Date: 2024-05-15 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00005318
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The B Team
Sustainable CSR: Need for Companies CSR Hub
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
Sustainable CSR: Need for Companies CSR Hub
Spending 2% of annual profits on CSR activities become a nightmare for companies. Having not considered the implication or the impact business houses are groping in the dark. Some companies even count employees blood donation as CSR activity. There are companies that allow employees special leaves to do CSR activities by company individuals. There are others that constructs toilets in schools, repair school building, dig a bore well, etc. But are these sustainable development model? Business bodies like FICCI and CII are now trying to come out with suggestions and perhaps we could expect some models as well. Should there not be a Companies CSR Hub that not only has oversight rights but are able to coordinate different CSR activities of different Companies and contribute to real nation building! 6 days ago Like CommentFollow Flag More 6 comments
N R Jagannath Follow N R N R Jagannath • While subscribing to Mr Najmul Ahasan's views, would like to reiterate my earlier comment: 'Companies Bill 2012 and '2% clause' of the bill is believed to change the landscape of CSR in India but allocation of 2% of its net worth becomes meaningful if and only if the clause 135 of the bill is effectively complimented by an appropriate regulatory and institutional mechanism especially when system of audit as of now practiced for CSR business plans are not helping much for addressing corporate governance issues which are critical as well for sustainability of organizations and programs 6 days ago• Like
Najmul Ahasan Follow Najmul Najmul Ahasan • I totally agree with you Mr Jagannath, and therefore have suggested some aspects of the mechanism that could be put in place. A more detailed prescription model could perhaps be appropriate in a forum where more detailed presentation could be made. I also believe that FICCI has asked for suggestions regarding CSR implementation from various companies. I am sure, sooner rather than later you will see a working regulatory mechanism. Whether this regulatory body be within the ambit of govt control, or the industries themselves or even be a quasi-judicial body that we will have to wait and see and could perhaps be debated extensively before it takes shape 6 days ago• Like• Reply privately• Flag as inappropriate
Merine john Follow Merine Merine john • As a CSR professional im happy and excited about the opportunities that will come up. But being a practical person, i am just wondering why so much hoo haa about the 2% that company now will have to invest in community development. The bills section 135 read with schedule 7 is pretty clear. To add to it you could go through the NVGs, they are a thorough guideline. Now for me the big question is 2% really the issue. or the issue is much larger that of accountability. If the companies are paying taxes, arent that taxes supposed to be used for local develpment, In one of the forums govt representative stated that govt is spending crores of rupees, and this 2% contribution of all companies hardly makes 1/10th or extremely less public contribution!! then why such a hue and cry? What happens to the royalties paid by the companies? even if 5% of the royalty paid by the company is used well in a district, development will be extremely good. So it finances that is the hurdle for development, or poor .bad governance or apathy of each of us that is the reason for poor development. We extremely well drafted factories Act, if operations follow even 80 - 90% of the act, and the monitoring bodies implement it in true spirit, irrespective of looking at it whether it is SME, or big company. Werent there enough laws already to safeguard community and local stakeholders interest, why was there a new law needed, who really benefits? from now on there will be a huge line up of NGOs, politicians and yes even the local administration pushing their respective pet agendas and wanting their pound of flesh. Who will keep track of both the company contribution and the govt expenditure? I know I am asking a lot of questions, but as a grassroot practitioner - this circus is something trying to make sense, Base question remains - is it passing of accountability by the govt to corporates? while it still would like to play big brother We who are going on debating online, do we really know the figures right? 6 days ago• Like
Bahar Gidwani Follow Bahar Bahar Gidwani •
Thought I'd try to clarify something. There is already a CSRHub (www.csrhub.com). I help run it. We track the corporate social responsibility performance of about 7,400 companies in 96 countries. We have 32 million pieces of data in our system from 257 different sources.
There is also a CSR Hub in India. It is an NGO that provides programs that helps Indian companies improve their social performance. Their URL is http://www.tisscsrhub.org/ . They are supported by the Tata Institute.
Let's not let this name overlap become confusing. The mission of our CSRHub is to help corporate managers get more access to sustainability information. Since we track 177 south asian companies, we hope that the other CSR Hub may soon starting helping Indian companies improve their performance using CSRHub data and tools. 18 hours ago• Like
Najmul Ahasan Follow Najmul Najmul Ahasan •
@Merine john, You have asked very valid questions. In another forum some members stated that this 2% is akin to a tax. Yes there are laws enough to safeguard communities, but we all know how they are circumvented to establish a factory/mining etc. The recent case where bauxite mining project was scuttled by 12 tribal villages provide proof of local community level empowerment (the reason stated by them for disallowing the project is something that I do not agree with fully). In one of my post on this forum I had stated that the per capita spend on sustainable social development is still quite low in India. We are still grappling with twin catch 22 issues of education and population. Even with 17% hike in Education budget in this years budget, it remains very low, while enrollment has definitely improved quality still remains an issue. The out of school children and the school drop out rates are still on the higher side. The SSA and RTE are good initiatives launched by the government, but there is a huge requirement of funds to be infused to effectively implement all these initiatives. There is never enough money in the government kitty to allocate as much as it would like to. The tax collection mechanism, the tax evasion mechanism by individuals and corporate, the inefficiencies in the taxation rules etc makes is highly improbable that the government will ever have enough money to really address these HDF issues. Yet another challenge is the health. RSBY is an extremely laudable initiative, but does it address the health needs of the population? It does not. Here also is an issue of funding. I feel the company CSR budgets could possibly be used to complement such initiatives and help improve the HDF.
Your questions would have perhaps been addressed if we were living in an ideal world with everybody doing their duties and responsibilities ideally, but unfortunately that is not happening. I felt, NVG's nine point agenda really addresses issues about being an ethical company. To quite some extent it also provides for companies being a socially responsible company. In many countries the tenets of NVG are basic compliance requirements for companies to establish and function. Having some thing documented and complying with it are two different aspects. Are they really complying? We need to perhaps ensure that companies are complying. Then there is an issue of coordination of efforts. In most states there are separate demarcated 'industrial areas' if everybody starts development in the surrounding areas only then there will be lopsided development. would it not be better if these were somewhat distributed. Effective implementation without leakages of funds will be an issue that will have to be tackled with just as there are good NGOs and Good and ethical companies, there are bad NGOs and Bad and Unethical companies. we have these practical issues to address. How should we? How do we? 11 hours ago• Like
Najmul Ahasan Follow Najmul Najmul Ahasan • @Bahar Gidwani - A quick look at your website reveals its a subscription based website to get data for study requirements and perhaps its a rating site. Pardon me if I am wrong in my assumption Yes, I am aware of the CSR hub within TISS and that it primarily caters to the Public Sector Companies. It does yoeman work, but perhaps its overburdened. As far as the CSR Hub or CSR Coordination Organisation is concerned, I am more interested in effective and coordinated implementation of CSR initiatives. To use the data for all interested parties to see and analyse to the effectiveness of a coordinated action. My idea was more from oversight and coordination functionality. The whole charter of its activities would have to be debated and fleshed out. As far as the name is concerned - that's not the issue, yes confusion perhaps needs to be avoided. Out of the four things that the tool says in your website - community, environment, employees and governance - last three should be regulatory requirements and I think the focus should be on community development or as I say sustainable social development. I am not discounting the importance of the other three indicators - but they are more regulatory requirements in nature. Yours is a good initiative and do let me know how I can also contribute. 10 hours ago• Like