INDIACSR News Network
NEW DELHI: “The days are not far off when every corporate body will come out and say sustainable development is good business. Today, corporate governance is a strategic necessity, and research has revealed companies which demonstrate good governance practices are able to secure investments and talent”, said Veerappa Moily, Union Minister for Corporate Affairs and Power, Government of India.
He was speaking at the Special Plenary on Value Creation with Good Corporate Governance, at the Sustainability & Inclusive Solutions: Summit & Exhibition organised by the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development on 16 Oct 2012. The current Companies Bill is essential for an enlightened corporate governance process and is expected to be introduced in Parliament, the Minister added. Also, the government has set up the Damodar Committee to remove procedural bottle-necks. The vision is to make India among the top five nations where doing business is the easiest.
Earlier, speaking at the occasion, Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director General and CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs [IICA], said value creation and corporate governance are intertwined, and forms a triad when combined with sustainability. For this to develop, value and trust go hand in hand. Merely creating value may not be of use if a company cannot share it with society, added Chatterjee. Suggesting a way forward, he said IICA would look forward to working with the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development in developing new frameworks and tools for creating a market for rewarding value creation and also feed this into public policy.
Delivering the opening remarks, YC Deveshwar, Past President, CII, Chairman, CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development and Chairman, ITC said there is a growing inequity that is compounded with environmental degradation and global warming. The main problem today is the way value has been traditionally defined, and is limited to the interests of only the consumers and shareholders.
The top 10% of the global population own 85% of the total household assets whereas the bottom 50% owned only 1%. This pointed to the need for incentives for the corporate sector as it is encouraged to unleash its power to create value in multiple dimensions through enhancing social, economic and environmental capitals, Deveshwar added.
