would go waste.”
He gave the example of a public sector unit which ran to town claiming
that it had provided a modern school building for a village school in
its area of operation. The company had provided the school Rs 5 lakh
worth of computers which over the past three years were stored in the
headmaster’s office cubboard.
Educated in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Suresh Kr Pramar, comes from a
family of educationists. He has a post graduate degree in Economics
from the Rani Durgawati Vishwavidhalaya and a post graduate diploma in
journalism from Hislop College, Nagpur.
He started his career in journalism with the Indian Express going on
to the Economic and Political Weekly and there after The Current,
under D.F.Karaka. He did a one year fellowship with the Institute of
Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies. For one year he was with the
Ford Foundation and helped in the setting up of the Communication
Centre at the Pantnagar Agricultural University.
Between 1970 and 1975 he was with the March of the Nation, a
publication edited by the late Piloo Mody. Between 1976 and 1978 he
was Editor of Kuensel, a publication of the Royal Government of
Bhutan. He later shifted to Sikkim where he started a weekly English
publication called Eastern Express. For almost eight years he wrote
for a number of national and international publications, including the
Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong.
For almost ten years he was press advisor to the Chief Minister of
Arunachal Pradesh. Returning to New Delhi wrote for the Business
Standard and the Financial Express.
Suresh Kr Pramar is the founder President of the Federation of North
East Journalists. Under his leadership the Federation organized over
two dozen workshops on journalism for moffusil journalists, including
about a dozen on the rights of women and children, in different parts
of the Region.
( Suresh Kr Pramar can be reached at suresh.pra...@gmail.com)

iso 26000

2011-08-02T05:13:00.000-07:00

A Very Readable Guide on the ISO 26000 CSR Guidance: Book Review
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
By Suresh Kr Pramar

Corporate Social Responsibility is everything and everywhere. Business leaders, the world over, have realized that unabridged greed, unethical behaviour and irresponsible business practices could lead to financial chaos and untold misery worldwide.
The recent Global financial crisis, caused by the irresponsible business practices of companies like Enron, has convinced business that their long term survival depends on responsible and ethical business practices and respect for the community. This realization has swelled the ranks of CSR supporters both in India and abroad.
In India, as elsewhere on the Globe, the CSR fan club is increasing a very rapid pace. More and more companies are trumpeting their acceptance of the CSR agenda and their responsibility toward society. That more money is being spent by companies on “community projects” is now an accepted fact. What is in doubt is whether this increased funding is being spend on actual CSR project or on PR and brand building.
While a substantial majority of companies are involved in brand building in the name of CSR there are an equal number of companies who wish to do good CSR but have neither the knowledge nor the required trained manpower to undertake CSR responsibilities. In their very readable book ‘ISO 26000:The Business Guide to the New Standard on Social Responsibility,’ Lars Moratis and Timo Cochius, highlight some of the barriers to the implementation of CSR.
Among the barrier they have listed are “too little knowledge of CSR; too little knowledge of CSR implementation; no clear action plan,” etc. To overcome these barriers the International Standards Organisation (ISO) has developed a global and overarching guidance document which could create clarity and uniformity in SR (CSR) concepts.
The ISO 26000 SR (CSR) Guideline have been several years in the making starting in 2005. It was released for public use in November 2010. A vast array of stakeholder groups drawn from almost one hundred countries debated and produced these Guidelines.
Experts predict that ISO 26000 is soon likely to be a very authoritative guideline for designing and implementing CSR. Among the main objectives of the Guidelines are to support organizations in defining their social responsibilities and acting in accordance with these responsibilities. Another objective is to increase the credibility of the company’s SR claims.
As a trainer and consultant I am often asked three basic questions: what are the responsibilities of a company; what should a company do to create value in its CSR programmed and How a CSR programme should be implemented. These are question that haunt the minds of all CSR practitioners. ISO 26000, it is expected, answers these questions in some detail.
According to Lars and Tino “Many organizations are urgently in need of an overview, structure and roadmap on how to engage with CSR in practice…only when an organization is aware of its societal impacts, has true and deep concern for these impacts and consciously acts according to these concerns both at a strategic and operational level” can hope of integrating the triple bottom line.”
The two authors point out that every organization has its own individual organization-specific CSR profile. They stress on the need for every organization to interpret CSR in a way that fits its activities, impacts and spheres of influence. Such an approach to CSR, they point out, results in multiple benefits including profits for the organization and profits for the community. Pointing out that CSR has great societal relevance, the two authors, say “business, governments and NGOs have a central role in contributing to the realization of sustainable development.”
ISO 26000 does not use the terminology CSR for its Guidelines. Instead it uses the term SR (Social Responsibility). This has been done with a purpose. “ISO took the decision that its guidance should be appropriate for all organizations not merely for big business as the ‘C’ in CSR implies.”
ISO 26000 is different from the other initiatives of the ISO in that unlike the earlier ISOs, like GRI and the AA 1000 Series, it does not provide for certification. The guideline very clearly states that it is not meant for certification or contractual use. ISO 26000 is a special kind of standard, a Guidance Standard which can be used by organizations on a voluntary basis. According to the author “ISO 26000 wants to be useful for all types of organizations, irrespective of their size, sector, geographic location and irrespective of their stage of SR implementation”
The Business Guide is divided into nine chapters, six interludes and five annexes. It explores the meaning of the term CSR and its origins as also the various interpretations and characteristics of the generally acceptable view. While considering a number of core SR subjects included in ISO 26000 it highlights the fact that the guidelines provides a morality issue as a driver for CSR sidelining the Business case. One of the chapters in the book looks into the reasons behind ‘its ambitions, scope, objectives and functions’
Perhaps the most important discussion is on the most prominent SR principle within IS0 26000, the respect for stakeholder interests. This principle “deals with the relationships between the organization, its stakeholders and society as a whole.” The authors discuss how organizations can identify their stakeholders and their interests with the help of sever illustrations and examples. The discussion also covers the reasons for creating stakeholder engagement programmes, actions that an organization should undertake in this area and ways to involve stakeholders in the SR policy of the organization.
A useful chapter is one that discusses how organizations should select SR priorities.
‘How an organization defines ‘relevance’ and ‘significance of SR core subjects and related issues, as well as the sphere of influence and organization has.’ The authors have also touched on the need to communicate SR. Writing on integrating SR into the organization they point out that SR implementation is a major challenge for many organizations. “Creating support for SR ad engaging stakeholders is just two of the common problems experienced.” The authors point out that SR communication is essential for enhancing the credibility of SR initiatives and monitoring and improving SR performance.
A timely publication ‘ISO 26000: The Business Guide to the New Standard on Social Responsibility’ could well become an essential resource material for hundreds of organizations across the world. The 200 plus page book covers the key contents of ISO 26000. It looks into the development of the standard, the topics covered and how the key themes such as stakeholders are dealt with.
It has tools and benchmarking exercises, illustrative material, case studies and essential material for companies looking to base their CSR policy on ISO 26000. The book also has an overview of the actions and expectations of organizations that wish to work in accordance with ISO 26000.
This is the first book which provides a comprehensive roadmap to the new standard. It defines the terminology of SR and advises companies on the way in which they can identify their social responsibilities and how SR can be integrated into all types of organizations. A truly readable, educative and useful publication
ISO 26000: The Business Guide to the New Standard on Social Responsibility; Lars Moratis and Tino Cochius; Greenleaf Publishing; 2011
(Suresh Kr Pramar, is Managing Trustee, Global Gandhian Trusteeship & Corporate Responsibility Foundation and the Executive Director, Centre for Training & Research in Responsible Business. A veteran journalist he is presently actively involved in promoting CSR through his publication CRBiz and by conducting workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility. He can be reached at suresh.pramar@gmail.com 09213133042)

