VOL. XXXXVI NO.4
OCTOBER 2020
CONTENTS
CHINA: Business, Technology & Economy in 2020
The Art & Power of Nudging M S Narayan
Partnerships in the Age of Covid Panel Discussion
Transforming India & Indian Businesses Pradeep Deshpande
Women Leader Series: Policing in Covid Times & Beyond
Lakshmi Venkatachalam
Panel Discussion
EDITOR Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM EDITORIAL SUPPORT Gp Capt Dr R Venkataraman (Retd) LAYOUT EXECUTIVE D Rajaram
MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION Management Center, New No.240 Pathari Road ﴾Off Anna Salai﴿, Chennai 600 006 Ph:044‐2829 1133 Email:mma@mmachennai.org | mandate@mmachennai.org www.facebook.com/mmachennai
PANELISTS
S
ection 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 along with the
•
Social business projects
Companies CSR Rules, 2014 makes it mandatory for
•
Contribution to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and
mentioned under Sub Section 1 of Section 135 to comply with and these are: • •
•
Employment enhancing vocational skills
•
Contribution to technology incubators located within approved academic institutions
Companies with net worth of Rs 500 crores or
•
more;
These are similar to the 17 sustainable goals of the UN
Companies with turnover of Rs 1000 crores or more;
•
other such State and Central funds
certain companies who fulfill the criteria as
Companies with Net Profit of Rs 5 crore or more during any financial year.
These companies shall be required to constitute a CSR
Rural development projects.
and the ‘triple bottom line,’ which takes into account profit for the society and environment apart from profit to the company. Anu Oza: How did Boomika Trust respond to Covid?
committee of the Board. They shall ensure that at least 2%
Aruna: Floods and earthquakes are very frequent in India.
of the average net profit of three immediately preceding
The NGOs are the first responders in a disaster. We can split
financial years would be spent on CSR activities every year.
our action into three phases, which we call the 3Rs—Rescue
Activities allowed under CSR:
phase, Relief phase and Rehabilitation phase. The rescue
•
Promotion of education
phase is best left to experts. Civil society has rescued people
•
Eradication of extreme hunger and poverty
during Gujarat earthquake, Kerala floods and Chennai floods.
•
Gender equity and women empowerment
As an NGO, we manage rescue by helpline, geo tagging people
•
Reducing child mortality and improving maternal
and connecting them with the government.
health •
Combating disease
•
Environmental sustainability
All disasters are characterized by the need for food security. NGOs have a constraint as they receive project
Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence
migrant labour crisis followed. We created a project called, ‘Food First’ which included delivery of cooked food and rations. Even NGOs who were not tuned to do these activities stepped in, generating local funds. Over the last few years, the response of nonprofit organisations to crises has been exemplary. They have been able to identify the needs and ensure lastmile connectivity. In essence, though we didn’t understand the pandemic, our first response was in ensuring food security for
Over the last few years, the response of non‐profit organisations to crises has been exemplary. They have been able to identify the needs and ensure last‐mile connectivity.
the people and in supporting the Tamil Nadu government which did a great job by opening up the rations. Those who didn’t have ration cards were helped by the civil society and NGOs like us. Anu: So, in a crisis, we need to see
denominated funds and they are not free to use them for disaster relief. Because of their DNA to reach out, they cannot stay away from a disaster either. So NGOs take donations from civil society for natural disasters; some are able to get corporate donations. In the rehabilitation phase, only the government and some of the larger NGOs play a role while the others are not involved in this phase. Regarding Covid19, we were only reading about it and not seriously bothered. Only when our Prime Minister declared a lockdown on the night of March 24, we realised the magnitude of this crisis and disaster. It was difficult to hit the ground running because of the fear of infections. Normally disasters are geographyspecific and time specific, unlike Covid. We had to move straight to the relief
under which phase it falls into and respond. In any crisis, people need funds and food. Therefore NGOs need to be embedded in communities and they also need to partner with the government to see that people don’t go hungry. Can you give us some idea, from a corporate angle, how Covid funding and CSR funding are managed and share some of the key learnings? Shyam: Many companies distributed PPEs, sanitizers, ventilators, ICU beds, medical equipment and dry rations for migrant labour. Many reached out to migrant labour through food cooked in their company canteens. There were three broad approaches to funding by the companies: a)
budget were used. b)
mode. We initiated a helpline for senior citizens and this was supported by remote volunteers. The larger crisis broke out when the daily wage earners did not get paid and soon the
Provisions available in the company’s 20192020 Some of the companies created a special fund over and above the CSR funds for Covid.
c)
Others utilised the funds from the current year’s CSR budget. OCTOBER 2020
41
Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence
Many companies also contributed to the Prime Minister’s
5000 to 6000 people. That was their way of providing rescue
Relief fund—PM Cares. As per reports, Rs 15,000 crore is the
and relief by cooking. Medicines came sans frontiers. IBM
annual CSR spend with 3,000 crore coming from PSUs and
offered to come up with software to help people identify the
12,000 crore from the private sector. Of this, about 5000 to
dead, upload their details and perform the last rites. That is
6000 crores went to PM Cares. The rest were marked for the
the power of partnerships.
company’s CSR activities. With 25 to 30% CSR funds of
The 17th SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) of the
companies going to Covid relief, how do companies plan for
UN (United Nations) is about how we develop partnerships
other CSR activities during this year?
for the other 16 SDGs to happen. In the ‘Rescue’ phase, the
1)
The flagship CSR activities of companies are not significantly reduced.
