CSR Initiatives

CORPORATE
SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY

CSR Initiatives - Recap 2006-2008

Businesses are run and managed using different strategies. The
main aim of any business is to earn profits and to be on the top. While
doing so, many factors of society, environment, and nature may get
affected. So, it becomes moral responsibility of any business to take
care of these elements. CSR or corporate social responsibility in simple
words means giving back to the society from whatever you earn. The
main feeling, which goes behind this, is caring and sharing.

Objective
Many business houses are becoming aware about this social
responsibility and they are already committed to this cause by
contributing their bit. So, we at IEEMA Journal, decided to publish CSR
activities of such corporates. The main objective behind this
‘The clear definition of CSR is was sharing good cause taken by companies, through this
series of articles and spread awareness. This was in our
that, the Community is not just another own small way we wanted to take this cause further, taking
into consideration wide circulation of IEEMA Journal.
stakeholder in our business but the very
From September 2006 issue of IEEMA Journal, we started
purpose of our existence’. a series on this topic, named CSR Initiatives. The very first
- Jamshedji Tata article to this series was contributed by Mr R G Keswani,
Founder Chairman of IEEMA Journal. Through this series,
ieema journal is and has been covering CSR activities of different
organizations till now. It’s been exactly two years now and we decided
to take a look at what we have covered so far and what we have
achieved through this.

Different activities covered

The very first response to this series was given by Havells, which
contributed 2nd article in this series. The remarkable initiative by
Havells is the mid day meal scheme, where they give nutritious meal
to 20,000 school students in rural and slum areas of Rajasthan. There
is no other noble cause as great as this, where hunger of a child is
taken care of.