Corporate Social Responsibility or Public Relations

2010-06-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

Suresh Kr Pramar

According to a report in the national press Bharati Sanchar Nigam
Limited(BSNL), India’s public sector telephone company has taken up a
project to maintain and clean some long distance Rajdhani trains.
According to the report BSNL will take care for up-gradation,
cleaning and maintenance of these trains. This, says the report, will
also add on to (the company’s) CSR activity

According to the definition of CSR, most accepted, CSR is an activity
which is over and above the compliance of the law. That is any
activity that is part of a legal necessity cannot qualify to be called
a CSR activity.

Judging against this criterion BSNL’s Rajdhani cleaning efforts does
not qualify to be called the company’s CSR activity. When a traveler
buys a ticket to travel on board the Rajdhani he/she expects to travel
in a clean, friendly and pollution free environment. Under the law the
Railways are legally bound to provide the passengers these
facilities.

BSNL’s effort, while it does not qualify to be called a CSR activity
is a blatant PR exercise. The same report points out “Rajdhani
trains offer immense reach with high impact and hence an ideal
advertising medium to reach out to passengers in platforms and en-
route audience effectively. Rajdhani travelers fall under high
affordability profile of consumers and hence strategically placed
internal media engages them during the long duration of journey.
This 3 months campaign is expected to attract one and half crore
eyeballs negotiating 34 locations across eleven states to establish
its BSNL3G brand in the mindset of people. This is a massive campaign
in terms of visual area as well, since as much as 25,000 square feet
of BSNL advertisement creative would be wrapped onto Rajdhani Express
with a special quality vinyl approved by RDSO.
The medium deliveries are 85,000 per day eye balls assured through the
external vinyl wrap, while internal medias are consumed by approx 1500
passengers per day. There are approx 350 Panels, 200 Table Tops and
400 Brochure Holders inside one train, along with audio jingles,
announcements, contest and activation by in-train promoters which
would create a great impact and engaging communication for the brand
BSNL and its services.
Like most other private and public sector companies BSNL is using
funds for PR in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility. While
encouraging companies to become more responsible and undertake
enhanced CSR the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Department of
Public Enterprises should undertake a study of how money set aside for
CSR is being spent. Merely making public announcements upgrading the
annual CSR allotments will not ensure increased CSR activity. A start
could be made by reading the report put together by CAG on the CSR
activities of PSUs in four sectors. (Report No. CA 22 of 2009-10)

In another report CAG has shed light on how BHEL’s board of directors
bent to political pressure and violated norms while granting money
under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. According
to the report, BHEL spent Rs 5 crore under the CSR scheme for
electrification and floodlighting of a sports stadium in Silchar,
Assam, named after S.M. Dev, father of then Union minister of state
for heavy industries and public enterprise Santosh Mohan Dev in 2007.
CAG alleged that the corporate office of the company directly
disbursed the amount to the stadium officials without involving its
regional unit and the donation exceeded the ceiling of Rs 2.86 crore
allocated for CSR activities in 2007.

