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| Apr 04, 2007 |
Jharkhand woman develops mosquito repellent with lemon grass!
Nagri (Jharkhand) April 4: A septuagenarian woman in Jharkhand has developed a unique lemon-grass-based mosquito repellent to keep mosquitoes at bay.
Neelika Lal took to gardening after her husband's death, and in the process developed repellent by cultivating lemon grass.
She now wants villagers to take up such cultivation with the larger objective of commercialising the indigenously made repellent.
"The villages are in a pathetic condition due to lack of measures to clear off stagnant water, which proves a breeding ground for mosquitoes. If the repellent is burned in all villages, it would help to ward off mosquitoes and curb malaria," claimed Neelika Lal.
After trying her hands at different things, Neelika took to lemon grass cultivation to keep herself busy and set up an oil extraction unit at her place in Nagri, a small hamlet near Ranchi, the State capital.
The strong and distinctive smell of lemon grass prompted her to use it to keep mosquitoes at bay.
During initial trials, Neelika tried burning the whole grass and found the results satisfactory. Thereafter, she went on to prepare repellent cakes out of it.
She claims that if it is properly used and marketed, the repellent can be effective in curbing mosquitoes in Jharkhand, where malaria is endemic and claims hundreds of lives every year.Neelika is, presently, distributing these repellent cakes free of cost to villagers to popularise and develop a wide scale acceptance.
Lemon grass is a main ingredient in Thai and Caribbean cuisine, but here it is mixed with rice husk and cow dung to make the mosquito repellent.
"Lemon grass is mixed with cow dung and rice husk and made into small roundels. It is then dried in the sun. After the cakes are dry, we burn them to keep off mosquitoes," said Savita, a villager who helps Neelika in making the mosquito repellents.
Apart from using lemon grass for mosquito repellent, Neelika is also making pain-relieving balm from it by mixing it with vaseline and coconut oil, which she claims, is also very effective.
In 2006, India reported around 1.04 million malaria cases and 890 deaths from the disease.
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/130796.php/70-year-old-Jharkhand-woman-develops
-mosquito-repellent-with-lemon-grass
BCCL, SAIL to join hands for mining project
Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) will soon launch a joint venture with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for underground mining at Moonidih mines in Jharkhand.
'We have already identified a patch at Moonidih XV seam and decided to go for a Rs.5 billion joint venture project of which SAIL will invest Rs.3 billion. The project will shortly be signed between BBCL and SAIL,' said BCCL chairman and managing director A.K. Paul here Wednesday.
He said BCCL will guarantee equipment and production and SAIL will chip in with money.
BCCL is a subsidiary unit of Coal India Limited (CIL). The company operates 70 mines - 68 in the Jharia Coalfield and two in the Ranigunj Coalfield.
It has 36 underground, 12 open cast and 22 mixed mines. Besides these, BCCL operates several coking and non-coking coal washeries and various other units.
To achieve a turnaround, BCCL is gearing up to augment one million tonnes of coking production annually to generate Rs.3 billion profit.
'To meet the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) target, we are trying to achieve 25 mt of production in 2007-08 and also trying to achieve Rs.5.26 billion profit, including the backlogs which we could not fulfil in last two years, in the current financial year,' said Paul, adding the company has several other projects like modernisation and upgradation of washeries in the pipeline.
'In next five years we are going to invest Rs.13.5 billion for undergoing development and upgradation works in all BCCL coking coal mines,' Paul added.
http://www.indiaprwire.com/businessnews/20070405/21821.htm
Silk trade to get a boost
Ranchi, April 3: Jharkhand could regain its lost glory in silk production if plans undertaken by Central Silk Board (CSB) and state industry department materialise in the next 10 years.
A Rs 151 crore "perspective plan for sericulture development in Jharkhand" is being incepted from this year through a joint venture of CSB, state industry department and beneficiaries (farmers).
"We are targeting an annual raw silk production of 350 metric tonnes (MT) in six years from the existing 100 MT. The first instalment of Rs 12.67 crore has been requisitioned from CSB, a unit under the Union ministry of textiles," said joint director (sericulture) of state industry department B.C. Prasad.
