india’s no.1 corporate social responsibility magazine

www.csrtimes.org august 2017 VoLume 5 issue 8 `100

Union Minister of State (Independent charge) for Youth

Affairs and Sports

vijay goel

India’s rising com-petitiveness is a positive indicator of economic prog-ress. It will enable increase in CSR spending and so-lidify the nation’s sustainable path to glory.

paresh tewarypresident & executive editor

Anticipate disruption, see it as an opportunity, build capacity and be ready for it, is the way ahead. competitive companies, institu-tions and countries do more by using lesser resources and opti-

mizing their utilization they actually free up resources. Being productive they are also in a better position to contribute to their own sustainability and social responsibility.

India will be 70 this month. A young nation has advanced on its road to prosperity amidst many challenges. From a time when it was impos-sible to imagine a mobile, a television, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a microwave oven or a corporate social responsibility (cSR) mandate in company Law, it has marched on into new realities including women re-claiming their space.

Assuming office in July, India’s 14th President Ram Nath Kovind said In-dia’s voice counts in today’s world, but the effort to do more, to do better and to do faster should be relentless.

this issue of csr TimEs focuses on how India is doing in different spheres. We have tried to put together India’s expeditions since Independ-ence, the country’s successes and failures. The world leaders are also closely watching India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dialogues at important summits like G20 are being taken on a very serious note.

the growth of a nation is dependent on its children and youth. It was thus apt to have an interview with the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports vijay Goel to know what is the government planning for the youth. In her article, Ilaria Gualtieri opines India has incorporated a forward look-ing, lesson-learned based approach that could influence the world. This is-sue also has stories on a good Samaritan Deo Kumar Saraf who is trying to make a difference in the lives of others through his small but sturdy contri-bution; and the story of Rupa, a child bride who made it through sheer grit.

India’s rising competitiveness is a positive indicator of economic pro-gress. It will enable increase in cSR spending while reducing its load and solidify the nation’s sustainable path to glory.

Hope you will like reading the issue.

Happy Independence day!

Competitive India

Contents

Managing editorHarish chandrapresident & executive editorparesh tewaryexecutive editorsRohit MahajanB.S. dhilloneditor Jyoti Uniyalassociate editorsdr. Minnie BodhanwalaSucheta das Mohapatraconsulting editorsprashant das K.N. Jayaraj S.p. Singhprinicipal correspondentSunjay Gargspecial correspondentsdr. Sudipta narayan Roy (W.B) venkat S. Somasundaram (canada) Ilaria Gualtieri (Middle east)correspondentsManoranjan Mohanty (odisha)G. Shiva (A.p.)Subramanya Shastri (M.S)photographerAnurag nanda

senior designerSuraj SharmaRitu Sharmavice president sales & Mkt. Rajesh Manglanihead operations & Marketing Rajesh thakurchief Brand strategy & comm’n S.d. RaturiBusiness head Suresh negiMarketing Manager Akanksha Sharma production Manager Rahul thakurcirculation headRahul Halderlegal advisorAdvocate Suman dobaladvisor Mridul pathak (USA)Roob Kirat (UAe)dr. Siddhartha das GuptaAmit RaghavRavi Shankar Girish Kumar

printed & published by by Jyoti Uniyal for First Step Foundation

published atE-301, Mangal Apartments, Vasundhara Enclave, Delhi-110096

Editorial & Marketing Office 312, Vardhman Sunrize Plaza, Vasundhara Enclave, Delhi-110096Phone: 011-43085920

printed atLIPEE Scan Pvt. Ltd., 89, DSIDC Shed okhla Industrial Area-I, New Delhi 110020.

disclaiMer: All views expressed in this issue are that of the respective authors. the publisher may not agree with the independent views expressed in this magazine. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in delhi/new delhi only.

copyright: No content, text or image, of this magazine is permissible for reproduction in any form, print or digital, without written consent of the editor.

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Initiative: master strokes in space

Initiative: Women passenger-friendly Railways

Report: uniting World leaders on terror

cover Story: India Revisited

Readers Pick: Women Achievers in sports

Snippets

Making a Difference: Deo Kumar saraf

Influencers Speak

celebrity: E. sreedharan

Interview: Vjay Goel, union minister of Youth Affairs and sports

Interview: Dr Y. suresh Reddy, sRF Foundation

Report: India’s 14th president Assumes office

Opinion: sustainable path to prosperity

Initiative: Airports Going Green

Initiative: the success saga of a child bride

RNI: DELENG/2013/49640

Letters tO tHe eDItOr

A good readCSR TIMES was a good read. I must compliment you and your team on a wonderful set of articles, which have depth and substance. I would also like to share my feeling of being feted by that excellent write-up written on me (Mak-ing a Difference _ Dr Mala Srikanth). It was a very pleasant experience!

n dr mala srikanth,uttarakhand

GST to make the goods and services sector competitiveThe July issue of CSR TIMES presented a comprehensive picture of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Though it is to be seen how the new taxation system would fair in a federal structure like ours, yet we are hopeful that the uni-formity in levies would to a large extent help in arresting corruption. The long queues at the octroi gates were a traf-fic hazard for commoners. With many states having already removed the oc-troi gates, movement of goods across the state borders has increased and the logistics cost has also come down. This will in the course of time contribute in making the goods and services sector

more competitive. Another big advan-tage is that it will reduce bribery which has been like an incurable syndrome for people manning the octroi gates.

n pranav sharma, delhi

Be more analyticalI have had an opportunity to read the last issue of CSR TIMES magazine thor-oughly. I came across the viewpoints of people working in the sector as well as the good work done by individuals and companies. The articles seemed to have been well researched. It was good to see an article on GST too. GST is a long-term strategy and may prove good in due course. But it is likely to cause high in-flation in the near future. Further it may increase the administrative costs too. We are not sure how prepared is the government to deal with this. It would have been wonderful if you had written vividly on the negative aspects of the tax system too. I will look ahead to the forthcoming issues of your magazine for more analytical and pragmatic pieces on different aspects of CSR, sustainability and related issues.

n deepender singh, chandigarh

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master strokes in space

India has made remarkable strides in its space programmes since the establishment of ISRO in 1969, using its space technologies for commercial as well as diplomatic success. ISRO’s Mars mission in 2014 has brought India the recognition of a reliable, low-cost global player attracting more and more countries for their satellites launches. India has already launched 209 satellites for

neighbouring as well as far- off countries, with the maximum number launched for the US.

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India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) created history on February 15, 2017, by lifting 104 satellites using the

India-made polar satellite launch vehicle (pSLv). the launch which took place on the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra pradesh. successfully managed to put these satellites into their desired orbit in one go. Out of the 104 satellites launched, 101 were foreign satellites including 96 of the United States, and others were of Israel, the UAE, Kazakhstan,

the netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The launch also included India’s earth observation satellite, the cartosat-2 series. this milestone launch of ISRo left the 2014 record created by Russia for launching 37 satellites in a single go, far behind.

on May 7 this year, the Indian space agency launched the South Asia satellite to provide communication services to neighbouring countries. entirely funded by India, the programme was

originally meant for all eight South Asian Association for Regional cooperation (SAARc) countries, but pakistan pulled out of the collaboration. India has already launched 209 satellites for 28 different countries with the maximum number for the US. the other countries include Indonesia, Israel, UAe, Germany, Belgium, Austria, UK, Argentina, Japan, netherlands, canada, turkey, denmark, Algeria, Singapore and Switzerland.

In June, ISRO had yet another

remarkable achievement. It successfully launched the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle-mark-III (GSLv Mark-III). GSLV Mark-III is 43.43 metres tall, weighs 640 tonnes and carried its heaviest ever payload, a communications satellite named GSAt-19 that weighed more than 3,100 kg. The GSLV-MK-III was launched in December 2014.

On June 29, GSAT-17 became India’s third communication satellite to successfully reach orbit in the past two months. The 3,477 kg GSAT-17 carried communication payloads in C-band, extended C-band and S-band for providing various services to the country. the satellite also carries equipment for meteorological data relay and satellite-based search and rescue services. A few days prior to that on June 23, ISRO’s PSLV-C38 had successfully launched the 712-kg cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites from Satish dhawan Space centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the 39 consecutively successful mission of pSLv.

India’s space programmes owes its origin to Dr. Vikram Sarabhai who in the 1960’s realizing the potential of the resources in space brought together scientists, anthropologists, communicators and social scientists from all corners of the country to spearhead the Indian space programme. Since inception, the Indian space programme had three distinct elements such as satellites for communication and remote sensing, the space transportation system and application programmes. ISRO was set up in 1969 and built its first satellite, the Aryabhatta, in 1975, which was launched by the Soviet Union. It was India’s first satellite and was named after the famous astronomer/mathematician Aryabhatta. With this India made a breakthrough in space missions as it was a spacecraft which was entirely built in the country.

In 1980, Rohini became the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehicle, SLv-3. Following it, ISRo developed two other rockets ― the pSLv for launching

satellites into polar orbits and the GSLv for placing satellites into geostationary orbits. these rockets have launched numerous communication satellites and earth observation satellites. Satellite navigation systems like GAGAn and Indian Regional navigation Satellite System (IRnSS) have been deployed. In January 2014, ISRO successfully used an indigenous cryogenic engine in a GSLV-D5 launch of the GSAT-14.

In 1983, ISRO launched the Indian national Satellite System (InSAt), a series of multi-purpose geostationary satellites to help in telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue operations. the satellites built a communication system across the Asia- Pacific region. ISRO also built the reusable launch vehicle (RLv), the reusable space shuttles built to reduce the satellite costs.

In fact during its experimental phase in the 1980’s, ISRO conducted end-to-end capability demonstration in the design, development and in-orbit management of space systems together with the associated ground systems for the users. Bhaskara-I & II missions were pioneering steps in the remote sensing area whereas Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment (AppLe) became the forerunner for future communication satellite systems. Development of the complex augmented satellite launch vehicle (ASLv) also demonstrated newer technologies which paved the way for learning many nuances of launch vehicle design for complex missions, leading the way for realization of operational launch vehicles such as PSLV and GSLV. Interestingly in 1981, when India’s space scientists grappled with the challenge of finding a metal-free transportable platform for its new satellite, they wheeled out their gleaming, new satellite on an old bullock cart.

The 1990’s was the operational phase for ISRo. Space infrastructure was created for communication, broadcasting and meteorology through a multi-purpose InSAt, and the other for Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) system. the development and operationalization of pSLv and development of GSLv were

important achievements.today, the IRnSS of ISRo which has

the operational name, navigation with Indian constellation (nAvIc), has a group of seven satellites. two more satellites are present as a standby in the ground station apart from the seven satellites being used for operations. this has made India one of the five countries to have its own navigation system in place.

On January 10, 2007, an Indian experiment spacecraft was launched using the pSLv c-7 rocket from Sriharikota. It was launched along with three other satellites to display the ability of recovering an orbiting space capsule. the intention was to test other things such as thermal protection System, management of communication blackout, navigation, guidance and control, etc. the capsule stayed in the orbit for 12 days.