Applying Corporate Responsibility To Government

2008-10-08T20:33:00.001-07:00

Applying Corporate Responsibility To Government

Suresh Kr Pramar

Executive Director

Centre for Education, Research &

Training in Responsible Business

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the prevailing management mantra. Businesses are increasingly taking up the CSR agenda to strengthen their brands and appear to be people friendly Socially Responsible identities. Recent surveys in India have indicated that the number of companies which are practicing CSR is growing.

CSR is about the way companies meet their wider obligations, both to employees and to the wider community. Responsible companies realise that their activities have an impact on the society in which they operate. They realise the need to adopt a coherent approach to a range of stakeholders, including investors, employees, suppliers and customers.

Though there is considerable recorded literature on Corporate Social Responsibility little of this has been applied to the social responsibility of governments. If CSR is about treating the stakeholders in an ethical and socially responsible manner then National Social Responsibility (NSR) would be about treating the stakeholders of a nation in an ethical and socially responsible manner. Applying the tools of CSR to governments, including the government in India, shows that, depressingly many, if not most, countries lack social responsibility.

All governments, like business houses, have stakeholders. In fact the list of stakeholders for governments is larger and more populated than those of individual business houses. Treating the stakeholders responsibly is obvious if a corporation wishes to succeed. In the case of a government one would think that a Government would need to treat its citizens responsibly, morally and fairly.

The government’s portfolio of stakes holders include not only the voters, who put them into power, but also their employees, the goods and services providers, international governments and organizations, to name just a few. NSR can therefore be defined as: A State that treats its citizens fairly, looks after their well-being, and is respectful to foreigners – immigrants as well as their trading partners

Jawahir Adam and Michael Hopkins of MHCInternational Limited, a CSR research and Consultancy Company based in London and Geneva, have developed a National Social Responsibility Index (NSRI) which measures whether citizens are treated fairly and whether the State looks after their well-being. Creating an index from zero to one, where zero means absolutely no social responsibility and one means excellent social responsibility

To measure these two aspects the authors used measures of the freedom of the country and life expectancy at birth. For the former the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2007 Democracy Index which is based on electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture has been used. And life expectancy at birth is drawn from the 2007 UNDP Human Development Report. The third indicator used is the nation’s transparency and uses Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.

Of the 180 countries for which data was collected the richer countries dominated the leading positions with Sweden coming in at Number One (with a score of 1), closely followed by Iceland, and Denmark (both scoring 0.98). The bastions of democracy came further down the list with the UK at 14. Say the authors of the index “its civil liberties have been hard hit in recent years because of its over-the-top intrusive behaviour as a response to terrorism as has the USA with a position at Number 21st. The rising economic powerhouses, the BRIC group of countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China, came 53rd, 119th, 73rd, and 108th respectively. Zimbabwe and Somalia were placed 179 and 180 with scores of 0.11 and 07 respectively

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2007 Democracy Index India has been placed at 35^th position with an overall score of 7.68. According to the Index India with a score of 9.58 for electoral process and pluralism was better placed than most of the nations occupying the top position in the index, including the United Kingdoms and the USA. With a score of 9.71 the country was again better placed than most of the western democracies. The Economist Index however gave India only 7.50 for functioning of government, 6.67 percent for political participation and 5.63 for political culture.

India has been described as a vibrant electoral democracy with an abysmal human rights record. A United Nations study says that India has failed to properly protect Dalits and tribal communities. Between 2001-2002 as many as 58,000 cases of victimization of Dalits were reported. A report has pointed out that every 20 minutes a Dalit is victimised in India. The condition of women ad children, particularly those belonging to the backward classes continues to worsen.

The recent spate of terrorist and communal inspired violence has further damaged the government’s pretences of being a responsible government. In state after state terrorist operate without fear killing and maiming innocent people. According to official statistics 13,500 civilians and terrorists have died during the past decade in terrorism related violence. Almost every part of the country has experienced terrorist violence. The record keeps getting worse year after year with violence authored by communal forces, and terrorist making life of the people increasingly unsafe.

India’s record of social responsibility has suffered because of its poor record in its efforts to eliminate poverty. A recent report of the World Bank suggests that despite sustained high GDP growth, India is home to roughly one-third of all the poor in the world. The Report claims that India has 456 million people, or around 42 percent of its population living below the new international poverty line of $ 1.25 a day. The number of Indian poor constitutes 33% of the global poor – pegged at 1.4 billion people.