2)
New projects and those that do not align with the
government has to take the lead. The Disaster Management (NDM) Act 2005 came into
companies’ vision for CSR will be under scrutiny.
being because of the 2004 Tsunami. The PM heads the
These will be either delayed or withdrawn.
Disaster Management Authority. The government provides
Anu: What is the reach of government and NGOs? How can
the structure for various organisations to collaborate and
we improve collaboration between the government and
without any of them feeling intimidated. Capacity building
NGOs?
is one of the objectives of NDM Act 2005. We lack seriously
Vivek: A government is a system, and like a rudder, it
in capacity and need to focus on this, going forward.
controls the movement of its various constituents. The
Anu: So, you have to go the extramile to be a partner even
government and nongovernmental organisations form a
if you are not necessarily seen as a partner. We need to build
dichotomy. It doesn’t need a crisis for them to come together
capacity working in tandem, right from the beginning
and collaborate. NGOs have a higher trust quotient compared
rather waiting for a disaster to strike, for everyone to pull
to some of the government organisations. I was
together. What kinds of capacities are needed in the short
commissionerincharge of Tsunami relief in Nagapattinam
term?
in 2004 after Tsunami struck on Dec 26 of that year. 6000
Shyam: Skilling is one area we need to focus on. For
people died in the area where I worked.
instance, healthcare frontline workers are now in great
It was a shocking sight then in Nagapattinam. When I
demand. We have to skill people for the right sectors that are
entered the town, I saw a vegetable vendor carrying three
needed to tackle the Covid crisis. Because of loss of livelihood,
dead children in his vegetable cart. We started with rescue,
many girl children will be denied the opportunity of getting
which was predominantly done by the government. Many of
higher education. The education programs have to be tweaked
the government staff had also lost their family members in
to support girl children. Healthcare infrastructure and
the tragedy. India’s concept of Vasudeva Kudumbam, i.e.,
implements like ventilators need attention. Similarly, electric
‘The world is one family,’ is something that we should be
crematoriums are the need of the hour. The existing CSR
proud of. A large convoy of trucks came from Punjab and all
projects have to be tweaked to factor in the current realities
that they asked for was space. I gave them a school which was
from Covid. Next is the use of digital in fields like education
not functioning. They had brought everything from Punjab
and medicine. Companies can leverage the existing public
right from cooking utensils and materials for dishes like
infrastructure and work together with the government. Some
masala, atta and even salt. Every day, they cooked food for
of the existing hospitals have to be made Covidready. One
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OCTOBER 2020
Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence
project which can combine all the above is addressing child
police have data on the migrants. We approached the district
malnutrition. Healthcare workers can be used to measure
SP. In less than 24 hours, he sent us data of migrant labour
the weight of children using a weighing scale and track other
in various zones under his control like where the clusters are;
parameters that reflect the health condition. They can feed
and, which industries they were working for.
the data in an app. Data about the vulnerable population can
There were 18,000 of them. Thus we knew the
come from the government.
population that we were addressing. The SP also provided
Aruna: Strategic partnership is very important. Between
space for our team to store and sort the materials. He brought
the government and NGOs, there was a six degree separation.
us volunteers from police to support us and help us in
We have closed the gap to three degrees now. I am not sure
packing. The police team made it so seamless for us. They
of the exact reason for this gap, if it is a trust deficit or a threat
also provided us trucks to deliver the relief materials. They
perception. But that apart, we have had some brilliant
stood shouldertoshoulder with our volunteers to see that
experiences in working with the government.
there was orderliness and that social distance was
We worked together with the government to reach out
maintained.
to the migrant labour in Thiruvallur district. We created
The government has the foundation. NGOs have to step
larger ration kits that suited their kind of eating habits. The
in with their empathy and they bring a different perspective
OCTOBER 2020
43
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to the game. NGOs do not merely look at numbers of people
play a defining role in the new normal. We need to build
for distributing materials but they consider in terms of
capacities for the work that will be important in the new
empowering the people.
normal. The work place has now changed dramatically with
We were able to pick up the phone and talk to several
‘work from home’ (WFH) being adopted widely. What will
IAS officers. Again, when the labourers had to be sent home,
be the work force like, how much of automation will be there,
GCC—Greater Chennai Corporation—provided us the data.
what will be the work ethics? All these have to be identified.
We used our tech volunteers in this. We worked together
Many things existed even before Covid but we are utilising
with the police. It was a very happy marriage. NGOs now
them now more. For instance, Zoom existed before Covid
have to build on the trust gained during this crisis and the
but we now use it extensively.
government also has to raise it veil. In the last few years, we
Anu: Let me sum up what we have discussed so far. NGOs
have not moved in the SDG ranking. Currently, NGO spend
can use the understanding of the CSR Act and use certain
is only 6% of the government spend. We have to cocreate
immediate relief provisions; NGOs and Government can
projects. The corporates must think in terms of creating
proactively take partnership stance right from the beginning.
‘Impact Funds’ instead of aiming for mere philanthropy. The
Companies are likely to look at things like skilling in relevant
benefits must be 10X.
sectors; they now focus on Covid related programs in the
Vivek: There is a significant linkage between growth and
short term followed by their flagship programs. There are
poverty. Because of growth, poverty has been reduced by
several examples of GovernmentNGO partnerships in many
half. Rural poverty has come down from 50 to 25% and
disaster situations and there is enormous potential for
urban poverty from 31 to 14%. As there is a sharp decline in
cooperation. There is scope for the corporates too, to make
growth thanks to Covid, naturally it will impact poverty too.
different choices for CSR activities, depending upon the
The work, work place, work ethics and work force will
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