AgTalk | We expect 25% of revenue from CSR practice: GRI's Deepak Kanulkar

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a new buzzword for the businesses in the West already where company’s reputation & image even its stock price is heavily influenced by its CSR activities. In India too CSR is fast catching up with regulations being put in place including the one that will ask corporate to spend two per cent of their net profits on CSR activities.
 
So in a democratic society while the government fulfills basic needs such as primary education, public health and basic medical health, the private sectors too chips in with significant contributions. The reason why CSR has assumed so much importance is because corporate houses intervene in so many areas of social life, they must be responsible towards society and environment. 
 
Recently Good relations India has forayed in CSR practice and will offer CSR audit and advisory services to corporate. It feels that its foray into the CSR space is not driven by its belief that if India has to grow, ‘Bharat’ too has to grow and to ensure this the need is to adopt an inclusive approach. To find out more about GRI’s plans, Adgully interacted with Deepak Kanulkar, CEO; the following is the excerpts of the talk. 
 
Adgully (AG): What kind of services will GRI offer in the CSR space? What is the rationale behind the foray?
 
DK: One of the domains that have always been of great interest to us is that of social responsibility. We would be offering two services - CSR Advisory and CSR Audit. Whenever a company has to set up a plant operation office in a certain location, a lot of focus is given to structural engineering. What is also important is social engineering. By this, we mean; where is the location, what is the demographics, breakup of the population, occupation of the people, living conditions of the locals, health & education facilities etc. It is important to have adequate knowledge of the entire social scenario. After acquiring knowledge & insights about the ground reality, we think the CSR Advisory service that we are offering will provide a great value addition to the corporates to ensure seamless business continuity in that particular location.
 
The other product is CSR Audit. Companies generally implement CSR directly or indirectly through NGO’s. The person who is based in the company’s HQ’s does not normally get a real picture of what is happening at the ground level. We believe that the company should always have the complete and correct information of the CSR initiatives actually implemented on the ground. To ensure that this happens systematically, there should be an audit from a third party, like us. Here, we will actually go and see what CSR activities have been implemented, their impact and benefits to the locals and the company and report it back to the management of the corporate in the form of Audit Report with actionable recommendations. 
 
AG: As a PR practice how big is this opportunity?
 
DK: It is very difficult to imply a figure to this opportunity because CSR with the change in Government regulations is going to be an exponential area where many large corporates will also have to demonstrate that they are socially responsible. Although CSR as a concept is old, known and observed by many corporates, the new regulation is definitely going to streamline the way CSR was strategised and implemented in the past. We are looking at this business practice of CSR Advisory and Audit in a very positive way. In terms of the business figures, we hope to achieve at least 25 per cent of the turnover from this practice in 3 to 5 years. Currently, this practice contributes less than 5 per cent of the turnover. 
 
AG: We all know that CSR has assumed a lot of importance. Firms in the West take the CSR route to boost their corporate image and the share price of their stocks. Also investors look upon a company in high regard if it is doing commendable CSR work. Do you think this applies to India as well or the trend is catching up?
 
DK: Firstly, let me make it very clear that CSR is definitely not done with the intention of boosting the stock price. Investors and analysts definitely give weightage to companies following a strong sustainability practice that includes CSR. Now, CSR differs from region to region .For instance, if you look at the African countries, organizations like UNICEF, UNESCO,  Red Cross,  etc. do a lot of work in the areas of health, education, environment and water.
 
If we look at the scenario in India, a lot needs to be done in the area of education, health, food and clean drinking water. However, the challenge is that we have a huge population of 29.8 per cent which is below poverty line as per the Planning Commission report. Meanwhile the question that arises is how do we reach out to the poor people. One of the solutions could be CSR outreach programmes which can supplement the Government schemes. India has a very strong structure with good NGO’s doing a commendable job. However, scarcity of funds is always a deterrent to progress and this is where corporates will have to play a significant role by providing financial support. It is very important that the good CSR projects are made sustainable in a long term. 
 
AG: It has often been seen that there are corporate houses that have a very vibrant CSR programmes, at the same time there are corporates & industrialists who are yet to accept it. In such a scenario how will GRI strive to make a difference?
 
DK: There are many corporates who have done a lot of good work by changing lives of communities around them. The corporates that are yet to exercise CSR initiatives should learn from corporates who have done good work and have invested in CSR. In terms of the acceptance of CSR, the publicly listed companies will have to mandatorily report their CSR programmes post the CSR bill. When it comes to making a difference, it is the endeavour of Good Relations India Pvt. Ltd. to create awareness and sensitize on the importance of CSR. We would look forward to the corporates based in urban cities coming together to create a Bharat Nirmaan in the true sense. 
 
AG: Are you currently advising clients on CSR aspects? Give us a sense of your present activities in this space?
 
DK: As a part of our strategic PR advisory, CSR recommendations are provided to clients for many years now. The CSR recommendation that we provided were implanted by the clients using their internal CSR representatives or through the NGO’s. If need be we also work hard i.e. in unison with NGO’S at ground level to ensure that our recommendations are implemented as per strategy.
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