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Soln1. Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate conscience,corporate citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible business) is a

form ofcorporateself-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions

as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business monitors and ensures its

active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms.

The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage

a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees,

communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. CSR is the

deliberate inclusion ofpublic interest into corporate decision-making, that is the core

business of the company or firm, and the honouring of a triple bottom line: people,

planet, profit.

In the above mentioned case the CSR which is discussed is the education which

Wipro chief dreams of distributing evenly in the minds of junior school kids by bringing

together the school majors and the parents together as one.

Wipro believes that every entity has the responsibility of improving the system

which it inhabits and contribute positively towards its development. And that it is vital for

every organization to contribute towards the society

Wipro Applying Thought In Schools is our initiative to help in societal change and

development. This initiative is long-term, deliberate and focused. The intent of this

initiative is to improve the Quality of education so that life opportunities and

possibilities are expanded for everyone, including the most under privileged.

Wipro applying Thoughts in schools and azim Premji foundation working in urban

and rural areas respectively look forward in bringing together people who believe that

change is needed in the way teaching and assessment happens and those who believe

that education system should keep pace with changing times. WIPRO believes that the

conventional system of education is not equipping children with abilities like thinking

analytically and creatively and be life long learners. WIPRO prescription to upgrade

school education recognizes that the teacher has the most profound influence on a

childs learning ability. Thus teacher empowerment and reskilling lies at the heart of the

WATIS. Other stakeholders such as the parents and the principals are being reached

out in an attempt to change their world view of the purpose of education.

Approach of this programs lies mainly in urban areas. They also support holistic and

deep engagements with schools to catalyze a change in school culture. This covers

teaching-learning processes, assessment frameworks, school-parent engagement,

curriculum reform, teaching-learning material improvement and administrative and

management processes. The thought is to encourage the school to relook at all aspects

of the school and help revamp the collective culture taking it towards being more

democratic and inclusive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-policinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_modelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_(sociology)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_(corporate)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_spherehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_interesthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision-makinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_bottom_linehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-policinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_modelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_(sociology)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_(corporate)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_spherehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_interesthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision-makinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_bottom_line

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School education systems do not change overnight. WATIS believes that a sustainedeffort will be needed, and we are committed to the process of bringing about a changein the way our schools function.

There is a need to constantly engage in systemic education reform to transform the

nature of our schools and the way education is perceived and hence rendered inschools. The work has to be done at all levels.

on the ground with all types of schools, the rural and marginalized ones as wellas the aspirational urban elite.

building capacity in social organizations for education reform and helpingbuild new organizations that will continue to engage in this effort

advocacy and sharing of experiences and findings to larger citizenry, within theeducation sector and at a policy level.

As a corporate, the leverage is in networking and advocacy; and people in WATIS use

this actively in their initiative.

Soln 10.Monitoring and assessment of CSR efforts are very important as they providestandards for measuring the progress and reach of the CSR programs in the society.

They are the tools which gauge the penetration of CSR into certain culture.

In India several major CSR initiatives have been launched since the mid-1990s. Among

these is the first voluntary code of corporate governance, Desirable Corporate

Governance: A Code, established in April 1998. This was an initiative by the

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Indias largest industry and business association.

Assessment of WATIS:

As an Education reform initiative

WATIS is one of the largest networks of civil society working in education and includesthe most renowned and talented organizations across the country. They have thecapabilities to provide mentorship, consulting, visibility and support to the organizations.

Their thoughtful and deliberate approach to the initiative and participation in a longgestation effort towards social change makes us unique as a CSR initiative. It also

amply demonstrates our sincerity and commitment to education reform.Contribution to school reformThey are supporting a diverse set of experiments and interventions that are holistic anddeep to understand systemic change. These interventions have reached out to over1000 schools and more than 10,000 educators across the country across 17 states inthe country.Some of the schools we have supported now have the capability to help other schoolsin the vicinity through the resource centers.

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Support new organizationsMany young, motivated and talented individuals and organizations struggle through aprocess of acquiring direction of thought, procuring funds to launch their work, getting asense for the larger picture and building capabilities and capacity to sustain themselvesover time.

Given the diversity of our partner base, depth of our relationships, collectiveunderstanding of education and willingness to experiment and continuously learn fromthe experiments, they are encouraged to play a larger role in advocacy for goodeducation.

AdvocacyTheir efforts in advocacy constantly make people aware of the limitations of the currenteducation system and the need for every individual to contribute to changing the wayeducation is seen.For example, along with Educational Initiatives we did a research study of learninglevels of children in the top 142 schools in the 5 metros across the country. Around

42,000 children from grades 2, 4 and 6 were assessed on their conceptualunderstanding in maths, science and languages. The results of this study werepublished in India Today as a cover story in Nov 2006. This report triggered numerousresponses from schools wanting to revisit their approaches and this catalyzed a seriesof such efforts from schools in reform.

