Corporate Social Responsibility in India

Corporate Social Responsibility in India

Nearly all leading organizations in India are involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in areas like education, health, livelihood creation, skill development, and empowerment of weaker sections of the society. Notable efforts have come from the Tata Group, Infosys, Bharti Enterprises, ITC Welcome group and Indian Oil Corporation among others.

CSR in public sector: IndianOil Corporation

Among the public sector organizations, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) founded in 1964, stands out with vibrant CSR initiatives and clear policies to support activities that are socially responsible. These revolve around the principle of sharing profit. Every year, IndianOil sets aside a fixed portion of its profits for CSR activities.

Notable schemes are:

1. Environmental sustenance: IOC provides many options in alternative fuels such as ethanol-blended petrol, biodiesel, and hydrogen and hydrogen-CNG mixture.

2. Health-care: IndianOil has a concerted social responsibility program to partner communities in health, family welfare, education, environment protection, providing potable water, sanitation, and empowerment of women and other marginalized groups.

3. Natural Emergency Assistance: IndianOil has been in the forefront in times of national emergencies. Employees of IOC have rallied to help victims of natural calamities, maintaining uninterrupted supply of petroleum products and contributing to relief and rehabilitation measures in cash and kind.

4. Community Development: Allotment of petrol/diesel station dealerships and LPG distributorships to beneficiaries from among scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, physically handicapped, ex-servicemen, war widows, etc

5. Pro-farmer Initiatives: Kisan seva kendras are small-format retail outlets to reach quality products and services to people in the rural areas.

6. National Heritage: IndianOil has also set up the IndianOil Foundation (IOF) as a non-profit trust to protect, preserve and promote national heritage monuments.

7. Cultural Initiatives: The corporation also supports a variety of endeavors in arts, culture, music and dance, apart from organising programmes on its own under the banners of IndianOil Art Exhibition, IndianOil Sangeet Sabha and IndianOil Kavi Sammelan.

8. Global Stand: IndianOil is also committed to the Global Compact Program of the United Nations and endeavors to abide by the 10 principles of the program, some of which are already part of the corporation's vision and mission statements.

As part of its environment-protection initiatives, IndianOil has invested close to Rs. 7,000 crore in state-of-the-art technologies at its refineries for production of green fuels meeting global standards.

With safety, health and environment protection high on its corporate agenda, IndianOil is one of the organizations that is seriously committed to conducting business with a strong environment conscience, so as to ensure sustainable development, safe work places and enrichment of the quality of life of its employees, customers and the community.

CSR in the Indian private sector: ITC Hotels

ITC Welcomgroup Hotels, Palaces and Resorts is India's second largest hotel chain with over 100 hotels. Headquartered at the ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon,. It is regularly voted amongst the best employers in Asia in the hospitality sector.

ITC