The Hindu Business Line : Corporate social development actions

It may be fashionably financial, and often perfectly legal, to ask why at all corporations should be involved in development, if the business of business is business. There are at least two reasons ‘why,’ argues Michael Hopkins in Corporate Social Responsibility & International Development ( www.vivagroupindia.com ). One, almost half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. And two, businesses need to work with others to create the capacities and conditions which sound governance requires, to ensure the sort of functioning society in which business can be done.

The book concludes with forceful suggestions, both for implementation within and outside the company. In the first category are the following: developing a CSR (corporate social responsibility) strategy; paying a ‘living wage’ and also paying suppliers properly, on time; maintaining safety and environmental standards; and monitoring the company’s anticorruption policy.

Development actions outside the company include collaboration with the government in antipoverty initiatives; lending in-house training skills to a wider public; advising SMEs; and mentoring entrepreneurs.

Recommended read for those in corporate governance.

Institution-builder

“He could have been a greater economist, with contributions to match those of Sir Richard Stone, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in economic sciences for his empirical work on national income estimation. But he chose the path of an institution builder. It was through these institutions that he wanted the social science profession to contribute to the country.”

Thus reminisces Vinod Vyasulu in one of the essays included in A Passionate Humanitarian: VKRV Rao ( www.academicfoundation.com ).

The book — edited by S. L. Rao, N. Jayaram, V. M. Rao, M. V. Nadkarni, and R. S. Deshpande — brings together 30 more such essays on the man who left his mark on the Delhi School of Economics, the Institute of Economic Growth, the Institute for Social and Economic Change, and the Indian Council of Social Science Research. “Unfortunately, his time in politics was that of Indira Gandhi, who was fond of him as a person, but who had no use for his values and skills in her politics,” continues Vyasulu.

“He did not become Finance Minister or even Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. The Professor, an institution builder par excellence, accepted that with grace and retired to Bangalore. And ISEC came to be. Indira Gandhi visited the campus, had breakfast with the Professor and dedicated it to the nation.”

Poignant accounts.

History of a bank

To construct a ‘storm free institution’ that would restore the faith of the common people in banking, and stem the panic in Bengal, was formed the UBI in December 1950, by amalgamating four banks. “During the Second World War, when the money market got artificially inflated and business seemed unlimited, crisis was already being anticipated,” recount Indrajit Mallick and Sugata Marjit in Financial Intermediation in a Less Developed Eco nomy: The History of the United Bank of India ( www.sagepublications.com ).

“Amongst the 15 scheduled banks in Bengal, four went into liquidation, two had to go for reconstruction, the fate of two others was undecided and one was forbidden from accepting any more deposits; 11 non-scheduled banks too failed.”

The small middle-class depositors lost faith in local banking as a system and flocked to only the large banks, the authors add. “This hurt not only the medium banking establishments, but Bengal’s economy and industry in general. It was this which forced banks with proud individual histories to merge with each other and become a single large banking establishment.”

Suggested weekend study.

D. MURALI

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