The state (under unified Bihar) used to register an annual production of about 450 MT of raw silk during the 80's. West Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan (famous for Kuchai silk) and Santhal Pargana region serve as hotbeds for cultivators who are largely dependent on sale of raw silk (in cocoon form) to the middlemen at meagre prices. The state produces tasar, mulberry and eri silk.
Through the ambitious project, the government plans to undertake infrastructure development, plantation activities, training and value addition of raw silk projects from 2007-08 fiscal.
According to the agreement, the state would have to contribute 50 per cent whereas CSB is supposed to shell out over 22 per cent.
The remaining 27 per cent would be the beneficiaries' share.
Recently, the state government has taken some bold initiatives to provide a good platform to farmers as far as value addition to the product is concerned.
Ranchi-based Central Tasar Research and Training Institute would play a pivotal role in the project while extending services of training, research and development and technology transfer to farmers, said institute's director Suryanarayana.
"We have also requested RU to extend affiliation for a 15-month postgraduate diploma in sericulture. Plans are also on to rope in about 60 scientists of our institute, who would act as supervisors to Ph.D work in this sector," said Suryanarayana.
RU vice-chancellor A.A. Khan, who visited CTR and TI on March 28, said the university is keen to extend affiliation provided the syndicate clears the proposals.
Sericulture is being done in the plant species like arjuna, saal, asan and mulberry trees. The state's focus would be on non-mulberry production of silk.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070404/asp/jamshedpur/story_7604522.asp
IFAD farm projects likely to be rolled out
New Delhi, Apr 1 Three projects of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) may be implemented in the country, this year, if the government sets up necessary infrastructure for its implementation.
Tejaswini rural women's empowerment project for select districts in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, approved by IFAD in December 2005, is in pipeline for implementation. IFAD has assured to extend a loan of $ 39.5 million for implementation of this project which involves a total investment of $ 208.7 million. This 8-year project intends to strengthen women's self-help groups (SHGs) by fostering links with banks and micro-finance institutions, improving livelihood opportunities by developing skills and fostering market linkages.
IFAD has also approved a similar project in December 2006 for empowering women in the mid-Gangetic plains (4 districts in UP and 2 districts in Bihar). This 8-year project entails an investment of $ 52.5 million against which IFAD has agreed to extend a loan of $ 30.2 million.
Another project for developing post-Tsunami sustainable livelihood opportunities in coastal Tamil Nadu was approved by IFAD in April 2005. This project entails an investment of $ 68.8 million and IFAD has agreed to extend a loan of $ 30 million. "We have been assisting projects in India since 1979 and have so far approved loans amounting to $ 564.4 million for 21 projects. Every year we approve to support one new project in India by extending loan within the range of $ 35 million. Our loan component may be small compared to the total investment but we arrange co-financing from different global agencies for the project," IFAD president, Lennart Bage told FE. IFAD also provides a small amount of grant for projects. Last year it gave a grant of $ one million to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and this year it has supported Uttaranchal Grameen Vikas Samiti with a grant of $ one million for innovation for reducing drudgery in women.
Bage further said that agreements for the projects are signed with the Union government which decides whether it should be implemented as a central government project or as a state government project by creating necessary infrastructure. Grants are mainly for research and innovations.
Thirteen IFAD-assisted projects have been completed so far which includes livelihood security project for earthquake-affected rural households in Gujarat, Mewat area development project, two Andhra Pradesh participatory tribal development projects, rural women's empowerment in select districts in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Maharahstra rural credit project, Orissa tribal development project, Uttar Pradesh public tubewell project, Madhya Pradesh medium irrigation project, Sunderban development project, Rajasthan command area development project and Bhima command area development project.
"Our evaluations show that these completed projects benefited thousands of rural households. Basing on our past experiences we are eager to assist more projects in India," said Bage. There still 5 on-going projects in different parts of the country like livelihood improvement projects in the Himalayas and in the Orissa tribal belt, national micro-finance support programme being implemented by SIDBI,
Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh tribal development programme and northeastern region community resource management project for upland areas.