On October 22, 2008, Chandrayaan 1, a 312 days unmanned lunar mission, was launched. It was India’s first mission to moon and was one of the only six space organizations to attempt this. the aim of the mission was to understand the entire topography and chemical characteristics. Unfortunately, ISRo lost contact with Chandrayaan but only after the country’s national flag was hoisted on the moon.

In 2014, ISRO launched Mangalyaan and became the first country to successfully reach Mars in its first attempt. It also became one of the only four space organizations to have reached the red planet, apart from nASA, Soviet Space programme and the european Space programme. the goal of the mission was to collect more data on the atmosphere of the planet. And all this was done at a budget of just `450 crore, making Mars mission possible in less than the price of the cheapest passenger jet from Boeing. To avoid using a more expensive heavy launch vehicle, the engineers employed a slingshot method for Mangalyaan’s interplanetary journey which orbited the earth for several weeks while building up enough velocity to break free. two-thirds of the craft’s parts were made by Indian companies. v

6CSR TIMES• august 2017 CSR TIMES• august 2017

Women passenger-friendly Railways

The Indian Railways has launched many new facilities and schemes for women of all age groups, nursing mothers and children to ensure their safety, comfort, convenience and privacy. The schemes include facilitation centres for women passengers, availability

of baby food, and dedicated space for women to breastfeed their babies.

nursing mothers undertaking a train journey will now have a dedicated space in 100 waiting

rooms of railway stations across the country where they can breastfeed their babies.

As per a letter written by the Member (Traffic), the Railway Board, to Secretary of the Women and child development (Wcd) Ministry, the Railway Ministry has asked its zonal heads to provide a segregated area within the waiting hall at all important stations to enable lactating mothers to feed their babies,.

the corner would have a small table and a chair with appropriate partition/screen around it. As of now, more than 100 waiting halls have been provided with this facility.

the decision was taken by the Railway Ministry following a letter written by the Wcd Ministry to the Railway Minister Suresh prabhu seeking feeding-friendly spaces at railway stations for lactating mothers. Maneka Gandhi, Minister for Women and chid development, had cited the complaints of women travelling with babies and how they had been asking her to intervene.

the Indian Railways has launched many other new facilities for women and children to ensure their safety, privacy, comfort and convenience. the facilities include facilitation centres for women passengers and Janani Sewa Schemes for mothers and babies.

In October 2016, the Southern Railway had opened all women

facilitation centres, the first of its kind for Indian Railways, providing a place for women passengers to seek travel related assistance. the counter also provides help in lodging complaints with the Railway police Force and in access to prepaid auto services, etc. Baby feeding centres were also set up by the Southern Railway either inside the all women facilitation centres or within the women’s waiting rooms.

The railway budget 2016-17 had announced that zonal railways have been advised to ensure availability of baby food, hot milk and hot water at railway stations on payment basis. Further, Indian Railways catering and tourism corporation (IRctc) has also been advised to ensure availability of

children’s menu through e-catering scheme. The scheme called Janani Sewa provides baby staples for the babies in 25 leading stations. the scheme however has provision for making baby foods available in the trains.

Yet another news for women travellers in India is that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train will have separate toilets for women and breastfeeding rooms. The E5 Shinkansen bullet trains will have baby changing rooms which would have baby toilet seats, tables for diaper disposal and low wash basins to facilitate the children to wash their hands. It will also have a multi-purpose room to be used for breastfeeding and also by the sick passengers. v

Airports Going Green While India’s Cochin Airport is the world’s first solar-powered airport; all the new airports that are being built now in the country as well as the old ones

which are being revamped; are based on eco-friendly technologies.

India’s Cochin International Airport Limted in Kerala is the first airport in the world to run completely on solar

power. the airport started with a small pilot project by installing a solar energy plant with 400 panels on its rooftop in 2013 and in August 2015 became to-tally self-sufficient in meeting its energy needs after it installed a 12-megawatt (MW) solar plant close to the cargo ter-minal. The 12-MW solar power plant comprises 46,150 solar panels laid across 45 acres. The plant has the capac-ity to produce 18 million units of power from sunlight annually.

the delhi International Airport Limited (dIAL) is the second airport in the coun-try to make use of solar energy. In the first phase, the airport installed a 2.14 MW plant in its premises that enabled it to produce about three million units of elec-tricity and in the second phase, the airport almost tripled the amount of solar power produced to up to 7.84 MW. Similarly, the Hyderabad International Airport Ltd has

a 5-MW solar power plant and plans to in-crease it to a 30-MW plant by 2022. In de-cember 2015, the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, in-stalled a 2-MW rooftop solar power plant and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is working on a 15-MW ground solar plant there. the same month, the calicut Inter-national Airport also got a 750-KW roof-top solar power plant installed. The Kis-hangarh airport being built near Ajmer in Rajasthan will also have a 100-MW solar power plant along with water harvesting system and a sewage treatment plant.

the chandigarh Airport which was in-augurated in September 2015 became India’s first airport to have employed eco-friendly technologies. designed on the green building concept, it spreads over 53,000 sq.m. area and premise uses natu-ral sunlight for day lighting and has only 40 per cent LED lights. The terminal sets a new sustainability benchmark with green technologies like 55 lakh fly ash bricks, cavity walls, double insulated roofing, en-

ergy-efficient chillers, and a sensor-based plumbing system to save water. A trans-parent façade is the defining design of this airport terminal as the glass used on the façade is low-heat gain glass which reduc-es the need for too much air conditioning. The rooftop of the terminal has a 200 KW solar plant to meet the major power needs of the building. It also has a sewage treat-ment plant with a capacity of 600 KLD, based on environment-friendly extended aeration technology.

Another eco-friendly state-of-the-art international terminal came up at va-dodara in October 2016. The airport has been built with energy-efficient glass, sugarcane pulp and other environment-friendly items. the new terminal is a steel structure designed as per the advanced building management system and is equipped with high-tech security sys-tems, energy saving cooling system, rain water harvesting system, super sensi-tive fire safety alarm and automatic glass cleaning facilities. v

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CSR TIMES• august 2017

The success saga of a child bride

The story of Rupa Yadav of Rajasthan who was married when she was only eight and had the freedom to study and choose a career of her choice (medicine), proves that India

indeed is changing for good.

child marriage in some areas of rural Rajasthan is an established custom and people find nothing

wrong in it. Since decades many civil society groups have been working hard to curb the practice as well as promoting the laws and now are seeing changes in the perception of the people. Rupa Yadav of Jaipur’s Kareri village was married when she was only eight-year-old and her husband Shankar Lal was 12. At the time of the marriage she was in class III. But unlike sad narratives of other child marriages, hers is a story of grit. Rupa did not have to give up her studies nor was she confined to the four walls of the house. She continued her schooling at her parent’s place till she appeared her class X board and studied even after she moved into her in-laws house. today, she is 21 and all set to join a medical college. Rupa has cleared the national eligibility cum entrance test (neet) making her family, teachers and the entire neighbourhood of this nondescript village proud.

Rupa’s story is an example for parents, in-laws and husbands who undermine a woman’s potential. Rupa had the urge and her in-laws and husband believed in her. She scored 84 per cent in her class X Board and even people in the neighbourhood felt she should continue her studies. Since there was no school in her village to study after class X, her family willingly sent her to a private school away from the village. After her class XII, she joined college for a B.Sc degree and sat for the All-India pre-Medical test (AIpMt). She got a rank (all

India rank of 23,000) but couldn’t qualify for a seat in a good medical college.

Someone said she should be sent to Kota for medical coaching. Rupa’s parents and in-laws are farmers with hardly any money to spend on higher education. But her elder brother-in-law and husband decided to send her to Kota for coaching while they drove auto-rickshaws to fund her studies. After the first year at Kota, she still did not manage to get a seat in a good college though she cleared the 2016 neet . While people in the village said she should be brought back to the village, her husband was not at all eager to curb her dreams. Seeing her interest, the coaching centre where she studied, waived off her fees by 75 per cent and that helped her stay back for another year. Rupa did not demoralise them. She managed to clear the NEET (all India rank of 2,612) this

year and is getting ready to be enrolled in a government medical college i of Rajasthan. the coaching centre has now announced a monthly scholarship for Rupa for four years of her MBBS studies.

A few years from now, Rupa will become a doctor making all those who supported her swollen with pride. But she has already become a social media hero; an inspiration for girls and their families living in the hinterlands of the country and with hardly any means to achieve their dreams. Years of efforts made by the governments and civil society groups in changing the mindset of the people in Rajasthan seems to have borne some fruit. India indeed is changing. If every woman with potential has family support and a strong will to accomplish their dreams, success cannot be far behind. v

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CSR TIMES• july 20171312

India’s 14th president Assumes office

The new President of India, who is an avid reader and has travelled across the country and overseas during his long public career, said India’s voice counts in today’s world and the global community looks to us for solutions to international problems—whether

terrorism, money laundering or climate change.

I bow to the 125 crore citizens of this great nation and promise to stay true to the trust they have be-

stowed on me,” said the 14th president of India Ram Nath Kovind while assuming office on July 25, 2017. At a special cer-emony in the central Hall of parliament in New Delhi, the Chief Justice of India, Justice J.S. Khehar administered the oath of office to Ram Nath Kovind, who

is the first Bharatiya Janata Party mem-ber and the second dalit to be elected to Rashtrapati Bhavan. He succeeds Pranab Mukherjee who was the 13th president of India.

President Ram Nath Kovind won the 2017 presidential election against op-position candidate Meira Kumar, the for-mer Speaker of the Lok Sabha, by getting 7,02,044 electoral college votes, that is

65.65 per cent of the total votes. At the swearing in ceremony, the presi-

dent said, “India’s voice counts in today’s world. the entire planet is drawn to In-dian culture and soft power. the global community looks to us for solutions to international problems ― whether terrorism, money laundering or climate change. In a globalized world, our re-sponsibilities are also global.

“this links us to our global family, our friends and partners abroad, and our diaspora, that contributes in so many ways across the world. It brings us to the support of other nations, whether by extending the umbrella of the International Solar Alliance or being first responders following natural disasters.

“We have achieved a lot as a nation, but the effort to do more, to do better and to do faster should be relentless. this is es-pecially so as we approach the 75th year of our independence in 2022. What must also bother us is our ability to enhance access and opportunity for the last per-son and the last girl child from an under-privileged family if I may put it so, in the last house in the last village. this must include a quick and affordable justice de-livery system in all judicial forums.

“We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethi-cal and shared community, and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and deen dayal Upad-hyay ji. these are integral to our sense of humanism. this is the India of our dreams, an India that will provide equal-ity of opportunities. this will be the In-dia of the 21st century.”

Born on October 1, 1945, in a Dalit weaving community of paraunkh vil-lage, near Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, President Kovind is a lawyer and a vet-eran political representative. He is a LL.B. from Kanpur University and had cleared the civil services examination getting selected for allied services. However, he chose to be a lawyer and in 1971 enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi. Kovind was an ad-vocate of the Union Government in the Delhi High Court from 1977 to 1979 and the Union Government Standing coun-sel in the Supreme Court from 1980 to 1993. He became Advocate-on-Record of the Supreme Court of India in 1978. He practised at the delhi High court and Supreme Court for 16 years till 1993.