India continues to be listed among the world’s most corrupt countries. According to Transparency International India, with a score of 2.8 was placed at 83 position in a list of 133 nations. Interestingly the survey listed Courts, Customs, Education System, Political Parties, Police, Tax Revenue, among the most corrupt departments in the country.

There is a total loss of faith in the general public with those who are governing the country and the ability of the government to tackle corruption. A whopping 55.8 per cent of those surveyed in India felt that corruption in the country would increase not decrease over time. There is a strong feeling that economic development in India will go hand in hand with an increase in corruption of all types, because there is more money to play with.

Does India have a socially responsible or is t a failed state. Wikipedia, defines “a failed state as a state whose central government is so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of its territory”. A failed state is also one that can no longer perform its national security responsibilities to protect its society or control its territory

National Social Responsibility Index (NSRI)

Rank Country NSRI

1. Sweden 1

2. Iceland 0.98

3 Denmark 0.98

4. Finland 0.96

5. Netherlands 0.96

6. New Zealand 0.96

7. Switzerland 0.95

14. United Kingdom 0.88

16. Japan 0.87

17. Singapore 0.86

21. USA 0.83

53. Brazil 0.61

67. Sri Lanka 0.57

73. India 0.56

108 China 0.47

112 Bhutan 0.46

117. Bangla Desh 0.45

125. Pakistan 0.40

136 Nepal 0.37

179. Zambabwe 0.11

180. Somalia 0.07

Source: MHCi where a

NSRi score of one is

excellent and zero very poor

Hyderabad CR Essentials Workshop Report

2008-08-17T00:52:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad Workshop Report

A two day workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility was held in Hyderabad on January 10-11, 2008. The event was organised jointly by CRBiz and the Byrraju Foundation and was held in the Byrraju Conference Hall at Jeedimatle Village.

Thirty five participants representing various corporates, NGOs and students attended. The corporates represented at the workshop were National Mineral Development Corporation, Mishra Dhatu Nigam, National Textile Development Corporation, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, BHEL, Ballarpur Industries Limited, Computer Sciences Corporation of India. NGOs who attended included Satyam Foundation, Byrraju Foundation, Alpha Foundation, Dr Reddy’s Foundation, Population Services International, Centre for Social Initiative & Management.One participant was from the International Consortium of Management Consultants, Dhaka,Bangla Desh

Almost all participants indicated that this was the first workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility that they had attended. A majority revealed that they had learned about CR largely within their organisations and through contacts with other companies involved in CR. A substantial majority said they had some theoretical knowledge about the concept.

Almost 95 percent of the participants said they believed that CR had a bright future. Many felt that CR in India would gain ground faster with some government initiative through they said that the companies should retain the right to decide the programmes they would like to implement.

The first session was conducted by Niranjan Khatri, General Manager, ITC WelcomEnviron Initiatives. Speaking on Engaging the Environment: Its Relationship with the Bottom Line Khatri highlighted the need to pay greater attention to the preservation of natural resources.

He drew attention to the rapid changes in climate and the damage caused to the environment because of the indiscriminate use of natural resources. He stressed on the need for managements to pay attention to the development of eco friendly policies and products.

Khatri drew on his experiences as a Hotelier and narrated how while posted in Port Blair he was able to introduce programmes and services which helped to preserve water and energy and manage waste.

He said his Group of companies was very active in environment issues. In most of the company hotels the management had managed to bring about zero wastage of water and energy. He also spoke of the steps taken to employ persons differently abled.

Speaking on the Rise of Corporate Social Responsibility in India, Dr Vikas Goswami, Lead CSR, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft India traced the history of CR in India. She said the concept was known as far back as the early 1800s. Then CR was mostly in the form of philanthropy when the rich funded the construction of temples. She spoke about the Gandhian concept of Trusteeship and how it guided the then business houses to contribute to the well being of the society.

Post independence the CR concept began to grow, gaining momentum in the post liberalisation period and further during the decade between 1980-90 with globalisation and privatisation. She said business houses have started paying greater attention to the need to give back to society.

An interest presentation was made by Dr Balaji Utla, Vice chairman Satyam Foundation. Speaking on Scaling Solutions for Social Sector: HMRI Technology Solution-A Case Study Dr Balaji Utla highlighted how public private partnership can leverage on the strengths of both, the mainstream government programmes and the NGOs.

He said that India still lagged behind the developed countries on key health indicators. The demand supply gap in terms of personnel, infrastructure and the expenditure on health services was wide. The situation in the rural areas was worse and called for special attentionDr Balaji pointed out that the demand supply gap could be bridged through new solutions that use technology to achieve faster, cheaper and more effective results. He said HMRI will help to leap frog infrastructure and resource constraint with the help of technology.

Dr Balaji said the key assumptions underlying the HMRI Health Care Solution are mobile phone penetration, broadband connectivity at PHCs, availability of doctors and community health workers, good medical facilities at government hospitals, responsive government staff to respond to epidemics and existing government programmes.

