Moily stresses need for corporate culture attuned to good governance

New Delhi, Feb 1 (ANI): Union Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily has stressed the need to encourage a corporate culture attuned to the universally accepted values of good governance - accountability, transparency, responsibility and responsiveness to stake holders.

Moily was addressing the Second National CSR Conclave on "Corporate Social Responsibility -Public Sector Perspective" organised by the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, here today.

He said that the corporate endeavours have to be consonant with the demands of the eco system and the expectations of Indian democracy.

Veerappa Moily recalled that over the years, most of the central public sector undertakings (CPSEs) have consciously and extensively promoted corporate social activities including:

Providing employment to the weaker and underprivileged sections of the society on a more equitable basis

Providing all inclusive social facilities to the employees and their families, especially in the areas of education, healthcare and entertainment

Providing assistance to social and cultural activities beneficial to employees and associated sections of the community

Participating in or contributing to the causes and activities dealing with natural disasters

To further encourage the public sector to undertake CSR activities and to clearly layout the CSR mandate for the CPSEs the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises released the 'Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility for Central Public Sector Enterprises'.

These guidelines define CSR as "a company's commitment to operate in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner, while recognising the interests of its stakeholders. This commitment is beyond statutory requirements."

The document outlines clearly the concept, planning, implementation, research, documentation, advocacy, promotion, monitoring and funding related to CSR activities in the CPSEs.

The Minister informed that a number of initiatives have been taken by the Ministry in the past few months in the legislative, regulatory, service delivery and capacity building areas. While undertaking these initiatives, the Ministry has also been examining the issues referred in the "Doing Business' reports of the World Bank and suitably addressing them within the scope of the Acts administered.

The Minister said given the fact that millions of Indians were living below the poverty line- the 'bottom of the pyramid' - "the recent UNDP initiative focusing on companies that can provide services to the nearly four billion people who survive on a dollar a day, and in the process, also create new business opportunities for themselves is of great importance in India's fight against poverty" Creating value for all" strategies for doing business with the poor also offer strategies and tools for companies to expand beyond traditional business practices and bring in the world's poor as partners in growth and wealth creation.

Moily said that the Planning Commission has mooted the idea of public sector units (PSUs) setting up higher education hubs as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR). The move will help the government in achieving its target of increasing the gross enrolment ratio (GER) to 20 percent by 2017 and 25 percent by 2022. PSUs spend almost Rs 1,400 crore as part of their CSR.

The dignitaries present included Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director General and CEO, IICA; Dr. U.D. Choubey, Director General, SCOPE; R S Sharma, Former Chairman and Managing Director, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. and S Vasudeva, Chairman and Managing Director, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.

The 2nd National CSR Conclave was organized as a prelude to the annual event organized by Ministry of Corporate Affairs - India Corporate Week (6th-13th February, 2012). The main objective of the 2nd National CSR Conclave was to share the perspective of the public sector on CSR with the select gathering and also to learn about some of the good practices being undertaken by PSEs in this regard. (ANI)