He was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar pradesh in April 1994 and served for two con-secutive terms of six years each till

March 2006. He also served on various parliamentary committees like par-liamentary committee on Welfare of Scheduled castes/tribes; parliamen-tary committee on Home Affairs; par-liamentary committee on petroleum and natural Gas; parliamentary com-mittee on Social Justice and Empower-ment; and parliamentary committee on Law and Justice. President Kovind was also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha House committee.

President Kovind has also served as Member of the Board of Management of the dr B.R Ambedkar University, Luc-know, and Member of the Board of Gov-ernors of the Indian Institute of Manage-ment, Kolkata. He was part of the Indian delegation at the United nations and ad-dressed the United nations General As-sembly in october 2002. Before assum-ing charge of the office of the President of India, he served as the 36th Governor of the state of Bihar from August 16, 2015 to June 20, 2017.

“I thank you for electing me to the re-sponsibility of the president of India, and I enter this office with all humil-ity. coming here to central Hall has brought back so many memories. I have been a Member of parliament and here, in this very central Hall, have had dis-cussions with many of you. often we agreed, sometimes we disagreed. But we learnt to respect each other. And that is the beauty of democracy,” he said while taking charge.

“We would be completing 70 years of

our Independence soon. We are also well into the second decade of the 21st centu-ry, a century that so many of us intuitively believe will be an Indian century, guided and shaped by India and its accomplish-ments. We need to build an India that is an economic leader as well as a moral exemplar. For us, those two touchstones can never be separate. they are and must forever be linked.

“The key to India’s success is its diver-sity. our diversity is the core that makes us so unique. In this land we find a mix of states and regions, religions, languages, cultures, lifestyles and much more. We are so different and yet so similar and united. The India of the 21st century will be one that is in conformity with our an-cient values as well as compliant with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. there is no dichotomy there, no question of choice. We must combine tradition and technol-ogy, the wisdom of an age-old Bharat and the science of a contemporary India. As the gram panchayat must determine our consultative and community based prob-lem solving, the digital Republic must help us leapfrog developmental mile-stones. these are the twin pillars of our national endeavour.

“nations are not built by governments alone. the government can at best be a fa-cilitator, and a trigger for society’s innate entrepreneurial and creative instincts. each citizen of India is a nation builder. each one of us is a custodian of India’s well-be-ing and of the legacy that we will pass on to coming generations.”v

report

By dr. Minnie Bodhanwala

CSR TIMES• august 2017

uniting World leaders on Terror

Prime Minister narendra Modi made a historic trip to Israel followed by a visit to Germany for the 12th G20 Summit, where world leaders discussed on developing an inclusive

multilateral trading system and vowed to eliminate all terror safe havens.

Hamburg played host to more than 20 heads of states and representatives of international

organisations who congregated for the G20 summit held July 7-8, 2017. combating terror remained on the top of the discussions held between prime Minister narendra Modi and the world leaders at the summit.

Gopal Baglay, spokesperson of the Ministry External Affairs, informed counter-terrorism measures were the focus of all discussions prime Minister Modi had with the european leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel.

prime Minister Modi, who was the lead speaker on the theme of terrorism at the

Leaders Retreat, made a strong pitch for global deterrent action against countries that support terrorism for their political goals. He presented an 11-point action plan to counter terror, including a ban on the entry of officials from terrorism-supporting countries into G20 nations. He said, “terrorism is the biggest challenge of our times. I thank chancellor

Merkel for choosing this topic.” the G20 leaders agreed for taking concrete steps to stop funding of terror activities and pledged for greater coordination to counter the menace.

the theme for the G20 summit this year was ‘Shaping an Inter-connected World’; and the leaders committed to keep the markets open, focus on reciprocity and non- discrimination, and fight against protectionism and unfair trade practices. on the sidelines of the summit, the prime Minister participated in an informal meeting with leaders from other BRIcS (Brazil, Russia, china and South Africa) nations. they discussed the geopolitical tensions with regard to Qatar in West Asia and North Korea in northern Asia. prime Minister Modi mentioned to his BRIcS counterparts that India’s GDP growth has touched 7 per cent in the recent quarter and that its reform agenda has been boosted with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

the prime Minister had a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who appreciated India’s strong resolve against terrorism and success on economic growth, amidst tension in Sikkim. In a joint statement, both leaders resolved to use all policy tools — fiscal, monetary and structural — to enhance the resilience and potential of emerging markets. they urged G20 nations to support a rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open and inclusive multilateral trading system; and urged the global community to continue to work towards implementing the paris climate Accord.

the prime Minister also had talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Italy’s Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg and president of Argentina Mauricio Macri. He invited norwegian pension funds to invest in the national Investment and Infrastructure Fund (nIIF).

Addressing the third working session of summit on ‘partnership with Africa, Migration and Health’, prime Minister Modi said that G20 nations must walk the talk to facilitate technology and financial

infusion in Africa. He spoke about India’s multi-layered development partnership with Africa which also emphasized on improving social, physical and It infrastructure in Africa besides building capacity. on migration, the prime Minister said that dealing with forced external migration called for a debate and cooperative policy framework. He added that external migration must be distinguished from legal migration.

The 2017 summit was the 12th meeting of the Group of twenty (G20) which comprises of 19 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, canada, china, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and the european Union.

Before landing in Germany, prime Minister Modi was on a three-day trip to Israel from July 4. He became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the country with which India have had bilateral relationship for two-and-a- half decades. Here again the prime Minister stressed on fighting terror together with Israel. Speaking to the media, Israel prime Minister Benjamin netanyahu and prime Minister Modi in a joint statement said their focus is terrorism and called for global cooperation in fighting it.

the prime Minister declared his visit as a path-breaking journey of engagement. “As we march together, a strong and resilient partnership with Israel will be my intent and focus. India counts Israel among its important partners. the need to rely on science, technology, innovation and higher technical education to overcome our developmental challenges is common to both of us. these domains also bring together the creative energy and ideas of the highly skilled youth and entrepreneurs of the two countries. Alongside building a partnership for shared economic prosperity, we are also cooperating to secure our societies against common threats such as terrorism.” prime Minister Benjamin netanyahu also said prime Minister Modi’s trip was a deeply moving experience for

him. “We are making history. prime Minister Modi and I look ahead and at the same time have our feet firmly on the ground,” he said.

India’s diplomatic ties with India were established in 1992 by the then prime Minister of India p.v. narasimha Rao. Israel has been a major supplier of military equipment to India after Russia and lately the US. India signed several defence deals, including the medium- and long-range surface-to-air missiles, with Israel only a few months prior to the Prime Minister’s visit. But the Indian prime Minister’s visit cemented many other trade ties like on medical devices, water systems, etc. the Indian Ministry of External Affairs informed that India signed several agreements with Israel on science, agriculture and technology during the historic visit of the prime Minister to Israel. Both countries are framing a strong economic base by strengthening cultural ties and signing deals designed to encourage the ‘Make in India’ programme.

prime Minister Modi said, “over the coming decades, we want to frame a relationship that transforms the landscape of our economic engagement. India is the world’s fastest growing large economy. Our focus on using technology and innovation to meet our development priorities provides productive scope to expand our academic, scientific and research, and business links. We also want to put in place a robust security partnership to respond to shared threats to our peace, stability and prosperity. I will work with prime Minister netenyahu to craft and build a clear action agenda to realize these objectives.”

Among other important engagements of the prime Minsiter was his meeting with ten-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, who survived the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack while his parents were killed along with six others, when terrorists attacked the nariman point in Mumbai. Moshe was only two then. He was saved by his Indian nanny Sandra Samuel, who has been recognized as an honorary citizen of Israel for saving the two-year-old.v

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By Harish chandra

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I would like to start this article by making a heartfelt confession. As you may well know by now, I am a

corporate Social Responsibility (cSR) and sustainability freak. However, you may not be aware that I am deeply in love with India, its profound culture, history, natural richness, its fascinating diversity, so much that I have recently started learning Hindi.

I particularly value this month’s topic since I follow with great interest the

developments that contribute to a prototypical change to one of the world’s largest and most promising nations.

prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at United nations Sustainable Development Summit in 2015 summarises much of the country’ spirit: “We are committed to a sustainable path to prosperity. It comes from the natural instinct of our tradition and culture. But it is also rooted firmly in our commitment to the future. We represent a culture that

calls our planet Mother earth.” the Sustainable development Goals

(SdG) set by India along with the leadership undertaken within the paris Agreement demonstrate an ambitious and purposeful plan: renewable energy, afforestation, transport, health, public service reforms, human rights, empowerment of women, Blue Revolution, waste management and smart cities.

Above all, I appreciate that the country

sustainable path to prosperity

The most immediate consequence of a state-mandated CSR framework is a boost to public-private partnerships. However, for the sake of reaching a proficient partnership, phase two shall enact necessary controls. I would like to see regional governments sitting

at the table with major corporations assigning areas of investment and intervention.By Ilaria Gualtieri

is not acquiescent to a western-style development model which proved inherently unsustainable. India has incorporated a forward looking, lesson-learned-based approach that could potentially transform not only the vast country, but also potentially influence the development of a continent and the rest of the world.

Within the CSR panorama, the 2013 Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ Companies Act is an interesting precedent.

Its greatest outcome is the establishment of a state-mandated cSR system. the innovative element is that the state did so not only in terms of requiring a financial commitment, but asking companies to drastically change the way they do business by integrating a range of cSR principles and ― mostly ― management practices. the act mandates companies to set a cSR vision, policies, a project execution plan, especially, a road map for achieving long-term goals, requiring the creation of a dedicated team and frameworks, while disclosing information on company’s website.

the Indian Government has been accused of setting technocratic sustainability. to begin with, I personally disagree that this is about sustainability. the principles are more about cSR, or the set up of a management system to include responsibilities beyond regulation and ethics. Sustainability includes and mostly details the same set of principles, however, looking at the future armed with a set of KPI’s and measurable steps. the nine cSR principles do not elucidate how sustainability is mapped; they do not establish measurable targets for the corporate sector to help furthering the state’s agenda.

Yet, India had to start somewhere. Sincerely speaking, we cannot wait for corporations to decide when it is the right time, we cannot just endorse the western voluntariness principle according to which corporations shall grow and thrive by first doing bad and then start cleaning up.

State’s carrot and sticks intervention to promote responsible practices is not new. If it wasn’t for regulations,

european Union would not have achieved certain remarkable results in terms of reporting and environmental performance. the other side of the coin, however, is that cSR is not a franchise, it cannot be imposed: it shall mature within a receptive environment where the need to put in place certain practices has naturally evolved. nevertheless, research shows that sustainability or CSR reporting is often the first action implemented upon kicking off a real integration process.

Modern India clearly sees the economic sector as a partner. thus it not only wants, but requires a change. A drastic CSR-economic revolution finds in regulation the best way to ensure the message is received. the government needs allies to achieve its ambitious goals, the private sector is now bond to substantiate a social responsibility often blathered but seldom demonstrated.

there is no right or wrong in developing such an immense task. there are a plenty of frameworks and national CSR indexed around the world, it is all about choosing the right fit to the current needs. So, this is a bold state-led public-private partnership educational attempt. It all depends on its implementation.

