The Hindu : 'Corporate social responsibility still in nascent stage'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 16, 2003

Business

Business

'Corporate social responsibility still in nascent stage'

By Our Corporate Reporter

CHENNAI FEB. 15. The British Council, the Academy for Management Excellence, the Association of British Scholars, Chennai and the Open University, U.K. have organised a conference on socially responsible corporate citizenship: issues and challenges here today.

The one-day conference examined the variety of demands made on businesses in a rapidly changing environment and explored various solutions and approaches to good corporate citizenship in the current context. In his inaugural address, S. M. Datta, Chairman, Castrol (India), said value addition was the primary cause of business.

Business should be focussed on the core duty of creating value continuously to the society and various stakeholder groups.

He referred to Hindustan Lever (Mr. Datta was earlier the chairman HLL), which put up a dairy plant in a backward district (Etah) in Uttar Pradesh because of its social responsibility, which acted as a catalyst for development of the company.

(HLL sold this unit at a substantial profit to a Dutch company last year). Speaking on the expectations, Rohini Nilekani, author and social activist, said corporate social responsibility was still at a nascent stage in India where many corporates had started adhering to corporate governance.

She said business profit should not be accumulated at the expense of social responsibility. "What is good for the society may also be good for the business", she said. As the society's expectations of the business had increased there was clearly an urgent need to recalibrate the idea of business, Ms. Nilekani said. The NGOs and consumer organisations were also helping the corporates in fulfilling their responsibilities, she observed.

The interactive sessions included the best practices, innovative initiatives and conducive institutional environment in promoting the socially responsible corporate citizenship.

The participants included representatives from multilateral agencies, universities, NGOs, corporations and social leaders among others.

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