Dissemination AdvocacyThe Wipro Education Fellowship provides an opportunity for individuals to learn abouteducation through work in specific assignments and interaction with a network oforganizations and academicians across the country.

A National Foundation for Corporate Governance (NFCG) has been established by theMinistry of Corporate Affairs. This is a partnership with the Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII), the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) and the Institute ofChartered Accountants of India (ICAI). The purpose of the National Foundation forCorporate Governance is to promote better corporate governance practices and raisethe standard of corporate governance in India towards achieving stability and growth.

Soln 8.

The concept of stakeholders is central to that of CSR. Stakeholders may be

defined as "groups and individuals who can affect, or are affected by, theachievement of an organizations mission" Stakeholders are like the thumbing heart

in a body of nerves, bones and muscles. They are the active and breathing unit of any

csr program, without their pains and diligence to deliver their role and achieve the set

values no program can be canvassed upon the definition of a triumph. Programs are the

plans and stakeholders are the heroes behind the plans, their continuous strive towards

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promising a responsible and better society is nonnegotiable. They are the catalyst in the

reaction which generates fortunes for the firm and glory for the nation.

Stakeholders in the given case were the teachers, the parents, the principal and the

authorities like the state or the central board. They all chained together act as chemical

agents and propellant for launching the aspiring new budding talent on the platform ofeducation. The stakeholders work together as a system and work towards the

achievement of the highest objective through step-wise contribution into csr program.

Companies have about as much ability to choose their stakeholders as children have tochoose their parents, so the best any firm can do is to identify their stakeholders. Thelocation, scale and nature of operations will determine who sees themselves asstakeholders. Stakeholders will expect to be recognized when the firm's effect on them,for better or worse, is direct or immediate -- employees, for example. Even people whoseem to have no direct connection to the business may consider themselvesstakeholders, such as the families of the employees and those who live in thecommunities in which the business is located.

Stakeholder theory emphasizes the organization survival and success hinges on theorganizations ability to generate sufficient wealth, value, or satisfaction for its primarystakeholders, but not exclusively for shareholders

The firm may be contemplating stakeholder engagement to better understand itsimpacts, to help articulate its values, mission, strategy, commitments andimplementation, to facilitate a regulatory approvals process, to participate inmeasurement and reporting, to avert or solve a crisis, or to proactively improverelationships. The reason for engaging stakeholders will determine the style ofengagement and stakeholders' expectations, all of which could change over time.

Soln. 7 CSR strategy development and implementation could be considered as anorganizational change process, or as a new way of organizing and working. The aim isto align the organization with the dynamic demands of the business and socialenvironment through the identification and management of stakeholder expectations.

Designing of CSR involves plans at the basic level. Identification of the mainobjective, Like in the above case the education is targeted, its upliftment is the objectiveand the stake holders, teachers, principal, parents and the school board are the keys.Design means identifying the ways in which all of the above can be brought in togetherin order to successfully chase down the goal.

Approach means the steps which are required to be taken and resources likemoney, man and machines which are required to be put in for accomplishing the goal.Approach is closely related to the design, as they define the tools and physical body ofpaper plans.

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Although top management decides about CSR direction and strategy, middlemanagement and employees are the ones who have to implement CSR in reality. Themiddle managements role is to put into effect the direction established by topmanagement by making sure that resources are allocated and controlled appropriately,monitoring performance and behaviour of staff, and where necessary, explaining the

strategy to those reporting to them (Johnson & Scholes, 2002: 552). In addition, themiddle management helps to communicate and perform the top-down decided visionand CSR implementation.

Implementation means execution of ideas bringing them to life, its the real actionin the real world. This is the stage where most output is required and fruitsmaximum result. WATIS has initiated a significant Educational Literatureprogram. As part of this program they create good educational literature,commission books for children. They have also initiated a Good Books Advocacyprogram in partnership with Tulika Publishers to advocate the cause of goodchildren's literature.

They take up significant advocacy projects to advocate the cause of goodeducation and these projects also provide means to schools, educators andeducationists to understand a specific area and how it could be dealt with inschools. The recent example is student video interviews to understand betterhow children think and how this could be used to improve teaching-learningpractices in schools.

Te regularly write in popular media on education to spread an understandingof how education can be and bring significant issues to the notice of largercitizenry.

