CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction
The aim of this introductory chapter is to provide an insight into the research area. Following the discussion of the background, the problem discussion is tackled, leading to the purpose, scope, research questions, and then the methodology adopted in this study. At the end of this chapter, the outline of the thesis is presented.
1.1

Motivation and Justification

There is a general consensus that the health of the economy depends on the health of the earths socio-ecological system. Empirical evidence (IPCC, 2007) reveals that the factors causing the biodiversity to be lost and earths atmosphere to warm are in continuous rise. An understanding of the interdependence and relationship between the environmental, economic and social systems will enable organizations to think strategically and act proactively in order to mitigate their negative impacts on the environment and society through devising new organizational models and alternative solutions for the fulfillment of human needs and the renewal of the biosphere. Management experts argue that many corporations need to change the way they do business; new circumstances require new responses. In response to the changing business environment, companies are being forced to take externalities into account in management behavior. The emerging change requires finding new ways and forging new patterns of conducting business operations and increasing financial and social capital. It has been suggested that to maximize value, companies should not only focus on their financial capital, but should also consider ethical and social capital. In line with that, there are good theoretical reasons for believing that practicing good behavior is beneficial to the organization. However, a companys value creation requires a deeper understanding of ethical standards than the typical economic approach of short- run profit maximization. Nevertheless, the economic value of sustainable corporate strategies is a lot more elusive and hard to pin down, since it only materializes in the long term (Salzmann et al., 2008). This materiality issue might be the reason why sustainability is a slow process. As an emerging economic paradigm shift, sustainability is gradually reshaping corporate culture and strategic choices. The environmental change cant be ignored as it is a key factor when it comes to developing corporate strategies such as communications and marketing.

However, in order for its thrust to be forward-looking and its scope to be holistic, corporate communications strategy must be sophisticatedly conceived and well planned because it has a central role with respect to influencing a wide variety of stakeholders and is interlinked to various corporate activities including marketing, organizational, and management communications. Further, corporate marketing communications has attracted increasing attention over the past years, and this is epitomized by several special issues on this topic in European Journal of Marketing (Wei He, 2008). A well-planned corporate communications program helps craft a company messages to all stakeholders on which its failure and success depend. Organizations must understand and act upon the demands and concerns of all stakeholders, including consumers, communities, clients, and local authorities, etc. Understanding who the stakeholders are, how they think, what motivates them and how they relate to each other is fundamental for an organization to ensure enduring and favorable partnership, thereby achieving its objectives. That being said, it appears that the inherent relationship between an organization and stakeholders could, if built on trust and commitment, create an environment where cooperation is stimulated to fuel changes designed to promote social and environmental sustainability. If organizations integrate human and ecological sustainability into their business planning, then community, marketplace and workplace concerns can be addressed alongside those of the planet. As corporate communications plays a pivotal role in building and maintaining favorable relationships between the organization and the constituencies of society, the process of formulating communications strategies should involve a solid assessment of external environment such as societal and ecological forces in order to respond positively to rapid changes and accommodate to stakeholders demands and concerns pertaining to sustainability issues. Now organizations are, due to increased pressure from internal and external stakeholders, measuring and reporting more on their social and environmental performance (SEP) as well as the usual financial reporting measures. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming a vital part of staying competitive, partly because it helps to satisfy stakeholders expectations. Therefore, the primary task of corporate communications is to seek solutions that will ideally achieve the goals of all stakeholders and deal with the challenges of the current complex dynamic business environment. The skill of the communications planner is to sense the environmental

forces that may be inconspicuous now but which may overtime gather strength and impact the organization in the future. The force with which ecological issues impact upon consumers and organizations can only intensify. Marketing planners and managers, are now making decisions influenced by sustainability factors. Furthermore, corporate sustainability/CSR communications can be profitable in the long run. Recent instrumental empirical studies have proven that organizations maximize value creation when adopting sustainability/CSR practice. This value creation can be manifested in reputation and financial performance enhancement. Fombrun and Shanley, point out that empirical studies have suggested that the greater an organizations contribution to social welfare, the better its reputation. Further, empirical research has found links between CSR, return on equity, business image and reputation, and performance. However, some other theoretical studies have found neutral (inclusive correlations) and negative link between environmental and social performance (ESP) and financial performance (FP). Based on the dates when the later studies took place, probably corporate sustainability was just emerging at the time (not many organizations were yet on the path) as well as the public knowledge about sustainability had not burgeoned yet or become widespread enough so stakeholders could understand and act upon this knowledge to favorably perceive the image of sustainable companies. Therefore, exploring the current practice of corporate sustainability/CSR

communications and its contribution to the achievement of corporate marketing objectives is deemed to be a significant area that merits further focus as it has been a mainstream research theme in the field of corporate, marketing, and sustainability communications alike, thereby the motivation behind this dissertation

Research Purpose and Scope Research Purpose

Based on the reasoning above, this research thesis is at the junction of two broad areas: corporate communications and sustainability. The purpose of this study is to explore the current practices in corporate social responsibility and how this trend contributes to corporate value creation. More specifically, this study looks at this subject from the angle of how companies can use corporate sustainability/CSR communications in marketing activities to attain corporate marketing objectives. This is to gain better understanding of how corporate sustainability/CSR can be integrated into marketing communications so as to increase corporate value. To achieve the purpose of this study, an examination of the current practices in corporate sustainability/CSR communications are performed through a pertinent and extensive empirical and theoretical literature review as well as a quantitative and qualitative empirical method. In the same way, the author attempts to illustrate how corporate sustainability/CSR communications activities can strengthen corporate reputation and directly improve corporate financial performance. For theory, two bodies of literature (corporate communications and corporate sustainability) are selected for review in terms of their implications for the thesis topic. The authors review of the literature makes an advance on extant reviews of the literature by highlighting the importance of corporate sustainability/CSR communications in marketing activities as regards to corporate value maximization. Overall, this thesis endeavours to present contributions, avenues and departure of journeying for further research and development.

Scope
The scope of this research work is broad as it deals with two sweeping areas: sustainability and corporate communications. Due to time limitation, we have focused mainly on some of the aspects underpinning the subject area of this thesis and a complete picture of the topic will not be provided (e.g. stakeholder management, corporate communications from management, organizational and cultural perspectives, and social and environmental performance measures, etc). We have therefore limited our research to view the above stated research questions.

Furthermore, this thesis will be based on stakeholder concept, and full attention will be given to the external stakeholders as they are most associated with the impact upon the corporate reputation and financial performance. This study is also limited to large scale businesses (i.e. organizations, corporations, multinational companies) and does not include small scale business. However, reducing the scope has been determined as we have gained a better understanding of what can reasonably be achievable given the timeframe provided and of what is relevantly connected with the thesis topic. That said the dimension of sustainability contribution to the achievement of communications goals related to aiding society to move towards sustainable development could have been approached from normative perspective; but due to time limitation, we intended to rather focus on the contribution of corporate sustainability/CSR communications to the achievement of corporate marketing goals. Based on an extensive literature review, sustainability communications at corporate level has been termed differently in journal articles, publications and books, etc. Such terms include: corporate sustainability communications, communicating sustainability/CSR at corporate level, CSR communication and other related terms including corporate environmental communications and social-ecological communications. For the purpose of this study, suitable use of these terms will be based on the context; hence, they may be used interchangeably.

