Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives which are directly or indirectly rooted in the business of an organization were the key to promote equitable economic development of the country.

The role of CSR, especially from the point of view of IT Companies, was extremely important in bridging the digital divide prevalent in the country and help the local economy. “However, the challenge lay in making the efforts more sustainable in the longer run and keep the momentum going”, emphasized Mr Niraj Prakash, Director, Public Sector Marketing, Microsoft India.

Speaking at the 2nd International Meet on Corporate Social Responsibility organized by ASSOCHAM in New Delhi recently, Mr Prakash said Microsoft, in partnership with various state governments, had initiated a program called Project Shiksha under which about 4 lakh government school teachers were trained through specially set up Shiksha academies.

“These teacher training academies were IT equipped and the larger usage of desktops only meant the larger use of operating systems, thereby benefiting us. The more there is a business linkage between CSR and the patron organization, the more likelihood it has to last a long duration”, he pointed out.

India will have a huge workforce of about 50 million people by the year 2020 and their employability plus skill development was a pressing challenge before the country. So through its ‘Rozgar/Kshamta’ programs geared towards creating employable workforce, Microsoft was hitting the twin targets of helping the country’s youth, in addition to ultimately creating a skilled workforce that could eventually work for the IT industry, Mr Prakash said.
Some other efforts like providing free developmental software to small and medium enterprises (Microsoft BizSpark) and provision of adolescent-special security program for PCs were all very good examples of sustainable CSR, he said.

A vibrant local technology industry can contribute to strong economic growth. By bringing together local governments, independent software vendors (ISVs), universities, small businesses, and investors, we can help foster innovative ideas and then help communities translate those ideas into business success, he added.

Sustainable CSR initiatives like ‘Project Shiksha’, ‘Project Jyoti’ and ‘Project Vikas’ has also helped tackle perceived threats like whether an IT giant like Microsoft will harm the local software industry, lock the country with a proprietary/monopoly software vendor and increase the digital divide between the Have’s and Have Not’s, Mr Prakash said.

Also speaking at the event, Dr Ashesh Ambasta, VP and Head, social investment program, ITC said that even after 60 years of independence, India cannot be proud of its performance at the social level and despite all the recent successes, the current business models were not sustainable. “Businesses cannot succeed in societies that fail”, he noted.

He spoke about the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) initiatives of ITC such as ITC’s globally recognised ‘e-Choupal program’ which is the world’s largest rural digital infrastructure benefiting over 4 million farmers and ‘ Social and Farm Forestry initiative’ which has greened nearly 96,000 hectares, creating an estimated 43 million person-days of employment among the disadvantaged.

ITC’s ‘Watershed Development initiative’ brings precious water to over 46,000 hectares of drylands and moisture-stressed areas and Sustainable Community Development initiatives include women’s empowerment, supplementary education and integrated animal husbandry programmes, Mr Ambasth said adding they were looking beyond the balance sheet and profit and loss account towards the larger social good through sustainable CSR.