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PPF on CSR and Sustainable Development
The forum was opened by Dr. Syeda Hameed, member Planning Commission, who talked about the need for inclusive growth. She pointed out that it was mostly urban India which was benefiting from the 9% growth, leaving behind rural India. Citing examples of the recent flood hit Orissa, Dr. Hameed stressed on the need for CSR activities, to take into account rural India too. Dr. Hameed's talk was followed by the first session of the forum on the 'Role of CSR in Supplementing Societal Good'. The session was chaired by Dr. Anand P. Gupta, Director, Economic Management Institute, who, taking up Dr. Hameed's reference to the lack of inclusive growth, talked about the need to utilize the huge amount of money that the government was raising. There is a need to manage government expenditure and get the value for the money spent, he said. Dr. Gupta then introduced the four panelists, Colonel Prakash Tewari, Head - CSR and R&R, Tata Power Company Limited, Mr. Sudhir K. Sinha, Country Head, CSR and R&R, ArcelorMittal India, Ms. Vikas Goswami, LEAD CSR, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd., and Mr. Niranjan Khatri, General Manager - Welcomeenviron Initiatives, ITC Welcomgroup. Each of the speakers talked about the various CSR activities that have been undertaken by their respective companies, their views on CSR and more. This was followed by the second session, 'Creating an Enabling Environment through Effective Synergies and Partnerships' which was chaired by Mr. Rangan Dutta, Scientific Consultant (Rural Technology), Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, GoI, who talked about the need for a synergy between government, corporate sector and the NGOs. He further stressed on the need to explore the field of science and technology, natural resource management and broad value addition activities in this field. Mr. Dutta next introduced the four panelists, Dr. Rajesh Tandon, President PRIA, Ms. Pallavi Joshi Bakhru, National Head of Tax, Grant Thornton, Dr. Lalit Kumar, Joint Advisor, Voluntary Action Cell, Planning Commission, GoI, Mr. Keyvan Sadigh, Teach For America Alumnus and strategist at Google. Mr. Sadigh talked about his experience in Teach for America and the response of corporates such as Google towards volunteerism, Mr. Tandon stressed on the need for an umbrella policy to bring together corporate, voluntary sector and the government, Dr. Lalit Kumar emphasised on the need for partnership between business and voluntary organisations which offer a unique solution to pressing social, economic and environmental challenges, and lastly Ms. Bhakru spoke of the relevance of corporate-NGO partnership for sustainable development and recommended the need for fiscal incentives including tax incentives that can be used to encourage business to take up CSR initiatives. Both sessions ended with an interactive question and answer session. |
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