Speaking on the subject of NGO Accountability Dr Mazer Hussain, Director COVA, called for greater accountability in the civil society sector. He said the need for accountability was essential if the civil society organisation were to provide relief for the people.

He said there was need to think seriously about the developing trend where Corporates were trying to fill the gap created by the failure of the government to fulfil their responsibilities. He said more and Corporates were trying to take up the responsibilities of the government to provide social services like education and health.

Hussain said with increasing involvement of the corporates the government might willing hand over all its responsibility retaining only police, finance and external affairs. In such a situation the people will have no place to seek redressal for their grievances. Such a situation could result in creating a government which would be oppressive.

Speaking on The Importance of Socially Responsible Investment Ms Survana Rani Gandham,India Regional Manager, Oikocredit introduced the concept and the need for socially responsible investment. She pointed out that financial institutions were now taking into consideration environment and social issues in their funding activities.

She said financial institutions abroad were closely examining the company’s performance in the area of environment and their responsiveness towards the society. She said Oikocredit was a company created on the investment of small investors who were actively involved in the operations of the company.

Pointing out that it takes two to tango, Dr Vikas Goswami, speaking on Corporate-NGO Partnership, stress on the need for increased partnership between the corporate houses and the NGOs. She said there were several advantages for both to partner and work together. There were mutual benefits as there were mutual constraints.

She said that each had its own characteristics. Corporates were profit, number and result driven. They believed in methodical working based on facts. On the other hand NGOs were empowerment and process driven.

Corporates need to remember that NGOs do not have solutions for all their problems and that they were number driven. On the other hand NGOs need to remember that corporates were not merely a funding agency and that compassion was not part of their amoury.

Yet to say that corporates are from Mars and NGOs from Vensus would not be completely true. They need to partner to deliver benefits to society

CR Essentials Workshop New Delhi

2008-08-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

CRBiz organised a two-day workshop on CSR Essentials: Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility at Vishwa Yuvak Kendra, Chanakya Puri, New Delhi on October 12 -13, 2007.

Forty participants representing Corporates, NGOs and Students participated in the Workshop. Among the Corporates whose representatives attended the workshop were Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Indian Oil Corporation, National Mineral Development Corporation, Reliance Anil Ambani Group, Paharpur Business Centre, Jindal Stainless, AREVA T&D, Jubilant, Apcoworldwide, STR International, Collage Sports Management, Xansa India, CSC, Holofix Urban Infrastructure, PVRNest Etc. Among the NGOs were FXB Indian Suraksha, Sightsavers, Skillshare International, Ad Ed Value, Viable and AFPRO. Two students from the Department of Social Welfare Delhi University also attended

Barring one all other participants said that they had no formal training in Corporate Social Responsibility. About 80 percent said that they had learned about CSR within their organizations and through contacts with CSR personnel working in other companies. Some 65 percent said they had strong theoretical knowledge about the concept of CSR.

Almost 90 percent felt that CSR had a long term future in the country. Some 80 percent felt that there was need for increased government involvement in the CSR field. They felt that CSR would become more effective when there is tighter regulation of company’s activities. It was however felt that companies should have the independence to decide what kind of CSR agenda they would like to follow.

The workshop was flagged off by Dr. Uddesh Kohli, Senior Adviser, Global Compact in India, who stressed on the need to work for a more stable and inclusive global market by encouraging the business community to build universal principles into their strategic vision and daily practices and demonstrate their concern for the society and community by positive action.

Elucidating on the topic Global Compact: Its relevance for India and the world, Dr.Kohli urged companies to join UN Global Compact as it is the global network for learning, experience sharing and using UN’s global reach. During the discussion, majority of the participants felt that CSR is not philanthropy. While most of the corporates did not have a written policy, it was observed that there is a perceptive change in their approach towards CSR. to their core business.

Presenting a case study of PVR’s CSR, Deepa Menon, Head CSR PVRNest, highlighted PVR’s efforts in bringing the street children to the school. She said drug addiction is the biggest problem these children face. Overcoming odds, Menon said that a rag picker has become a teacher. With a small team and limited resources, Deepa said the biggest challenge is lack of internalization of CSR.

Mathew Cherian, Executive Director, HelpAge, dealt in detail on ‘Rationale for Corporate Social Responsibility’. He said the three pillars of CSR are Planet- Sustainability, People- Social Accountability and Profit- Shareholders. He lamented the lack of written policy among corporates on CSR as out of 536 companies surveyed by PIC (Partners in Change); only 17 percent had any kind of written policy on CSR. He said in the absence of a written policy, it is CEO driven. Sometimes it is CEO’s wife driven, he said, in a lighter vein.

Cherian said the NGOs are to be seen as equal partners in the process of strategy development, policy formulation and implementation. He said:“Corporates should define their realm of social responsibility and fulfill them accordingly towards a larger far-reaching impact. ”

Asit Roy, General Manager, Economic Affairs, Kanoria Chemicals and Industries Ltd (KCI), explained the company’s successful initiatives under the topic ‘Engaging the Community and Its Relations to the Bottom Line’. He said a survey conducted scientifically by KCI and BCF, identified that the single biggest problem facing the people was non-availability of water for irrigation. Consequently a detailed project was worked out and has been under implementation since the year 2000. The programme uses a simple methodology of identifying the needs of the community in the command area and engaging a participative mode with the beneficiaries. Technical inputs from Tarun Bharat Sangh - an NGO that has done commendable work in the field of water harvesting in the state of Rajasthan, helped in creating capacity for training and advocacy.

