VISION

To actively contribute to the social and economic development of the communities in which
we operate. In doing so, build a better, sustainable way of life for the weaker sections of society
and raise the country's human development index."
GROUP CSR PHILOSOPHY
Even as India has made a mark on the global reservoir of intellectual capital, as a nation we are
grappling with quality of life challenges. This is more prominent in the hinterland where
poverty is a ground reality. To address this larger issue, the Aditya Birla Group works in tandem
with the Government, the District Authorities and NGOs.
In the context of social responsibility, it entails ploughing parts of profits into programmes
which result in larger good of the society. In the year 2000, the group chairman, Kumar
Mangalam Birla, spawned the concept of the triple bottom line accountability, which entails
factoring three key aspects viz, economic success, environmental accountability and social
responsibility, for ensuring lasting and sustainable success.
Thus, the Group takes its social responsibility very seriously, far transcending mere cheque-
book philanthropy. Corporate Social Responsibility is accorded as much importance as any
other business project. Therefore, the social vision forms an important part of the business
vision of the Group companies. Each company has an ongoing One-year plan and a Three-year
rolling plan, presented at the Annual Planning and Budgeting Meet. All projects are assessed
under the agreed strategy, periodically monitored, measured against targets and budgets, with
their findings shared throughout the Aditya Birla Group.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Before Corporate Social Responsibility found a place in corporate lexicon, it was already
textured into the Group's value systems. As early as the 1940s, the founding father Shri G.D
Birla espoused the trusteeship concept of management. Simply stated, this entails that the
wealth that one generates and holds is to be held as in a trust for our multiple stakeholders.
With regard to CSR, this means investing part of the profits beyond business, for the larger
good of society.
While carrying forward this philosophy, Mr. Aditya Birla, weaved in the concept of 'sustainable
livelihood', which transcended cheque book philanthropy. In his view, it was unwise to keep on
giving endlessly. Instead, he felt that channelizing resources to ensure that people have the
wherewithal to make both ends meet would be more productive. He would say, "Give a hungry
man fish for a day, he will eat it and the next day, he would be hungry again. Instead if you
taught him how to fish, he would be able to feed himself and his family for a lifetime."
Taking these practices forward, chairman Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla institutionalised the
concept of triple bottom line accountability represented by economic success, environmental
responsibility and social commitment. In a holistic way thus, the interests of all the stakeholders
have been textured into our Group's fabric.
GROUP STRATEGIES
Groups CSR projects are carried out under the aegis of the "Aditya Birla Centre for Community
Initiatives and Rural Development", led by Mrs. Rajashree Birla. The Centre provides the
strategic direction, and the thrust areas for the work ensuring performance management as
well.

The focus is on the all-round development of the communities around the plants located mostly
in distant rural areas and tribal belts. All our Group companies Grasim, Hindalco, Aditya Birla
Nuvo and UltraTech have Rural Development Cells, which are the implementation bodies.

Their partners in development are government bodies, district authorities, village panchayats
and the end beneficiaries the villagers. The Government has, in their 5-year plans, special
funds earmarked for human development.
At the same time, they network and collaborate with like-minded bilateral and unilateral
agencies to share ideas, draw from each other's experiences, and ensure that efforts are not
duplicated. At another level, this provides a platform for advocacy.
PROJECT IDENTIFICATION MECHANISMS
All projects are planned in a participatory manner, in consultation with the community and
gauging their basic needs. They take recourse to "participatory rural appraisal", which is a
mapping process. Subsequently, based on a consensus and in discussion with the village
panchayats, They prioritise requirements. And thus a project is born. Implementation is the
responsibility of the community and our team, as is the monitoring of milestones and the other
aspects. Monitoring entails physical verification of the progress and the actual output of the
project.

Village meetings are held periodically to elicit feedback on the benefits of our community
programmes and the areas where these need to be beefed up. It is tried and ensured that while
in the short term they have to do enormous hand-holding, the projects become sustainable by
the beneficiaries over the long haul. Once this stage is reached, the Group withdraws. In this
way they do not build a culture of dependence, instead they make the villagers self-reliant.
Model villages
One of their unique initiatives is to develop model villages, so each of the Groups major
companies is working towards the total transformation of a number of villages in proximity to
our plants. Making of a model village entails ensuring self-reliance in all aspects viz., education,
health care and family welfare, infrastructure, agriculture and watershed management, and
working towards sustainable livelihood patterns. Fundamentally, ensuring that their
development reaches a stage wherein village committees take over the complete responsibility
and our teams become dispensable.

