CII launched ‘India Inc: Going Beyond the Fence’ at the National CSR Summit, themed on CSR 3.0- The Road Ahead, held on 12 December 2019 in New Delhi.
The Publication includes inspiring stories of water stewardship symbolizing the importance corporate India is placing on water management. These stories depict how companies have gone Beyond the Fence, to improve the quality of life of their neighborhood communities.
Stressing the importance of water towards growth of the economy, Avinash Mishra, Adviser, NITI Aayog mentioned that water, which is an indispensable resource and a growth pillar for industry, must be replenished and recycled responsibly.
Speaking at the Summit, Gyaneshwar Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs appreciated industry participation in the nation’s development agenda “In 2014, 16,554 companies spent 2% of their profits; whereas at present 21,313 companies are spending the same under the CSR ambit.” He further highlighted that while in 2015, only 14% companies spent more than the prescribed 2%, this is has increased to 35% in 2018. The contribution of SMEs in the CSR ecosystem has been very encouraging.”
“The mandatory CSR provision of 2% spends is the world’s largest experiment on CSR. The last few years also saw many companies as well as development organizations, leveraging the CSR eco-system to experiment and innovate different models and approaches. New ideas with respect to funding & grants are being developed; many companies are utilizing CSR to incubate social innovations; IT/technology led interventions are being adopted to build-in transparency, real-time monitoring and also for outreach”, expressed Raghupati Singhania, Chairman, CII National Committee on CSR 2019 -20 and Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre and Industries Ltd
Stressing on the partnership approach, Siddharth Sharma, Group Chief Sustainability Officer, Tata Sons said, “India Inc must look at collaborative CSR in partnership with Government. The relationship between Government and Business is that of mutual trust and not adversarial”. He further added that “The companies must go beyond the 2% and do responsible business by adopting sustainable supply chain, diversity at workplace, women inclusion, environment friendly product manufacturing and more.”
“Corporates have an ability to take risks, research and test solutions to the complex development issues, and provide innovative solutions for the Government to scale-up. Corporates can leverage their expertise and support civil society in building their capacities, especially on improving gathering and mining data to measure impact,” said Amit Chandra, Chairman, Bain Capital India Office
The CII CSR Summit is an annual flagship event and a key platform developed to reflect and deliberate on furthering the CSR movement. The Summit this year focused on some of the critical issues which include the recent amendments in CSR legislation; air pollution and solutions to address this; industry’s role in addressing the water crisis.
The summit drew participation of over 300 representatives from industry, development agencies, government, entrepreneurs and innovators.
12 December 2019
New Delhi