Visit Our US Site
CSR activities can lead to tangible benefits for both businesses & people. These should be implemented in partnership with an organization with domain expertise.
Do you want to embrace CSR activities as part of your overall business strategy?
A knowledgeable and skilled workforce is the prerequisite for companies to harness breakthrough technologies, increase efficiency, and deliver outcomes that meet their business goals. However, finding such a workforce can often be the difference between the proverbial cup and the lip. In a large and populous country like India where the number of people ready to join the workforce increases by the day, businesses should come forward in equipping such people with the requisite wherewithal through the CSR route.
With CSR becoming a mandatory component for corporates to follow in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2016, businesses can look into the niche areas for channelling their resources. Since companies benefit from the society at large, they can give back by helping people from underprivileged backgrounds to receive quality education, training or employment. Although India is poised to enjoy a demographic dividend given the ageing workforce in the western countries and the relatively young workforce joining the mainstream here, there are glaring oddities as well.
Notwithstanding the numerous policy initiatives launched by various governments over the years, the gulf between the haves and have-nots seems to be widening by the day. The number of people living below the poverty line in rural, semi urban, and urban areas is staggering. These people have to endure a poor quality of life with no access to sanitation, health, education, electricity and other services, which others, in general, have taken for granted. Given the dismal scenario and the lack of reach of government services, activities undertaken on behalf of corporate social responsibility of business become important.
Importantly, companies can plan and implement CSR projects to address the challenges that are mentioned above. However, the same need to be monitored and administered meticulously to ensure positive outcomes. For at the end of the project, the outcomes should be properly evaluated to find out whether they matched with the expected ones.
Choosing the focus area for a CSR initiative
For long, CSR was viewed as just another fad or an obligation that businesses can get on with by paying a cursory interest. However, of late, businesses have realized its importance in brand building, networking, furthering their objectives and as an avenue to contribute to society. Thus, CSR is now being treated as an important component of their overall business strategies.
The corporate social responsibility for business can be a win-win strategy when there is a shared value creation enabled through smart partnership. This results in businesses addressing the real challenges on the ground and people experiencing a better quality of life. The key to a smart partnership is about leveraging the mutual strengths of organizations in finding solutions to challenges, both business and social.
Engaging an experienced company in delivering the CSR outcomes
Since organizations have to optimize spending in order to maximize the benefits – for the shareholders and stakeholders, they should ideally partner with an established player in the domain. This is where we, at Anudip have created a name for ourselves in the field of education, training, skill development and employment. We act as the CSR partner for a number of companies like Accenture, Citi Foundation, Google, NetHope, Cisco, AIF, Capgemini, ITC Ltd, ICRA, HSBC, Cognizant Foundation, Tech Mahindra Foundation, mJunction, Tata Group and many others in implementing the latter’s CSR goals.
With support and mentoring from our CSR partners, we are empowered to equip people from socially marginalized groups can get the right platform to learn about skills – from basic to the advanced level across verticals. The trained candidates can then be absorbed in the respective business organizations as a part of the social welfare recruitment process.
The initiatives can go a long way in securing considerable goodwill for businesses and helping them to meet their business objectives. At the same time, these can transform the lives of the talented youth from the underprivileged sections.