20 October 2008
CSR Initiatives
Slowly this series gained momentum with lot of
research done and CSR activities of IEEMA members,
other companies and utilities were covered. In
November 2006 issue of ieema journal, CSR activities
of NEG Micon, leading wind energy company, were
covered. This was very apt as this issue was special
issue of non-conventional energy sources. The most
appealing activity of NEG is recycling of crates, which
are made from sturdy Scandinavian wood used for
packing and carrying heavy wind turbine components.
The local youths are trained to take this job. Benches,
desks and other educational aids are prepared from
this precious wood and are donated to schools and
balwadis in rural areas.
Indo Asian CSR - Training local youths
While carrying this series, it was found that many
companies are carrying out different activities apart
from regular activities like organising health camps,
blood donation camps, eye checking camps, tree
plantations, giving computers to school etc. All these
are more or less routine activities, which are mostly
done by donating some funds.
Some of the companies are active in the field
of education, like Ravin Cables. The company has
adopted school in rural area of Maharashtra and
providing all facilities to the students. CSR initiatives
of Ravin were covered in August 2008 issue.
Helping farmers was the different initiative, which
was covered in CSR activities of Minilec, in December
2006 issue. India is agro-based country and urban areas
can’t flourish unless rural farmers are well established.
Minilec is helping out farmers of Maharashtra, Orissa,
Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh. Through Suyash Charitable
Trust, an NGO founded by Minilec and Intech Group
of Companies, proper training and education is given
to tribals about techniques of modern farming, use of
quality seeds, organic fertilizers, water management
etc. This has resulted in villages becoming fully self
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sufficient and many villages are scaled up above
poverty line. The employees of the company are
actively involved in all these activities, so as the top
management. They personally give their time to tribals
to monitor their activities.
On the same lines, Sterlite Technologies is
working for upliftment of farmers. Its initiatives were
covered in September 2008 issue. The company has
constructed over 10 check dams in drought-stricken
villages of Maharashtra. These dams were built with
an objective to conserve large scale water, increase
groundwater level through recharging of rainwater,
minimize problem of drinking and irrigation water
in rural areas and increase crop productivity. This
has radically changed the economic potential of the
villages. Now farmers in these villages have enhanced
their Rabi (winter) yield, and their living standards
have improved.
A good example of integrating CSR with business
activities was demonstrated in CSR article of Indo
Asian. The company provides training to local
youths from villages in the vicinity of their factory
in Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh, and are given
training in industrial environment, work ethics and
skills enhancement. After successful completion of
training, they are offered job opportunities in Indo
Asian factories, as per available vacancies. This
activity was covered in May 2007. CSR initiatives of
Crompton Greaves were covered in June 2007 issue.
The company has adopted villages and provided the
schools with clean toilets and drinking water facilities.
Many villages in India lack these basic facilities and
Crompton has worked in this much needed area.
Utilities made their presence felt
It was a milestone for IEEMA journal to cover CSR
initiatives of utilities like Tata Power, Reliance Energy,
Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd and Uttarakhand Power
Corporation Ltd. Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd through
its Jyoti Gram Yojana, has implemented an innovative
scheme under which 24 hours 3 phase supply is made
Tata Power CSR - developing technique of fish farming
October 2008
CSR Initiatives
available to 18,000 villages and 9500 clusters, ensuring
at least 8 hours quality supply to agricultural activities.
Due to this life of villagers is improved in terms of daily
life, education, health facilities, farming etc.
CSR activities of Tata Power were covered in
October 2007 issue. The giant in power generation
field is equally responsible and active in its social
activities. Apart from regular social activities, they
are helping local people in vicinity of its power plant,
to learn and develop technique of fish farming. This
initiative provides self-employment opportunities to
youths and also maintains eco balance.
True women empowerment
A special mention must be made here for
Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd. This utility
has been truly demonstrating meaning of CSR.
Uttarakhand is the first model State in the country and
probably also in the
world, for women
participation
in the frontline
Power Distribution
Utility and UPCL
has fully tapped
energies of women
power, through
the participation
of the women/
war-widows from
the Uttarakhand
Purva Sainik
CSR of UPCL - women participation
Kalyan Nigam Ltd
in the frontline Power Distribution
(UPNL), Dehradun
in the Power Distribution functions to inculcate self-
dependence and confidence to contribute to the
society and consumers of electricity, mitigate power
theft, to improve the revenue collection efficiency to
100% and reduce the AT&C Losses aimed at 15% by
the end 2012. The role of women of Uttarakhand from
climbing the pole to line and distribution transformer
(DT) maintenance to the demand side management
(DSM) from meter reading, bill distribution and meter
replacement and energy conservation initiatives has
solved problems of uncertain delivery of bills and
also inflated bills due to no reading. They can install
meters, repair transformers and earn enough to
take care of their households. War widows are also
engaged in vigilance team on UPCL to curb power
theft. This is women empowerment in true sense
which shows that women not only move hand in
hand with men but also climb up the “Pole of gender
equality.’’
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The purpose of starting this series in IEEMA
Journal was fulfilled when IJ received response
from one of the utilities from Karnataka, where they
mentioned that they were inspired by UPCL and felt
that they should also implement activities like UPCL
and train the women to work on distribution side.
CSR ratings of companies
February 2008 issue of IEEMA Journal covered
article on Karmayog, which is NGO dedicated to
CSR. Karmayog, after much research in the field of
CSR has published its results on its website. The
ratings have been given to top 500 companies in
India, depending on the CSR they are doing. These
ratings may work as eye opener as there are not
many companies from power sector, receiving star
rating. From the top 500 large companies, only 4
companies have received four star rating and none
has received five star rating.
From the survey made by Karmayog, following
points will prove guidelines for any organization which
wants to take this cause:
l Use of company’s core competence in CSR
activities
l Minimum annual CSR expenditure to be fixed
l Extending profile and area of businesses beyond
profit
l Sustainability reporting to be mandatory
l CSR philosophy to be defined and articulated by
corporates
Some of the companies like Rockwell Automation
(covered in June 2008 issue) and Sterlite Technologies
are involving their employees in CSR activities. These
employees are made integral part of their businesses
and the social cause their companies are taking. This
has only led to employee engagement in all these
activities. They are demonstrating this involvement
very well such as employees of Rockwell Automation.
They took initiative, collected money to buy enough
blankets and personally gave them to poor people on
the roads of Delhi in the month of December where
people suffer from chilling cold weather.
Integrating CSR with business
strategies
IEEMA Journal took opportunity to participate in
one day conference on the theme ‘Integrating CSR
with your business strategies’, at Bangalore. Many
eminent experts from reputed organization put forth
their thoughts in this conference. This report was
October 2008
CSR Initiatives

