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Today, many corporate houses are committed to social causes. What encourages them to do so? Since its inception, the Tata Group, one of the oldest corporate houses in the country, has been known for its employee friendliness and its responsibility towards society. The Sahara Group is known to spend 8-14 per cent of its net profit each year for social causes. Around two-thirds of its shares are held by charitable trusts which channelise funds for these initiatives. The software major IBM is yet another company to take its social responsibility seriously. It kick-started its first corporate policy on environmental affairs in 1971 and continues to be committed to green initiatives. IT major Infosys, too, organises blood and eye donation camps and works in the sectors of healthcare, education, preservation and social rehabilitation. Two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto has a corporate Social responsibility (CSR) wing which is involved in various education, health, women-empowerment, self-reliance and rural development projects, and environment and natural resources preservation. As per an independent research, the auto and IT sectors are more involved with the implementation of CSR initiatives, while the FMCG sector is yet to catch up. However, Sahara India is yet another company that has taken a step forward in this direction. The business conglomerate with interests in finance, infrastructure and housing, media and entertainment, consumer merchandise retail venture, manufacturing, and information technology, has adopted more than 100 villages in seven states across the country, and sincerely works towards their socio-economic growth. Through this initiative, the corporate house reaches out to touch the lives of over 25 lakh people. On the occasion of his father the Late Sudhir Chandra Roy’s 100th birth anniversary, Subrata Roy Sahara, chairman of the Sahara Group, has announced the ambitious Village Esteem Development Adoption by Sahara (VEDAS), a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to be undertaken by the Sahara Group. Sahara’s CSR wing has formed 20 clusters of 50 villages each. Each cluster will have a Central Point Village that will be equipped with a medical centre and an employment centre, along with other services. This shows that India Inc is not just concerned about maximising profits, but equally concerned towards the betterment of society. What started off as an obligatory step initially, CSR is today an important agenda on the corporate itinerary. A new Companies Bill was passed in December 2012, which entailed Public Sector Units (PSUs) and private companies with a turnover of over Rs 10 billion or a net worth of Rs 5 billion, or a recorded net profit of over Rs 50 million, to spend 2 per cent of their average net profits of the preceding three financial years towards CSR. Salman Khan’s ‘Being Human’ foundation recently adopted drought-struck villages of Marathwada in Maharashtra. The organisation has distributed 2,500 water tankers with a storage capacity of 2,000 litre each to the affected areas including Beed, Osmanabad, Jalna, Aurangabad and Nanded. So, it’s not only the NGOs which are taking an active interest in adopting villages to offer the less-privileged strata of society a better platform, but corporate houses, too, are doing their bit to ensure that the standard of living in the villages gets better with each passing day. Article Source: http://marketee.in/article.aspx?article_id=197
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Tatas , Sahara-India , Sahara-Group , Sahara-India-Parivaar , Saharashree , Saharashri , CSR , Adoption-of-villages , NGO ,
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