Corporate social sesponsibility in the information and communication technologies sector: Discussion

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have revolutionised life and brought prosperity to many, particularly in India, where revenues from IT software and services exports reached Rs 475 billion in 2002-03. Along with this have grown concerns about the sector as a player in the development process. Can effective use be made of IC technologies in bringing practical and cost-effective benefits to the lives of people? While technology can help bring transparency, what is the track record of the ICT industry in terms of corporate governance, labour standards, workplace culture, human rights, community involvement, social benefit and environmental impact?

Discussing these issues were participants from the private, public and voluntary sectors brought together by the Centre for Social Markets and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, to help identify key areas for further research and collective action. The participants were N Balasubramanian, Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship, IIMB; Vijay Chandru, Founder Director, PicoPeta Simputers and Professor, Indian Institute of Science; Zulfi Hussain, Senior Manager, BT Ignite Solutions, UK; Sridhar Mitta, Founder President, e4e India and President, The Indus Entrepreneur, Bangalore; and Ramesh Ramaswamy, Founder, Technology Exchange Network, Bangalore.

Outlining the broad issues of concern to the ICT industry, P D Jose emphasised the need for corporations to rethink their responsibility, particularly the relationship between value creation and resource consumption. Business needs to create solutions which are rooted in the needs of the user community and not just those of their employees. Further, companies must change their `cheque-book philanthrophy` mindset, integrate their initiatives into their strategic planning and be valuated according to their larger impact.

N Balasubramanian linked the traditional socio-religious Indian concept of `giving` and Gandhiji`s concept of trusteeship with today`s concern for the `triple bottom line` impact of businesses. He referred to the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) survey and the IIMB survey of perceptions of CSR which revealed an increasing awareness of CSR in organisations and the belief that good ethics is good business. Along with his Australian colleagues David Kimber and Fran Siemensma, Prof Balasubramanian had traced a `Bangalore` or `IT` model of corporate citizenship and social responsiveness, where founders of companies wanted to be seen as good citizens and role models. These companies saw organisational sustainability as primary and a visible CSR awareness as its subset.

One of the challenges of globalisation, particularly in the UK, says Zulfi Hussain, has been that of managing workplace diversity. This involves welding the individual talents and perspectives that each person brings and appreciating that different cultures and communities have a part to play in the success of the organisation. An equitable employment system where equity infuses all the activities of a business, is essential for any organisation to become a world-class institution. Here, the top management`s emphasis on diversity being a non-negotiable part of that organisation is very important.

Rethinking the ICT firm along ecological lines, Ramesh Ramaswamy explains the development of the relatively new field of Industrial Ecology. The underlying philosoply here is that to develop sustainable societies, it is necessary to perceive the system as a whole, understand the flows of resources, including material, energy and human, through the system and design new socio-economic systems rather that just treat `end-of-pipe pollution`. Experiments such as the one at Kalundborg led to an industrial ecology agenda which included the systematic leveraging of waste and by-products, minimising the loss caused by dispersion, dematerialising the economy and reduced reliance on fossil hydrocarbons. The IT industry can contribute significantly to the process of dematerialisation.

Sridhar Mitta traces the early days of the Internet when its potential as a development platform was first perceived. This led to the exploration of other values that could be digitised, the opportunities and ethical concerns, and the empowerment that Internet connectivity can bring about. While Indian IT companies have created value at the first three levels of inexpensive labour or wage arbitrage, better processes and better technology, it is by moving to the fourth level of innovation and generating high end value that Indian companies can be truly creative and go forward.

If India is to move from the industrial to the information era, it has to go through a process of domestication of computing, averred Vijay Chandru, and as an illustration of indigenous, development friendly new era technology, he cited the Simputer, a low cost portable alternative to PCs. With the Simputer, illiteracy is no longer a barrier to handling a computer, as it can `speak` in several languages; and it can be shared by many users in the local community. The connectivity of the Simputer engineers it for education, e-governance and micro-finance.

Malini Mehra drew attention to the uncertain governance paradigm in the IT territory while Raj Bandi asked whether `Taylorism` was a feature of the maturing IT industry. If CSR has to begin at home, organisations must question their practices towards their own employees, especially the privacy issues evoked by their monitoring mechanisms.

In bridging the digital divide, the panel recommended increasing ICT access to rural areas, legislation to facilitate corporate citizenship, developing appropriate governance paradigms and evolving common principles of CSR instruments suited to socio-cultural contexts, as initiatives at the national level. At the industry level, enhancing the levels of corporate governance, labour standards, workplace culture and community involvement, and forums to facilitate industry wide sharing of experiences and best practices; at the firm level, adopting a stakeholder approach in implementing CSR initiatives, evolving new methods of valuing a company`s performance and integrating CSR initiatives into the firm`s strategic planning were recommended.