Bage outlined IFAD's India strategy for 2005-09 which includes providing access to micro-finance which he says has been very effective in women's self-help groups. Other aspects of IFAD's policy are to improve livelihood opportunities for communities in semi-arid tropicial regions with better water management and new farm technologies, introducing development activities in the densely populated and impoverished mid-gangetic plains, improving productivity for coastal fishing communities through sustainable means, developing partnerships with NGOs and corporate sector to re-inforce community-based approach and promoting policy change through project activities.
Bage said with Indian economy growing at a fast rate, the farmers need to link up with the markets for ensuring better living conditions. He also suggested that farmers should come together a set up processing units so that they can directly stand to benefit from the sales of their value-added products. Micro-finance institutions should attract deposits from the local people to encourage savings and their own viability.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=159772
NHRC serves notice to Bihar Chief Secretary on bonded labour
New Delhi, Apr 4: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday sent a notice to the Chief Secretary of Bihar, Ashok kumar Choudhary, over media reports which said that one farm worker had been repaying 40 kgs of rice with 27 years of bonded labour in a village about 60 km from Patna.
Observing that it raises serious issue of violation of human rights of the bonded labourers, the Commission has given two weeks time for reply from Choudhary.
According to media reports at least couple of farm workers at Paipura Barki village in Bihar have not been able to throw off bondage even though they have worked for nearly three decades for their "masters".
The report said that one Jawahar Manjhi, now 45-year-old, had taken rice as loan from the local moneylender for a wedding 27 years back, when he was a teenager. At that time, it was decided that Manjhi would work in the lender's field and repay with his labour. He would be given one kg of rice, which is one-third of the normal payment of three kgs for a day's work.
Since then, he has been working six days a week, eight hours a day but the loan remains to be repaid. However, he does not know how much he has repaid and how much he owes to the lender.
Manjhi cannot get away and his wife fears that her sons would also become bonded labourers as there is no money in the house.
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/130940.php/NHRC-serves-notice-to-Bihar-Chief-Secretary
-on-bonded-labour
Stanford University to hold mirror conference in Bihar
A leading American university is keen to help Bihar with its expertise, beginning with a 'Mirror Conference' Thursday where experts will suggest ways for development of the state.
Stanford University, one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions, was invited by the state government to hold the two-day conference here.
'The conference will prove immensely beneficial for the process of development in Bihar,' said N.K. Singh, state planning board vice-chairman.
Experts from around the world will attend the conference and come up with suggestions for the much-needed development of the state.
Singh, a former member of the Planning Commission of India, said the conference would also serve as a prelude to the eighth annual conference of Indian Economic Reforms at Stanford in June 2007.
Stanford Centre for International Development has been fostering a policy dialogue with the Indian government over the years and four years ago it started mirror conferences to involve the state governments in pursuance of new generation policy reforms.
'The conference will discuss issues like employment, poverty and public-private partnership, lessons from Chinese economic growth and challenges to the federal model of growth in the context of Bihar,' Singh said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will inaugurate the conference.
Leading experts like T.N. Srinivasan, Nicholas Hope, Anjini Kochar, Ward Hanson and Jessica Wallack will present papers on Bihar's economic strategy.
Standford University has held similar state level dialogues in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala.
http://www.indiaenews.com/education/20070404/45897.htm
Bihar school shut after Naxal threat
Aurangabad/Patna: The children at Amba in Bihar's Aurangabad district play on. They are oblivious of the fact that their chance of getting a formal education is in jeopardy.
Their school has been closed for two months, after Naxals threatened to blow it up, if school authorities did not pay a levy.
Their classrooms have been locked and their teachers are nowhere in sight.
"We haven't had teachers for a month. We usually come to school for a few hours, play and go home," says a student, Gulshan.
School authorities initially tried to negotiate with the Naxals, so that the functioning of the school wouldn't be affected, but talks fell through, and the school had to close down.
"The Maoists have demanded five per cent levy through a letter," says principal, Govt School, Amba, Vishwanath Singh.