Taking different paths!

Wartsila : More than 450 Mobile daycare centres for children of migrant workers all over India, where they
receive healthcare, nutrition and nonformal education. (IEEMA Journal, February 2007)

L&T : Maternal and child health, primary education, HIV/AIDS awareness, health centres for eye check-up,
immunization, TB clinic, daycare programme for family planning, skin and leprosy clinic. (IEEMA Journal,
March 2007)

Reliance Energy : ‘Adopt a village’ programme where company provided assistance in construction of
smokeless chullas and toilet blocks for tribals. (IEEMA Journal, April 2007)

ABB Ltd : Industry-academia partnerships to facilitate R&D and encourage student interface related to
power and automation technologies, Project Roshni- working with differently abled and helping them to
live life of dignity, access to electricity. (IEEMA Journal, July 2007)

Conzerv : Working for mentally challenged children and the aged, blind school for underprivileged children.
(IEEMA Journal, September 2007)

Siemens Ltd : Home for street children and children of single parents, equal employment opportunities
for differently abled, providing livelihood opportunities for Tsunami victims. (IEEMA Journal, November 2007)

ISPAT : Continuous water supply from supply sources of ISPAT industries at Raigad district for people
living in nearby villages, disaster management, women empowerment so that they become self reliant and
add to family income. (IEEMA Journal, January 2008)

covered in April 2008 issue of IEEMA Journal. The
common thought expressed in this conference was the
real objective behind existence of CSR. CSR involves
internal stake holders which comprise of employees,
internal environment that impacts employees, owners
and/or shareholders and external stakeholders
comprising environment, community, customer,
supplier, shareholder, government, future employees,
development, sector organizations, NGOs. But to carry
out CSR effectively, it is essential that it has to be
driven from top. So leadership is very important in all
CSR activities and it is need of time to develop next
generation of globally responsible leaders.
Again in this report, a very good example of
integrating CSR with business strategies was given
by Titan. The company had been providing training
to women from poor and underprivileged rural India
to perform several activities of watch manufacturing,
which were outsourced. This partnership led to a
significant improvement in the quality of life. Similarly
for Titan’s jewellery brand Tanishq, the company
facilitated the ‘coming together’ of talented but poor
underprivileged artisans and created 6 Jewellery
Artisan parks. This is a very good example of CSR
done within company’s own business area.
CSR is not just giving or providing livelihood,
but teaching underprivileged people how to earn
their livelihood. CSR may be looked upon as means
of investing profits or a PR tool to maintain brand
building of companies. However CSR is PR activity
of very high magnitude, where PR can be termed
as ‘people’s relations’ and not ‘public relations.’ It
requires actions and not just words.
The feeling behind this series
Though its been two years, IEEMA Journal intends to
carry this series further. This series is not meant just for
publishing articles, but intends to share information and
inspire corporates. This is a platform to get information
on different areas which can be covered under CSR.
IEEMA journal is open to all its readers, where they
can share CSR Initiatives taken up by different
organizations and create awareness. This series is not
limited only to electrical industry, but also to corporates
who have taken up this
moral responsibility.
It is very effectively
mentioned by Jamshedji
Tata- The clear definition
of CSR is that ‘The
Community is not just
another stakeholder in
our business but the Pragati Sohoni
very purpose of our IEEMA, Mumbai
existence’.

26 October 2008