CHAPTER TWO

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To conduct this study and achieve the objectives set out by this thesis, methodologies included a combination of a pertinent theoretical and empirical literature review and empirical data analysis. Overall, the process involves investigating current practices, reviewing literature, analyzing knowledge and experiences of marketing and corporate communications practitioners, formulating findings and drawing conclusions. The following are the research methods used in this thesis.

Literature Review
The literature review served as the primary source of data for the thesis. The numerous studies and theories contained in the literature provided credible and peer reviewed sources. Two bodies of literature (corporate communications and corporate sustainability) were selected for review and examination in terms of their implications for corporate sustainability/CSR communications and related corporate value creation - reputation and financial performance enhancement. The literature review focused on Internet-based search databases, including Indian and International Journals and Business Reviews. In addition, the literature reviewed included books, dissertations and reports, etc. The data gathered from the literature review was used to get aware of the current csr activities, and therefore included in the results. The literature review was the preferred methodology for data regarding corporate, marketing, and sustainability communications. It was an efficient way to frame our argument, anchored by the concepts explored throughout the thesis.

CHAPTER THREE

CSR AN OVERVIEW

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AN OVERVIEW:

What does Indias prayer Gayathri say, Lord and enlighten God, who inspired us by his intelligence US, NOT ME OR THEE. That is the social and civic sense. There you get the conception of community service which tells us that unless we strive to evaluate all he elevation of a few is the countrys degradation and decay our Gayathri reads like the stirring time of the english poet who prayed make no more grants God, but elevate the raceat once. Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere. The core of corporate public relations is that humankind has now moved from ME generation which means that in the past man has pursued a philsophy of Every man for himself and the devil care the hindmost. In the whole of the Vedas and Upanishads we have no prayer for I but the whole community. They, in effect, saidwhen a man, see a fellow man in rags, in filth, starving in slums, unless I raise him I have not raised myself.

ELEMENTS
The discipline of Corporate Public elations practice can be summed up as follows: First, Foundation of business is credit. Second, Foundation of credit is confidence. Third, Foundation of confidence is character. Fourth,Foundation of character is reputation. Finally, Foundation of reputation is laid by Public Relations.

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"Corporate Social Responsibility is no longer just an addition, it is a key differentiator."

Prasad Chandra, CMD, BASF South Asia Businesses today have realised that, in order to continue thriving, they have to adopt a more holistic and inclusive business model which has a direct correlation with business performance. This includes a system of triple bottom-line reporting economic, social and environmental - and a focus on transparency and accountability. Companies are now expected to discharge their stakeholder responsibilities and societal obligations, along with their shareholder-wealth maximisation goal. Even much before the issue became a global concern, India was aware of corporate social responsibility (CSR), due to the efforts of organisations such as the Tata Group. Corporate companies like ITC have made farmer development a vital part of its business strategy, and made major efforts to improve the livelihood standards of rural communities. Unilever is using micro enterprises to strategically augment the penetration of consumer products in rural markets. IT companies like TCS and Wipro have developed software to help teachers and children in schools across India to further the cause of education. The adult literacy software has been a significant factor in reducing illiteracy in remote communities. Banks and insurance companies are targeting migrant labourers and street vendors to help them through micro-credits and related schemes. In June 2008, a survey was carried out by TNS India (a research organization) and the Times Foundation with the aim of providing an understanding of the role of corporations in CSR. The findings revealed that over 90 per cent of all major Indian organizations surveyed were involved in CSR initiatives. In fact, the private sector was more involved in CSR activities than the public and government sectors. The leading areas that corporations were involved in were livelihood promotion, education, health, environment, and women's empowerment. Most of CSR ventures

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were done as internal projects while a small proportion were as direct financial support to voluntary organizations or communities. In a survey carried out by the Asian Governance Association, which ranks the top 10 Asian countries on corporate governance parameters, India has consistently ranked among the top three along with Singapore and Hong Kong, for the last eight years. In another study undertaken by automotive research company, TNS Automotive, India has been ranked second in global corporate social responsibility. State-owned Bharat Petroleum and Maruti Udyog were ranked as the best companies in India. Bharat Petroleum and Maruti Udyog came on top with 134 points each, followed by Tata Motors (133) and Hero Honda (131). The study was based on a public goodwill index and India received 119 points in the index against a global average of 100. Thailand was at the top slot with 124 points. The Indian corporate sector spent US$ 6.31 billion on social expenditure during 200708, up from US$ 3.68 billion spent during the previous fiscal. The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), the country's largest steel company, spent US$ 21.05 million on CSR last year; Tata Steel Ltd, (which runs a 850-bed hospital and rural projects in 800 villages around Jamshedpur), spends about US$ 31.58 million as part of its annual revenue expenditure. Now there are plans to also introduce CSR in the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector to increase its reach in remote areas.

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CSR Initiatives and Green Measures

India Inc has joined hands to fine-tune all its activities falling under CSR. For this, it has set up a global platform to showcase all the work done by Indian firms. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the TVS Group have collaborated to form the CII-TVS Centre of Excellence for Responsive Corporate Citizenship. The outfit, based in Chennai, will provide consultancy services and technical assistance on social development and CSR. CII's 'Mission on Sustainable Growth' has set up a code which was formulated in 2006. It provides consultancy services and technical assistance on social development and CSR. The mission's aims are to promote the reduction of excessive consumption of natural resources and emission of greenhouse gases. The code had started with 23 new signatories and the total number of code signatories had gone up to 102, by September 2008. Many large corporate houses are taking up projects along with the help of the government which are 'green' to promote the cause of sustainable development.

Coca-Cola India has started with a corpus of US$ 10 million for its CSR activities in 2008. It has undertaken US$ 2530 million a year project on water conservation, and the project "Elixir of life" to provide drinking water to nearly 30,000 school children. Coca-Cola India won the 'Golden Peacock Global Award for Corporate Social Responsibility 2008' for these initiatives.

ArcelorMittal will spend about US$ 500 million as part of its CSR initiatives in Jharkhand and Orissa. BHEL has joined hands with a UN body 'Global Compact' (The United Nation's Global Compact is a partnership between the UN, the business community, international labour bodies and non-government organisations (NGOs) to partner with global corporate houses for greater focus on corporate social responsibility.

Global Compact, in association with FICCI, is also organising the first ever national convention on 'Excellence in Corporate Citizenship and Global Compact'.

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Tata Motors and space agency ISRO are likely to launch the prototype of the world's cleanest vehicle that will run on hydrogen and leave behind nothing more than a trail of water vapour.

Bajaj Auto, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Eicher Motors have come together to develop hydrogen-blended compressed natural gas (HCNG)-run vehicles to tackle the problem of rising pollution.

Pepsico India has signed the CII-Code for Ecologically Sustainable Business Growth recently, and in so doing it has committed to decrease the consumption of natural resources and promote ecologically sustainable growth in the group. Its water conservation initiative has resulted in saving over 2.4 billion litres of water annually, bringing down the consumption by 40 per cent since 2005. The effluent discharge has also decreased by 60 per cent. Likewise, the company has brought down the generation of sludge in effluent treatment plants (with over 25 per cent reduction in one year alone) through the use of bio-enzymes. At the community level, the waste-to-wealth initiative has developed zero solid waste centres that helps more than 2, 00,000 community members all over the country.