Gayatri Mohan, Associate Vice President, CSR- Xansa India made a forceful presentation on her company’s CSR initiatives while declaring that they were not into branding of any sort. She said CSR for them is purely seen as a social service. All the 600 employees of the company indulge in employee volunteerism, Gayatri said. Her presentation was made livelier with a film shown on the CSR beneficiaries.

Dr. Vikas Goswami, Lead – CSR, Microsoft Corporate (India) Pvt. Ltd, in her presentation on ‘Training on identifying and engaging the stakeholder’, enlivened the workshop proceedings. She said NGOs should be more business like while approaching the corporates with their proposal.

She said ‘Employee Volunteerism in India’ is being encouraged by corporates. She explained that employees spend voluntary hours because it helps in morale building, acts as a feel good factor, creates healthy competition among different teams and enables them to understand future customers and understand resource limits and how to maximize the same. Identifying the Community as a stakeholder is very important, she said.

Day two of the workshop began with the presentation of Dr. K. Vijayalakshmi, Development Alternatives. She gave detailed insights into ‘Engaging Environment: Its relationships with the bottom line’. She stressed the importance of environmental integration. She said the depletion of forest is a major concern for the future as forest equal to a football field is disappearing every second. As only 0.07 per cent of water present on earth is fresh water, she underlined the importance of reducing water pollution.

Niranjan Khatri, Welcome Environ Group, dwelt in detail on ‘Beyond Legal Compliance: Incorporating CSR as an integral part of business strategy’. He narrated how he learnt the dynamics of social responsibility during his stint as head of the hotel at Port Blair. He said necessity may be the mother of invention but corporates ought to have written policies on CSR. He spoke of his experience in Port Blair and how he had managed to find remedies to various environmental problems.

Khatri dwelt on his company’s efforts to development better practices among the suppliers. He said the remedies suggested by the company were accepted by the suppliers only because they were able to see the benefits available from such changes

Anshu Gupta, Ashoka Fellow and Director - Goonj, presented a case study of Goonj is a lesson for all concerned. Anshu Gupta drew the attention of the participants to the fact that lakhs of rural women don’t have access to dry and hygienic clothing during their monthly menstrual cycle. He said rural women have been silently suffering for ages in our society, which is full of stigmas. Most of them are prone to infection during that important natural cycle. Anshu Gupta exhorted the corporates to treat NGOs as equal partners as they are the ones who are into practical implementation.

Khurram Nayyam, Programme Manager, Partners in Change, elaborated in detail on ‘Managing CSR along Supply Chains’. Khurram Nayyam said MNCs have a responsibility towards the supply chain. He stressed the importance of developing recommendations for supplier engagement models, capacity building partnerships and mentoring schemes to be applied by multinational corporations across different industry and supply-chain scenarios.

Rati Misra, Resource Alliance explained the nuances involved in her presentation on ‘Fundraising: The way forward’. She said the corporates and NGOs have to understand the need for greater interaction to know, to be aware and to understand each other- to be able to amalgamate priorities and to work together for the best win-win situation

She said NGOs should seek the help of professional fundraisers as it enables them to access to a local resource- financial and non-financial. It provides NGOs an opportunity to expand, develop work with their support. It also enhances credibility and image and helps towards improved professionalism within organisation.

Summing up, Suresh Kr Pramar of the Global Gandhian Trusteeship & Corporate Responsibility Foundation and Editor CRBiz, the organisers of the workshop, thanked the faculty and the participants for having made the first workshop on CSR a success. He said that there were plans to hold similar workshops in Hyderabad and Mumbai in January and March 2008 respectively
Of the 40 participants at the workshop some 23 handed in their feed back. Of the total feed backs 17 felt that the workshop was good, four others claimed it was excellent while one said it was average. 18 felt that the topics discussed at the workshop were relevant for those involved in CSR. One, who was an NGO participant, felt that it was irrelevant.
A majority of the participants, (19) who handed in their feed back, said that they had benefited from the workshop. Only one said he had not benefited very much. 18 said that the workshop had helped them to gain a better insight into the concept of CSR to be able to justice to their responsibilities as CSR functionaries. 17 participants felt that they would like to attend similar workshops, with other topics, in future. 2 were not sure if they would. 19 Participants said that they workshop was beneficial for those interested in Corporate Social Responsibility. Only one felt that it would be beneficial only to a limited extent.
Asked to describe briefly their experience at the workshop the following comments were made:
• Good workshop, some presentations were excellent
• Got to know different views, good work done by companies
• Good interactive sessions. Quite an eye opener. Got to meet good people
• It was interesting to witness knowledge being converted into CSR working models
• Some topics were less relevant should have been designed to include NGOs views
• Good beginning hope there are many more
• Informative and confidence building
• Sessions were highly informative and interactive
• Has exposed me to various possibilities and opportunities of mutual partnerships in achieving corporate and social goals
• This was a very good information workshop. We should think of arranging such workshops at anyone corporate site to learn more.
• Learning, sharing and networking
• Very informative, specially the experience
• I have learned a lot from this workshop from this training. It was a good training and learning experience
• It was great to learn that couple of companies are doing good work in the field
• Experience was overwhelming. Informative, interactive and helped us to do a reality check and identify areas where we can strengthen and sustain our CSR activities
• Got to know more about CSR. Was enthused about social responsibilities. Got to learn more ways to help others
• Main learning was the various initiatives taken by some big Corporations. Learnt about the kind of people representing organizations and their perspectives
• Was a good opportunity to listen to the experience of what corporates think about their social responsibilities and how they try to achieve something. Also to listen to the stakeholders
• Relevant, interesting, good amalgam of activities, issues representatives of various fields

