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S
tate
of
I
ndia
’
s
L
ivelihoods
R
eport
2015
The third issue is that of human resources.
CSR for many of the companies which for
the first time have to plan, implement and
monitor these kind of projects is a very
new discipline.
Their current competence
in running their business could range from
manufacturing, IT services, transportation
or finance with very little domain knowledge
or understanding of livelihood projects. The
kind of competence required to design and a
run livelihood project is not common place
and a dedicated cadre of CSR professionals
needs to be developed. The estimates
5
are
that 30,000 professionals in the CSR space
are required and there are no short term
solutions to produce CSR professionals.
Already a number of organisations have
taken up designing and conducting training
courses for honing the skills of professionals
and also training new university passouts
into becoming CSR pointspersons in the
corporate sector. And this is not likely to
happen soon because of low capacities in the
education and training system to produce
such professionals overnight.
The companies therefore might take the
easy route such as contributing to Prime
Minister’s Relief Fund or missions of
national importance such as Swachch Bharat
Abhiyan. But contributions to funds are not
a good substitute for actually engaging with
people and trying to solve their problems.
The option available for companies for
contributing to funds rather than designing
and running projects should be discouraged.
A further issue has been that local admin-
istration in the CSR project areas finds it
challenging to utilise state and central funds.
The companies provide gap funding even
in such places where the public funds have
not been actually put to use. There are other
instances where the companies are expected
to hand over the funds earmarked for CSR
and not actually participate in the initiatives.
The companies apprehend that this fund can
be misused or misappropriated.
It would
be useful to evolve a protocol of how and
where funds can be utilised and where they
would have the maximum impact as also an
accounting for the moneys that are received
and used especially where the work is done
in collaboration with local administration.
The top ranked companies
in CSR
The top ten companies in the CSR space
(2014) were identified through a jury based
process by the IIM Udaipur and Economic
Times.
6
The top companies were (a) Tata
Steel, (b) Tata Chemicals, (c) Mahindra
Group, (d) Maruti Suzuki, (e) Tata Motors,
(f) Siemens, (g) Larsen &Toubro, (h) Coca-
Cola India, (i) Steel Authority of India and
(j) Infosys.
An analysis of the Sustainability Reports
of some of these top companies shows that
many of them invest in skills and vocational
training; not all of them work in real sector
livelihoods. Investments in rural livelihoods
projects are not common.
Tata Steel
has a
comprehensive range of interventions in
rural livelihoods. It works on real sector
livelihoods in the rural and semi-urban
areas to harness the available skills and
resources and improve agricultural pro-
ductivity of their lands. The interventions
aim at improvement of productivity and
crop yield, dry land farming, wasteland
development and horticulture, enhancing
irrigation facilities, and enhancing capacities
of rural communities through skill-based
trainings in farming techniques. The report
by the company states that System of Rice
Intensification (SRI) method of paddy cul-
tivation was rolled out in more than 1,100
acres of land, benefitting over 2,000 farm-
ers across locations in 2013–14. The paddy
productivity increased by four times from
0.5 tons to 2.5 tons per acre. Further 1,000
acres of wasteland was developed benefiting
5
Source: Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs,
New Delhi.
6
Economic Times
,
-
-
times.com/magazines/corporate-dossier/indias-best-
companies-for-csr-2014
