The Hindu Business Line : India Inc shoulders `social responsibility'

HERE'S the good news — an increasing number of Indian executives, particularly those in the IT sector, are expressing a desire to `give back' to society.

Equally heartening is that the top management at many Indian corporates is `aware and sensitive' about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The hitch, as a recently published report by Indian NGOs.com points out, is the lack of conviction among managers about the necessity for CSR and the absence of a proper understanding of what it means.

Despite these snags, the study found that in 58 per cent of the Indian corporates surveyed, top management is involved in CSR initiatives. And though most of the companies polled — 36 per cent to be precise — had set up a department for CSR programmes only in the last five years, 35 per cent of the respondents have had such units for at least 15 years.

The focus of the year-long study was not purely on CSR, but more on `social responsibility', said Sanjay Bapat, Managing Director of the Web site Indian NGOs.com. The site, which is intended to be a repository of information on the developmental sector, conducted one-on-one interviews on social responsibility with 196 Indian corporates, and supplemented this with secondary research on the CSR policies of all the Fortune 500 companies.

According to the results of the study, 62 per cent of the respondents indicated that their employees perform voluntary work. In 58 per cent of the corporates, the public relations department shoulders the responsibility for CSR initiatives. Twelve per cent of the corporates that participated in the study indicated that separate foundations perform CSR efforts, while 5 per cent have separate CSR departments. In most cases CSR projects are supervised by a handful of professionals, who perform this as an additional responsibility, the study points out.

Health is the area that draws the most support from Corporate India, with 52 per cent of the companies surveyed supporting health-related issues. According to the study, other issues supported by the corporates polled include education (50 per cent), the environment (30 per cent), children and rural development (27 per cent).

The study also found that many respondents had internal CSR policies for issues such as disaster management, the environment, disability and sexual harassment. And though some of the participants indicated that they are able to measure the impact of CSR initiatives, Corporate India is still scouting for a system that measures the impact of CSR programmes, the study added.

While 85 per cent of the respondents work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on CSR projects, about 42 per cent extend support to specific events while 22 per cent of the respondents supported entire projects, the study said. Areas such as non-financial giving and volunteering have tremendous potential, as does the sharing of experiences and knowledge on CSR initiatives, the study added.

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