Reliance Power (R-Power) is planning an investment of over US$ 12.63 billion for renewable and alternative energy resources such as hydroelectric, wind, solar and fuel cell-based power. The company is planning to generate about 5,000 MW from hydroelectric energy and most of the projects would come up in water-abundant north-eastern states.

The Indian paints industry too is making its products more environmentally friendly by opting for water-based paints and making it carcinogen-free. The heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC) industry is working to get rid of its 'global warmer' stigma through greater use of gases with zero ozone depletion potential (zero ODP).

Sustainable Technologies and Environmental Projects Ltd (STEPS) is planning to start a project to change plastic, organic and electronic waste into petroleum without the usual harmful residue.

Pharmaceuticals Company Jubilant Organosys Ltd runs an anti-tuberculosis programme with the government of Uttar Pradesh.

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Rural Development
Rural development is attracting major CSR initiatives from various corporates.

Airtel has tied up with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) to reach farmers directly. Farmers will receive free voice messages twice daily on farming techniques, weather forecasts, dairy farming, rural health initiatives, fertilizer availability, loan information and market rates. Additionally, farmers can also call a dedicated helpline, manned by experts from various fields, to get answers to their queries.

Reliance Communications has introduced low tariff initiative like the Grameen Programme for rural subscribers. SREI Sahaj e-Village Ltd will set up 25,000 IT kiosks to be known as common service centres (CSC) across West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, by 2010.

ITC's e-Chapual has been a great developmental initiative which has also added value to its own agricultural products. It comprises improving the lives of farmers and villagers.

HDFC has started a 'village adoption' scheme to improve the investment climate in Indian villages. Mahindra Shubhlabh, the agricultural business arm of Mahindra & Mahindra, aims to use especially cultured seeds to improve contract-farming productivity.

DCM Shriram provides information services through its chain of Krishi Vikas Kendras, which have now evolved into Hariyali Kisan Bazaars. Hindustan Petroleum has started community kitchen programmes in some Indian villages. ICICI Bank has launched an ambitious rural banking and agribusiness initiative. The Byrraju Foundation's GramIT programme has generated a rural BPO model. It aims to employ rural people in the ITES (IT-enabled services) industry, and to create profit for the entrepreneurs or cooperatives running the BPOs

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCEPT OF STAKEHOLDER

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Stakeholder Concept

Stakeholder is a complex and multifarious concept as it involves different philosophical underpinnings and diverse implications for management, strategies, policymaking, and so on (Friedman and Miles, 2006). There is a variety of practices and theories informed by stakeholder concept. Its attractiveness and popularity has led to the concept being criticized in many occasions by both academicians and practitioners within different areas, including corporate marketing (Dunacan and Moriarty, 1997), corporate governance (Alkhafaji, 1989), financial reporting (Stittle, 2003), corporate sustainability and business ethics (Weiss 1998, 2003), etc. Donaldson and Preston, (1995, p.73) states that stakeholder concept is mudding of theoretical bases and objectives. The term stakeholder is becoming content free meaning almost anything the author desires (Stoney and Winstanley 2001, p.650).

However, stakeholder is a relatively modern concept and its popularity and use hasnt but recently burgeoned in business practice and academic community. Freeman (1984) was generally first credited with its popularization; with his 1984 book Strategic Management: a Stakeholder Approach. A stakeholder is defined as any group orm individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organizations objectives. (Ibid, p.46) Or, as established by Stanford Research Institute in an internal memo produced in 1963, stakeholders are these groups without support the organization would cease to exist. (Ibid, p.31) This line of thought has been further developed by Carroll and Buchholtz, (2005).

From communications standpoint, stakeholder concept enables organizations to develop more effective strategies to interact and communicate with those who have a stake in the organization. It is important that companies leaders need to understand which groups of stakeholders are important to the company, what type of relationship they have with them, and how these relationships affect their perceptions beliefs and feelings about the company (Balmer and Gray 2000). However, effective communications are developed by building a positive realm of understanding of these stakeholder groups that

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impact upon the organization and with whom communication is necessary and important (Fill, 1999). Communicating effectively with the appropriate stakeholders helps grow and flourish the relationship with them, which enables the organization to achieve its objectives. Wilson, (2003) states that the stronger your relationships are with external stakeholders, the easier it will be to meet your corporate business objectives; the worse your relationships, the harder it will be. Thus stakeholder engagement can be used to identify key areas of concern for different stakeholder groups, which can be considered as the focus for strengthening stakeholder relations (Friedman & Miles, 2006). Like pretty much all kinds of relationships, to develop and build a strong lasting relationship with stakeholders, trust, commitment and cooperation are key elements to consider

The essential purpose of shareholder analysis is to identify who the stakeholders are, what their aims and motivations are, and how they can influence, have a power over, or be affected by the focus organization. Increasingly, organizations have begun to understand and act upon stakeholders demands and concerns. They are realizing the importance of addressing and considering those concerns in the strategies they conceive in an attempt to maintain the challenge of responding to stakeholders expectations and needs. Further to this point, elevated stakeholder expectations for transparency are driving corporations to adhere to reporting of non-financial performance as a means to disclose corporate commitments and performance (Friedman & Miles, 2006). According to Ballou et al. (2006), stakeholders have been pressing companies to publicly communicate their reports on their corporate sustainability practices through either annual financial reports or voluntary corporate performance reports. Much more is demanded from the corporation by a wider

range of stakeholders, including many who come together under the wide umbrella of sustainability (Dunphy et al. 2003).

According to Friedman & Miles (2006), the stakeholder concept involves redefining all organizations in the sense of how they should be conceptualized and what they should be. This implies that stakeholder analysis is an important

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factor in the development of corporate strategies. It is crucial to consider the whole system of relationships between organizations as the relationship of any two is contingent upon the relationships of all the actors (Andersson, 1992). The stakeholder approach points out that business is not only accountable to its shareholders, but should also consider stakeholder interests, which may affect or may be affected by the business operations (Freeman, 1984; ORourke, 2003).

Strategizing with the stakeholder concept in mind is an enormous challenge for organizations because different stakeholders can have different concerns, priorities, demands and goals. For example, customers seek service/product quality and benefits; employees want opportunity advancement, job satisfaction, security and equality; local community want social investment; and regulatory bodies want compliance with ongoing laws and regulations; etc. Apart from their expectations, stakeholders can have a power over the organization. Freeman, (1984) highlights three elements in this regard: (1) formal power to control the actions of the organization, (2) economic power to influence the organization, and finally (3) political power generated by the stakeholders ability to influence an organization through legislation. Freeman constructed a matrix in Table 3.1 (see Appendix D), which represents the dominant influence of each stakeholder.

Stakeholders are also useful when it comes to ethical analysis because the idea provides a framework for weighing obligations and gauging the impact of decisions on all relevant groups, not just the organization (Murphy & Laczniak 2006). From this perspective, stakeholder concept can contribute to business ethics, in particular corporate sustainability by providing an approach to setting strategies and objectives aiming to address the needs of society as regards to creating higher living standards, protecting the environment, promoting social justice and supporting economic stability with the vision to achieve sustainable development. Wilson, (2003) points out that stakeholder concept contributes to corporate sustainability as an additional argument to why organizations should work toward sustainable development. This new way of understanding economic development concerns all constituencies of

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society. The negative impacts of current models of industry generated complex global problems, such as climate change, social inequality and stress, resources depletion and environmental health and other problems caused by economic growth. Considering the scale of the problem in such case, the concept of stakeholder can be advantageously used in a way that everyone can be seen to have a stake in the problem. Tackling these global issues, new models, strategies and policies are as needed as to be disclosed to all stakeholders for encouraging transparency, responsibility and accountability. Friedman & Miles, (2006) contends that a corporation can demonstrate its approach to corporate social responsibility to its key stakeholders by disclosing management strategies, actions, and policies relating to environment, social and ethical issues.