A mandated transparency and accountability framework poses the likely risk that companies rush their commitment to comply, creating a superficial strategy as a tick-box exercise. the act in fact mandates companies to create and disclose a cSR vision, mission and overall philosophy (98 per cent top 100 listed companies complied, 90 per cent provided details), create a cSR committee (64 per cent exceeded the target, 55 per cent include women, 82 per cent have two or more members), expound how the 2 per cent of average net profit has been spent in reference to the policy disclosed.

The top 100 companies delivered very well on the strategy and committee creation. However, only 57 per cent presented policy links on their website while just 46 per cent published a detailed road map. Setting a cSR strategy is not an overnight exercise. It

requires awareness, maturity and the inclusion within corporate decision-making of societal and environmental concerns, a deep comprehension and prioritisation of stakeholders, awareness of market- and work-place best practices, and especially appropriate governance and processes.

overall, the positivity stands into forcing a “cSR mindset” into companies. The first three to five years will be learning ground; real framework and road maps shall naturally come after this period.

The data on the companies’ ability to explicate the CSR spend contribution to the overall plan further confirms the muddle: 42 per cent failed disclosure, 21 per cent did not refer to policy; moreover, only 40 per cent provided details on focus areas and 25 per cent on the stakeholders’ impact.

this further demonstrates an early stage of cSR integration, revealing the lack of a fundamental element within corporate sustainability: the materiality principle.

Materiality is defined by GRI as the ability of a report or strategy to reflect the organization’s significant socio-environmental impact. It is an evolving process made of identification, prioritization, assessment and review. this principle asks companies to assess, comprehend, evaluate and include in their decision-making a wide set of responsibilities — governance, society and environment. companies require time to gauge the situation, pinpoint their strengths, build and test internal processes, and identify partners and focus areas where they can provide the best results to both the society and the company itself.

Among the positive notes is the increased average spend, involving 70 per cent companies, with 18 per cent committed to carry on the spend this year. Similarly, the major areas of intervention reflect some of the state’s priorities: health, education, environment and rural development, with philanthropy relegated at 3 per cent.

the reduction in the number of

opinion

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projects from previous year supports that companies are learning by developing the ability to focus. In parallel, project implementation mainly occurs through third parties, especially nGos, in-house team, government or their own foundation.

Other elements that reflect a premature stage are the lack of details in areas such as stakeholders and employees’ grievance, where majority of companies confirms to have systems in place, however without providing details. Similarly, majority have procedures for sustainable sourcing or waste management, although feedback remains descriptive.

the questionnaire format, rather than the employment of a wider and measurable set of indicators mandated by frameworks such as GRI, leaves many grey areas. However, a full set of indicators and KPI’s would have been too much at this stage. Additionally, what about the stick, the verification and monitoring of company’s claims and future commitments?

Future perspectives Let’s not forget the odds. The world’s second largest population with an incredible 1.3 billion citizens, India ranked 117 of 157 countries in the SdG report. While Gdp in time of crisis still grows at enviable rate, income inequality is unbearable, with Un reporting in April stating that the richest 1 per cent owns 53 per cent of the nation’s wealth.

India, that I admire for a genuine excellence culture that prizes goodwill and effort, invests less than 3 per cent of its GDP on education; 28 per cent of its population is made of youth, approx. 356 million (World Bank, 2014), while 300 million people are estimated illiterate.

Although the government is taking action, India rates in the lowest 25 per cent world health care index. Again, while 70 per cent population resides in rural areas, agricultural sector investments fail to encourage youngsters to stay and develop more sustainable systems.

Last, but not the least, cleaning up the economy, lowering corruption and reducing bureaucracy, are bare prerequisites. If the leading class does not role-model, it is very unlikely that the message spreads to the bottom.

I would like to see a second phase of this state’s CSR revolution where the businesses are further driven to contribute to the country’s SDGs. planting trees is utterly important, but those trees shall be nurtured and protected to grow wealthy enough to

provide oxygen, shade and nourishment. the state-mandated framework

provides companies to treat cSR holistically in terms of management system, long-term strategy and deliverables rather than a one-off pay cheque. the most immediate consequence is a boost to public-private partnerships. The government can’t do it alone: bureaucracy, corruption and changing political priorities prevent to actively affect changes. Slimmer corporate decision-making processes and measures allow companies to treat social work as a business. corporations shall be enabled and accounted for increasingly engaging in supporting government policy implementation. If every of the 8,000 companies touched by the reform would seriously and accountably adopt a school, a road or rural area, we could see tangible, drastic transformations within few months.

For the sake of reaching a proficient

partnership, phase two shall enact necessary controls. A technocratic cSR revolution shall transparently assess the accountability of companies’ actions, the accuracy of their figures and the growth patterns that are intrinsic to a traditional sustainability reporting structure. I would also like to see regional governments sitting at the table with major corporations assigning areas of investment and intervention.

Another requisite is general public awareness on sustainability issues: it’s time to involve the masses. this comes along with the immediate challenge to find solutions for India that are not just a cut-paste from other parts of the world, but that uniquely reflect the country’s richness, diversity and sustainable path to prosperity.

the vast rural regions are the greatest ground for an experiment that exploits traditional and cultural values to establish a different way of doing business: social enterprises rather than profit-making business, micro-corporations rather than heartless giants, artisans, barter, sustainable farming, self-sufficiency, an economy that is barely measured on monetary profit, but on families and communities’ human prosperity.

It is the time to call back the talents the country has spread around the world and nurture a generation that studies viable solutions for the many challenges faced, treasuring the immense role of women in society against retrograde gender discrimination.

this is indeed a fertile moment for India to enact structural changes to affect future development. It is not my role to point out the challenges of the country, however, what I appreciate is that this forward-looking India is treating challenges as opportunities, and I am curious and confident in the future outcomes.

It is indeed a fertile moment for India to enact structural changes to affect future development. v

The writer is a csr and communication consultant.

The vast rural regions are the greatest ground for an experiment that exploits traditional and cultural values to establish a different way of doing business.

CSR TIMES• august 2017

technical development establishment (tde) of the Indian Army and the direc-torate of technical development & pro-duction (dtdp) with the defence Science organisation (dSo). the organisation has over 5,000 scientists working on research and development of missiles, armaments, light combat aircraft, radars, electronic warfare systems, etc. the light combat aircraft (LcA) tejas, unmanned aerial vehicles—the nishant tactical UAv and the Lakshya (target), pinaka multi-bar-rel rocket launcher, 120 mm rifled main gun for the Indian Army’s Arjun main battle tank, the Indian doppler Radar (IndRA) series of 2d radars developed for the Indian Army and Indian Air Force; ballistic missiles prithvi, Agni, Akash, trishul; besides the BrahMos developed in partnership with the Russian indus-try, are a few among the many successful projects of dRdo.

And then we have the Hindustan Aero-nautics Limited (HAL) involved in the manufacturing and assembly of aircraft, navigation and related communication equipment and airports operation. More than 40 per cent of HAL’s revenues come from international deals to manufacture aircraft engines, spare parts, and other

aircraft equipment.space: the Indian space programme be-gan with study of cosmic phenomenon such as solar radiations and was spear-headed by dr vikram Sarabhai. the Indian Space Research organisation (ISRo) was set up in 1969, and the first Indian satel-lite, Aryabhatta, was launched in 1975. Rohini was the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehi-cle, SLV-3 in 1980. India’s space scientists have achieved remarkable feats in the last five decades making the country self-reli-ant in space technology. On February 15 this year, ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single rocket (pSLv-c37) and created a world record. And on June 5, 2017, ISRO launched its heaviest rocket, geosynchro-nous satellite launch vehicle-mark-III (GSLv-MK-III), and placed a communica-tions satellite GSAT-19 in orbit. Biotechnology: the department of Bio-technology, Ministry of Science and tech-nology of the Government of India, has become the second country outside of eu-rope to join the european Molecular Biol-ogy organisation (eMBo), which consists of 1,700 eminent scientists and 84 Nobel laureates, and aims to encourage research in the field of life sciences.

infrastructureroads: When India got independence, railways were the convenient mode of freight transport as roads were hardly de-veloped. today, India has the second larg-est road network in the world (4.87 mil-lion kilometres). Roads constitute about 80 per cent of the country’s passenger traffic and 65 per cent of freight traffic. The Government of India had set $1 tril-lion reserved for infrastructure during the twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012–17) in order to develop the country’s roads. The government envisages developing 66,117 km of roads under different programmes such as the national Highways develop-ment project (nHdp), Special Accelerated Road development programme in north East (SARDP-NE) and left-wing extrem-ism (LWe). to improve the connectivity between ports and remote villages, 2,000 km of coastal roads have been identified for development. the national Highways Authority of India (nHAI) plans to build 50,000 km of roads worth $250 billion by 2022 as part of a long-term goal of dou-bling the length of the national highway network to 2,00,000 km. railways: Indian Railways is the world’s eighth biggest employer. In fiscal 2017,

it had revenue of `1,68,000 crore. The national transporter hauled 1.107 bil-lion tonnes of cargo in the year ended March 31, the passenger segment had a revenue of almost `48,000 crore and freight revenue was estimated at `1,09,000 crore. At the time of inde-pendence, India had a total of 42 sepa-rate railway systems, including 32 lines owned by the former Indian princely states and as about 40 per cent of the railway lines were in pakistan, new lines had to be reconstructed through Indian territory. In 1952, the rail net-works were made into zones. the Indi-an Railways has now 16 zones. In 1985, steam locomotives were phased out, and in 1987, computerization for res-ervations was started for the first time in Bombay; in 1998, the Konkan Rail-way was opened, through the terrains of Western Ghats; in 1984, Kolkata be-came the first Indian city to get a metro rail system, followed by the delhi Metro in 2002, Bangalore’s Namma Metro in 2011, the Mumbai Metro and Mumbai Monorail in 2014, Chennai Metro in 2015 and the most recent Kochi metro in June 2107. Cities like Lucknow and Jaipur would be the next to get the metro rail. civil aviation: In March 1953 the Indian parliament passed the Air corpora-tions Act, and Indian Airlines and Air India International were set up after nationalisation of the entire airline industry wherein all private airlines deccan Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways, Himalyan Aviation, Kalinga Air Lines, Indian national Airways, Air India, Air Ser-vices of India were merged. In 1990-91, private airlines again en-tered the market after the deregulation of the civil aviation sector. Since then Indian civil aviation has seen massive changes. today India is the fourth

largest civil aviation market in the world and as per the International Air transport Association; India will become the third largest aviation market in the world in terms of passengers by 2026. Centre for Aviation (cApA) has estimated that In-dia’s airlines reported a combined profit of $122 million in fiscal 2016.

telecommunicationIn 1947, India had a network of wired telephones and an out of city call was made through trunk calls and had to be booked at least half an hour earlier. But within a decade there were millions of applicants for telephone connection. Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace of market liberalization and growth since the 1990s and now has be-come the world’s most competitive and fastest growing telecom market. the industry has grown over twenty times in just ten years, from under 37 million subscribers in the year 2001 to over 846 million subscribers in the year 2011. Ac-cording to a Frost and Sullivian White

paper, India is poised to be among the top five economies in the world by 2020. Home to over a billion mobile subscrib-ers and the second largest Internet user base in the world, it will become a key force of reckoning for global business, policy and technology advancement.

the number of Smart phone users in In-dia grew to 239 million by the end of 2015 and is expected to be 702 million by 2020. Today, there are more than 114.63 million mobile subscribers in India who access 3G/4G and the number of wearable devic-es in India will reach 4.1 million by 2020. In India, 69 million people use Facebook daily, of which 64 million accesses the platform through their mobile devices. As on July 1, 2016, 34.8 per cent of the popu-lation in India accessed the Internet. It is estimated that the number of rural Inter-net users will reach 280 million by 2018, growing at 40 per cent per annum.

exiMExports in merchandise trade including re-exports during June 2017 were valued at $23,563 million. Engineering goods, petroleum products), organic and inor-ganic chemicals, rice and marine products showed a positive growth. cumulative value of exports for the period April-June 2017-18 was $72,212 million (`4,65,472 crore); non-petroleum, and non-gems

and jewellery exports in June 2017 were valued at $17,481 million;

non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports during April-June 2017-18 were valued at $52,714 million.