PROJECT OPERATIONS
The geographic reach, annual spends
The footprint of the community work straddles 3,000 villages across the length and breadth of
our country. Reach is more than 7 million people annually. Over 60 per cent of these live below
the poverty line and belong to scheduled castes and tribes.
The Group spends in excess of Rs.130 crore annually, inclusive of the running of 18 hospitals
and 42 schools. The Group transcends the conventional barriers of business and reaches out to
the marginalised as a matter of duty and to bring in a more equitable society.
Focus areas
The Groups rural development activities span five key areas and their single-minded goal here
is to help build model villages that can stand on their own feet. Focus areas are healthcare,
education, sustainable livelihood, infrastructure and espousing social causes.
In Education, their endeavor is to spark the desire for learning and knowledge at everystage
through
Formal schools
Balwadis for elementary education
Quality primary education
Aditya Bal Vidya Mandirs
Girl child education
Adult education programmes
In Health care the goal is to render quality health care facilities to people living in the villages
and elsewhere through Hospitals
Primary health care centres
Mother and Child care projects
Immunisation progr ammes with a thrust on polio eradication
Health care for visually impaired, and physically challenged
Preventive health through awareness programmes.
In Sustainable Livelihood various programmes aim at providing livelihood in a locally
appropriate and environmentally sustainable manner through
Formation of Self Help
Groups for women empowerment
Vocational training through Aditya Birla Rural Technology Parks
Agriculture development and better farmer focus Watershed development
Partnership with Industrial Training Institutes.
In Infrastructure Development the endeavour to set up essential services that form the
foundation of sustainable development through
Basic infrastructure facilities
Housing facilities
Safe drinking water
Sanitati on & hygiene
Renewable sources of energy.
To bring about Social Change they advocate and support
Dowryless marriage
Widow remarriage
Awareness programmes on anti social issues
De-addiction campaigns and programmes
Espousing basic moral values



Activities, setting measurable targets with timeframes and performance management.
Prior to the commencement of projects, a baseline study of the village is carried out. The study
encompasses various parameters such as health indicators, literacy levels, sustainable
livelihood processes, population data below the poverty line and above the poverty line, state
of infrastructure, among others. From the data generated, a 1- year plan and a 5-year rolling
plan are developed for the holistic and integrated development of the marginalised. These
plans are presented at the Annual Planning and Budgeting meet. All projects are assessed under
the agreed strategy, and are monitored every quarter, measured against targets and budgets.
Wherever necessary, midcourse corrections are affected.
Organisational mechanism and responsibilities
The Aditya Birla Centre for Community Init iatives and Rural Development provides the vision
under the leadership of its Chairperson, Mrs. Rajashree Birla. This vision underlines all CSR
activities. Every Manufacturing Unit has a CSR Cell. Every Company has a CSR Head, who reports
Source: www.adityabirla.com/csr
to the Group Executive President (Communications & CSR) at the Centre. At the Company, the
Business Director takes on the role of the mentor, while the onus for the successful and time
bound implementation of the projects is on the various Unit Presidents and CSR teams. To
measure the impact of the work done, a social satisfaction survey / audit is carried out by an
external agency.
Partnerships
Collaborative partnerships are formed with the Government, the District Authorities, the village
panchayats, NGOs and other like-minded stakeholders. This helps widen the Company's reach
and leverage upon the collective expertise, wisdom and experience that these partnerships
bring to the table.
In collaboration with FICCI, we have set up Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence to make CSR
an integral part of corporate culture.
The Company engages with well established and recognised programmes and national
platforms such as the CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM to name a few, given their commitment to inclusive
growth.
Budgets
A specific budget is allocated for CSR activities. This budget is project driven.
Information dissemination
The Company's engagement in this domain is disseminated on its website, annual reports, its
house journals and through the media.
Management Commitment
The Board of Directors, Management and all of the employees subscribe to the philosophy of
compassionate care. They believe and act on an ethos of generosity and compassion,
characterised by a willingness to build a society that works for everyone. This is the cornerstone
of Aditya Birla Groups CSR policy.
The Corporate Social Responsibility policy conforms to the Corporate Social Responsibility
Voluntary Guidelines spelt out by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India in
collaboration with FICCI (2009).