Two other schools in the area are facing a similar fate, depriving over 1000 children of their right to a formal education.
However, the district administration claims there is nothing to fear.
"We are looking into the absence of teachers. There is nothing to worry about," says DM, Aurangabad, Birendra Bahadur Pandey.
The Naxals in Bihar are fighting a war of supremacy with the government. But the victims in this battle are the children whose future is being affected.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/bihar-school-shut-after-naxal-threat/37702-3.html
Bengal leads hunger list, poor land-man ratio blamed
Kolkata, Apr 3 West Bengal tops the hunger list of India, with at least 71.6 lakh suffering from food shortage and over 8.8 lakh of these not getting two square meals a day, all through the year.
According to the latest report of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), at least 10.6% of the rural population and 0.7% of the urban population in West Bengal do not get adequate food in some months of the year.
For the NSSO, 'getting enough food every day', means that the person concerned gets, by and large, sufficient food to eat. According to the 2001 census, the state had a total population of over 802 lakh, with 577 lakh in rural areas and 225 lakh in urban areas.
Economists say the poor land-man ratio in the state has caused pseudo-employment or disguised employment in the rural sector pushing up the poverty level.
The only way out, they say, is a higher level of industrialisation, which will ease the pressure on land. Industrialisation would also reduce urban poverty and migration to urban centres.
Abhirup Sarkar, professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, said, "though the land-productivity of the state is at the third position (after Punjab and Haryana), man-land ratio in Bengal is three times the all India average."
Among the states, West Bengal reported the highest percentage (9.1%) of households that did not get sufficient food for 1-3 months. Assam had about 3.6% households who reported half-fed through out the year.
Assam reported the highest percentage of households ( 3.6%) 'not getting enough food every day in all months of the year' followed by Orissa and West Bengal ( 1.3%). In the urban area the highest percentage was reported by Assam (2.1%), followed by Bihar (1.1%).
Sarkar said the increasing pressure on land, especially caused by post-Independence migration, is not commensurate with its productivity.
Of the population suffering from food shortage, agricultural (1.8%) and other labour (3.7%) at the rural sector account for the major portion.
Surprisingly, at least 29.9% of the 'Antyodaya' and 20.3% of those who hold below-poverty-line (BPL) cards have reported food shortage during the survey.
Dipankar Dasgupta, noted economist, who does not feel there is much of food shortage in West Bengal, said, creation of jobs would help in reducing pressure on land and cutting down the level of poverty thereby.
For the NSSO report 512, 61 st round, the survey year was 2004-05.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=160023
Orissa orders morning classes for schools
BHUBANESWAR: Anticipating a "scorching" summer ahead, the Orissa government on Tuesday asked all district collectors to ensure that schools and colleges remained open only during the morning hours.
"We have asked all the collectors to initiate strong actions against the principals and headmasters who disobey the government order in this regard," said Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal, adding the government has been warned of a severe heat wave this summer.
He also said that the government has been contemplating to provide free-of-cost umbrellas and water bottles to each school student in the state.
Similarly, the government has also set time frame for engaging labourers in private and government jobs.
"The employer can engage any worker from six in the morning to 11 am and 3.30 pm till 6 pm," an official release said, adding enough water should be kept where workers undertake jobs.
The government also directed for no power-cuts during the peak summers.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Orissa_orders_morning_classes_for_
schools/articleshow/1853464.cms
Indian corporate responsibility – Asian giant on an ethical crash course
Only a few forward-looking companies have so far flown the corporate responsibility flag in India. But the rest will soon have to follow
Last year was a landmark year for Indian business. It began with the "India Everywhere" campaign at the World Economic Forum, where Indian business magnates, bureaucrats and economic pundits thronged the Davos platform. They pushed Indian investment in a big way. The rest of the year was spent putting their words into action.
Corporate takeovers by Indian multinationals reached new heights in 2006. The economy grew at 8.5% and is poised to overtake the UK, France and Italy within a decade, according to Goldman Sachs. By 2050, it will be second only to China. The high-profile Tata acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel giant Corus appears to be only a sign of things to come.
