Indian Companies lead by Example in CSR

A recent article in Harvard Business Review by Dr Cappelli commends Indian companies for their social mission. The research covered 100 business leaders of top Indian companies and comes out with the finding that every executive interviewed described the main objective of their company in terms of a social mission.

The article draws on the examples of Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Dr. Reddy's Pharma and INFOSYS among many other Indian companies. Of course the TATA's who 'also make steel' finds special mention for spending 65% of their profits for charity purposes.

The study concludes by saying that: "There is every reason to believe that these companies have done well precisely because they are doing good"

Another feather for Indian efforts in CSR, way to go...hope many more companies emulate the examples set by these top Indian companies

Business NGO partnership gets a boost in 2010

At the dawn of a New Year, we have some great news on CSR front. In a recent survey by Industry body ASSOCHAM, 70 % of companies prefer to work with NGOs to implement CSR projects. This is a trend that has been growing in the last few years and hopefully will usher in the much needed professionalism and transparency in the discharge of public and community service.

The survey also noted that 58% of companies preferred to work directly with Govt. departments. This is a revelation as many companies shy away from directly partnering with Government for development projects. It is highly likely that even in this scenario, companies still rely on NGO skills and knowledge in project implementation.

Overall, it is a win-win situation and many NGOs are happy to partner with companies as their more traditional sources of funding through donor agencies had dried up. NGOs need to gear up to make the maximum use of this growing trend

CSR Credits for Indian Companies

Companies operating in India now have the option of 'earning' credit for CSR activities. They will even be able to trade these CSR credits in a CSR Credit exchange. This way companies that do not have CSR activities in their portfolio could 'buy' CSR credits from companies that have earned them.

Let us hope that this gives the needed fillip to CSR activities in India which is seeing a rapid upswing in these times of economic recovery.