Overall, understanding what the key stakeholders are, and knowing their positions and roles, represents an important key factor in the development of communication plans (Fill, 1999). Setting the objective to address stakeholders concerns and respond to their demands and needs attempting ideally to achieve their objectives, will ultimately strengthen the organization position and image and help develop opportunities for sustainable competitive advantage.

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CHAPTER-FIVE CSR IN VARIOUS CORPORATES

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RELIANCE Social Responsibility & Community Development :

Social welfare and community development is at the core of Reliances Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) philosophy and continues to be a top priority for the Company. It revolves around the Companys deeply-held belief in the principle of symbiotic relationship with the local communities, recognizing that business ultimately has a purpose - to serve human needs. Close and continuous interaction with the people and communities in and around the manufacturing divisions has been the key focus while striving to bring around qualitative changes and supporting the underprivileged. Reliances contributions to the community are in the area of health, education, infrastructure development (drinking water, improving village infrastructure, construction of schools etc.), environment (effluent treatment, tree plantation, treatment of hazardous waste), relief and assistance in the event of a natural disaster, and miscellaneous activities such as contribution to other social development organizations etc. The Companys CSR teams at all manufacturing divisions interact with the neighbouring community on regular basis. The Company takes pride in the fact that its CSR representatives are known by their first names in the regions that it operates.

Education
Teach them young is the very motto of Reliance as the Company believes that the quality of inputs received by an individual at an early age contributes to his or her growth as a capable human being. To ensure high quality of teaching, Reliance has made significant efforts towards value enhancement of teachers through professional and institutionalized training. Dahej Manufacturing Division conducted educational and excursion tours of students and teachers from the primary schools of neighbouring villages, and also organized Balmela and Science and Mathematics Fair.

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To provide training in the field of effective techniques and modern methods of teaching to high school teachers in the Hazira area, the Company organized training of teachers in various subjects. Reliance has launched the Sky is the limit programme at Hazira, to address the problem of school drop-outs in the local community. The Company also provides opportunities to engineering and management institute students to undergo in-plant training/projects as part of their academic curriculum, thus enabling them to appreciate application of theoretical knowledge and get an exposure to the industrial practices. Efforts were made to enhance employability/skill development of local youths. This was done by giving opportunities to them to work in the Companys operating plants, which in turn improve their job prospects. Executive Development Programs for officers of neighbouring industries were organized in coordination with PRIA (Patalganga Rasayani Industries Association). The Companys major manufacturing locations provide good quality education to the children of all employees and also cater to the needs of surrounding villages. Jamnaben Hirachand Ambani School, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Vidya Mandir, and Jamnaben Hirachand Ambani Saraswati Vidya Mandir are schools near the Companys manufacturing locations at Patalganga, Hazira and Jamanagar respectively. A modern educational infrastructure coupled with extra-curricular activities and recreational facilities distinguish all these schools. To encourage school children from neighbouring villages, Nagothane Manufacturing Division based CSR cell MGCC Area Development Research Foundation (MADER) Trust took following initiatives: Felicitated meritorious students from neighbouring villages and tribal hamlets. Each student received a set of note books, stationary items and a school bag.
There are several Zilla Parishad schools located on the hilltop near Nagothane

Manufacturing Division where all the children who are attending school are

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tribal. With an objective to encourage the tribal students, Reliance also provided school uniforms. Barabanki Manufacturing Division renovated a primary school in an adjoining village. Hoshiarpur Manufacturing Division provided free uniform (winter and summer), books, bags, shoes and stationery to the school-going children of neighbouring village.

Health
Health Awareness Programs, covering diverse topics such as noise pollution, hazards substance abuse, prevention of HIV/AIDS and First Aid were conducted for students of schools at the neighbouring towns and villages of Patalganga. Barabanki Manufacturing Division provides medical service and awareness programs on health, hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation in neighboring villages. Hoshiarpur Manufacturing Division too conducts monthly checkup camps at neighbouring villages. Free medicines and spectacles were also provided. Round the clock free ambulance service has been provided to roadside accident victims. Hazira Rehabilitation Centre for the Physically Challenged has been set up in partnership with Disabled Welfare Trust of India for capacity building of physically challenged children from the weaker sections of society.

Initiatives to Combat HIV / AIDS and TB

The Company provides Community Medical Centres near most of its manufacturing divisions. These centres cater to the Governmental health care programmes like maternal and child health, TB, malaria, HIV / AIDS etc., besides providing curative treatment. These Centres have been well received and go a long way in providing the medical relief for the community. The Company has implemented HIV / AIDS and DOTS programme at Hazira and Jamnagar, and is in the process of replicating the same at the other manufacturing divisions. This initiative is a publicprivate partnership between the Government, NGOs and Reliance. This comprehensive project extends from creating awareness to providing treatment, care and support.

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Reliances initiative to combat HIV / AIDS has been recognized by UNAID, World Bank and other national and international institutions.

Adoption of Public Health Centre (PHC)

Reliance has adopted a Primary Health Centre (PHC) from the State Government of Gujarat and converted it into a model primary health centre. The PHC located at Dahej in Bharuch District, Gujarat, has attained the status of the best PHC in the District in a short-span of 6 months and has established itself as a centre of excellence.

Highway Rescue Intervention

To provide emergency and trauma care to victims of highway accidents, Hazira has tied-up with an NGO to run the project on the State Highway in Gujarat starting from Sachin to Bharuch, and the State Highway via Hazira - Olpad - Hansot - Ankleshwar. The project will benefit thousands of commuters who use this highway on a daily basis. Traffic Police personnel are the first government agency to respond to an emergency involving a chemical tanker or a truck. With the increase in the number of accidents on roads and the unending addition of new chemicals, it is important that these personnel understand the hazards and the basic steps to be taken to safeguard themselves and the general public from the hazards of chemicals. The Companys initiative of training traffic police personnel by its Kurkumbh Manufacturing Division in handling road transport emergencies involving chemicals will go a long way in serving the objective of community well-being.

Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Lodhivali

Reliance also operates the Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Lodhivali and renders quality medical services to the rural population and highway accident victims.

Moti Khavdi Medical Centre

As part of corporate social responsibility services, a community medical centre was established in Moti Khavdi, a village near Jamnagar Manufacturing Division, during

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the pre-commissioning stage of the refinery in November 1995. This Community Medical Centre provides comprehensive medical services free of cost and round the clock. About 1.2 lakh villagers of nearby areas like Moti Khavdi, Nani Khavdi, Padana, Meghpar, Gagva, Jogvad, Baid, Kanalus, Sikka, Sarmat, Navaniya, Mungani, Jakhar, Bara, Vasai and Amra benefit from the same.

Community Medical Services at SEZ, Jamnagar

A massive workforce from all parts of India are working at the mega construction activities in the SEZ at Jamnagar. The Company has given shelter in several colonies. Each labour colony has a separate medical centre. Each medical centre is manned round the clock by doctors, nurses and ambulances.

