New Delhi : Majority of corporates expect to spend more on social welfare activities in the next financial year as CSR increasingly becomes part of strategic decision making process, says a survey.
However, the survey by industry body Ficci also revealed that companies find lack of clarity on laws and tax related regulations along with some other factors as obstacles in implementing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.
Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain class of profitable entities are required to shell out at least 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit towards CSR activities. The norm came into effect from April 2014.
Ficci said 83 per cent of the participating companies anticipate an increase in their CSR spending in 2016-17.
“While 6 per cent participants expected a decline, another 9 per cent cited no change. The remaining 2 per cent of the companies said that they have made a CSR allocation in their budget for the first time,” it noted.
The findings are based on a survey conducted between January and February covering 150 responses. The respondents include public sector undertakings, private firms and foreign multinational companies, had a turnover ranging between Rs 1.7 crore and Rs 75,000 crore.
As much as 77 per cent of the companies surveyed reported that an increase in their CSR budget in 2014-15 compared with 2013-14 period.
On the other hand, the survey found “inadequate clarity on laws and tax related regulations”, among others, was seen as an obstacle by firms in implementing CSR projects.
When it comes to motivation, majority of the respondents indicated ethical considerations as the primary factor behind adoption of CSR activities.
“Companies are increasingly looking at integrating their businesses with the community to create shared value. About 49 per cent of the respondents stated creation of shared value as a motivation factor, followed by social good compliance,” Ficci said.
Around 95 per cent of the participants said their CSR projects are aligned with the government’s development initiatives, including Swachh Bharat Mission, Skill India and National Health Mission.
“It is encouraging to note that companies have continued to base their CSR programmes according to community needs aligning with the national development agenda, especially those impacting women and children,” said Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, Ficci-Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence.
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New Delhi : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed Central Ground Water Authority and Delhi Jal Board to fix a uniform procedure for installation of rainwater harvesting system in hotels, hospitals and malls in the national capital.
The green panel asked CGWA, DJB and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to convene a meeting within 10 days and prescribe a format and proper design for rainwater harvesting system.
“There should be a uniform procedure in respect of the rainwater harvesting system, approved by CGWA/DJB.
“As it is disclosed that there is no such uniform procedure, we direct CGWA, DJB and DPCC to convene a meeting within 10 days and fix a uniform procedure, prescribe a format as well as proper design for rainwater harvesting system to be installed by hotels, hospitals and malls,” a bench headed by Justice M S Nambiar said.
It also directed that inspections be conducted in Jaypee Sidharth Hotel and IBIS Hotel to check whether rainwater harvesting systems of the two hotels were installed as per law.
NGT had recently slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on a real estate developer here after it was found that the rainwater harvesting system in its property was not functional.
Taking several hospitals, malls and hotels to task for not complying with its orders on rainwater harvesting, NGT had last year imposed fine and issued warrants to many of them for not installing these systems.
The green panel was hearing a plea by environmentalist Vikrant Kumar Tongad who had sought directions to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to “install proper rainwater harvesting system” on all its existing, proposed and under-construction metro stations, tracks and depots.
The green panel, however, had widened the ambit of the petition and incorporated various other establishments like hospitals, hotels and malls.
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United Nations : Asserting that the burden of sustainability cannot be put on the shoulders of the poor, India has said poorer nations must be given space to address their “development deficit” as they end up suffering the worst impacts of climate change while contributing the least to it.
Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations Amit Narang said the international community cannot address climate change if it fails to address the “unsustainable consumption and lifestyles, particularly in the richer countries”.
Addressing the National Model UN Conference here on Tuesday, Narang cited research estimates that at least a third of human deaths annually, almost 18 million can be attributed to poverty related causes.
“It should be obvious therefore that addressing this ‘development deficit’ is the first and necessary condition if we have to achieve a sustainable world,” he said adding that there can be no sustainable development with such alarming and widespread levels of poverty and hunger.
“You cannot tell millions living in shanty towns along the coasts that building concrete homes for their families will lead to emissions. You cannot tell a child studying in the dark or a woman cooking on wood and dung that providing modern energy to them will be bad for the planet. In other words, the burden of sustainability cannot be put on the shoulders of the poor,” Narang said.
He stressed that ensuring a life of basic human dignity to everyone on the planet is the first step in addressing climate change.
“For global efforts to halt climate change to succeed therefore, our collective efforts must be sensitive to our different starting points, responsibilities and capabilities.
In their effort, the poorer countries must have the space to address their ‘development deficit’,” he said.
Emphasising the “stark climate inequality” in addressing climate change, he said, “the travesty of climate change is that the poor end up suffering its worst impacts, even though they contributed the least in causing the problem.”
“The richer countries need to step-up to the plate and urgently take steps to transition their societies towards sustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns,” he said.
India, which is often referred to as the world’s third largest emitter, has among the lowest per capita emissions in the world and India’s per capita emissions are also a mere one-third of Chinese per capita emissions.
Narang stressed that poorer countries are acting against climate change and a majority of developing countries including India and China have made mitigation pledges that exceed or broadly meet their fair shares.
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New Delhi : A Delhi police head constable, who once served in the security teams of VIPs, has moved the Supreme Court seeking compensation for his “wrong” portrayal in a video that went viral on social media last year showing him swaying and collapsing in a metro coach in an alleged drunken state.
