Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an integral part of a business organisation despite critics claiming it to be a public relation tool and façade to campaign against environmental and human rights regulation to expand business interests.
Corporate Social Responsibility is a new business paradigm which means continuous commitment by business houses to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large. Corporate Social Responsibility involves various voluntary efforts in which companies engage themselves to give back something to the society. Firms can no longer continue to exploit environmental resources and escape from their responsibility by acting as separate entities regardless of the interest of society.
In India, Corporate Social Responsibility began as a philanthropic activity where organizations contributed to social causes, but with its growing importance it has become an essential activity for business. The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has been given a new dimension by the oil Public Sector Units in India.
Recently state owned oil companies agreed to spend two per cent of their net profit on Corporate Social Responsibility in a meeting on February 2, 2009 called by India’s Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora to review the contribution of oil Public Sector Units to CSR activities. It is believed that more than Rs 600 crore will be now made available by oil PSUs for CSR activities every year. A compilation of CSR activities undertaken by oil PSUs will be released by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at the end of every year to ensure transparency in the process.Major oil players of the country like Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Oil India Limited have incorporated the concept of CSR in their own way. The ONGC had been regularly contributing to various CSR programs in areas like health, education, infrastructure and culture and sports.
ONGC was conferred the ‘Golden Jubilee Award for Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Economies- 2006, during the 7th International Conference organized by the World Council for Corporate Governance in London in May 2006. It also received the Businessworld FICCI-SEDF Corporate Social Responsibility Award 2007 for its commendable contribution towards CSR. IOC too has been going out of their way to contribute in various CSR activities. Every year Indian Oil sets aside a fixed portion of its profits for community welfare and developmental programmes.
With growing globalization there has been a shift in focus from only making profits to meet challenges of the society. Corporate Social Responsibility is helping organisations in improving relationships with local people, increasing brand value and building a good corporate image for themselves. At the end of the day both society and the corporate world are winners.