FEW PROGRAMMES AND SUCCESS STORIES
1. BIHAR CAUSTIC: MAKING A DIFFERENCE
The CSR team at Aditya Birla Chemicals (India) has been making relentless efforts for the
upliftment of the community in Palamu, Bihar. Communities living in this region of
Jharkhand have no great affinity for strangers. A long history of exploitation by
'outsiders' has made them wary and untrustworthy of any face. But this
expression becomes a thing of the past, as their guard drops and reticence gives way to
a warm welcome, when a particular group of outsiders ABCIL Jan Seva Trust Team,
comes visiting.
The ABCIL Jan Seva Trust was established in 2000. Undeterred by the challenges
presented, the trust led by Mr. S.S. Gupta, Mrs. Asha Gupta, Mr. Shatrughan Singh, Mr.
Ajit Sharma, Mr. Rakesh Tiwari, Dr. R.N. Singh and Mr. Babban Ram has been putting in
relentless efforts for the upliftment of the community in Palamu. They work in five
priority areas of education and capacity building, health and family welfare, economic
self-reliance and watershed development, infrastructure development and social
reforms.
Besides the initiatives in the five focused areas, a greater need was felt to address the
issue of family welfare as a priority thrust in the region, so that the impact of other
initiatives can be lasting and truly beneficial. With this assessment, the team embarked
upon our journey to address a long cherished need of family welfare in the adjoining
community. They have been contributing to the National Family Welfare Programme
through effective and efficient strategies that inspire people's choice for reproductive
healthcare and a small family norm.
The main objectives include:
To provide need based reproductive health services to the rural community
To improve the quality of life by providing community health care
Motivating target groups to adopt small family norms
To ensure sustainability of the project by community participation
To reduce the maternal mortality and infant mortality rate
Care and cure of sexually transmitted diseases
AIDS awareness

ACHIEVEMENTS: In 6 years, 5 Family Welfare Centres (FWC) have been established by
the ABCIL team including four sub-centres for conducting health and family welfare
programmes on a regular basis. We have conducted 96 family welfare camps and 25
AIDS awareness camps so far. The family welfare camps are organised every month at
each cluster level, and four to six AIDS awareness camps are organised on a yearly basis.

Regular checkups and treatment is provided for RTIs and STD cases. 1578 patients
suffering from RTIs and 674 patients suffering from STDs have benefitted. For antenatal
and postnatal checkups and treatment, camps are organised every thursday at FWC;
14,435 women have benefitted so far. Immunisation camps are also organised every
thursday at FWC; the total number of beneficiaries has been 12620.

Camps for contraceptive use and condom distribution are organised every week at the
family welfare centre. These camps have substantially increased the number of
contraceptive users to 21790, with 825 of them as regular users and 18 per cent as
irregular users. Family planning operations have been conducted; a total of 3235 people
have benefitted, out of which 1030 are from minority communities.

Other general health camps are organised on a regular basis where the number of
beneficiaries has gone up from 1762 in 2001-02 to 13,262 in 2005-06 making a total of
42,049 so far. Some other camps like a dental camp has benefitted 1,052 people so far,
eye operation camps have improved the lives of 1,085 people in the region.

2. GRASIM SFD, NAGDA NO LONGER MIRED IN POVERTY
The semi arid Malwa region in Madhya Pradesh where Grasim's Staple Fibre Division is
housed, presents a series of challenges. It has predominantly hard rock geology. As such
the recharging of ground water is much below the mark. The crisis of groundwater is so
intense that the villages are always in the throes of a severe drinking water shortage,
more so in summer time. The rain God seems to be perpetually playing truant with the
population here. Years of consecutive drought has pushed farmers almost on the brink
of a precipice.
The group believed that the only way to alleviate their suffering and poverty was by
creating strong rural communities on a solid foundation of sustainable farming systems
that would ensure on-going livelihood and accord this much marginalised segment some
dignity. To address their problems the team began with a dialogue with the farming
communities. Out of this, evolved our plank for the progress of the farmers. The farm
would be the key unit of intervention. Naturally for any farm-centered programme,
water is its lifeforce. So we recoursed to a people-driven watershed based development
programme and made it the focal point of our developmental strategy in the zone of
our villages.

Harvesting hope: The key goals of the programme were-
To conserve water through water harvesting structures in both agriculture and
nonagriculture land:
to generate a decent level of income through appropriate farming methods and
cropping pattern
to teach farming communities life-stock rearing and valuing
to evolve alternate income generation sources
3. ADITYA BIRLA CENTRE FOR WELFARE OF CHILDREN
The centre is housed on an acre of land, ringed with greenery in a quiet locale in
Chembur, a suburb of Mumbai.
Making a small beginning in 1979, with just 50 orphaned and destitute children, today
the centre is home to 250 children. In a caring and nurturing environment, they are
looked after and trained. They are sent to the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) where
they learn a skill. The training period normally extends to three years. Boys enter as 14
or 15 year olds, and leave after attaining their certificate. However, if they are unable to
complete their training even as they turn 18, they are given a year's extension.
Every endeavour is made to get a placement for the boys who have qualified.
Regardless, as they master a skill, they are well equipped to earn their livelihood.
Led by a committed team of trustees, with Mrs. Rajashree Birla as the Chairperson, the
centre's activities are conducted under the aegis of the Anand Ashram Trust. An
administrative staff runs its day-to-day affairs. A superintendent, a supervisor and an
assistant, supported by utilities personnel, form this team.