Corporate’S Role In Social Metamorphosis: A Retrospection

If you ask any UPSC aspirant one good reason why he would like to join civil services, the typical answer would be to serve the society and nation and be a contributory to social metamorphosis.

Ask any engineer or scientist applying for DRDO, ISRO or BARC the same question, answer again would be on the similar lines.

Though these answers may sound clichés, but are not incongruous prima facie.

We tend to be influenced by people who seem to be affecting our lives in good ways, be it education, administration or sciences. After independence, majority of Indian masses were exposed to government machinery in day to day life. Hence people used to revere good teachers in government schools and universities, honest bureaucrats in administration, successful scientists in scientific establishments, humble mangers in the bank and so on and so forth. The same level of reverence was not expressed for people from corporate sector. They were either non-existent for them or perceived to be ones who were not in any ways involved with their lives.

If some of us remember, there used to be a serial on Doordarshan named Udaan. The female protagonist of the serial, Kalyani aspires to become a civil servant just because she experiences the influence of governance in her struggling times.

On the contrary, the day when CIENA INDIA (My current organization) was awarding underprivileged students for their performances in the computer literacy test under community outreach programme, one of the students showed her eagerness to become a Software Engineer!!!

In the later case, it was CIENA which was able to touch the heart of this student before any government servant could do. Hence she is looking forward to be part of corporate sector.

So has Indian corporate come out of close contours to play an active role in the society? I would say it was never so away from the society on the first place itself. They were always part of social churning, sometimes remaining under their business paradigms and sometimes by remaining out of it by means of philanthropy.

TATA Corp. provided the initial funding for all major scientific endeavors which were started in post independence India. Be it space research, atomic research or establishment of IISc and TIFR. TATA scholarships helped may Indian students to reach pinnacles in their respective fields. It includes former president of India Mr. K.R.Narayanan. TATA Cancer institute is providing affordable healthcare services to millions of destitute people. Tata institute of social sciences is doing pioneering work in the field of social services.

AMUL movement under the flagship of Mr. Varguese Kourien showed how a cooperative movement can change the fortunes of people. It converted the small time dairy business run by small farmers into a full blown corporate. This success was inclusive of all those small farmers thus breaking the myth that corporate is all about profit for selected people. It was the first success story of cooperative movement in independent India.

E-chaupal, a venture envisioned by ITC is making determined attempts to reach the farmers in far rung areas and give them the fair prices for their produce. Through this venture farmers are provided with infrastructure and market inputs needed to make an educated decision on the quality and quantity of their produce. This is enabling farmers to come out of vicious cycle of low risk taking ability > low investment > low productivity > weak market orientation > low value addition > low margin > low risk taking ability.

Infosys is not alien to any of us. But what makes Infosys a subject mater of discussion is probably not its corporate success but the good values and practices it tries to inculcate in the society. Its believe in sharing the wealth and fair corporate governance has gone a long way in establishing corporate’s benevolence in the country. It is able to uplift the living standards of thousands of people by making them shareholders in the success of the company. Infosys foundation is a boon for social services in the region.

Last but not the least, we the people of corporate amply contribute to the society whenever need arise. It is because of these contributions that we are no longer dependent on the foreign aid in times of natural calamities. CIENA’s community outreach programme is yet another example of our determination for society’s upliftment.

And the citations continue……

Mr. Narayan Murthy says:

“A person should be capitalist by mind and socialist by heart”.

I could not find any better words than these to epitomize corporate’s philosophy vis-à-vis social responsibilities.

Question is, will these contributions be recognized? I am optimistic they will. With the opening up of media and internet, things were never so conducive to spread good messages across. But we cannot afford to be complacent. Though laudable, efforts are still needed to make people perceive corporate credible instrument of social good.