Expert Opinion

Published: Dec 29, 2021
Updated: Dec 29, 2021

CSR comes of age in Covid times

India Inc has shown that it can rise above profit-and-loss considerations in a time of grave crisis like the present, when millions of Indian lives have been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has paved the way for corporates loosening their corporate social responsibility purse strings by announcing that a wide spectrum of Covid-relief measures can qualify as CSR activity. Among the most generous donors are the Tata group with Rs 500 crore, Coal India with Rs 221 crore, the ICICI group with Rs 100 crore, the Godrej group with Rs 50 crore and SBI with Rs 30 crore. Dr Vidya Hattangadi sees this 'epidemic of giving' as proof that businesses do not exist in a vacuum but are part of the good and ill fortunes of society at large.

Amid the Covid-19 outbreak, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs informed India Inc that funds donated to combat the pandemic would be considered valid under CSR activities. Funds may be spent on various activities related to Covid-19, such as promotion of healthcare, distribution of food, payment of medical bills of the poor, preventive healthcare and sanitation, and disaster management.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts and chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, pledged Rs 500 crore to protect and empower all affected communities. The money will be spent on personal protective equipment for medical personnel, respiratory systems for treating increasing cases, testing kits to increase per capita testing, setting up modular treatment facilities for infected patients, and knowledge management and training of health workers and the general public.

Ambuja Cements and ACC, both part of the Swiss cement major LafargeHolcim, have collectively contributed Rs 3.3 crore to three NGOs to support daily wagers, migrant labour, slum dwellers and the homeless stranded across the country on account of the lockdown. Ambuja Cement and ACC support Goonj, an NGO on the forefront of disaster relief with expertise in material management, and Praja Foundation and Mumbai Roti Bank, who are working with labourers and daily wage workers who have lost their livelihood on account of the lockdown. Together, these organisations are carrying out multi-pronged containment and relief efforts that require immediate attention across the country.

JOINING HANDS

State-run Coal India Ltd said it has contributed Rs 221 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM Cares) to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Employees of CIL voluntarily contributed one day’s salary, which amounted to Rs 61 crore, and the miner donated an amount of Rs 160 crore from IST CSR corpus to the ‘PM Cares’ fund. Despite several challenges during this period, the subsidiaries of the Maharatna PSU kept up coal production. The Maharatna PSU has set a 710 million tonne production target in the current fiscal, even though there is a concern over demand.

State Bank of India’s CSR arm, ‘SBI Foundation’, committed Rs 30 crore to implement various Covid-19 relief measures across the country. The fund will be utilised for providing food to the needy, consolidating healthcare infrastructure, capacity building of healthcare workers and research on coronavirusrelated projects, in coordination with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). To implement these initiatives, SBI Foundation set up a flagship programme on health, which included distribution of ventilators and personal protective equipment to hospitals and supply of 10,000 freshly cooked meals daily at four centres. The lockdown crippled the economy for more than seven months and sparked exceptional distress; it turned the so-called lower middle class into the new poor class of society. Teachers in unaided private schools, office assistants, data entry operators, salespersons, receptionists, beauticians, entertainment industry support workers, those who run small mobile phone service and repair shops, and other service providers who fall in the Rs 5,000-15,000 monthly income group were badly hit. They struggled to survive. While the nation paid attention to the poor and the migrant workers who faced the brunt of lockdown, we hardly paid any attention to lower middle class families with meagre incomes due to society’s lopsided priorities.

THE NEW POOR

The lower middle class is always caught in a dilemma as their dignity holds them back from extending their hands to seek aid. The focus of all aid programmes of both the government and NGOs is people who are traditionally perceived as poor — and who are indeed poor — but the lower middle class, who are also in dire need of assistance, are left out. Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra group, was among the first corporate leaders to come out with clear commitments. He said that his group would begin work to use existing manufacturing facilities to make ventilators to combat the coronavirus. From converting existing manufacturing plants to make ventilators to giving free fuel to emergency vehicles, the Mahindra group announced a slew of initiatives to help combat the crisis. Anand Mahindra said he would donate 100% of his salary to create a fund to help small businesses and selfemployed people who are expected to be impacted the most due to the outbreak. He also urged businesses to set aside contributions for those who are the hardest hit in their ecosystem.

The Godrej group announced that it is earmarking a fund of Rs 50 crore for community support and relief initiatives. This was an initial spending and the corporate said that it hopes to supplement it over time. It has been buying and supplying medical equipment and protective supplies to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). As a part of the initiative, the group has donated Rs 5 crore to the BMC and 115 hospital beds to Maharashtra government hospitals, and has helped set up a 75-bed quarantine centre at Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai. Moreover, it has supported the free distribution of 1 million packets of Godrej Protekt Mr Magic powder-to-liquid hand wash in Maharashtra in partnership with the BMC and Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC). It has partnered with communities linked to their CSR programmes to support 1.12 lakh beneficiaries across 8 states with hand wash, sanitizers and soap, donated sanitizers to the Mumbai police force, begun ramping up capacity to meet the demand for soap, hand wash and sanitizers and initiated an outreach through various networks and hand wash education programmes.

MEALS AND MEDICINE

As a part of its CSR initiatives, the Bosch group in India immediately donated Rs 5 crore to the ‘PM Cares’ fund and pledged an additional Rs 45 crore for various community welfare initiatives. Bosch India started various welfare initiatives to help the underprivileged. The company supplied cooked meals from its kitchen in the Bidadi plant and through the Art of Living Foundation to about 4,000 migrant workers and other needy individuals on a daily basis. The ICICI group announced that it has committed Rs 100 crore to support the nation in its fight against Covid-19. Of this, the group has pledged to contribute Rs 80 crore to the ‘PM Cares’ fund and Rs 20 crore to state governments and local authorities.

ReNew Power, India’s largest Independent Power Producer in the renewable energy space, offered Rs 20 crore to the Central and state governments. The company’s endeavour was fixed on helping communities impacted by the lockdown and bolstering the health infrastructure. Sumant Sinha, Managing Director of ReNew, in one of his interviews said that his company believes that helping equip hospitals and their staff with the right medical equipment will strengthen local efforts in tackling the emergency. The company worked across its sites in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and covered around 140 villages. Additionally, ReNew adopted a village in Haryana, where around 350 vulnerable households were provided with dry rations and hygiene kits.

In 1963, free-market philosopher Milton Friedman described corporate social responsibility as ‘fundamentally subversive’, writing that corporate responsibility is the pursuit carried out by individual organizations in uncontrolled markets. Today’s tough times show that businesses do not exist in a vacuum but are part of society, and talking to and learning from the people is part and parcel of organizations’ existence.

(Dr Vidya Hattangadi is a renowned management thinker)