Thalassaemia detection camp and Parental counselling

The tribal areas in regions near Surat, Gujarat, are highly endemic to the prevalence of a thalassaemic trait, which is a genetic disorder. The Company launched a thalassaemia detection camp in association with the Indian Red Cross in the local high school. Children from the nearby school were tested for the disorder. The opportunity was also used for detecting aneamia and sickle cell aneamia. A post-test counseling session was organized for the parents of these children.

Project Cancer-Aid for Cancer patients

In partnership with the Lions Cancer Detection centre, the Company provides monetary assistance for purchase of medicines to cancer patients.

Mobile Dispensaries
Reliance also operates free medical diagnostic and therapeutic services at neighbouring villages of several of its manufacturing locations.

Blood Donation Drives

The Companys employees organize and participate in blood donation campaigns every year across its manufacturing divisions and offices.

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Public Health Care

Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Hospital and Research Centre (HNHRC) Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation (DAF), with financial and technical services support from the Reliance Group, joined in 1997 the Management of HNHRC, a charitable hospital offering tertiary health care facilities to all strata of society and providing free and subsidized services to the poor and indigent patients availing of various diagnostic and treatment facilities. Thousands of patients have received treatment indoors in the various wards and specialized care areas and at OPD services at P.T. Clinic, the popular Diagnostic Centre of the Hospital. The Hospital continues its age-old tradition of rendering free service to all in the casualty ward. More than 4,000 surgeries were performed during the year, of which a major portion was special and super major surgeries. The Hospital carried out several Cadaver Transplants in the recent past. Further, the eye Donation drive initiated by the hospital witnessed an increased response. Some of the important outreach programmes conducted during the year included a Senior Citizen Health Screening Program in association with Rotary Club, and a medical back-up for the Special Olympics event organized by the Lions Club International. Twice a month, the hospital continues to conduct free health check-up for senior citizens and physically challenged in Mumbai. These programmes have gone a long way in educating the community on prevention of diseases, and promoting a healthy lifestyle. The hospital is in the process of building a multi-storied ultra modern tertiary care hospital with state-of-art facilities and infrastructure embracing the entire spectrum of health care services. Several new facilities would be added, and many of the existing facilities would be significantly upgraded in areas like Neurology and Neurosurgery, Urosurgery, Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Cardiovascular Surgery and Cosmetology. A chain of blood banks would be established at various centres under a new initiative by the DAF. Educational and research activities at the hospital shall receive significant boost by way of advanced facilities and better funding. The project, when completed, would be a landmark healthcare facility in this city.

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Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Medical Research Society (HNMRS) DAF, through the Reliance Group, supports the scientific research activities of HNMRS. The Society has been carrying out scientific research activities since 1974 -75 and has completed more than 130 research projects. The scientists from HNRMS have presented over 180 papers at various national and international conferences. More than 130 papers have been published in peer reviewed scientific journals, about half of them being highly rated as prestigious international journals. Topics of national health priority constitute a major share of the research projects undertaken. The researchers are motivated to expand their research avenues to carry out epidemiological studies and community-based surveys. As part of such studies, children from nearby schools and susceptible population from neighbourhood communities are regularly screened by medical / paramedical professionals. Those in need of medical care are offered special attention and treatment at the institution free of cost.

Drishti
Project Drishti, a nation-wide corneal grafting drive to bring light into the lives of visually challenged from the underprivileged segment of society has restored the gift of sight to over 5,500 Indians. A unique joint initiative of Reliance Industries Limited and National Association of Blind (NAB), Project Drishti has undertaken over 5,500 keroptoplasty surgeries in less than 4 years since it was started - all free of cost. It is now the largest corneal grafting surgery project enabled by a single corporate entity in India.

Drishti Painting Competition

As a part of corporate initiative to propagate awareness of Project Drishti, Drishti painting competition is organized for school children at several manufacturing divisions and offices of the Company.

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Community Development
Jamnagar Manufacturing Division continues to extend a helping hand to surrounding villages and the community at large. Activities during the year focussed on improving village infrastructure, supply of drinking water, education support etc. During the year, in a unique initiative to improve rural housekeeping and sanitation, a totally fresh approach was adopted to beautify Moti Khavdi; Reliances adopted village. Cleaning and sanitation drive at Moti Khavdi was taken up as an ongoing project. Three MoUs were finalized with the State Government of Gujarat for development of Dwarka during the year. They are to:
(i)

Develop the temple square in front of the famous Dwarkadheesh temple.

(ii)

Construct Sudama Setu-a bridge to connect both the banks of Gomati river behind Dwarkadheeshs temple.

(iii)

Develop Panch-kui area on the sea-shore where five wells, believed to be dug by Pandavas, still give fresh potable water right on the seashore.

To maintain and support village cows in surrounding villages, two more brand new cow-sheds for Kanalus and Kanachikari were constructed and handed over to the respective villages. These cows and cow-sheds (Gaushala) receive regular fodder supply from the Companys Jamnagar Manufacturing Division. Construction of a public lavatory, water tank and avedo (common drinking water facility for villagers) was done at Nani Khavdi during the year under report. Drinking water through water tankers was supplied during a crisis period in Sikka, Nani Khavdi, Meghpar and Padana. At Kanachikari, Drinking water pipelines were laid during the year. A new primary school building at Navagam was constructed and repairing of some village schools was taken up. Participation and distribution of sweets in village

29

schools during the Independence Day and the Republic Day; support to Government of Gujarats drive for girls education; distribution of gifts to girls of villages during Navratri festival; supporting Navratri celebrations in Jamnagar were some of the salient aspects of Jamnagar Manufacturing Divisions Community Welfare Cell as part of routine and regular activities. In a major initiative to celebrate Navratri, the worlds longest dance festival on a large scale; Jamnagar manufacturing division took a lead to form Gujarat Industries Navratri Festival. A gala festival was organized and celebrated at state capital Gandhinagars helipad ground for nine days jointly with leading industries of Gujarat. The event brought to fore the role of industries, handicrafts, art and culture etc in the development of Gujarat as a vibrant state. The event evoked tremendous response and applause from every quarter of the society at large.

Reliance Rural Development Trust (RRDT)

The work to improve the rural infrastructure under the Government of Gujarats rural development plans was continued with full energy by RRDT. During the year under report, the RRDT created 760 facilities in the rural areas at a cost of Rs. 24.07 crore. The facilities included 247 concrete roads, 465 anganwadis, 38 drinking water facilities, 1 panchayat office, 2 community halls, 5 check-dams and 2 other amenities in the rural areas of the State of Gujarat. RRDT has turned out to be an exemplary corporate NGO steadily and silently implementing governments developmental plans for rural areas of Gujarat. It is a unique synergy between a corporate giant like Reliance Industries Limited and the Government of Gujarat, formed to carry out rural development projects in private public partnership. Dahej Manufacturing Division has been playing a pivotal role in the development of the society. Social initiatives undertaken by Dahej Manufacturing Division are concentrated towards promotion of education, health awareness and medical facilities, infrastructure development and supply of safe drinking to the villages. Some of the initiatives undertaken by the Companys E&P Division near KGD6 include:

30

1. Gainful employment for local communities. 2. vocational training for the youth. 3. employment for members of Gadimoga panchayat. 4. financial assistance for community activities. 5. sponsoring of cultural and sports events. 6. financial relief to affected communities. 7. compensation to local fishermen. 8. academic and financial assistance and educational support through distribution

of books.
9. improvement of village school infrastructure and

10. medical help to local communities. After successfully implementing zero garbage concept at Nagothane Manufacturing Division, the Companys CSR cell took the initiative to propagate the concept of solid waste (dry and wet waste) management in the neighbouring villages so as to help villagers in keeping their village environment neat, clean and garbagefree. Reliance has also solved the long-standing drinking water problem of villages near its Manufacturing Divisions located at Naroda and Nagpur. Further, Reliance has created public bathing facilities and toilets for truckers and residents of villages for improving hygiene near its Allahabad Manufacturing Division.

