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Social Credits for CSR: Will Corporate Social Responsibility Become Mandatory in Future?

Gurdeep Singh
Jul 2010

Minister for Corporate Affairs Salman Kurshid mooted the concept of 'social credits' being assigned to companies undertaking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, saying that if need be his Ministry may consider making some standards enforceable in future in this regard. ''The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has issued guidelines with regard to CSR activities. We will make a review of these after a year. After this the government may consider whether some standards can be made enforceable,'' Mr Kurshid said while inaugurating a workshop here on 'Corporate Social Responsibility by Small and Medium Enterprises.'

The workshop was organized jointly by the Delhi-based the Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, a research organisation devoted to strengthening academic foundations on issues connected with labour and other work force, and Haans Siedel Foundation, Germany in Delhi recently. The event was attended by senior representatives of the government, SMEs Associations, financial institutions and academic institutions.

Incentivising CSR

Mr Kurshid spoke about incentivising CSR activities and in this connection mooted the concept of 'social credits' being given to companies which undertake such activities. In the context of the Bhopal Gas tragedy and Corporate Social Responsibility, the Minister spoke off the deep ''pain and anguish'' caused to ordinary people.

The Minister said social credits can be on the lines of 'carbon credits', that is some form of recognition for improving the ecological systems.

A large number of eminent speakers took part in the workshop. They included Dr Voker Bauer, Resident Representative of Hanns Seidel Foundation, Dr Vinay Bharat Ram, Chairman Board of Governors of Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, Mr Diertrich Kebshul, Chairman Indo- German Export Promotion Foundation (IGEP), Prog C V Baxi, Professor Emeritius, Management Development Institute, Mr Ulrich Meinecke, Counseller, Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany, Ms Pooja Sehgal, Director Marketing, Impetus Technologies, Dr H P Kumar, CMD, National Small Industries Corporation, and Mr A K Mathur, Chief General Manager, NABARD. The idea of making CSR compulsory by companies found its support in Dr Bharat Ram, who said everything cannot, at the end of the day, be left to voluntarism.

Less Recognised

A general view prevailed of the less recognised role played by Small and Medium Enterprises in contributing to CSR activities, even in the far flung areas of the country. This is notwithstanding the fact that the limelight with regard to CSR actions is always hogged by big companies, who undertake such activities.

Case studies were presented on how small companies too are doing their bit to improve the lot of their fellow beings by way of improving health, education, maintaining sewage systems, cleanliness and other aspects of environmental activities by way of greening of local areas, contributing to local charities, building of local roads and other infrastructure and above all the welfare of their workforce.

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1 Comments >>

Preeti

21 Jul 2010 (05:55:44)

Perhaps instead of "enforcing standards", incentivising CSR initiatives by SMEs might work better...

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