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Issue: #5 | August 2014
In this issue:
Opportunity for Responsible Business in Ac�on
TATA STEEL LIMITED: Values Stronger than Steel
Self Help Groups & Poverty Allevia�on
Fiinobserva�on of Interna�onal Days
aligningisthewayforwardRE
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Opportunity for Responsible Business in Action
It was not too late that many CSR professionals and enthusiasts
applauded when the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi
announced his suggestion of corporates investing their CSR
funds for building and maintaining toilets in most schools of
India by 2015. The Prime Minister is determined to launch the
'clean India' campaign from 2nd October this year and see it
through in the next four years. Capturing the true essence of
corporate social responsibility the PM on the occasion of
Independence Day marked a turning point in the history of CSR in
India. In his invigorating speech, the citizens of the country were
encouraged to meet the urgent need of integrity and ethics. He
was suggestive of leashing the pessimistic factors of greed,
corruption, crime, communal disharmony and terrorism. To
overcome all these factors he reiterated the importance of CSR.
It was a call to the corporates' conscience to take care of the basic
needs of the masses through their CSR practices. This speech
came at a very opportune time when the Companies Act, 2013
has made India the first nation to mandate CSR. The schedule VII
of the act has placed the communities in the forefront of all
development practices. Only five days post the PM’s speech the
repercussions have begun to show. The corporates have
announced huge investments in building toilets in support of the
'clean India' campaign. Two of India's biggest companies, Tata
Consultancy Services and Bharti have committed Rs 100 crore
each to build toilets in schools for girls. Coca-Cola hopes to
further build on its ongoing sanitation programme to construct
toilets in schools. In addition, politicians have a choice to adopt a
village each and transform it into a model village through the
'Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna' which would soon begin to reflect
how innovatively and responsibly can the bureaucrats engage
with communities and drive them towards development. The PM
addressed the needs and responsibility of both the stakeholders
and shareholders who have a shared responsibility and
accountability.
His speech was inspirational but corporations must be cautious
in ensuring the CSR movement does not lose its charm. They
should not get carried away and invest only on building toilets.
The focus should be on strategizing the matters of cleanliness,
equality and safe environment through innovative and impactful
programmes which are scalable, replicable and sustainable.
Behavior change cannot be imposed but can be facilitated
through leadership that is motivation driven. CSR and
sustainability should be used as change agents that help achieve
inclusive growth.
India till date is known for its rich historical past with respect to
culture, politics, economic development and welfare of the
people. No matter how long the route to development is, all
efforts are directed towards enhancing equality and equity. CSR
in India must play an important role by participating in nation
building while increasing the value of intangible assets like
loyalty, honesty and trust. To reach a conclusive beginning we
need to keep in mind that CSR is an ambit of opportunities for the
development sector. We must look towards strategic alliances.
- Nidhi Vatsa
What the Influencers Said…
I call upon the corporate sector also to give priority to the provision of toilets in schools with your expenditure under Corporate Social Responsibility.
– Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
CSR is an integrated, systemic approach by business that builds ‐ rather than erodes or destroys ‐ economic, social, human and natural capital.
‐ Wayne Visser, CSR Interna�onal
The future is green energy, sustainability, renewable energy. ‐ Arnold Schwarzenegger, Actor
The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural resources, or at least not try to defy them.
‐ Paul Hawken, Environmentalist
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TATA STEEL LIMITED: Values Stronger than Steel
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Sport a way of life!
“Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees, every other of a quick‐growing variety. Be sure that there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens. Reserve large areas for playing football and hockey and parks. Earmark areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques and Chris�an churches.”
‐ Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata
Tata Steel Group is among the leading steel manufacturers in the
world with an annual crude steel capacity of over 26.5 million
tonnes per annum (mtpa). It is now the world's second most
geographically diversified steel producer, with operations in 26
countries and commercial presence in over 50 countries. The
group's vision is to be world's steel industry benchmark in “value
creation” and “corporate citizenship” through the excellence of
people, the innovative approach and overall conduct.
“Welfare of Communities” has been the primary purpose of the
business that is embedded in their genes. Tata Steel is serving
communities in and around its areas of operations. The
community welfare initiatives are directed towards education,
healthcare, empowerment, sustainable livelihood generation
and preservation of ethnicity and culture of indigenous
communities.
Tata Steel's community initiatives are implemented through
social arms of the company which include the Tata Steel
Rural Development Society, Tata Steel Family Initiatives
Foundation, Tribal Cultural Society & Tata Steel Skill
Development Society and Urban Services.
Tata Steel promotes the role of sports for personal as well as
societal development. Sport for the company is a powerful
vehicle for achieving larger goals, particularly in advancing
development and for beneficial aspects of psychological and
emotional healings. It is a key factor in holistic development of
the community and the company recognizes this to inculcate and
nurture sports for engendering opportunities, supporting
communities and employee engagement.
The Tata Football Academy, Tata Archery Academy, Tata Athletics
Academy, the JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur and the
Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (headed by Ms. Bachendri Pal,
India's first woman Mt. Everest Climber) underlie how sports has
been an integral part of the company's philosophy to empower
the community. The Tribal Cultural Society has been reviving and
promoting tribal sports like Kati, Chhur, Bahuchor, Sekkor and
Ramdel by organizing tournaments at village level.