Imports during June 2017 were valued at $36,522

million (`2,35,362 crore). cumulative value of imports for the period April-June 2017-18 was $1,12,263 million (`7,23,631

crore). oil im-ports during June

2017 were valued at $8,126 and non-oil imports

during June 2017 were estimated at $28,397 million.

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sportsThe country’s date with Olympics started very early but except in hockey nothing fruitful was achieved. the Indian Hockey team was dominant in olympic competi-tion, winning 11 medals in 12 Olympics be-tween 1920 and 1980. P.T. Usha became the first Indian woman to enter the Olympics in 1984 in Log Angeles. She had won silver medals in the 100 and 200 metre events in the 1982 Asiad Games held in New Delhi, won gold in the 400 m in the Asian Track and Field Championship in Kuwait and five gold medals at the Asian Meet in Jakarta in 1985. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver medal in the Men’s Double Trap at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. At the 2002 commonwealth Games in Manches-ter, Rathore had won a Gold Medal and set a new Commonwealth Games Record of 192 targets out of 200. Abhinav Bindra won In-dia’s first-ever individual gold medal in the Olympics on August 11, 2008. The 2012 Summer Olympics gave out a total of six medals to Indian players. Wrestler Sushil Kumar became the first Indian with mul-tiple individual olympic medals (bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver at the 2012 Summer Olympics); Saina Nehwal won bronze medal in badminton in wom-en’s singles; Mary Kom became the first Indian woman to win a medal (bronze) in boxing in Women’s flyweight category. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Sakshi Malik won a bronze medal in Women’s freestyle 58 kg category and P.V. Sindhu won a silver medal in badminton.

In 1983, the Kapil Dev-led team defeated the West Indies and won the cricket World cup for India and since then the nation has witnessed many glorious cricket moments. In July this year, the Indian Women’s Crick-et team led by Mithali dorai Raj reached the finals of the World Cup. The Women in Blue had reached the finals of the World Cup in 2005 too, and the semi-finals in 1997, 2000 and 2009.

In tennis, from 1996 to 2002, the doubles team of Leander paes and Mahesh Bhu-pathi won the Wimbledon and the French Open in 1999, becoming the first Indian pair to win a doubles event at a Grand slam event. they also won gold medals at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan and the 2006

Asian Games in doha. Sania Mirza became the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tournament at the 2007 US Open where she was seeded 26th. Sania is also the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament (2005 US Open), and the first Indian wom-an to win a WtA singles title (Hyderabad Open, 2005).

In chess, viswanathan Anand became the country’s first Grandmaster in 1988, and in 2000 he became the first Indian to win the FIde World chess championship. He also won the FIde World Rapid chess champi-onship in 2003 and has been the winner at the chess oscar many a times.

educationIn 1951, the percentage of literacy in In-dia was 19.3. In 2001, the literacy per-centage increased to 65.4 per cent and in 2011 it was 74 per cent. As per census 2011; 77,84,54,120 persons have been counted as literates. Among the liter-ates; 33,42,50,358 are females, whereas 44,42,03,762 are males. Literacy rate among females is 65.5 per cent whereas the literacy rate among males is 82.1 per cent. the school enrolment ratio of chil-dren in the age group of 6-11 was 43 per cent in 1951 and it became 100 per cent in 2001. To check drop-out rate, midday meal was started in 1995. In 2009, India enacted the Right to education Act and the Act came into force in April 2010 giv-ing every child in India the right to have free and compulsory education up to the age of 14. The 2011 census showed an improvement in middle and higher educa-tion levels with women fairing well. Stu-dents in the below primary accounted for 32.6 per cent, primary accounted for 25.2 per cent; middle accounted for 15.7 per cent; matric accounted for 11.1 per cent; higher secondary accounted for 8.6 per cent; and graduate and above accounted for 4.5 per cent, which was 2.12 per cent in 2001 census. The Government of In-dia aims to increase the Gross enrolment Ratio in higher education to 30 per cent by 2020. As per the All India Survey on Higher education (AISHe) conducted by the Ministry of Human Resources, there are 38,000 colleges, 767 universities in In-

dia and approximately 33 million students are enrolled in these universities.

healthThere has been a significant decrease in mortality rates in India since 1947. In 1951, the at-birth life expectancy which was around 37 years has increased to nearly 65 years by 2011. In terms of infant mortality, there has been great improvement between 1951 and 2000. the number of deaths in the youngest age group has fallen to 70 from 146 per 1,000. Similarly, maternal mortality rates have come down to 254 per 1,00,000 births. In 2011, India developed a ‘totally drug-resistant’ form of tuberculosis, and in 2012, India became polio-free because of the pulse polio programme started in 1995-96 by the government.

where to get BetterIndia has 2.4 per cent of the world’s sur-face area and supports 16.7 per cent of the world’s population. It is estimated that middle class individuals will account for 69 per cent of India’s population (934 million) in 2020, with lower middle class emerging as the biggest middle class segment at 38 per cent. As the popula-tion will grow, the pressure on natural resources will intensify, reducing further the per capita availability of land for farm-ing. Foodgrain and even drinking water will become scarce. the Indian economy is dependent upon agriculture with only 49 per cent of its people doing things other than agriculture. And the cultiva-tion mostly depend on rainwater which is often erratic. Drought, flood and at times untimely rain, kill the crops thus reducing the produce from agriculture. According to IMF, the main challenge before the In-dian economy will be to improve agricul-tural productivity. “Farmers require more flexibility in distributing and marketing their crops as this will help improve com-petitiveness, efficiency and transparency.”

While India is still fighting basic health concerns like malnutrition, low immuniza-tion rates, hygiene, sanitation and infectious diseases, many people today have become a victim of environmental pollution and lifestyle choices. Lack of physical exercise,

alcohol consumption, smoking and high fat diet are increasing cases of hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and even cancer. Moreover, the societal pressure for early child bearing and no spacing between children especially in rural areas is still af-fecting the mother and child’s health. Ac-cording to a report by the World Bank and the International centre for Research on Women (ICRW), India could save $5 billion (`33,500 crore) in health care and related costs over the next seven years, if it elimi-nates child marriage and early childbirth. This is equivalent to the country’s 2017-18 higher education budget of `33,329 crore.

As per the census 2011, the child sex ra-tio (0-6 years) has shown a decline from 927 females per thousand males in 2001 to 919 females per thousand males in 2011. The country still values the patriar-chal norms and gives priority on birth of a male child. Unless programmes for girl child are taken more aggressively, there is stricter implementation of the pnpdt Act, and education and empowerment are taken up as a priority by not only the government but also responsible corpo-rates and community based organizations; little can be achieved.

More than 25 per cent of villages in India still have no road link and about 60 per cent have no all-weather road link. Kerala, Har-yana and punjab have all-weather roads, but only 15 per cent of villages in Odisha and 21 per cent in Rajasthan are connected with all-weather roads.

outlooKSimilarly, India is among the fastest grow-ing aviation market in the world with tre-mendous opportunities. But inadequate infrastructure planning, weak regulatory oversight and above all the rising cost of air turbine fuel have become major stumbling blocks. though some low-cost airlines claim to be doing well on revenues, many airlines have shut shop in the last one dec-ade and the only state-owned airline is on the verge of being privatised.

India is a cricket crazy country and even its national sports hockey is of little signifi-cance to the populace. the eight time olym-pic champions, today the Indian hockey team is struggling. Because of lack of train-ing, funds, government support and cor-porate sponsorship, Indian sportspersons have failed to show their mark in the global arena. However, with funds slowly moving in the form of corporate sponsorship and governement focus we can hope for a better show in the future.

India’s literacy level is still below the world average literacy rate of 84 per cent and there is a wide gender disparity in the literacy rate too. the literacy rate (age 7 and above) in 2011 was 82.14 per cent for men and 65.46 per cent for women. Low female literacy rate is slowing down India’s family planning and population stabilization efforts. However, the 2011 census provided a positive indication of growth in female literacy rates, which also indicates that

the gender gap is narrowing.In school education, private schools are

competing with the government schools and there is a significant variation among states in both quantity and quality. the same is with higher education. the AISHe 2016 stated that the gross enrolment ratio, that is, the percentage of population (in the age 18-23) enrolled in college is 23.6 per cent. It varies from one state to another, while it is 12 per cent in Bihar; it is 44 per cent for tamil nadu. For a country which has a growing lower middle class segment and a large section of people still below the poverty line, dependence on private education for higher education or even quality education at the primary level, is not pragmatic.

According to Global Wealth Report 2016, India is the second most une-qual country in the world with the top one per cent of the population owning nearly 60 per cent of the total wealth. India is indeed progressing but it high time we focus more on the coun-try’s unseen potential — the human resources. prime Minister narendra Modi recently envisoned, “India is a very old civilization but a young na-tion. eight hundred million people in India fall below 35 years of age. The talented and skilled youth of India are also its driving force. they propel my vision to transform India, its industry, its economy, its way of doing business and its interface with the world.” v

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interView: Vijay goeL

`We Plan to Make Sports a Compulsory Subject in Schools'

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the total population of the youth in the country today is more than the total population of india at the time of independence. what are the key challenges that the country is facing and how is your Ministry addressing those?Today 65 per cent of our population is below 35. While we feel proud that we are a nation having a huge young population, we also have the challenge of how to engage them. We are trying to engage the youth in more and more activities through our four arms—the nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Bharat Scout Guide, national cadet corps and national Service Scheme. We also have a programme for slum children. the Ministry organized Slum Yuva daud to motivate children from slums to actively participate in sports, wherein 50,000 slum children all over delhi participated. We are taking it to other parts of the nation too. We are trying to keep the youth engaged in numerous activities so that they do not get into drugs, crime, terrorism or naxalism. to involve them in more activities we are connecting with schools and colleges too.

