This public session that was hosted by the Coimbatore chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as a part of their annual day celebrations brought together people from different walks of life. The chief Guest speaker was Dr Mukund Rajan, Chairman, Tata Global Sustainability Council and Chief Ethics Officer, Tata Sons Limited. He spoke on the subject ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Challenges of Sustainability.
Past Chairperson, CII Coimbatore Zone, Nethra Kumar introduced the speaker and the subject. “Companies have realised that they have to come up with something innovative in order to sustain their business. In this strategy, the one size fits all concept does not work. In terms of sustainability, corporate houses are forced to think and adopt out-of-the-box concepts. India has the higher youth population. However, in the Human Development Index, India stood at 130th place out of 186.” Nethra said.
Introducing the speaker through a presentation, Nethra made way for Dr Rajan to educate the audience on this burning issue of companies and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). “Today’s topic is something that has received a lot of attention in the global stage. Three important aspects influence this subject. They are global climate change, question of inequality and socio-political and economical insecurity.”
Talking about the three points in-depth, the speaker told his audience that 10 of the most polluted cities in the world are in India. “The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set norms to describe polluted cities and sadly, 10 of the 20 world’s most polluted cities are Indian cities as per the WHO norms. Pollution level in these cities is way about the WHO norms. Environmental sustainability challenges are stepping up and several corporate houses have stepped up to take responsibility in saving the environment.”
Moving the focus to the second aspect of the talk, Dr Mukund Rajan told his audience that gender inequality still prevails in our workplace and in our society too. “As far as TATA Sons is concerned, women are encouraged to take up superior positions in the corporate world. Ahead of the elections in 2014- 15, TATA Sons carried out a survey where 1.2 million respondents were interviewed. The outcome of this survey was shared with various political parties and the following election witnessed an increase of 10% of women voters.”
Concluding his talk commenting on the third subject, Dr Mukund Rajan told his audience that the world is witnessing a political insecurity. “The newly elected President Donald Trump has created a lot political insecurity in the minds of Americans and among the people of the world. It is in the hands of corporates and leaders to bring in the necessary change in the mindset of the people and also bring in a change in the world.”