Corporate Social Responsibility in India

Mukesh Ambani's residence , Antilia [Photo by mihir1310] (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Indian billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani has issued a public call for an Indian approach to corporate social entrepreneurship.

The chairman of Reliance Industries urged corporations in that country to adapt their business models to elevate the importance of social returns, which would be a better fit with the country’s traditional value systems. Ambani said that businesses have a responsibility to all stakeholders in society, and should be measured by more than financial criteria. He made the remarks as part of a lecture on CSR which was organized by the Madhya Pradesh Foundation.

In fact, Ambani said that the western model of CSR doesn’t go far enough, and that an “Indianized” approach would be more akin to a social enterprise model. He believes that only this type of business model will be successful in creating a truly integrated society in the future.

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  • http://akshayjoshi.wordpress.com/ Akshay

    Talking about CSR and actually implementing it with the objective of ensuring the welfare of society are two entirely different things. Everyone endorses it yet very few roll out programs that really benefit the larger audiences. To me it appears more of a gimmick adopted by large corporations http://akshayjoshi.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/corporate-social-responsibility-a-mere-gimmick-or-a-benign-ideology/

    • Matthew Alberto

      Hey Akshay,
      I agree that there are some companies out there that merely abuse the idea of CSR, using it as a “gimmick” – as you like to call it.
      Nonetheless, I also believe that there are other companies that genuinely want to implement CSR initiatives. In fact, I also think that there are companies whose primary goal and purpose is a social one, rather than a commercial one. Although balancing the social and commercial objectives does remain a challenge.
      Cheers
      Matthew

  • Saurya

    Hey Matthew,

    Earlier the kings and the rulers who took over the responsibility of welfare state guided by the ‘religious system’, now with the change in culture the entrepreneurs have taken the role of the ruler. The difference is there is no ‘body’ to guide them. The government has decided upon the inclusion of social audit which is encouraging.
    The whole idea is with the change in ruler there has to be forced change in the corporate culture.

    Cheers,

    Sekhar