Since you have taken charge of the Ministry, many initiatives have been taken by the Ministry. What are the three initiatives you are satisfied with?In Youth Affairs, we are revamping all the youth organizations be it NYKS, Bharat Scout, NCC or NSS. on sports, we are launching a sports portal, where children from across the country who have attained the age of eight and are active in sports can upload a video or their biodata, and we will select from among them for a scholarship. the scholarship would be of `1,000 for a period of eight years. The Ministry has dedicated `5,00,000 for the purpose. Yet another initiative is that we want to see sports grounds in all the schools, government and private, where after the

In a conversation with csr TimEs Executive Editor Paresh Tewary, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel spoke on various initiatives being taken by the Ministry to encourage the children and youth to engage

in activities which would help in their all-round development.

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school hours children can engage in sports. However, the students would be charged for it as we feel that it otherwise will not work. At present sports is a State subject and we aim to take it to the concurrent list.

We have a huge population yet very few sportspersons win medals in Olympics and other events. What measures are you taking to help our youth win laurels for us in international sports arena?everyone knows population has nothing to do with medals. It can happen only if we have a sports atmosphere. And many things are important in creating a sports atmosphere. We see one state of India is good in boxing while the other is not. It depends on many factors like weather, genes, etc. Similarly, a sports atmosphere and culture should be there. people are only thinking how they would grow in monetary terms. parents feel that there is no career in sports. they are not aware that participating in sports would eventually lead to a healthy life and keep them fit. Those excelling in sports today are mostly from villages. So we are focusing on villages. We will be starting a Gramin Khel Mahatsov. our objective is to give opportunity to all.

how would you rate the efficacy of target olympic podium scheme (tops)? when can we see the results?topS is a continuous process. We are selecting sportspersons and giving them customized coaching. to give you an example, at present preparation for Commonwealth Games is on, selections are being done, coaching is being given and foreign coaches are also being appointed.

how has been the response of the stakeholders on national sports development code?We are yet to take the response of the stakeholders in the states. We had set up a committee which has submitted its response, but now we will take the states response and of other stake holders.

Many operational verticals related to sports are handled by other ministries like education and health. similarly, there are certain things which are with the states and then we have many federations and associations. how do you think all these different verticals can be managed to bring better results?In many countries, education, health and sports are under one ministry, so they work in coordination. If we give more emphasis on sports, the budget of the Health Ministry would reduce. Likewise, the health budget can be used for promotion of sports. We are in constant touch with the Human Resource development Ministry to make sports a compulsory subject in schools. prime Minister narendra Modi envisages that every child should play one or the other game. We are moving in that direction.

we get to hear a lot about drug addiction among youth. what initiatives are being taken by the Ministry regarding this? We are emphasizing on how to engage the youth in more and more activities. I had been to Rajasthan where there was a 15-day camp organized by NYKS. I feel things like this can keep the youth engaged. But there are many constraints as the country is big and there is scarcity of funds. We also need motivators in the society, people who would motivate children and youth to do good work, maintain good health, eat well, etc.

sports and youth have a special place in the csr policy of the companies act. has your Ministry thought of coordinating with the corporates and the public sector undertakings for a focused national approach?I think we should have a committee for this and we will work on it. The government has to see whether actual CSR is happening or not. We need to check what they have done, how much is being spent, how much has been utilized, etc.

how can we promote sports in schools and integrate it with studies; are we bringing a change in curriculum?Many suggestions are being given like putting more emphasis on physical education as a subject, extending the timings of the sports periods in schools, increasing the sports quota for admissions in colleges, etc. We are also trying to locate open spaces for playgrounds. The Delhi Development Authority has promised to give us four to five empty grounds, which were originally demarcated for commercial use but will now be converted into sports grounds.v

CSR TIMES• august 2017 CSR TIMES• august 2017

srF Foundation works on education we believe, what is the focus—school education or vocational courses to bridge the gap?SRF Foundation works on both the issues of school education and vocational skills by targeting the out of schoolchildren, school-going students and school dropouts.

What was the first project of SRF Foundation and when was it initiated? how did the idea strike?though the Foundation has been serving the society since 1982, it started a structured programme for Rural Education Transformation in selected 40 government schools in 2009 in Mewat district of Haryana. today, the programme has been spread across seven states impacting the education of 40,000 students attending 130 government schools.

were any changes made in the Foundation’s programmes following enactment of the csr policy in the companies act of 2013? has the Foundation gained from the act in terms of getting more funds? Before the Companies Act of 2013, CSR at SRF was happening at various levels and business verticals driven by passion and business needs. Post the Companies Act of 2013, it was amalgamated and routed through the SRF Foundation. this structural adjustment naturally increased the funding of SRF Foundation.

you partner with ngos, corporates as well as the government. how would you grade them on the accountability factor?Instead of grading them on accountability, the Foundation reflects its accountability towards them and the cause it is working for. While we carry our cSR mandate at ground level, we build collaborations with like-minded agencies by seeing the synergy between what we are doing and what the partners wish to do. We come together with similar objectives that ensures greater participation and accountability among us.

what provision does the shriram schools have for

underprivileged children? what are the criteria for admissions and where are the schools located?the Foundation has set up its first Shriram School in the year 1988 and it runs two schools from kindergarten to class XII operational in three campuses spread in Gurgaon and new delhi. these schools follow the Right to education (Rte) norms for admissions prescribed by the delhi and Haryana governments. We greatly leverage the Shriram School’s experience and expertise both in the areas of academic and non-academics for quality education at government schools.

does the shriram Millennium also have seats reserved for the underprivileged children? how is shriram Millennium different from shriram schools?Shriram Millennium schools are owned and run by educom with technical and branding assistance from our sister concern Shri educare pvt. Ltd. the Foundation is not connected with these schools.

have you aligned your school programmes with the sarva shikshya abhiyan (ssa)? As we work with government schools for education transformation, we have aligned our work not only with SSA but also with Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikshya Abhiyan (RMSA), Mahatma Gandhi national Rural employment Guarantee Act (MnReGA), digital India, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Skill India and Right to education Act as well.

what is your view on the right to education act which guarantees free education up to the age of 14?Yes, it provides free education. But somebody has to take the responsibility to ensure it. parents, government and private schools, corporates, nGos and community in general everybody has a role to play in realizing this, as law alone doesn’t guarantee that free education means commitment and action from different quarters.

do you have programmes to help children continue their

‘We focus on creating education Transformation solutions’

education after the age of 14? Yes, we work with the children beyond 14 years of age to ensure their learning continuum through career counselling, scholarships, vocational skills programmes and academic support, etc.

tell us about a programme of srF Foundation which has brought great changes in the lives of children. give us some case studies.As we address the holistic issues of school education, we have rolled out variety of programmes addressing the needs of out of schoolchildren, girl children, infrastructure, technology application, teacher training, school leadership, vocal skills, sports development, etc. each one is complimenting the other. As a result, the entire school gets transformed over a period of time in a holistic manner where a student gets holistic development opportunities. our Mewat Rural education Programme is an example and it has been scaled to ten other locations spread across seven states.

You have many projects in Mewat. Why Mewat? What are the important programmes there and how has been the response?Mewat in Haryana is one of the 11 operational areas spread across the country. When the Foundation started working at the ground level in 2009, it chose Mewat as a test bed to create solutions for educational transformation as it was lagging behind educationally, is a minority-dominated district as well as is least developed on socio-economic parameters compared to many of its neighbours.

We exclusively work for school education and skilling under the umbrella programme of Mewat Rural education programme. As this programme scaled to ten other locations, it is simply called Rural education programme. the initial response was apprehensive, similar to other locations. But today, we are a well respected and received agency in the region.

please elaborate on the csr programmes in your plant areas.We have nine plant locations spread across Rajasthan, Madhya pradesh, Gujarat, tamil nadu and Uttarakhand. After successful launch and implementation of Mewat Rural education programme, we have scaled up this programme to all of these locations as well as in Karnataka where we have plants operational.

Will you like to tell us about your budget for this fiscal and the programmes you are going to stress on?our own cSR budget is `9.6 crore planned for school education, skilling and midday meal programmes. In addition to this we leverage external funding through partnerships.

we would like to know how you choose your partners. what are the parameters?It is very simple. We do not have fundraising division or marketing

division. We focus all our energies on execution and creating education transformation solutions as it is our differentiator. When a potential partner approaches us by knowing our work, we see the synergy between what we are doing and what they wish to do. When we arrive at a common ground, it facilitates further partnership building process. Instead of us choosing our partners, we are chosen by them because of our credibility, capability and maturity. However, government is our natural partner as we work with government schools. So we approach them and rest of the partners join hands in due course.

in your personal opinion, do you think businesses in india are doing enough on sustainability and social responsibility?compared to few years back, businesses are now more sensitive to societal needs driven by business needs, companies Act and philanthropic efforts. v

interView: Dr y. suresh reDDy

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Dr Y. Suresh Reddy, Director, SRF Foundation, in a tête-à-tête with CSR TIMES said parents, government and private schools, corporates, nGOs and community in general all have a role to play in realizing the Right to Education Act.

CSR TIMES• august 2017

the dangal girlsMahavir Singh phogat is from Balali village of Bhiwani district in Haryana where it has been for centuries believed that raising a daughter is like watering a neighbour’s garden. But phogat, the father of four girls, had a different dream and belief. Himself a wrestler, he trained and pushed his four daughters (Geeta, Babita, priyanka, Ritu) along with two of his brother’s daughters (Sangita and Vinesh) to be wrestling champions. three of the phogat sisters—Geeta, Babita and vinesh—won gold medals in different weight categories at the commonwealth Games, while priyanka won a silver medal at the Asian championships. Ritu is a national championships gold medallist and Sangita has won medals at age-level international championships.

The Phogat sisters’ journey to success and fame was not trouble-free, while on one hand they had to undergo rigorous physical training to be part of a game which has been traditionally a men’s fiefdom, on the other hand they had to face the ire of the villagers for whom girls were meant to be kept indoors. But despite criticism, Mahavir phogat who was inspired by weightlifter Karnam Malleswari, the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in 2000, enrolled Geeta and Babita in the Sports Authority of India

centre in Sonipat. Haryana, where female foeticide and child marriage was the

prevalent norm, the phogat sisters dared to dream big. they were fortunate to have a father who had the guts to confront the society to give them a different life. today the phogat sisters are an inspiration for not only girls and their parents in the state infamous for having the worst sex ratio but the entire nation. In a country where hardly any importance is given to any other sports other than cricket, Dangal, the Bollywood movie on Geeta and Babita, has made them a household name.

a wrestling olympics champ

excellence Mirrored

She is yet another female wrestler from Haryana, the state notorious for its skewed sex ratio, who has done the coun-try proud. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won the

bronze medal in the 58-kg category, becoming the first Indian female wrestler to win a medal at the olympics from the country and the fourth female olympic medalist from India. She has also won the silver medal at the 2014 commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the bronze medal at the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships in Doha.