Corporate responsibility has traditionally been the domain of a few enlightened companies in India. "The corporate brethren tend to leave it to the usual token CSR icons – Tata and Infosys – to provide stirring stories of social heroism, rather than come out with a compelling new story of corporate excellence," says Malini Mehra, director and founder of the Centre for Social Markets, an Indian non-governmental organisation.
The notion of corporate responsibility in India has traditionally been tied up with philanthropy and community development.
Advertisement"Philanthropy has been important in India since the middle of the 19th century, largely due to a strong heritage of community influence and paternalism among traders-turned-entrepreneurs," say authors Atul Sood and Bimal Arora in "Political Economy of Corporate Responsibility in India", a 2006 paper for the UN Research Institute for Social Development.
Philanthropy has now taken the form of foundations within companies that follow the Gandhian ideology of "giving back to society". Such giving is the sole manifestation of corporate responsibility for many firms.
Modes of thinking
Shefali Chaturvedi, head of the Social Development Initiative at the Confederation of Indian Industry, says there are three kinds of Indian companies when it comes to corporate responsibility: big Indian multinational corporations that have proper corporate responsibility mechanisms in place; large national companies that appreciate the value of corporate responsibility but have no inherent structures to show for it; and, the many small and medium-sized enterprises that are doing only piecemeal work at best.
"Most companies do not take society and the environment into consideration when planning their business activities; [they do this] only at the time of implementation, and sometimes they pay a huge price for it," says Dinesh Agrawal, general manager of corporate social responsibility at the state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation.
Vishakha Das, CSR manager at IT services company WeP Peripherals, adds: "There are two CR myths with regard to smaller companies [in India] – they think it's something for bigger companies with huge profits and they think it's mainly a philanthropic exercise."
There are forward-thinking chief executives and companies that have made corporate responsibility a solid pillar of the way they do business. But the greater number of Indian companies has failed to internalise corporate responsibility.
A lax regulatory environment and the absence of a joined-up civil society movement have not helped.
Foreign firms
While a community-friendly ethos has existed in India for a long time, large foreign companies have historically been responsible for bringing business ethics talk to India, under pressure from NGOs, consumers and investor groups back home.
But foreign companies are in fact often accused of operating to lower ethical standards in India than they do elsewhere, amid a lenient compliance and enforcement regime.
Take clinical trials, many of which are conducted in India by foreign pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. A huge patient population, speciality hospitals with modern facilities, 221 medical colleges and research costs about two thirds lower than those in the US make India an attractive destination for trials.
Clinical trials in India, however, have been mired in controversies over unethical recruitment of patients, exaggeration of results and the underplaying of risks associated with drugs being tested. A major BBC World Service investigation last year found global pharmaceutical companies doing little to improve such perceptions, while Indian hospital ethics committees and the national legal framework have proved ineffective in tightening procedures.
General Electric, for example, has been accused of not controlling the use of its ultrasound equipment in pre-natal sex determination across parts of India, which is allegedly contributing to cases of female foeticide, a serious problem in the country. Cheap credit offered by GE Capital to buyers has increased sales of the ultrasound machines in the north-west of India , alleges Sabu George, consultant with the Delhi-based Business and Community Foundation.
GE told Ethical Corporation it was committed to preventing the misuse of its technology and fully informed customers on the issues through terms and conditions of sale, product manuals and labelling on equipment. It says a customer must have a Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques certificate to buy GE's ultrasound machine.
The multinational leaders
Other sectors have also been under close scrutiny in India. Big brands in the clothing sector, for instance, have been working with Indian civil society groups to raise workplace standards at their suppliers' factories.
There are reasonably sturdy labour laws in India but enforcement has been left wanting. The informal sector that constitutes the larger share of the labour market has suffered the most.
Homeworkers, for instance, have very little rights. For several years now, the UK's Ethical Trading Initiative has tried to address this with the co-operation of member companies such as Monsoon, Next and Gap. They are part of a National Homeworkers' Group consisting of suppliers, retailers and NGOs. This organisation is running a pilot project on improving working conditions in the fabric embellishment industry of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh state, having drafted guidelines in July last year.
