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ITC Limited’s Mission Sunehra Kal – Two Decades of Transforming Lives and Landscapes is a Chapter authored by Ashesh Ambasta in the book Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Cases and Developments after the Legal Mandate edited by Ms. Nayan Mitra and Dr. Rene Schmidpeter and published by Springer International Publishing, Switzerland under its CSR, Sustainability, Ethics and Governance series.
The Book is available both in e-version and hard copy from Springer as well as Amazon and many other online book stores all over the world. The abstract of the chapter is as follows:
Abstract: The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandate in the Companies Act, 2013 is a relatively recent development that has generated considerable debate between companies, the government, non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the academia regarding its scope, coverage and impact.
Given that this legislation is the first in its kind, important lessons can be drawn from the experience of companies like ITC Limited, which has always believed that in the Indian context, it is essential that business corporations come forward and take on a proactive role in ensuring that the development process is inclusive and sustainable, premised on a triple bottom line approach that aligns social, economic and environmental development along with business growth.
This paper seeks to contribute to this on-going debate on CSR by documenting and analysing ITC’s two-decade old interventions under the umbrella of its ‘Mission Sunehra Kal’. The paper critically examines the Mission’s alignment to the broad aims of the CSR mandate as legislated in the Act and introduces a few constructive suggestions to initiate a conversation on the future direction of this mandate.
Key words: Mission Sunehra Kal, ITC Limited, Social Investments, Strategic Stakeholder, Sustainable Livelihoods, Wealth Generation, Employment Opportunity, e-Choupal, Integrated Watershed Development, Sustainable Agriculture Practices, Social Forestry, Livestock Development, Women’s Empowerment, Self Help Groups, Education, Vocational Skills, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, Social Enterprise, Village and Grass-roots Institutions.
Author brief:
Ashesh Ambasta has been involved in the development sector for several decades, working with grassroots organizations in many of the under-developed districts of India where he set up and managed integrated rural development projects. He has also worked with ActionAid, an International charity in identifying potential areas and NGO partners for their development funding programme. He has completed his PhD in Development Economics from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, on rural labour. Currently he is the Executive Vice President & Head – Social Investments at ITC Limited, with a special focus on natural resources management and sustainable livelihoods creation. He works very closely with identified partner NGOs, research organisations, technical agencies and governments to plan, design, implement and monitor ITC’s investments in the social sector.
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Related Links:
http://www.springer.com/in/book/9783319417806
Nayan Mitra, René Schmidpeter and Editor Christian with the latest book on #CSR in #India https://t.co/qeKGWgsuQ5 pic.twitter.com/0ZVscg5dIv
— Springernomics (@Springernomics) August 8, 2016