Born to Sukhbir, who is a conductor with the delhi transport corporation, and Sudesh Malik, who is a supervisor at a health clinic, Shakshi began her training in the chotu Ram studio un-der the guidance of Ishwar Dahiya at the age of 12. She too had to face opposition from people for choosing a game which has been men’s domain, but today has a masters’ degree in physi-cal education from Maharshi dayanand University in Rohtak. She was given the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2016) and the Padma Shri in 2017. She is employed with the Indian Railways and has been promoted as a gazetted officer deployed in the northern Railway Zone.

Mary Kom, the Boxer par excellenceWedding and motherhood did not deter this young woman from Manipur from wining the first bronze medal for boxing in Olym-pics for the country. Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte, better known as Mary Kom, is a five-time World Amateur Boxing cham-pion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships. She was the only Indian woman boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, compet-ing in the flyweight (51 kg) category and winning the bronze medal. She has also been ranked as No. 4 AIBA World Women’s Ranking Flyweight category. Kom was also the first Indian woman boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games in 2014 in Incheon, South Korea.

Mary Kom was born to Mangte Tonpa Kom and Mangte Akham Kom who worked as tenant farmers in jhum fields of Kangthei vil-lage, Churachandpur district of Manipur. When she was 15, she joined the sports academy at Imphal.

Mary Kom married footballer Karung Onkholer (Onler) in 2005 and took a short hiatus from boxing till she had her twins in 2007. But soon she was back to practicing and won the silver medal at the 2008 Asian Women’s Boxing Championship in India and a fourth successive gold medal at the AIBA Women’s World Box-ing Championship in China, followed by a gold medal at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam. In the 2010 Asian Games, she com-

peted in the 51-kg class wining a bronze medal; and in 2011, she won gold in the 48-kg class at the Asian Women’s Cup in China. In May 2013, she gave birth to another child and yet in October 2014, she won her first gold medal at the Asian Games held at Incheon, South Korea.

Mary Kom was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the President in 2016 and is a national observer for boxing appointed by the the Un-ion Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in 2017. She has been given many awards and recognitions including the padma Shri, padma Bhushan, Arjuna Award and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, to name a few among the prominent ones.

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pusarla venkata Sindhu won the first olympic silver medal for India in the 2016 Summer olympics. daughter of an Arjuna awardee fa-ther p.v. Ramana and mother p. vijaya, both volleyball players, Sindhu chose badmin-ton instead from the age of eight. She won the bronze medal at the 2009 Sub-Jun-ior Asian Badminton cham-pionships held in colombo, the silver medal in the sin-gles category at the 2010 Iran Fajr International Badminton challenge and the Malaysian open title in 2013. In 2013, she became the first ever Indian wom-en’s singles player to win a medal at the Badminton World championship. In

March 2015, P.V. Sindhu was the youngest recipient of the padma Shri. She has also been conferred the Arjuna Award in 2013 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for badminton in 2016.

Sindhu who is employed with Bharat petroleum as the deputy sports manager, is only 22 and has a long way to go. India looks for-ward to many more wins and medals in badminton in the international arena.

the Badminton Queenindia’s doubles specialist Jwala Gutta is India’s most suc-cessful doubles badminton spe-cialist and has won the national Badminton Championships 14 times. She has been represent-ing India at the international circuit since the late 1990s and is the first badminton player of India who have qualified for two events in the olympics-wom-en’s doubles with Ponnappa and mixed doubles with V. Diju at London.

Gutta was born to a telugu father and a chinese mother and started playing badminton at the age of six. She won the Under-13 Girls Mini National Badminton championship held at Thrissur, Kerala. In 2000, she won the Junior National Badminton championship and also the Women’s Doubles Junior National Championship and the Senior national Bad-

minton championship, both in partnership with Shruti Ku-rien. Gutta and Shruti Kurien won the Women’s Doubles national title for seven years in succession.

Gutta has won the bronze med-al 2011 BWF World Champion-ships in London, and a gold and silver at 2010 and 2014 Com-monwealth Games in the wom-en’s doubles event, the first for the country. She was conferred the Arjuna Award in 2011.

reaDers pick

CSR TIMES• august 2017 CSR TIMES• august 2017

snippets

Bharti Foundation makes rural ludhiana open defecation free

Bharti Foundation has announced the completion of Satya Bharti Abhiyan, its rural sanitation initiative to promote eradication of open defecation in Ludhiana. At least 18,000 toilets constructed by Bharti Foundation were handed over to rural/urban households across Ludhiana. this also made Ludhiana (rural) the second self-declared ‘open defecation Free’ district of Punjab. In addition to rural household sanitation, separate toilets for girls have also been constructed in 14 government schools in rural Ludhiana.

Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance, defence & corporate Affairs, who met and felicitated some of the beneficiaries and village leaders, and lauded them for their support towards building a cleaner India. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, co-chairman, Bharti Foundation, said: “We are proud to have contributed in our small way to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission and improving the quality of life of our fellow citizens. However, the biggest driver of this successful intervention has been the participation of the local communities in helping spread the message of sanitation. Ludhiana and the state of punjab have today set a shining example for others to follow.”

the Foundation also announced plans to launch Satya Bharti Abhiyan in Amritsar (Rural) in partnership with the Government of punjab to construct over 50,000 toilets.

snippets

Indian astronomers have identified an extremely large super-cluster of galaxies and have named it Saraswati. As stated by them, a supercluster of 43 galaxies has been located in the direction of constellation Pisces. It is 4,000 million lightyears away from earth and may contain the mass equivalent of over 20 million billion suns.

the Saraswati discovery was made by astronomers from India’s Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophys-ics (IUcAA) and the Indian Institute of Science education and Research (IISeR), both in pune along with researchers from Newman College in Thodupuzha, Kerala, and National Insti-tute of Technology, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, were also involved in the research.

In a statement issued by Joydeep Bagchi from IUCAA and co-author Shishir Sankhyayan, a phd scholar at IISeR, the scientists have stated that the discovery of these extremely large structures would force astronomers to re-think about the popular theories of how the universe got its current form,

starting from a more or less uniform distribution of energy after the Big Bang. the Saraswati supercluster is far more dis-tant compared to Shapley concentration or the Sloan Great Wall, the superclusters reported earlier.

HcL Foundation under the My School project organized Aarambh, a week-long welcome event for the students of 10 government schools. As part of the week-long festivity, various art and craft, mu-sic, dance and sports activities were organized. the students from Government Primary School, Kakrala and Government Primary School, Kulsera who were trained by the HCL volunteers got an op-portunity to showcase their talent on the stage.

HcL Foundation has recently partnered with 30 government schools in noida with the objective of enabling quality transfor-mation and improving the enrollment, attendance and learning outcomes of students in these schools. the core focus areas of in-tervention in schools include strengthening the physical infrastruc-ture and facilities; making the classroom processes more dynamic and interactive; strengthening the leadership and management of schools through capacity building initiatives and ensuring effective engagement with the neighbouring communities. to address low-attendance in schools, some volunteers also initiated a dialogue with residents to spread awareness about the event and to motivate parents to send their children to school.

Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River development and Ganga Rejuvenation dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan in a written reply in Lok Sabha, stated that as per the national commission on Integrated Water Resources develop-ment (ncIWRd) report, the total water available in India received through precipitation is about 4,000 billion cubic metre (BCM) per annum. After evaporation, 1,869 BCM water is available as natural runoff. But due to geological and other factors, the utilizable water availability is limited to 1,123 BcM per annum.

the average annual per capita water availability in the years 2001 and 2011 was 1,820 BcM and 1,545 BcM respectively which may reduce further to 1,341 and 1,140 by 2025 and 2050 respectively. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (ModWS) has directed the states to provide rural households with piped water supply. A stra-tegic plan has been prepared by the Ministry for providing drinking water supply in rural areas of the country for the period 2011-22. By 2022, the goal is to cover 90 per cent of rural households with piped water supply.

indian astronomers discover galaxy supercluster

Festivity for students 90% rural households to get piped water supply by 2022

ongc launches cleanathon himalaya to clean three important tributaries of the gangesthe oil and natural Gas cor-poration Limited (onGc) in collaboration with In-dian Mountaineering Fed-eration (IMF) is cleaning the Himalayas as part of the Swachh Bharat pakhwada. titled ‘cleanathon Hima-laya’, this CSR programme of onGc aims to clean three source tributaries of river Ganga: Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and pindari. the total cost of the project will be `35.4 lakh and the drive would start from July 2017 and end in December 2017.

the cleaning of source tributaries of the Ganges has been undertaken by ONGC to take the government’s flag-ship cleanliness programme to the Himalayas. onGc is partnering with the IMF to remove the hazardous garbage/waste generated by tourists at different tourist spots of Himala-yas. In the three phases completed so far, onGc has covered important

peaks and glaciers of Himalayas in Uttarakhand, Himachal pradesh, J&K and Arunachal Pradesh. Clean-ing expeditions have already been carried out in the bank of Gaumukh, tapovan, nandanvan and Gangotri; chanshal valley (Shimla district) and triund dharamshala in Himachal pradesh, Yamunotri in Uttarakhand, Anini / Mechuka of Himalaya range of Arunachal pradesh and Sheshnag / chandanwari, pehalgam, Lidder River and Amarnath Yatra route of Himalaya range of Jammu & Kashmir.

South African consulate, Mum-bai, marked Mandela day by providing packaged hygiene kits for school girls at Grande Morello Hall, Holy Family Hos-pital, Bandra West. the kits com-prised of sanitary napkins, soap, hand towel, sanitizer, toothpaste and toothbrush.

In association with the nargis dutt Foundation, the South African consulate is supporting the cause by providing free sanitary napkins for 176 school girls for one year. South African consul General M.L. Ramokgopa said: “Women and girls lack hygiene supplies and as a result of which they do not attend schools or work or indulge into any kind of

activity during their menstrual cy-cles. Lack of affordability, accessibil-ity and awareness are the primary reasons why school girls are forced to drop out. through this initiative, we would like to help these girls keep up with their education. We hope to see this change in the com-ing years, where every girl has ac-cess to hygienic mediums and can live a routine life.”

sa consulate distributes hygiene kits

3332CSR TIMES• august 2017 CSR TIMES• august 2017

more Than a Good samaritan

In the absence of adequate number of government hospitals in India and the increasing cost of treatment at private hospitals, the common man often succumbs to diseases easily curable. Deo Kumar Saraf is a wonder man who, at his chain of charitable hospitals in West Bengal, provides treatment to the marginalized and middle class at minimal prices

and dreams of an India where no one dies from lack of treatment.

this hospital at the information technology hub of Kolkata, Salt Lake, provides eye examination

at `20, charges only `75 per day for a bed and treatment in intensive coronary care unit (IccU), gets a coronary bypass surgery done at `85,000 when other hospitals charge between `2.5 lakh and `4 lakh, and yet manages to pay its staff a decent salary. the Anandalok Hospitals is a hospital group which has eight charitable hospitals, including four in Salt Lake, Kolkata, one in Asutosh Mukherjee Road, Kolkata; one in Baduria Municipality in north 24 Parganas; one in Punjabi More, Raniganj, Burdwan; and in one in Chakulia, East Singhbhum, Jharkhand; all providing health services to the people at the minimal cost possible. And the man behind all this is not a doctor but a commerce graduate deo Kumar Saraf, who is in his 70s and is still dreaming of an India where there are more and more hospitals which provide the best health care services to the common man at the most affordable price if not free.

