CSR News

OPINION In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business; it is in fact the very purpose of its existence. CSR professionals in the real estate sector have to understand the social and environmental impacts and come out with a detailed Social and Environmental Risk Materiality mapping. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India came into limelight with the amendment in the Companies Act of 2013 which makes it mandatory for companies to spend two per cent of their three-year average annual net profits on CSR activities in each financial year. However, CSR as a concept is not new. It is as old as business itself. Responsible and socially-aware companies engaged in CSR projects even 50 years

INITIATIVE An estimated 70 per cent of under-five children, 56 per cent of adolescent girls and 58 per cent of pregnant mothers are anaemic in India. The Wadia Group through Britannia Nutrition Foundation and Wadia Hospitals is doing its best to find sustainable solutions for malnutrition among children by partnering with state governments and engaging with communities.   According to a data by UNICEF, every two out of four children under the age of five years suffer from malnutrition in India, while the data from 1990- 2015 showed one out of four children suffered from it. There has been a two fold increase, which is quite alarming and a threat to the future generation. Understanding the gravity of the situation,

INITIATIVE Born with the idea to improve the lives of people and make the world a better place, Amway in India is contributing to the social well-being through its programmes for children, visually impaired, victims of natural calamities, conservation of water and a lot more. Amway was born out of the belief that “by helping people live better lives, we could make the world a better place”. Giving back to the society and contributing to the social well-being is in the ethos and belief system of Amway. This is a visionary element of our business brought alive by the two founders of Amway—Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel. This philosophy of theirs has been carried forward even to this day

PRESS RELEASE Emphasising the need to create an enabling environment through small steps such as planting more trees, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr Harsh Vardhan has said that new and innovative ways must be thought of, to bring more areas under forest and tree cover. Inaugurating a twoday conference on “Sustainable landscapes and forest ecosystems: Theory to Practice” in national Capital on September 12, the Environment Minister urged the gathering to deliberate and come out with out-of-the-box ideas and solutions on increasing the forest cover much beyond the stipulated 33 per cent. “Innovation is the need of the hour. Innovation co-efficient now is more important than any other co-efficient”, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said. Reiterating the Government’s

PRESS RELEASE Ford Motor Company released its 18th annual Sustainability Report, including a short film that details environmental progress at its operations around the world and a commitment to further enhance sustainability actions in the future. Asia’s growth story has lifted hundreds of millions from poverty and created tens of millions of new jobs. However, it has come at a price – diverse environmental challenges now confront the region. Now as governments, communities and individuals rise to meet these challenges, this new report details how Ford is leveraging key learnings from its leading environmental practices around the world to its operations in Asia Pacific. “One of the key reasons for this is that they benefit from all that we’ve learned

PRESS RELEASE The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, the sister organisation of the World Economic Forum and the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation of Jubilant Bhartia Group have announced the finalists of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year (SEOY)- India 2017 Award. The finalists for the Award were identified on the basis of rigorous due diligence process. The finalists are: Madhu Pandit Dasa, Akshaya Patra, Bengaluru Safeena Husain, Educate Girls, Mumbai Urvashi Sahni, Study Hall Educational Foundation, Lucknow  The SEOY India Award puts a spotlight on the most remarkable change makers from the country. The finalists are addressing the needs of underserved communities in both scalable and sustainable ways. Their efforts span poverty, hunger, gender inequality, women empowerment and education. The efforts

PRESS RELEASE President Ram Nath Kovind, launched a nationwide sanitation campaign, ‘Swachhta hi Seva’, at Ishwariganj village in Kanpur on September 15. He also administered the ‘Swachhta hi Seva’ pledge to all present there whereby they resolved to create a clean, healthy and new India. The President honoured villagelevel champions who contributed to making Ishwariganj village ‘Open Defecation Free’. Addressing the gathering, the President said India is fighting a decisive battle for cleanliness and hygiene. Today, all of them had taken an oath that committed them to ensuring public hygiene, personal hygiene and environmental hygiene. Cleanliness is not the responsibility of only sanitation personnel and government departments; it is a multi-stakeholder national movement. Together we should make the effort to

INITIATIVE The River Ganga is important not only for its cultural and spiritual significance but also because it hosts more than 40% of the country’s population. Addressing the Indian community at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014, the Prime Minister had said, “If we are able to clean it, it will be a huge help for the 40 per cent population of the country. So, cleaning the Ganges is also an economic agenda.” To translate this vision, the Government launched an integrated Ganga conservation mission called ‘Namami Gange’ to arrest the pollution of Ganga River and revive the river. The Union Cabinet approved the action plan proposed by Centre to spend Rs 20,000 Crores till 2019-2020 on cleaning

INITIATIVES SAURAV GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow 2016, shares with NEETI JHA the pleasures of creating wealth for the poor. Social sector activist Saurav Ghosh started off his career as a wealth manager. However, he was soon to be disillusioned with the work he was doing as he found that in India wealth management was about getting more wealth for the already wealthy. It was then he decided to create wealth for the not so wealthy. When he started doing that, Ghosh realized it was easier to do work under CSR schemes by shifting out of a plush corporate office to the more Spartan workplaces of social sector organisations. Saurav, an MBA, was interested in the art of handicrafts and the supply