The head constable Salim P K, who could be seen falling in a Delhi metro coach in the video, claimed that he was not drunk but was losing consciousness because of a major blockage in his brain during his travel back from duty.
In his petition, which is likely to come up for hearing on April 1 in the apex court, Salim said that his helpless state was video recorded and circulated by various news channels alleging he was drunk and it amounted to “convicting a person guilty for an alleged offence without trial”.
Salim, a Kerala native, who had joined Delhi Police in 1986 and had served in the security teams of Union Minister of Food and Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, was suspended after the video showed him in a bad light.
He was, however, re-instated in his duty later by the police which gave him a clean chit after he informed them about his medical disability and the suspension period was considered as ‘spent on duty’.
In his petition he has said that while serving on special security duty of Dikshit, he had suffered a major brain stroke on January 9, 2012 and he was saved after an immediate surgery which left him partially paralysed and with a contorted face.
Salim said that on August 19, last year, when the purported video was prepared, he was on duty, but due to inadequate sleep and not taking the required medicines, he was experiencing memory loss and drowsiness, resulting in a situation in which he could not even change his uniform.
“The act of uploading the video clipping of 37 seconds on social media by a stranger resulted in demoralizing the family members of the petitioner and questioning the credibility of the organization, Delhi Police, where he is working…,” his plea said.
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New Delhi : A delegation, comprising parliamentarians, representatives of sanitation workers and civil society members, today called on President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his intervention in ending manual scavenging and avert “deaths in sewage pits”.
“The delegation called on Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan demanding immediate end to the practice of manual scavenging and sewage deaths. The President listened to the concerns expressed by the delegation sympathetically,” Safai Karmchari Andolan said in a statement.
The delegation, comprising CPI national secretary D Raja, JD(U) MP KC Tyagi and others, told Mukherjee that sanitation workers are “forced” to clean human excreta and enter septic tanks/sewage pits.
It also expressed concern claiming all the workers are Dalits and belong to the “lowest strata” of society. They have to bear the “social stigma” due to their profession as well as caste, they added.
Raja said the issue needs to be raised “politically as well” to ensure that no person dies in sewage pit anymore.
“This inhuman practice must be stopped,” he said.
Tyagi said the issue of manual scavenging eradication needs to be taken up as aggressively as other issues in Parliament.
Besides Raja and Tyagi, the delegation comprised international jurist Usha Ramanathan, academician Imrana Qadeer, Safai Karmachari Andolan activist Maya Gautam, NFIW general secretary Annie Raja, journalist-author Bhasha Singh and Dalit activist Dr Renu.
The delegation also apprised Mukherjee of the ongoing nationwide 125-day ‘Bhim Yatra’, undertaken by the oraganisation, to highlight the problems faced by sanitation workers, marking 125th birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar.
The yatra, which began in Dibrugarh in Assam on December 10 and will cover 30,000 km, culminates on April 13 in the national capital.
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AGRA: Stressing the need for moderating the “powerful tool” that is social media, experts have said it should be guided keeping the “larger national interest and public concerns” in mind.
At a conference on internet and mass media here yesterday, participants said the growing influence and reach of online and social media platforms was visible but it also raises concerns over unverified and unauthenticated content going viral.
Speakers at the meet here yesterday organised by Central Hindi Institute, which functions under the Union HRD Ministry, said “if these powerful tools are not moderated by social concern and guided by larger national interests, there could be trouble all around”.
Abhishek Mehrotra, editor of the portal Samachar4media.com, said, “The impact of social media on mainstream media is already beginning to be felt and is changing the game fundamentally.
“As the penetration of internet increases with newer and better technological inputs, the Indian masses will use them to influence policy decisions, as is already happening.”
Piyush Pandey, social media consultant and senior journalist, said, “The audience stands empowered today largely due to access to internet and use of social media platforms like Facebook.”
Deepak Paliwal of IBN7 pressed for checks on social media platforms. “A continuous programme to educate the users would be in the interest of society,” he said.
Rakesh Upadhyaya of Aaj Tak, said, “Smartphones have significantly changed the information landscape with multi-directional traffic movement.
“But if information is posted without verifying the contents, it could prove counter-productive.”
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The local bodies in the state have failed in utilizing nearly Rs 140 crore allotted for waste management in the last four fiscals.
RTI documents reveal that the state government had allocated Rs 140.48 crore between 2010 and 2014 to the Suchitwa Mission, the agency entrusted for facilitating scientific waste management facilities and disbursing subsidies.
The state had nearly 1,200 local bodies before delimitation but the Suchitwa Mission received only 594 projects related to waste management for technical sanction between 2010 and 2014 while 26 applications are still pending with it for approval. More than half of the local bodies did not even submit a project for approval.
The analysis of utilization of funds by the few local bodies that could get technical sanction presents an even worse picture. Of 978 panchayats (before delimitation), on ly 75 submitted utilization certificate and in case of municipalities, the performance has been below par, with only 14 producing utilization certificates.
During the past four years, the Suchitwa Mission has worked out a series of schemes, ranging from upgradation of solid waste management facilities to setting up public toilets, in the plan fund.In 2010, the total plan fund of the mission was Rs 5 crore while it rose to Rs 55 crore in 2011and Rs 65.5 crore in 2012.