Child labour in India is prohibited in certain hazardous industries, but the government has been unwilling to apply a blanket ban on the employment of children. Among other companies, home furnishings firm Ikea is proactively addressing the issue through the economic empowerment of women in villages around its factories in north India. Ikea is also providing educational facilities for children employed previously at its suppliers' factories.
Caste discrimination remains an important issue that has not received much attention from companies in India. In the informal labour sector, Dalits, the lowest caste group in India, are paid at least 25% less than their upper caste counterparts. Discrimination within the educational sector against Dalits mean they remain unskilled and their opportunities are limited.
Referring to the furore raised over health and safety standards in India's ship-breaking industry in 2005, Coen Kompier of the International Labour Organization says the issue was not brought to attention earlier because the workers were Dalit migrant workers from the state of Orissa.
When it comes to freedom of association, with the exception of the growing "business process outsourcing" industry, which remains mainly union-free, most Indian industries have vocal worker communities. The right to raise a collective voice for workers' rights, however, often goes unused or is stifled, an example being the authorities' use of force in the workers' strike over layoffs at Honda's Gurgaon factory in 2005.
Touchy issues
Community groups have used their voices to send shudders through the political system. In West Bengal's Nandigram village, residents protested in early January over news that the state government had approved land acquisition for a Special Economic Zone to be set up by Indonesia's Salim Group. Seven people were reported killed in ensuing violence.
There was a similar violent dispute over alleged farmland grabbing by the state administration to make way for Tata Motors factory in West Bengal 's Singur village. The state's left-leaning administration, keen on attracting investment back into the state, claimed farmers had been paid adequate compensation for their land, but it appeared not all farmers had agreed to part with their property. Tata Motors remained tight-lipped throughout the episode and started construction at the site under heavy security.
This followed a land acquisition dispute in Kalinganagar, Orissa, in early 2005, involving Tata Steel, which led to the deaths of 12 tribal people in clashes with local police. In this case, too, Tata refrained from making any public statement, except to say it was a matter for the state government.
While HLL vice-chairman M K Sharma defends Tata as having been unfortunate in these episodes, Indian corporate responsibility commentators describe Tata's conduct in both these episodes as "disappointing".
The cases are examples of poor stakeholder engagement in India, says Viraf Mehta, chief executive of Indian NGO Partners in Change. He notes that in matters of rehabilitation, there should be consensus and the company involved should engage with the communities. This can be done by offering shares in the new enterprise, assuring them jobs or an equivalent amount of cultivable land elsewhere. All information, says Mehta, about the rehabilitation packages and the land acquired should be publicly disclosed. Amita Joseph, director of the Business and Community Foundation, adds that companies need not always involve the state when acquiring land from local people; they can transact directly.
Some solutions
According to domestic corporate responsibility managers, Indian companies need to stop looking at local communities through the prism of charity and see them as allies in the development process. Multinational corporations, meanwhile, have to become culturally sensitive to the needs of Indian society, they say.
This can be done through the adoption of country-specific policies and the recruitment of Indian professionals for the execution of these. Winning the trust of local communities and identifying the right partners to implement corporate responsibility initiatives on the ground will be among the challenges.
Joseph is of the opinion that corporate responsibility should now be legally mandated for all firms in India, imposing requirements such as a dedicated corporate responsibility department, fixed funding, and formal corporate responsibility policies and planning, with company size determining the requirements.
At present only five companies based in India produce CR reports aligned to the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines. While Indian firms say there is little demand for these reports from Indian stakeholder groups, Yashashree Gurjar, head of corporate social responsibility at paper company Ballarpur Industries, says the reluctance to produce responsibility reports also owes a lot to political wrangling and civil society pressure in India.
"Transparency is perceived as a risk. It is thought if you are too transparent, it may not be good for you," Gurjar says, suggesting that warring political parties and the activist NGO community can use publicly disclosed information to damaging ends. Gurjar thinks there is a need to produce India-specific reporting guidelines if the gamut of India's complex social and environmental issues is to be fully covered.
