Chapter 6: Social Responisbility and NGO's

International Business

Article link: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/india-csr-law-debate-business-ngo

Article Title:  India's new CSR law sparks debate among NGOs and businesses 

Ashok Prasad Monday 11 August 2014 17.21 BST

 

 

What is a NGO & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY?

A non-governmental organization (NGO, also often referred to as "civil society organization" or CSO) is a not-for-profit group, principally independent from government, which is organized on a local, national or international level to address issues in support of the public good. Task-oriented and made up of people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of services and humanitarian functions, bring public concerns to governments, monitor policy and programme implementation, and encourage participation of civil society stakeholders at the community level. Some are organized around specific issues, such as human rights.

Social responsibility is an ethical framework which suggests that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems.

 

About The Article 

 India is the first country in the world to mandate corporate social responsibility. On 1 April this year, the government of India implemented new CSR guidelines requiring companies to spend 2% of their net profit on social development.

It sounds like legislation to be celebrated – but does it go far enough? Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) Sustainability Reporting for Sustainable Development conference, held this June in India, issued a joint declaration stating that while the government bill was welcome.

NGO evaluation portals and the pooling of resources by SMEs could help to streamline the CSR investments, and questions will continue to be asked about the government's role in mandating such investments. Even as this debate continues, the more important question that the Indian businesses need to answer is how do we align these government mandated CSR activities to handle India's socio-environmental challenges while enabling better long term profits for the business?