Saraf was not born with a silver spoon nor did he ever make attempts to accumulate wealth. He had to take up the job of an accounts assistant with a private company at a monthly salary of `250 when he was only 16 while he was still studying. That was in 1959. He was

the only earning member of the family. A few years later in 1963, he lost his younger brother to blood dysentery as he did not have the money to buy blood for him. And this transformed him. He was determined he will build hospitals for people who do not have enough money for proper medical care. though he could do nothing immediately as he had many responsibilities, some years later he began his efforts to start a hospital. “Since childhood, I grew up amid severe financial constraint. My younger brother suffered from blood dysentery and the doctor asked me to get a bottle of blood. I could not afford to buy the blood and my brother died. The memory of my brother’s death inspired me to build up a hospital where no patient will be allowed to die for want of medicine and blood.”

Saraf kept requesting people for donations to start a health care unit, and after many years in 1981, his pleas were answered by B.R. Gupta, the then chief Secretary of the West Bengal. He helped him by giving him a 500 square feet garage in Lake town to set up a dispensary. the dispensary catered to tuberculosis, eye and paediatrics patients and Saraf had to give tuitions to students to manage the funds. He asked people to donate whatever they could. In 1982, following media reports, the then Chief Minister Jyoti

Basu allotted a 3,200 square feet land in Salt Lake to start the hospital. But because of fund crunch nothing moved. Saraf was called for a meeting with the chief Minister when a businessman who wanted to donate `1 lakh was also present. He was asked by the chief Minister to give the money to Saraf. That was the first donation Saraf received. A six-bed hospital with IccU was set up in the allotted land. He kept asking everyone he met for donations. Saraf ’s mother too sold off her ornaments to contribute. For many years Saraf had to wear clothes made from discarded bed sheets. He got his shirts and trousers stitched from the unwanted bed sheets and the money saved went to the hospital. “this went on for 9-10 years,” he says. “But after the success of one hospital, I went on to build a chain of hospitals.”

At Anandalok Hospitals, a coronary angioplasty is done at only `42,000, including hospital stay for four days, operation theatre expenses, cost of stent, balloon and medicines. And Saraf says they face no financial problem in managing the hospital despite offering treatments at such a low rate. “Anandalok Hospital charges minimal rates from the patients. Whatever revenue we receive from the patients, that is sufficient to meet the expenses of their treatment. that is how the

hospital finances are managed,” he says. However, the hospital still accepts donations from all and sometimes it is even `100 or less. Doctors, technicians and the nurses at the Anandalok Hospitals also cooperate with Saraf in pursuing his goal of serving the patients, and especially those belonging to the middle class and underprivileged sections of society. “All the doctors, technicians and nurses are well paid and they have no complaint in this regard.” Ask him whether there is a special discount for the underprivileged and he says, “After providing these facilities at lower than the discounted rates of any hospital, we are not in a position to give any further discount to patients from marginalized section.”

But Saraf is not happy with the way the private health care system in India is functioning. “If we can manage

keeping the costs marginal, why can’t they,” he questions. “Birth and death are not in the hands of man. God is the final arbiter in this respect. However, when a life is saved by proper treatment at our hospital, I express my gratitude to God for giving me the opportunity to save a life.”

He has a message for all those who have made health care a prospective business. “to all those who want to work for the society by building hospitals and clinics; I urge them to provide health care facility at affordable rates. We have a lot of hospitals in our country and most of them cater to the medical needs of upper and solvent class. the majority of the middle class and the marginalized class patients hardly get a fair deal. they either have to sell out their belongings to meet the medical expenses or go without treatment. Please do not extract flesh

from their bones for your personal prosperity. never forget their agony because if you cannot bring smile on their faces, all your social work will go in vain.” He is blunt when it comes to advising but undoubtedly the work he is doing is commendable.

This 76-year-old man refuses to retire and says he has many more tasks to do. “At our hospitals we are providing treatment at affordable rates for the benefit of the patients. But other hospitals are charging exorbitant rates from the patients and inflicting burden of excessive expenses on them. I visited different places, wrote letters to chief Ministers and the prime Minister for building hospitals where treatment will be provided at affordable rates. But my appeals have not yet been entertained. My present challenge is to build more hospitals like ‘Anandalok’ all over India.” v

By Sucheta das Mohapatra

making a DiFFrence

3534 CSR TIMES• august 2017 CSR TIMES• august 2017

CSR TIMES• july 2017

Our entire system, in an economic sense, is based on restriction. Scarcity and inefficien-cy are the movers of money; the more there is of any resource the less you can charge for it. The more problems there are, the more opportunities there are to make money.

This reality is a social disease, for people can actually gain off the misery of others and the destruction of the environment. Ef-ficiency, abundance and sustainability are enemies of our economic structure, for they are inverse to the mechanics required to perpetuate consumption.

This is profoundly critical to understand, for once you put this together you begin to see that the one billion people currently starving on this planet, the endless slums of the poor and all the horrors of a culture due to poverty and pravity are not natural phenomenon due to some natural human order or lack of earthly resources. They are products of the creation, perpetuation and preservation of artificial scarcity and inefficiency.

― Peter Joseph, American film-maker and activist

Campaigns against corporations have led them to take greater care that their goods are not produced under unac-ceptable working conditions for starvation wages. All of us, by the decisions we make about how we live and work and travel and consume help to shape an environment. To think and act morally, to do what is right because it is right, influence oth-ers; it begins to create a climate of opinion; good like evil, is in-fectious. We do not have to accept the unacceptable. The only thing that makes social or economic trends inevitable is the belief that they are. The unfolding drama of the 21st century is one of which we are the co-writers of the script.

— Rabbi Jonathon Sacks, the author of the dignity of difference

It shouldn’t be the consumer’s responsibility to figure out what’s cruel and what’s kind, what’s environmen-tally destructive and what’s sustainable. Cruel and de-structive food products should be illegal. We don’t need the option of buying children’s toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with chlorofluorocarbons, or medi-cines with unlabeled side effects. And we don’t need the option of buying factory-farmed animals.

― Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist

The great challenge of the 21st century is to raise people every-where to a decent standard of living while preserving as much of the rest of life as possible.

― Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize winner

American biologist and researcher

It is not good enough to do what the law says. We need to be in the forefront of these [social responsibility] issues.

— Anders Dahlvig, CEO of IKEA

Companies that are breaking the mould are moving beyond corporate social re-sponsibility to social innovation. These companies are the vanguard of the new paradigm. They view community needs as opportunities to develop ideas and demonstrate business technologies, to find and serve new markets, and to solve long-standing business problems.

—rosabeth moss Kanter, harvard

Business review

inFLuencers speak

Corporate social responsi-bility is a hard-edged busi-ness decision. not because it is a nice thing to do or be-cause people are forcing us to do it... because it is good for our business

— Niall Fitzerald, for-mer CEO, Unilever

37

In my view the successful companies of the future will be those that integrate business and employ-ees' personal values. The best people want to do work that contributes to society with a company whose values they share, where their actions count and their views matter.

— Jeroen van der Veer, Committee of Managing Directors of Shell

CSR TIMES• august 2017

The metro manW hen the first phase of the

Kochi metro was inaugurated by prime Minister narendra

Modi last month, the audience was ecstatic. The joy of having the first metro in the country which connects rail, road and water transport system was evident, but the whistling and clapping was for the man who led this fastest metro project to completion. the man they cheered for is an engineering genius, a man who works hard and knows how to inspire others to work hard too. Metro man, as he is popularly known as, elattuvalapil Sreedharan modernized the public transport system in India, increasing its reach and affordability.

Sreedharan’s rendezvous with impre-ssive feats dates back to 1964 when a cyclone washed away parts of pamban Bridge that connected Rameswaram to mainland tamil nadu. He was put in-charge of restoring the bridge in three months, but he completed it in only 46 days. A few years later, he was assigned with the task of planning, designing and implementing the first metro project of the country. the blueprint of the calcutta Metro was prepared by him and he as the deputy chief engineer took it to completion too. He joined the Cochin Shipyard in 1979 as the chairman and managing director; and in 1981, the shipyard’s first ship, MV Rani padmini, was launched.

the railway man retired from Indian Railways as Member engineering, Railway Board and ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India in 1990. But he was again appointed as CMD of Konkan Railway. Within seven years, the 760-km project constructed on a build-operate-transfer (Bot) contract was completed. Said to be one of the most difficult railway projects of the world, it has 150 bridges and 93 tunnels constructed along a length of 82-km of very soft soil. After his stint in Konkan Railways, he was made the managing director of delhi Metro Rail corporation (dMRc) and remained in the position till December 2011, overseeing

the completion of first two phases of metro construction in the country’s capital. DMRC is the first metro rail and rail-based system certified by the United nations to get carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as it has helped reduce pollution levels in the city by 6.3 lakh tonnes every year. He then took up the task of being the principal Advisor of yet another difficult project, the Kochi Metro Rail project, an integrated public transport system.

India’s Railway Man, as he has been referred to by his biographer Rajendra B. Aklekar, was born on June 12, 1932, in Karukaputhur, which is now in Palakkad district of Kerala. He completed his schooling from the Basel evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School and then joined the victoria college in palghat from where he went on to do civil engineering from the Government engineering college, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, now known as JNTUK. He joined the Southern Railway as a probationary assistant engineer in 1954 after clearing the Indian Engineering Service.

Sreedharan is liked, cherished and revered by the masses. He has the craft to move the projects ahead despite political pressures, bureaucratic hurdles and internal and external criticism. He changed the perception of an average Indian that government projects are never on time. In 1974, when the Indian Railways witnessed the largest strike ever, he was busy working on the calcutta Metro project and refused to stop work. Similarly, during the construction of Konkan Railway, there was fuel shortage as the first Gulf War was round the corner, but he managed to keep the ball rolling. He is admired for delivering the projects on time, within the stipulated budget and without compromising

on the quality. He is a true karmayogi, who is also respected for taking moral responsibility of the task he is handed over. In 2009, when an under construction metro bridge collapsed in delhi, he within no time announced his resignation. He was however convinced to stay back as the dMRc needed his service.

the metro man who was awarded the padma Shri by the Government of India in 2001, the Padma Vibhushan in 2008 and the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 2005 by the French Government, has many jobs at hand. He is the chief Advisor of the Lucknow Metro and envisages completing it within two years and nine months; he is an advisor for the Jaipur Metro and is guiding Andhra pradesh chief Minister chandrababu naidu for a proposed metro rail system in visakhapatnam and vijayawada.

the metro man leads a disciplined life and even at 85, the commitment, determination and energy with which he

works is startling and thrilling for a common man. the Time magazine had rightly named him as one of Asia’s Heroes

in 2003. v

ceLebrity: e. sreeDharan

CSR TIMES• august 2017

CSR TIMES• july 2017

rni: deleng/2013/49640

RNI: DELENG/2013/49640