In addition to change, CSR involves learning over time and the ability to understand the

specific context and confluence of stakeholder expectations. Whilst there is no best wayto bring about change enhanced learning of stakeholder expectations and the specificsof the context will help to ensure that change is beneficial and supported by appropriatemechanisms This requires managers to understand and be actively aware of both thecontext and expectations, but also to recognize that any changes they implement willalso shape the environment in turn. The development of CSR practices can therefore beseen as an evolutionary and recursive activity, acting and reacting on and with thebusiness environment.

Soln5. Quality assurance is a value which is just not related with men in tuxedos andwomen in evening gowns. The people in sheds respect and comprehend quality asmuch as the people living in condos of skyscrapers. Let us understand it through thepractice of agriculture, and relate it to industries. If a farmer cultivating a certain crop,having all the knowledge and idea about it does not adulterate his mind with the feelingof holding back the good crop and selling away the average one why should theindustrialist benefiting from people of both urban and rural areas should restrict hisdevelopment schemes to the urban areas only?

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The answer to this is no! The social responsibility we owe is equally distributedtowards all the regions of our country and all the ranks in our society. So quality is anaspect which should be taken care of not just in urban areas but in rural too.

The WATIS does not follow this trend and allows more flexibility in the case of

rural areas. They are more focused first on taking education to rural and sub-urbanareas instead of providing same quality education as in cities. Of course it is verycomplex to start something from scratch but even then if it is at the primary level, it mustbe assured that the standards are kept equivalent to those as for all. WATIS believeseducation is a fundamental enabler of social change. Schools tend to mirror socialrealities including the issues that concern society. To create a citizenship that iscreative, caring and driven by a spirit of inquiry and democratic principles, schools needto go beyond this and become labs for change. While it is essential that schools engagewith social realities they also need to provide the space for children during theirformative years to question, to challenge and understand society. Fundamentalprinciples of justice, equity and humaneness need to be nurtured in this environment.

Soln2. CSR is the concept that provides theoretical support for the transformation inbusiness management from striving for quantitative expansion to striving for qualitativeimprovement.

Benchmarking competitors practices and CSR norms and standardsBenchmarking CSR practices should allow the company to continue to highlight whatshould remain and give competitive advantage, and to identify inappropriate activitieswith respect to CSR. Benchmarking criteria should be defined in accordance with thecharacteristics of the industry sector under scrutiny.

Benchmarking competitors CSR practices should include three broad critical steps.First, identifying and selecting the best performers for each CSR-related issue to bebenchmarked on the basis of the organizations industry knowledge for industry-specificissues and on the basis of recognized CSR champions for what concerns CSR moregeneral issues. Secondly, identifying norms and standards used or developed bycompetitors and measuring the performance of the best-in-class companies for eachbenchmark being considered. Finally, comparing with the organizations performancefor each variable to determine the gap between the organization and the bestperformers.

CSR not just provides an organization with an ISO certificate but also a heavier public

image which guards its position and boosts its growth. The CSR in not about personaladvantage and in the above case it can be concluded that when we talk abouteducation and education at primary level it can hardly be of any strong interest of acompany. Mr. Azim premji looks forward towards a developed India, a nation filled withmore potential which can throw over all the other economies of the world. A world whichhas to compete with 3,50000 exceptional talent in every field every year. CSR heremerely just not targets easy money. It focuses on converting this subcontinent into amine of unmatchable gems.

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Indian IT Industry has been harbinger of indian economy, bringing home revenue in

billions of dollars. On the other hand millions indian poor are surviving on a mere $1 per

day. There is an urgent need to address this indian urban-rural digital divide. Have

indian it industry taken enough steps to ensure they fulfill their obligations towards

indian society.

Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in India sets a realistic agenda of grassrootsdevelopment through alliances and partnerships with sustainable developmentapproaches. At the heart of solution lies intrinsic coming together of all stakeholders inshaping up a distinct route for an equitable and just social order.

SOLN 4. Corporate social responsibility is represented by the contributionsundertaken by companies to society through its core business activities, its socialinvestment and philanthropy programmes and its engagement in public policy. In recentyears CSR has become a fundamental business practice and has gained much

attention from chief executives, chairmen, boards of directors and executivemanagement teams of larger international companies. They understand that a strongCSR program is an essential element in achieving good business practices andeffective leadership. Companies have determined that their impact on the economic,social and environmental landscape directly affects their relationships with stakeholders,in particular investors, employees, customers, business partners, governments andcommunities.India has a distinct culture. On the one hand, there are long-standing traditions ofrespect for family and social networks, and high value placed on relationships, socialstability and education. Diverse religions and cultures also bring distinct attitudestowards community social behavior and engagement as well as support andphilanthropic contributions.Governments in the region also play distinct roles often stronger in terms of influenceon economic and social priorities, yet not as advanced in terms of social safety nets.This has resulted in the drivers for corporate citizenship being very different from thosein other regions.