Moily calls for making country's growth more inclusive

New Delhi, Jan 18 (ANI): Union Corporate Affairs Minister Dr. M. Veerappa Moily has called for making country's growth more inclusive - a growth that benefits all regions and all sections of our society, particularly the poor and the under-privileged.

Addressing the 1st National Conclave on Corporate Social Responsibility here today, Dr. Moily said: "Corporates' social responsibility is a matter intrinsically ingrained in the Constitution of India which envisages an economic development that does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment and that material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good."

He said Corporates can bring in social progress and get support from the society when they make use of the resources, expertise and innovative techniques that would benefit the society.

"Our Corporate culture must be attuned to the universally accepted values of good governance - accountability, transparency, responsibility and responsiveness to stake holders. Our corporate endeavours have to be consonant with the demands of our eco system and the expectations of Indian democracy. The economic reforms of the last two decades have opened up many new opportunities," said Dr. Moily.

"But just as over bearing controls stifle initiative; dogmatic adherence to extreme models of non-regulation can also be disruptive to sustainable growth. Ours is the middle path. We believe we must trust Corporate India as indeed you must trust us," he added.

Dr. Moily said good governance and credibility are key requirement for attracting investment.

He said that his Ministry has recently released the National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic responsibilities of Business mainstreaming the concept of Business Responsibilities.

Dr. Moily said the government is not in favour of imposing its views on thee corporate sector and therefore has not made it mandatory for it to spend two percent of companies' net profit towards CSR.

The One-day Conclave was organized by the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a prelude to the India Corporate Week( 6th-13th February, 2012), the annual event organized by Ministry of Corporate Affairs which brings together corporates representing diverse sectors and different regions of the country.

The main objective of the 1st National CSR Conclave was to share the perspective of the private sector on CSR with the select gathering and also to learn about some of the good practices being undertaken by corporates in this regard.

The other dignitaries present were Naved Masood, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs; Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, DG and CEO, IICA; Indrani Kar, Deputy Director General, CII; Susmita Shekhar, Secretary General, PHDCCI; Preeti Malhotra, Chairperson, National Council for Corporate Affairs and CSR, ASSOCHAM; Dr. Rana Kapoor, Founder, Managing Director and CEO, YES Bank, Bharat Wakhlu, Resident Director, TATA and Nirupama Kotru, Director, Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

During the Conclave, two technical sessions on the CSR Best Practices saw presentations by various companies like Bharti Foundation, INTEL, TATA, I.T.C. Welcomgroup, Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd., Yes Bank Ltd, KPMG etc.

These discussions were highly interactive and generated keen interest among the participants, which included people from large, medium as well as small level corporate sector entities, civil society, several national and regional media groups, officials from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and other organizations working in the field of CSR.

The technical sessions were chaired by Manoj Chakravarti, Chief Operations Officer, Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship, IIM Bangalore and Bharat Wakhlu, Resident Director, TATA. (ANI)