Gerard Oonk, director of the India Committee of the Netherlands, says corporate responsibility needs to become much more "political" in India for it to attract companies' attention. Notions of responsible business need greater recognition from the central and state administrations, he says.
Greater transparency and disclosure are also required if companies are to maintain their credibility. There are now mandatory corporate governance standards for listed companies in India, but in a study conducted earlier this year by the World Bank, the quality of disclosure was found to be very low.
Drivers of change
But this appears set to change. With more and more Indian companies launching operations overseas, they are bound to come under the global media spotlight. Ethically aware consumer groups in the west will be keen to know that the goods they buy from India are produced in a socially and environmentally friendly way. International corporate responsibility promoting coalitions and NGOs will raise the heat too. And although investor groups in India are not very active on corporate responsibility yet, socially responsible investors from abroad may step up the pressure.
In India, where basic compliance is still a big challenge, going beyond compliance will soon become essential. The biggest Indian companies have always been revered and considered almost untouchable by society and regulators but they will now find themselves increasingly scrutinised in the international marketplace where every company wears its ethical credentials on its sleeve.
On home turf as well, with the local NGO community rapidly organising itself and consumers frequently using the new Right to Information Act, it will be very difficult for Indian companies to hide. Awareness is on the rise.
So, as India's economic growth reaches new heights, corporate responsibility awareness will have to reach company boardrooms. The Indian government will have to exchange its laidback and sometimes protectionist attitude for a more proactive stance.
India and the environment: baby steps
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, India will become a major contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions if it does not take immediate corrective action.
India has so far refrained from joining any global greenhouse gas emissions reduction agreements. But recognising the need to respond to climate change, some Indian companies have started to think about carbon trading.
Nicholas Stern, economic adviser to the UK government, who has been touring the world to promote the findings of his climate change review, says he is optimistic. India is discussing the need to set up a carbon trading market where energy-efficient companies can sell their carbon reductions to firms in richer nations. He says companies are also adopting new efficient technologies as they begin to see the profitability in doing so.
Some proactive companies have been trying to address increasing water shortages by engaging in conservation and harvesting programmes. Protection of water supplies is a very sensitive issue in India. Coca-Cola's plant in the southern state of Kerala was shut down when it was found using a lot of water for making its soft drinks, leading to depletion in groundwater levels in the state. Groundwater pollution is a serious environmental concern in India.
Emerging retail sector – possible impacts
The retail sector boom has become a favourite talking point these days in Indian business circles. India's retail market is worth more than $200 billion and a market of such potential is hard to ignore. Reliance Industries, the first to jump on the bandwagon, now has 11 stores in the city of Hyderabad, having opened its first in September, and hopes to target at least 800 cities by 2011.
While national companies have been scampering to announce retail ventures, international giants have been lobbying the government hard to relax foreign direct investment laws in the multi-brand retail sector. Wal-Mart, however, was not prepared to wait. Exploiting a legal loophole, the company entered into a joint venture with Indian telecommunications leader Bharti Enterprises to launch a supermarket chain in India. The Indian left objected to Wal-Mart's "backdoor entry" but their protests found little favour with the foreign-investment-hungry administration.
Organised retail is expected to bring efficiency to food and agricultural supply chains in a country where poor distribution channels mean 40% of produce is wasted. It will also eliminate a lot of middlemen in the business and bring farmers closer to the end consumers.
There are, however, concerns. The US-based Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now has warned: "In the US, we used to get oranges from California and pineapples from Hawaii. Today, we get our pineapples from Malaysia and the Philippines because labour costs there are much cheaper. In the same way, once [Wal-Mart] enters the Indian market, if it finds Vietnamese tea is cheaper then it will flood the Indian markets with tea from that country. If, in the bargain, the Indian tea market gets destroyed then little can be done about it."
The Indian government will have to balance the advantages in cheaper food and efficient food distribution with strictly monitored corporate power and expansion, if it wants to avoid public outcry.