An unprinted Interview with Me

2008-08-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

How do you define Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

There is no one acceptable definition of Corporate Social Responsibility. Different organization have defined the concept differently. There are however substantial common ground among them. Mallen Baker, a well known writer on CSR says " CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall impact on society"

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development says " 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."

What is Corporate Responsibility (CR) and how it is different from CSR?

Both mean the same thing. The term CR is of recent origin and is used mostly in the UK. This is a conscious move by the British because they saw the need to move the boundaries away purely from social or community issues to include areas of corporate governance, stakeholders and the environment.

Corporate Social Responsibility is however, widely misunderstood to mean only involved in community services. Many corporates undertake community service projects and claim qualification as good CSR practitioners. This is not correct CSR involves more than just community services. It involves labour relations, customer and supplier relations, environment etc. Just by projecting its community services I do not think a corporate can claim to have fulfilled its CSR responsibilities. This is why the British CR is more acceptable.

In your view what constitutes CR?

I think I have replied to this question above

Is it not sufficient for a company to comply with the law of land relating to men and materials to be termed as a responsible corporate citizen?

No merely functioning according to the law is not enough to be termed a responsible corporate citizen. CSR involves activities which are in addition to those required by the laws of the land. Actually CSR has evolved as a response to a situation where the corporate's felt the need to not merely abide by the laws of the land, but, also build a positive future. It also is a way to offset inequalities, particularly among the super rich.

Is not earning reasonable profit, paying its stakeholders decent sums (for employees it is salary and for shareholders dividend) and maximize wealth (stock market prices) make a corporate a responsible corporate citizen?

Earning a reasonable profit, paying its stakeholders (these are not only labour and shareholders but also the community the consumers, the environment etc) and maximizing wealth is what Milton Friedman said was the sole responsibility of business (the social responsibility of businesses to increase its profits).I could go into this at length but will not do so because of time and space. Let me just point out that Milton was developing his theory in American in the Free Enterprise era.

Things have changed even in the United States. The government and people are demanding that corporations become more responsible . In fact American legislators are debating a bill (S 367 Titled " Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act) which will make it mandatory for companies to adopt a CSR agenda more actively.

Closer home in the early part of the last century Mahatma Gandhi put out the concept of Trusteeship. Gandhi said that the businessman should set aside part of the wealth earned for the welfare of the less fortunate people in the country. He said after fulfilling his needs the businessman should hold the remaining in Trust for the welfare of the poor and deprived. This possibly was the reasons why the Birlas, Tatas and Bajaj, well known Indian businessmen started Foundations and set up welfare programmes. I believe that Gandhiji's Trusteeship is the original CSR.

Businessmen owe it to the community and other stakeholders for the wealth they earn. There is some amount of sacrifice of the stakeholders involved in the creation of wealth by business houses. Let us not forget that governments, both centre and states, are bending over backwards offering sops by way of tax concessions, subsidies etc, to businessmen to helped them in the creation of wealth. The moneys being offered could well have been used to finance welfare schemes for the poor.

Your view on legislating corporates to contribute some percentage of their profit towards some social activity.

Some mild form of legal sanction, I believe is necessary. I think across the country there is the feeling that the government needs to do more to make Corporates undertake CSR. At two workshops we organized in New Delhi and Hyderabad almost 90 percent of the participants said that government needs to become more active but that the choice of the CSR Schemes should be left to the discretion of the companies.

You hear individual Central Ministers pontifying on the need for corporates to become responsible citizens ut the government as a whole is dragging its feet. As Sachin Joshi, now with CII has pointed out " The Indian government has some serious work to do when it comes to he right policy framework for encouraging responsible business. There is no single vision by the government on CSR. The approach is a scattergun one."

Amita Joseph of the Business and Community Foundation has rightly stressed on the need for more legal mandated policies to further the cause of Corporate Social Responsibility. There is need for a legal framework imposing requirements such as a dedicated corporate responsibility department, fixed funding, and formal corporate responsibility policies and planning with the size of the company determining the requirement.

