Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Report entitled
A Study on the
Corporate Social Responsibility
Submitted by
Name : Smritha.L
PRN: 9030241034
PRN: 9030241035
PRN: 9030241005
PRN: 9030241021
PRN:
Stream
: ITBM
Batch
: 2009 11
PRN: 9030241041
Subject/Code :
Semester
: 1st Semester
Date
: 10/08/2009
History of CSR
The phrase Corporate Social Responsibility was coined in 1953 with the publication of
Bowen's Social Responsibility of Businessmen (Corporate watch report, 2006). The evolution
of CSR is as old as trade and business for any of corporation. Industrialization and impact of
business on the society led to completely new vision. By 80s and 90s academic CSR was taken
into discussion. The first company to implement CSR was Shell in 1998. (Corporate watch
report, 2006) With well informed and educated general people it has become threat to the
corporate and CSR is the solution to it.
1990 was CSR as a standard industry with companies like Price Warterhouse Copper and
KPMG. CSR evolved beyond code of conduct and reporting it started taking initiative in NGOs,
multistakeholder, ethical trading. (Corporate watch report, 2006).
Globalization and free flow of Information: With growing trend of media and easy access to
information through mobile, TV even the minor mistake of the company is brought in public in
no time, this sometime fuels the activist group and likeminded people to spread message which
can lead to situation like boycott of the product.
There can be few key steps to implement CSR successfully (Corporate Social Responsibility,
2003)
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
CSR in India
Long referred to as a companys soul food, corporate social responsibility is finally being
taken seriously by Indian tech companies as they embark on a gamut of philanthropic activities.
Through Infosys foundation and other initiatives, Narayan murthy chairman and chief mentor of
Infosys has always been on the forefront of philanthropic activities as a part of CSR.
Mr. Narayan murthy firmly underlines the significance of CSR: for benefit of globalization and
technology to reach the poor, the private sector, philanthropic institutes and individuals should
cooperate and establish partnership with government institutions. This would lift millions of our
people out of the poverty, provide them with opportunities and make them participate in the
process and progress of globalization. While murthy and Infosys are proactive on the CSR
front, how do other tech companies stuck up?
The sad part is that CSR still has not taken off in India according to a recent survey by Mumbai
based online organization karmayog. The second edition of the research revealed that nearly half
of the top companies do nothing in way of CSR.
For the Indian company whatever the CSR activities are happening are centered around
education, rural upliftment and helping the physically challenged. Some of the CSR initiatives
the major IT companies have undertaken are
1) Education for all
2) Community development
3) Children of a lesser GOD No more
4) Volunteering anyone? (Shruti das, 2009)
[Excel sheets of the above points are added here, data retrieved from article chicken soup of
magazine data quest, July 2009]
Conclusion
It can be concluded that in todays informative world where information are readily available to
general public CSR has been an important part of any organization to be successful. Organization
in present world cannot be successful without taking into account the social responsibility. CSR
has been a vital component for any organization to have perpetual success and to create brand.
References:
5. CSR: A brand building exercise for media houses? Kalinga Time, Retrieved from
http://kalingatimes.com/business_news/news2/20090729_CSR_A_brand_building_exercise_for_
media_houses.html
6. Fauset. P. (2006). Whats wrong with Corporate Social Responsibility [PDF document].
Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Web site:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/download.php?id=55
7. Shruti das (2009), chicken soup, Data Quest, July 15, 2009, pp-12-14, 16-17.