India – facts
Population: 1.095 billion (July 2006)
Population below poverty line: 25% (2002)
GDP: $875.9 billion (2006)
GDP growth rate: 8.5% (2006)
Inflation rate: 5.3% (2006)
Labour force: 509.3 million (2006)
Labour force – by occupation (2003):
agriculture (60%)
industry (12%)
services (28%)
Main industries: textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software
Sources: CIA World Factbook, Economist Intelligence Unit
Levering better business practices
Hindustan Lever Ltd, the Indian division of the global food and consumer goods giant Unilever, is among the few Indian national companies that have progressively incorporated corporate responsibility policies and practices in their business ethos.
But while HLL has adopted the same set of business principles and code of conduct as Unilever's other global subsidiaries, it has established an individual identity for itself in the Indian corporate responsibility field.
M K Sharma, HLL vice-chairman, says the company's corporate responsibility policies and practices are integral to the business.
Besides its flagship project, Shakti, HLL is involved in many other rural social and economic development projects, including India's largest private sector initiative to increase health and hygiene awareness among children.
Sharma highlights the potential of public-private partnerships in India. "PPPs are hugely important but grossly under-exploited," he says. Sharma believes inefficiencies in the Indian administration, which partly result from corruption, mean much potential funding goes unutilised, and he advocates the setting up of PPPs to counter the bureaucratic hurdles. For this, he says, companies and NGOs should shed their "individualistic" attitudes and build a relationship of trust and collaboration.
The Shakti project is based on company board member C K Prahalad's "bottom of the pyramid" theory, which encourages businesses to target the entrepreneurs and consumers among the world's poor. Shakti gives HLL brand retailing rights to rural women from self-help groups. But critics are concerned the project unduly favours women who have collateral to back them up when taking micro-finance loans for their business. Sharma denies this.
Referring to HLL's tea business, Sharma rejects allegations made in ActionAid's 2005 "Tea break" report that workers on the company's tea plantations in India were exploited. He says the tea sector is very well regulated and HLL pays its workers more than the legal minimum wage and respects all their rights. He claims discussions with ActionAid had made clear the report was based on the experience of a temporary worker for whose livelihood HLL cannot be held responsible after the termination of his contract.
Sharma is confident that with rising consumer awareness and increasing foreign direct investment, corporate responsibility as a trend will pick up. For that, he says, the Indian government, which has done a lot on the policy side, will now have to work on the implementation of those policies.
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content_print.asp?ContentID=4992
Mittal, Tata, Posco splurge on Corporate Social Responsibility
After protests and deaths at Nandigram and Kalinga Nagar, steel companies are working on big-ticket corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in areas where their investments have or will result in the displacement of a large number of people.
LN Mittal, who is a frontrunner for acquiring a 51 per cent stake in Sesa Goa from Mitsui and has announced plans for projects in Jharkhand and Orissa worth Rs 40,000 crore each, is planning a $2 billion (Rs 8,600 crore) foundation.
Tentatively called LN Mittal Global Foundation, it will focus on education, health and sports in Goa, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Its executives are working out details with the central government, sources said.
A sports academy in particular is targeted at identifying talent among tribal communities in the areas where Mittal Steel will be operating.
Tata Steel, which continues to face problems over land acquisition for its small car project in West Bengal, its greenfield steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in Orissa, and now for its $2.3 billion project at Bailadila in Chhattisgarh, will unveil a Rs 100-crore CSR project this month.
The country's largest private manufacturer of steel has discussed the package with VANI, a pan-India network of 2,200 NGOs. A final round of talks is expected in Chhattisgarh this month.
Besides the CSR package, the Tata Steel Parivar, an outfit formed recently to formulate rehabilitation strategies for the Tatas, has come out with a policy at Kalinga Nagar. The idea is to persuade people to vacate the 2,000-acre site.
At Gopalpur where a SEZ has been proposed, the Tatas have already unveiled a CSR package.
The company has also started a significant amount of capacity-building at Singur, the location of its small car project, in collaboration with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. Technical training is being imparted to local people ahead of a job selection process.
Posco, the Korean steel firm which has entered Orissa, has also chalked out a detailed CSR action plan. Its deputy director in Delhi, however, declined comment
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/apr/04csr.htm
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