Empowerment of Women and Youth

Reliance has conducted many training programmes, which would help the rural women and youth to be self sustaining and generate income for themselves and support their families. The training programmes conducted at Vadodara for the rural women and youth of surrounding villages of Vadodara Manufacturing Division during the current

31

year are: 1) Women Empowerment, 2) Dress making & Designing, 3) Beauty Culture & Healthcare, 4) Hospital attendant (Helpers for Hospital & Nursing Homes), 5) Plumbing & Hand Pump repairing training, 6) Computer Hardware, 7) Motor Vehicle Driving, 8) Mobile Repairing and 9) Doormat making. Several persons participated and benefited from the above training programmes. Nagothane Manufacturing Division based CSR cell-MADER Trust is supporting several Self-Help groups in income generating activities such: Hatsadi tandul (brown rice cultivation), phenoyl making, agarbati-making, candle-making, papad-making and supplying it to industrial canteens and also hand-carry-bag making. Hoshiarpur Manufacturing Division conducts free stitching courses for the women of nearby villages.

Skill Up-gradation
Reliance runs special training programs to equip the young people of neighboring villages with life and work skills necessary for sustaining livelihood. Nagothane Manufacturing Division conducted training in fashion designing courses for the ladies to upgrade the skills of those women who are already trained in basic tailoring. This division also conducted computer education courses and nursing assistant training courses. The trainees also received hands on training at the local hospitals and primary health centres at Nagothane. The Company also trains the youth in vehicle driving courses and also helps them in getting a drivers license so that they can earn a livelihood by starting their own business as motor drivers. The Companys Polymer business division organised technical training programmes at 50 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) all over India to enhance skills of artisans for new and advanced technique of plumbing with PPR pipes. The Company also offers plumbing kits, free of cost, to various plumbers as well as to ITIs to promote this new energy efficient application in the building industry. PPR pipes are faster to install than metal pipes. This results in improving daily productivity of plumbers thereby increasing in their earnings. This initiative covered many plumbers across the country.

Eco-friendly Initiatives ~
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In addition to the above initiatives, the Company also focusses on the development of the eco-system and improvement of the green belt across its manufacturing and E&P sites.

Transforming lives at the bottom of the Pyramid

Reliance constantly aims at creating and living up to rising expectations among its valued stakeholders. The Company cares for providing clean and green environment on a sustainable basis. It recycles used bottles to produce value added products. When most of the environmental concerns are subsidised, Reliance has found a solution for being environmental friendly on a sustainable basis. In the case of recycling bottles, Reliance is indirectly providing livelihood to around 200,000 individuals. This business has transformed lives of those at the bottom of the pyramid.

Packaging solution to farmers (Leno bags)

Reliance organised extensive awareness programmes on improved packaging solutions for potato and other vegetables for farmers all over India. This included demonstration on use of Leno bags, which are more durable, functionally more efficient and cheaper than traditional materials. This programme helped the farmers reduce the cost of packaging of potato. These bags also helped farmers to reduce wastage while keeping in cold storage. The Companys efforts helped the farmers to improve their earnings. The programme covered more than 10,000 farmers across India.

Polyethylene (PE) Biogas Domes for Renewable Energy Source

Biogas technology for rural development has been a focus area for Government of India. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) promotes family-type biogas plants under the National Project on Biogas Development (NPBD). The project was launched in 1981-82 with the objective of producing clean and alternate renewable energy for cooking and lighting, enriched organic manure for agricultural usage, improving sanitation and hygiene and reducing drudgery of women. The two cubic metre Deenabhandu model is the most popular family type fixed dome biogas plant

33

developed with conventional brick and cement. Many of these plants get defunct due to dome cracks leading to gas leakages. The Company has developed a 100 per cent leak-proof Rotomolded PE Dome, which gives end-users a unique combination of properties like good strength, stiffness, light weight, seamless construction, ease of installation and very little maintenance. The PE-based dome has been developed by Reliance and has been approved by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.

Sports for the Physically Challenged

Reliance has joined hands with the organising team of Special Olympics Gujarat (Bharat) for the physically challenged children of Gujarat. Several hundred children participated in the events that were organised at the Reliance Sports Complex, Vadodara.

Real Indian Heroes

On the occasion of Shri Dhirubhai Ambanis 75th birthday, 60 years of Indian Independence and 30 years of Reliance, the Company took up a unique initiative to salute the Real Indian Heroes of Independent India. Partnering with the TV Channel, CNN-IBN, a series of programmes to felicitate the unsung heroes of India was launched. CNN-IBN identified 24 Real Heroes, which included six each from the four zones of India. In recognition for their outstanding contribution to society, Reliance felicitated each of these 24 Real Heroes to further encourage their contributions.

Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation (DAF)

Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation (DAF) was established in 1995 by Shri Dhirubhai Ambani, the Patron Trustee of the Foundation. A public charitable trust registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, DAF has for its objectives a broad spectrum of worthy causes ranging from health and environment, to promotion of social and economic welfare, and rural development. However, its main thrust has been on education and public healthcare. DAF systematically pursues philanthropic activities to promote national welfare and social good. Reliance lends valuable support to DAF in terms of financial contribution

34

and wherever necessary, infrastructural support. Reliance also draws on the DAF expertise in evolving and coordinating the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives and other group companies also help DAF initiatives wherever possible. Thus, DAF initiatives reinforce Reliances commitment to social responsibility.

Education: Rewards and Scholarships

DAF SSC Merit Reward and Undergraduate Scholarship Schemes: The Foundations much acclaimed SSC Merit Reward and Undergraduate Scholarship Schemes continued to encourage and assist meritorious students at the district level to pursue higher education in different vocations to enhance the Human Resource potential of the country. Now in their twelvth year, both the schemes are currently applicable in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and the Union Territory of Daman, Diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli. The first three in overall merit and one physically challenged student securing the highest marks in each of the 64 districts at the annual SSC and HSC examinations of the respective state Boards, as well as the first ten CBSE students from Maharashtra and Gujarat and 2 from Goa, in the merit list of CBSE New Delhi, are eligible for the Rewards and Scholarships.