I need to point out here that becoming involved in CSR is becoming important for corporates in India, big and SMEs, particularly those who are living on export trade. Most governments in Europe and even in the United States have laws/rules which make it mandatory for their companies to do business only with companies which have a CSR agenda in place. It would be of interest to note that over the past six months over 50 SMEs in India have become members of the United Nations Global Compact. I see that the main driving factor for this is their desire to show themselves as CSR oriented companies for their overseas clients.

In India we find CSR activities being used to gain media publicity by many corporates. Many PR agencies have started a CSR wing. Your view.

It is unfortunate that publicity is an important guiding factor for most companies doing CSR This not restricted to India alone and is a global trend . While I would not completely agree with this trend I would not completely condemn it. CSR can be promoted through publicity. Companies need to justify the money spent on any CSR activities to their stakeholders, more particularly the shareholders. The media is the only way they can do so. For this I think there is need for such activities.

There is another aspect to this. The only way CSR can be made part of management strategy for a larger number of companies, particularly the SMEs, if by presenting reports about such activities. These reports will encourage the fence sitters to come off the fence and set up their own CSR agenda.

One area which requires urgent attention relates to transparency through the production of social responsibility reports. There are at present only five companies which comply to the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines. Most companies claim that they do not produce these reports because their stakeholders do not demand them. There are also companies who say that excessive transparency is dangerous for their business health. There is need for companies to understand that greater transparency is essential if they want to maintain their credibility. Unfortunately even though such reporting is mandatory corporate standard for listed companies few are complying with this requirement.

Should amount spent on CSR activities be eligible for tax exemptions?

This could be a possibility. It will be an encouragement for business houses to involve in CSR. This is happening through corporate foundations for a long time anyway. However the business houses seeking these tax concessions must ensure transparency in their CSR activities and that they print non financial reports on the lines of GRI so that people at large are aware of the manner in which the money is spent. These reports should not be part of the financial reports published every year. ITC has started the trend by printing a separate CSR report

During downtime cutting down on CSR activity will reflect badly on the company. How should a company handle such a situation?

Studies abroad have shown that companies hit by falling revenues have benefited by continuing with their CSR activities. It gains for them the loyalty of their customers who because of their faith in the ethical image of the company will continue to support it by buying their products in preference to those of others

About your conference? How many delegates you expect there?

CRBiz, a monthly publication on Corporate Social Responsibility was started with the intension of promoting Corporate Social Responsibility in India and South Asia.

The publication is part of the Global Gandhian Trusteeship and Corporate Responsibility Foundation. The workshops are part of our programme to increase awareness about CSR, particularly among the mid level management and NGOs. We want to bring the corporates and NGOs together to create partnerships to undertake community beneficial activities.

When we were planning our first workshop in New Delhi in October last year many well wishers told us that we were sure to fail because corporates will not sent delegates. We have proved them wrong. At both New Delhi and later in Hyderabad IN January this year we had a participation rate of 40 each composed of corporates, NGOs, students etc.

We are hoping to get as many in Chennai though we think there could be more. This is a good opportunity for companies to get their staff involved in CSR which should not be limited to those manning the CSR wing in the company. I would like to quote here what Rita Sully; the CSR Manager for APAC for HP has said recently, "Corporate Responsibility strategy and deployment should be infused at every level throughout the whole company; from company values, to training, operations, brand, sales performance and customer service". Already a number of Corporate houses, both local and multi-national, and NGOs have confirmed their participation.

The purpose of the conference?

This I think has been answered above

On the outcome of your earlier conferences.

Both workshops have been satisfying both to us as the organisers as also for the participants and the speakers. I will quote you just two of comments made by the participants. "Has exposed me to various possibilities and opportunities of mutual partnerships in achieving corporate and social goals." "Experience was overwhelming. Informative, interactive and helped us to do a reality check and identify areas where we can strengthen our CSR activities."

It would be of interest to mention here that a survey we undertook at the workshop revealed that almost 99 percent of the participants had no training in CSR. While 90 percent felt that CSR was good for the country 80 percent felt the need for greater government involvement.

I believe we have started a trend. Already others are stepping in.

Any other information you would like to add

Corporate Social Responsibility cannot any longer be wished away. Companies planning a long innings in business will perforce have to make CSR part of their future business policy. Though there is no conclusive evidence directly connecting CSR to profitability of the company there is enough to indicate that companies do benefit by becoming good corporate citizens.

Companies planning to become more actively involved will have to upgrade the awareness levels of their staff about CSR and stakeholder engagement. As Rita Cully has pointed out CSR strategy will have to be deployed throughout the company and not only among those directly responsible for Corporate Social Responsibility activities.

CSR Essentials

2008-04-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

The most recent of these workshops, the third after Delhi and Hyderabad was organized jointly by CR Biz and Ma Foi Foundation at Dakshin Chitra in Chennai on the 24th and 25th of April 2008. Suresh Pramar the Editor of CR Biz, Pandia Rajan, the head of the Ma Foi group, Ram, Chief, Samanvaya and Mukundan of Servals made presentations in this workshop. About 25 people from corporate and social sector attended this programme.