The company has also created infrastructure for every popular
sport discipline which includes cricket, basketball, boxing, chess,
volleyball, table tennis, lawn tennis, handball, swimming,
badminton, roller skating etc. Currently there are 1300 trainees
in different disciplines of which 383 are from the SC/ST category.
Over the last five years, more than 80 trainees from sports
academies have been employed with police and railway services.
Both men and women trained by the Tata Steel sports have
excelled at competitions both at home and abroad.
In FY 2012-13, 17 international and 78 national medals were
added to the sports departments.
Over the years, these initiatives have helped produce 5 Olympic
Games winners, 6 World Championship winners, 36 Asian Games
winners, 33 Asian Championship winners, 4 Commonwealth
Games winners, 6 Commonwealth Championship winners, 11
Padmashrees, 41 Arjuna awardees, 4 Dronacharya awardees and
1 Padma Bhushan, which speaks volumes of the commitment of
the Tata Group to Indian sports.
The Tata Steel Rural Development Society aims to start a
Hockey Academy in Odisha or Jharkhand in FY'14.
- Nidhi Vatsa
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Self Help Groups & Poverty AlleviationSelf Help Groups (SHGs) evolved through the Grameen Bank model in Bangladesh in the late 1970s. Self Help Group, as the name suggests,
was an idea which aimed at women empowerment through "Self Help". The SHG model focuses on inter-loaning and group savings
generally among rural women to increase financial independence and as a measure for poverty alleviation. Apart from this it also acts as a
platform to initiate capacity building trainings that lead to a federation model comprising of many SHGs.
India has seen phenomenal growth of families linked to SHGs from 1993 with a growth rate of over 80%. According NABARD, there are more
than 7 million SHGs in India out of which 5.9 million are women SHGs. There has been a mixed response as far as the success of the SHG
model in India is considered. Experienced social workers feel that the credit linkage schemes run by large banks are the reason for the failure
of many of the groups. Banks have set up specialized cells which deal with SHG loans and credits. These cells have annual targets of loan
disbursal, and the managers to meet their targets generally push loans on to SHGs. Newly created SHGs generally agree to the loans and are
seen as defaulting on their loans.
It was envisaged that SHGs would empower women folk by bringing them together and enabling the creation of multiple rural micro-
enterprises. The initial few months are used as capacity building for the women to work in groups since this is the most challenging aspect of
a formation of a SHG. Behavior change, as we know, is the most difficult outcome to achieve in any development sector programme. Once
the women are acquainted with working in groups, and the group dynamics are somewhat stable, they are then taken to the next level of
developing a business plan, or are trained in specific trades which act as the foundation for setting up an enterprise.
Many organizations in India have been working extensively
in the field of women empowerment through SHGs. The
most common observation from these organizations has
been that once the women reach the stage of financial
stability, they become more confident and aware of their
rights. When they become aware, they demand, this
demand has seen many a changes in the rural areas of the
country wherever SHG model has been a success.
The Self Help Group model for poverty alleviation has been
a success wherever it was implemented in a manner as it
was envisaged in the beginning, and has been a failure with
many lessons wherever it was implemented with an agenda
to only alleviate poverty from a region.
1 Self-Help Group = 10-20 women
1 Cluster Level Association = 6-8 Self Help Groups
1 Federation = 8-10 Cluster Level Associations
Cluster Level Associations Representative
Federation Representative - Vipin Vijayan
The UN passed a resolution accepting to observe 12th August as International Youth Day. The UN adopted 15 priority areas which included education, employment, hunger and poverty, health, environment, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, recreational activities, girls and young women, participation, globalization, Information and communication technologies, HIV/AIDS, Youth and conflict and Intergenerational relations. Approximately, 1.8 billion people of the world population are youth and the theme for this year is "Youth and Mental Health.”
In a developing country like India, mental illness is shrouded in stigma, ignorance and superstition. There are approximately 20 million Indians suffering from mental illness. As per WHO, 20% of India's population will suffer from some form of mental illness by the year 2020. Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. believes that barely 1-2% of the health budget is dedicated to mental health, in comparison to 10 to 12% in other countries. Since youth play a prominent role in development of a nation, the government needs to work towards increasing the available opportunities for them. Efforts needs to be directed towards advocating the issue and helping the public become aware about the issue. Youth will play a pivotal role towards improvement of mental health in respect of training, research, and provision of clinical services to promote mental health in all sections of society.
Every year, 19th August is observed as the World Humanitarian Day. This day recognizes the work of those
who faced dangers and adversity while helping others. The theme for this year is “The World Needs More”. 19th August is
also the date of the brutal terrorist attack that took place at the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003 which killed 22
people, including UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. World Humanitarian Day is also an occasion to rejoice the spirit that
inspires humanitarian work around the globe.
Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd understands that every year many natural calamities and political crisis take place leading to a
number of deaths and injuries. We support the observation of this day and seek to draw attention towards the existing humanitarian
needs worldwide. Countries like Afghanistan, Syria, Haiti, Sudan, Iraq are reeling under sever humanitarian crisis and millions of people are
waiting to receive assistance to help them recover from the humanitarian emergency. The world needs more… ’campaign is unique
and aims to turn words into aid creatively and innovatively. Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. urges people to remember those often
forgotten as they help remind us of the dream of a peaceful planet, where everyone lives with safety and dignity.
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Fiinobservation of International Days
Interna�onal Youth Day12�� August
World Humanitarian Day19�� August
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