Reaching out to other states:

To offer equal opportunities to the physically challenged meritorious students from

the rest of the country, the Foundation has extended the Rewards and Scholarship
Schemes to the first five physically challenged students from all the States and Union Territories of India that provide the list of such meritorious students. Accordingly, in 2007-08, physically challenged meritorious students from Rajasthan received SSC Merit Rewards and Undergraduate Scholarships at a function held in Jaipur, whereas at a function held in Hyderabad, 20 Physically Challenged meritorious students from the state of Andhra Pradesh received the Rewards and Undergraduate Scholarships for the years 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Reliance Kargil scholarships scheme

Children of martyrs / disabled soldiers of the Kargil war received financial support under this Scheme for their education from Std. V to XII. The unique feature of the

35

Scheme is that the corpus was created with contributions from Reliance Group employees, with the Management responding by making equal contribution. Dhiruhbai Ambani Scholars scheme for Meritorious Children of Reliance Shareholders The Scheme was announced in 2003 as a one-time measure to commemorate the silver jubilee of the companys listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange. In the first year, 900 meritorious children of the shareholders received the scholarships. Of these, in 2007 - 08 which is the 4th year of the Scheme, a total of 101 scholars continued to receive the scholarship for their education, leading to Degree / Diploma course, the rest having completed their education.

36

Sony -CSR Environmental Conservation Activities Established Partnership with NGO to Address the Issue of Climate Change
In July 2006, Sony signed an agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) global environmental NGO, to join its "Climate Savers Programme". Under the program, Sony has agreed to partner with the WWF to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Sony's sites around the world, reduce CO2 emissions from product use by lowering the annual energy consumption of major Sony products and cooperate with the WWF to raise consumer awareness of global warming prevention.

Promoting Product Energy Saving

In February 2007, Sony received a Sustainable Energy Europe Award from the European Commission, the first consumer electronics and entertainment company to earn this prestigious prize. The award recognized Sony for its voluntary commitment and efforts to improve the energy efficiency of its products, as well as its disclosure of information to consumers. As of February 2007, all Sony televisions sold in Europe had a standby power consumption below 1 watt, with 30 models achieving a standby power consumption of only 0.3 watts, below the market average. In Japan, Sony's KDL-40J3000 model BRAVIA LCD television has achieved an energy-conservation level of 180% relative to Japan's energy-saving laws, representing the industry's highest energy-saving performance2 .

Environmental Conservation at Sites

Sony is engaged in a variety of environmental conservation activities at its sites as it works towards its "Green Management 2010" mid-term group environmental targets, to be achieved by 2010. In fiscal 2006, Sony's emissions of greenhouse gases (calculated in terms of CO2) totaled approximately 2.03 million tons, down 9% from fiscal 2000 levels. Furthermore, waste from Sony sites was approximately 193,000

37

tons, down 30% from the fiscal 2000 level, while the amount of water used dropped approximately 16% from fiscal 2000 to 24.18 million cubic meters.

SONY ESTABLISHES FIRST NATIONWIDE ELECTRONICS RECYCLING PROGRAM WITH WASTE MANAGEMENTS RECYCLE AMERICA Program Open to All Consumer Electronics Devices
NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2007 To encourage consumers to recycle and dispose of electronic devices in an environmentally sound manner, Sony has established a national recycling program for consumer electronics. The Sony Take Back Recycling Program allows consumersto recycle all Sony-branded products for no fee at 75 Waste Management (WM) Recycle America eCycling drop-off centers throughout the U.S. The program, which begins on Sept. 15, was developed in collaboration with WM Recycle America, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc. The program also allows consumers to recycle other manufacturers consumer electronics products at market prices, and may include a recycling fee for some types of materials. This is the first national recycling initiative in the U.S. to involve both a major electronics manufacturer and a national waste management company. As the Sony Take Back Recycling program expands, the number of eCycling drop-off centers will increase to at least 150 sites within a year, with at least one location in every state through a combination of WM Recycle America locales and WM external service partners. Sony and WM Recycle America are also working towards the goal of having enough drop-off locations in all 50 states so there is a recycling center within 20 miles of 95 percent of the U.S. population. Consumers will also have the option of shipping their used Sony electronics products to select WM Recycle America locations.

38

The Sony Take Back Recycling Program is part of Sonys broader global commitment to environmental stewardship, which spans product design, recycling, facilities management and energy conservation across all categories. "Providing the highest level of service and support doesnt stop once a purchase is made. We believe it is Sonys responsibility to provide customers with end-of-life solutions for all the products we manufacture, said Stan Glasgow, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics. Through the Take Back Recycling Program, our customers will know that their Sony products will be recycled in an environmentally responsible manner. Glasgow said that by making the recycling of Sony products easy and convenient, the company expects to reach its goal of recycling one pound of old consumer electronics equipment for every pound of new products sold. People are seeking services to help them recycle electronic waste responsibly and economically, said Patrick DeRueda, president of WM Recycle America. This program serves consumers needs by offering a convenient and cost-effective waste management solution, while demonstrating our shared commitment to providing outstanding customer service and environmental stewardship. As the technology industry sees continued growth, the amount of electronic waste is also increasing. A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that in 2005 used or unwanted electronics amounted to about 1.9 to 2.2 million tons. Of that, some 1.5 to 1.9 million tons was primarily discarded in landfills, and only 345,000 to 379,000 tons were recycled. By recycling old electronics products, useful materials -- such as glass, plastic and metals can be collected and re-used in the manufacture of other products. Recycling not only minimizes the amount of waste disposed, it also minimizes the extraction of new raw materials from the earth and resources required for processing, saving energy and reducing greenhouse gases in the process.

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TATA

The wealth generated by Jamsetji Tata and his sons in half a century of industrial pioneering formed but a minute fraction of the amount by which they enriched the nation. The whole of that wealth is held in trust for the people and used exclusively for their benefit. The cycle is thus complete: what came from the people has gone back to the people many times over. For Jamsetji Tata, the progress of enterprise, welfare of people and the health of the enterprise were inextricably linked. Wealth and the generation of wealth have never "been ends in themselves, but a means to an end, for the increased prosperity of India," The Times of India said in 1912 of the Tatas. Successive generations of Tata Group leaders have always held the belief that no success in material terms is worthwhile unless it serves the interest of the nation and is achieved by fair and honest means. Conscious that the task of social progress, especially in a country as diverse as India, cannot be undertaken by the Government alone, J R D Tata the Chairman of the Tata Group from 1938 to 1991, believed that, "to create good working conditions, to pay the best wages to its employees and provide decent housing to its employees are not

40

enough for the industry, the aim of an industry should be to discharge its overall social responsibilities to the community and the society at large, where industry is located."

Education
Tata Steel has influenced the integration of tribals in the economy in a less obvious and immediate way by propping up the education of tribal children and youth of various ages and at various stages of their academic career. Infants and toddlers are prepared for formal schooling in the informally run balwadis (crches/nurseries). The drop out rate of tribal students in schools and colleges has been checked with financial assistance and sponsorships. The TCS bears the entire expense of two tribal students who secure admissions for management education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. It also coaches students for entrance into administrative, technical and the public services. An unusual project called Sahyog, implemented in five schools, helps tribal students to develop self-esteem and plan their future. The Xavier Institute for Tribal Education near Jamshedpur has also been supported by Tata Steel to produce professionally trained personnel.

