CSR 2.0: From defensive to systemic corporate sustainability and responsibility
I have found it useful to view the evolution of business responsibility in terms of five overlapping economic periods – the Ages of Greed, Philanthropy, Misrepresentation, Management and Responsibility – each of which typically manifests a different stage of CSR, namely: defensive, charitable,
The immediacy of resource depletion and the murmur of global warming
The increased public and political focus on global warming has diverted discussion away from world resource depletion, particularly the depletion of fossil fuel energy with its potentially disastrous impact on world food production. According to its own internal whistleblowers, the International Energy Agency
Smart chap! One line, and Ramesh ensured a battery of off-roaders for himself…
‘With a one-line statement, “driving SUVs in a country like India is criminal,” Jairam Ramesh ensured that he would soon own a battery of off-roaders for himself.’ “Ha, ha, ha… No wonder, he’s saving all those jungles and is after those infrastructure guys.
Stepping up to Save the Planet: Moving on to Corporate Social Engagement
Why should corporations maximize the common good, rather than just making sure they do no harm? Is it a moral imperative? A business imperative? Our civilization’s central organizing project is to transform our adverse impact on the climate system. Scientists tell us that
Climate change happens to other people, other places
As a topic, climate change is everywhere. More truly, it has been tossed about with such abandon that, one fears, mostly what remains is the coinage – almost skeletal and bereft of much utilitarian significance. Admittedly, the common man – as you and
A cycling India: To carve an alternative growth trail
By no means should it seem amazing – that bicycle ownership (30″50 per cent) in Indian cities is much higher than ownership of cars (3″13 per cent) and two-wheelers. Bicycle use in India varies from 7″15 per cent in large cities to
Our roads, our cows, and us.
The grandeur of the sight is compelling. An under-construction flyover – some three kilometres in length”overlooking a sea of human beings, cars, motorbikes, buses, mini trucks, scooters, cycle rickshaws, bicycles, carts, animals – all bravely navigating the crests and troughs of what can
Unless you reach out to people at the lowest rung, development cannot happen.
This conversation almost did not happen. In what can be termed as a role reversal, the interviewee, Krishan Pal Gurjar, president of BJP Haryana and MLA from Tigaon, had to wait for over an hour for the CauseBecause team, delayed by the most
We are but resigned to corruption
Corruption, that very dreaded word, is firmly back in the spotlight on the Indian firmament. This time, credit goes to the Commonwealth Games-centric wheeling-dealing encompassing crores of rupees and a stupendous dose of the ludicrous. As inexplicable money trails stand exposed, the deal,
There is a little bit of CSR in my hair!
If I am to simplify all of life with a perspective that is distinctly marketing-oriented, there are just two types of people in the world ” a small set of marketing people on one side, and a whole large set of people being