Environment and Sustainable Development in India
Achieving economic development is vital to a country. But what if it comes at the cost of environmental degradation? With globalization opening the doors of economic development for so many countries, there is a serious concern regarding how far we are being able to save the environment and not hamper its constituents. To understand the impact of economic growth and development on the environment, we need to be aware of the concept of sustainable development as an alternative solution.
Environment: Meaning and Functions
The ‘environment’ refers to the totality of resources and the total planetary inheritance we have received. It includes biotic (animals, plants, birds, etc
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CSR: Government Initiatives to Empower Rural Youth
Some of the most critical developmental goals that governments strive to achieve are providing employment, securing livelihoods and improving incomes of the people. Indian economy has an advantage in the form of its favorable demographic composition. With 877 million working-age people, India is the largest young nation in the world. According to IMF, India can improve up to 2% annual growth rate, if the demographic dividend is harnessed appropriately.
However, the growth potential relies heavily on skilling and employability of the youth
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CSR: Rise in India’s Carbon Emissions
India has been responsible for 2,299 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). This is a significant rise of 4.8% as compared to the previous year. The report has stated that India’s emissions growth this year was higher than that of the US and China, who are the biggest emitters in the world.
The rise in carbon emissions has been accounted to the increase in coal consumption
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CSR: Government Initiatives to Bring Sustainability in India’s Agriculture
India is predominantly an agrarian country. Agriculture employs almost half of the country’s workforce. It is also responsible for providing livelihood to the majority of the country’s population. However, with the growing demand for food, the agriculture sector of the country is caught between providing food at affordable prices and generating the necessary income to meet the basic standard of living for the majority of the population.
About 70% of the arable land in India is drought prone, 12% is flood prone and 8% is cyclone prone
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CSR reforms as a nursery for empathetic learning and innovations
CSR reforms for augmenting inclusive innovation movement are overdue. So far, a very few Corporations (foundations apart) have really devoted their Corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment strategy towards augmenting innovations. If we exclude, the contributions of Public Sector Corporations towards CSR, the total contribution for CSR is very low by the rest of the thousands of the corporations.
Why should Companies pay attention to CSR which is social obligation imposed by the government but for more important strategic reason. One of the important reasons is that by engaging with socially disadvantaged regions, the Corporations can learn to be empathetic
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CSR funds come handy to improve facilities at govt educational institutions
Educational institutions run by the government are often handicapped by dearth of funds, which often makes it very hard for the management to provide required facilities to the students, most of whom are from the underprivileged sections of society. However, district administration has decided to tide over this financial difficulty by utilising funds disbursed by private firms under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. One of the institutions that has benefitted is Maharani’s Science College, which is slated to receive 100 computers after district administration officials decided to use the funds from CSR.
The district administration managed to collect a sum of Rs 39 crore from various companies in 2018, and these funds were used for, besides improving the facilities of government educational institutions, a wide range of civic projects. These include rejuvenation of waterbodies such as Devikere in Chamundi Hills, Thavarekere, et al
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Swachh Bharat Mission: How companies can use CSR fund for Modi government’s flagship program
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programme Swachch Bharat Mission permits private and public sector companies to use their corporate social responsibility funds for improving sanitation in the country.
The Union government has devised several models that can be used by states and districts to receive funds for this programme from the corporate social responsibility funds of the private and public sector companies. The Union government has also developed a Swachh Bharat Kosh (SBK) for channeling the CSR money.
“Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) guidelines have provisions to facilitate the utilization of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds in rural sanitation activities. States and concerned districts can use these guidelines as a base to develop their own procedure to attract, receive and utilize CSR funds,” drinking water and sanitation minister Uma Bharati informed the Lok Sabha in the ongoing budget session
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FICCI CSR SUMMIT & AWARDS to be held on 20 Feb 2019
India continues to grow economically at a steady pace year-on-year and the new initiatives of the government such as: Make in India campaign, Digital India, ease of doing business, skill mission, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Clean Ganga Mission etc. are improving investment climate and accelerating further growth.
However, the need of the hour is to focus on solving the social gaps sustainably and for reducing helplessness of the vulnerable population.
For this, we require broad based, Collaborative, Creative and Market-Based Approach model based on principles of social justice and sustainable development, as it explicitly aims to provide innovative solutions to unsolved complex social problems, putting social value creation at the heart of its overall strategy to improve individuals’ and communities’ lives not just for a duration but for generations ahead.
To capture the same, the theme of the FICCI CSR Summit and Awards – 2019, the premier platform for advancing innovative CSR approaches and solutions to the country’s most pressing problems in its 17th year will revolve around Maximizing Impact of CSR through Enterprise Development Model
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Total CSR spend may cross Rs 50,000 cr by March 2019
The total corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending by the top 500 companies in the country since the applicability of mandatory CSR in 2014 is likely to cross Rs 50,000 crore by March 2019, said a report.
"Mandatory CSR has gradually formalised the corporate philanthropy with emphasis on impacts on the ground. With on an average Rs 12,000 crore funding annually, there is a lot that can be done in education, healthcare and rural development areas," said Bhomik Shah, chief executive officer, for the research company.
The government in 2014 made mandatory for companies to spend 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit on CSR activities in each financial year, starting from FY15. The norms are applicable to firms with at least Rs 5 crore net profit or Rs 1,000 crore turnover or Rs 500 crore net worth
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The rise of Solar in India and its impact on the environment
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the amount of solar energy that falls on the surface of the earth in one day is more than what 6.1 billion people can use in 27 years. This shows that solar energy can prove to be the most efficient way of environment conservation. Recognizing the potential of this versatile energy source, the world is slowly but surely moving to solar.
According to Quartz brief, the share of global energy that came from renewable sources passed 10 per cent in 2018
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