The Hindu Business Line : <I>Measuring CSR of India's corporates </I>

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been the staple of management courses for as long as business schools have been in existence. Likewise, national, regional and international conferences or `summits' on what it is, means and does have also become common. They are a healthy sign. No business house will go anywhere anything that does not expand the market share and customer base, and boost the profit. The very fact of the intense interest generated in CSR proves that corporates all over the world are convinced that it not only makes sound business sense, but helps in building and buttressing their brand equity.

India's business and industry too have not been slow to catch on to the beneficial effects of CSR. There has been no dearth of seminars, and the National Summit on CSR 2007 held on June 14-15 under the auspices of the Confederation of Indian Industry, (CII) was particularly noteworthy for its coverage of the many dimensions of CSR.

Indian corporates can take legitimate pride in taking CSR along directions which are germane to the needs of society. It was heartening to know of examples of corporates working for farmer development, raising livelihood standards of rural communities, harnessing micro-enterprises to increase the penetration of consumer products in rural markets and coming out with software as aids to teachers and pupils to improve educational standards and promote adult literacy.

There were some bright and novel ideas too generated at the Summit. One was to build into the CSR strategy of firms the tapping of the potential the `vast army' of small and medium enterprises for employment generation and exports.

The other was capitalising on the combined expertise of business enterprises in optimisation of resources, financial management and operational planning to provide the `last mile connectivity' to ensure that the Government's welfare schemes reach the genuinely deserving. Altogether, the audience was left in no doubt that running an industry is not just about being efficient and competitive, but also about being `inclusive' - that magical word that is being increasingly chanted nowadays from every platform.

It almost seemed that the mild admonition of the business community by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, at the CII's Annual Session and National Conference a month earlier, against revelling in conspicuous consumption and looking upon philanthropy as a mere tax planning (read `avoiding') device had gone home and the Indian corporates were determined to give an earnest of their commitment to the promotion of CSR.

Real rub

But the real rub is in evolving a matrix to make a comparative evaluation of the efforts made by the corporates.

Argentina, Australia, Britain and Canada are examples of countries which, in conjunction with business enterprises, have gone in for measurement of CSR based on agreed parameters, such as, corporate vision and mission, labour conditions, accountability and transparency, quality of stakeholder relations, accuracy, relevance and reliability of information, concern for environmental protection, product safety, redress of complaints and grievances, and funding of projects of vital social importance relating, for instance to, education, health, sanitation, disease prevention, basic amenities and so on.

There is as yet no systematic attempt to undertake such an evaluation in the Indian context for want of a CSR index that could be uniformly applied.

The ACNielson Corporate Image Monitor and sporadically conducted surveys to some extent fill the gap, but these have to be put on a solid footing and validated by independent agencies, and brought out for the information of the public at stated intervals. This is the challenge before the federations of commerce and industry which they have somehow to meet in the interest of their credibility.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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