Health and Hygiene

The tribal population is dispersed across a wide geographical area of Jharkhand and Orissa, where most of Tata Steel's operating units are located. To promote better health among them, Tata Steel operates 46 mobile clinics in areas within Jamshedpur, surrounding rural areas and the mines and collieries in Noamundi, West Bokaro, Sukinda, Bamnipal and Jamadoba, among

41

others. The clinics provide diagnostic treatment and free medicines at a cost of Rs. 3,75,000 per annum. Tata Steel also organizes eye camps, which provide free treatment to cataract patients, 75 per cent of whom are tribals. The Company also ensures safe drinking water for the tribals by not only installing new tube wells but also repairing and maintaining existing ones at a cost of Rs. 5,50,000 per annum. Life Line Express, a unique hospital on rails, has been sponsored ten times by Tata Steel with the intention of making available medical facilities to people living in remote villages of Jharkhand and Orissa. The medical specialists of the Life Line Express perform corrective surgery for cleft, lip and palate and cataract cases and also conduct workshop for men, women and children. For some of them, such workshops are altogether a new experience.

Culture
Efforts to support tribals may well leave them at the doorstep of development without a sense of belongings and their cultural heritage. With a view to helping the tribal population preserve its rich inheritance, Tata Steel has set up the Tribal Culture Centre (TCC) at a cost of Rs 35,00,000. This Centre showcases the tribal legacy of four major and five minor tribes of Jharkhand and Orissa and evokes a lot of interest amidst scholars, researchers and even laypersons. TCC not only documents relevant research but also enables the continuation of the tradition by sharing it with the youth and non-tribals.

42

Additionally, a Santhali Language Laboratory has also been initiated in the Centre since 2002-03.

The centre was instrumental in reviving the now almost forgotten 'Kati' - a game played between two teams that attempt to score points by hitting the opponent's Kati - a semicircular piece of wood by a long wooden stick using their feet. Known to be a game that used to be played by youths in non agricultural season, it tests the team spirit, physical strength and concentration levels of the players.

Environment Management
Tata Steel believes that environment management is integral to sustainable business. The company's commitment in this area can be further gauged from the fact, that Tata Steel is the first company in the country to be conferred ISO-14001 Certification for its main steel works and utility services in Jamshedpur. All its mines and collieries are also ISO-14001 Certified for environmental management.

Tata Steel's collieries and mines which support the 'Save Forests' campaign are a benchmark in environment management, Further augmenting its commitment in this field, Tata Steel, has planted 1.5 million surviving trees as a part of the Green Millennium campaign. It may be worth mentioning that Jamshedpur has the best tree cover in the country.

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BPCL

Sharing wider responsibility

'Generation Next Our Success Mantra- What Is It That Actually Worked?

Counselling

HIV/ AIDS Care And Prevention

Sharing wider responsibility

As a corporate responsibility, today 37 villages across India have been adopted. This includes making substantial investments for nearly a decade and a half in them to make them fully self reliant, providing them fresh drinking water, sanitation facilities, medical facilities, enhancing their income standards by imparting vocational training and agricultural innovations. However, BPCL also firmly believes that the only vehicle for raising the villagers from their present state is by educating both the young and the old, a focus on providing grants for opening schools and opening adult literacy camps as well. Name of the village Bhogalpura (U.P.) Activity NGO/BPCL Community centre , vocational G.P.T. T.M. - ( R ) guidance education and non formal Agra Hand / sensitization,

pumps (No. 3), sanitation blocks and appointment of NGO for

44

running the activities have been Babukheda (U.P.) carried out. Provided Medical van cum mobile G.P.T. T.M. Lucknow education van. Extension of community centre to accommodate school upto 5th std. / distribution of uniforms and books to the children. Conducted medical camps, Midday meal scheme . Approach road, Basantgarh SC Population bore well provided (U.P.) Community centre , compound wall Faridabad existing school, provided furniture to school , educational support (distribution of uniforms and study material), medical camp, cattle camp and eye camp have Chawri (U.P.) been carried out Non Formal School Up To 2nd G.P.T. Std., Uniforms & Mid-Day Meal Srinivasapura / karnataka Scheme , Dispensary Provided Operating Mid-day meal scheme to V.G.K.K. Vivekananda building, educational support , (Ramkrihan Mission ) vocational training - agro based, Dr.Sudarshan Jyotinagar Karnataka Health centre Repair and maintenance of school Desur ( T.M. - R ) building , open well , sanitation blocks carried out and development Ramthenga Orissa activities will be revised Educational support, camp, sewing of Medical Bhuvaneshwar T.M.

Population-740 approx for

Munneshwara 75 children ,bore well , school Girjana Kalyan kendra

machines

, LPG RAC - agreement

Intensification of fishing ponds & up to 30/04/2005 Improvement Infrastructure during 2004 / 2005 onwards

45

Brindabanpur / Farikkadanga W.B. Jahajpur W.B.

Provided

bore

well,

conducted Not to be progressed krishi

medical camps and cattle camps. Road, Bus shelter, Tank for Kalyan(kalyan fishing, Medical centre, Vocational vigyan kendra ) training, through R.K.Mission Solar street lighting through Tata BP solar & Medical facility through ST. Jones Ambulance established . Balance activities like sanitation, tree plantation and horticulture will be taken up in due course of time. Road primary school, Hostel Sevavrata (extn.,) Workshed for training

Uttar Goalpara W.B.

Mankara W.B.

Kadambankulam Tamilnadu

women Community centre, bore well and Community Action For sanitation block established, repair Rural and medical maintenance, facilities. vocational (CARD) Low cost training, non-formal education and housing (19 No.s) Community Hall with centre, Community Devlopment

Kuruchi Tamilnadu

Medical Gramiya Social Welfare Kitchen, Society DGM (HRS)

Library, Toilet Block & Veterinary South R.. Ravi kumar Kizhmaruthur Tamilnadu Pulianthurainallur Tamilnadu Nangal Rajasthan Neelgarh M.P. Centre Creche facility provided Gramiya Social Welfare Society DGM (HRS)

South Integrated sanitary facility provided Gramiya Social Welfare Society DGM (HRS)

South Govind Community Centre, Hand Pumps, G.P.T. Jaipur - T.M. Educational Camp Support, Medical LPG

46

Pedawada

/Manjripal Provided community centre, tube Not to be progressed well, Educational support, Boat (1), Big nets (2), one goat to each family, lanterns & Blankets . Jardih Community centres ( 3 ) , low cost Kalyan (Kalyan Krishi Obar latrines (10 ) recharge tank ( 3 ) , Vikas Kendra & Bio - gas plant ( 10 ) non formal Sevavrata & Divyayan ) education, Bee-keeping (training These NGOs are part of and inputs ) mushroom production ( Ramkrishna rearing ( training and Villagers have Mission Training and inputs ) small animal Lokasiksha Parishad & inputs ) the agricultural training self- centre at Narendrapur become

Chattisgarh Laakarkhawar Jharkhand

Mungadih/ Dimra Jharkhand /

sustaining , per capita income has (W.B.) gone up between 30,000 to 50,000 Kasabkhede/Pohey Maharashtra per annum. Community centre repaired and Saffi T.M. established. Medical facility, cattle Manmad camp, non - formal education, solar lighting and open well will be Bhaktachiwadi /Washala Maharashtra Kaparada Gujarat Kharabairaja Gujarat provided Community smokeless provided. Surat T.M. ( R ) Drinking water, Community centre, Jamnagar / Rajkot T.M. sewing machines, medical facilities (R ) G.konduru Pradesh are provided through Red Cross . Andhra We have developed hostel to house Vijaywada T.M. Retail 64 Nos. SC/ST students. Under the guidance additional from dist. collector and magistrate. centre, chullahas vocational etc. are Refinery villages (R )

MogreJ/Mahul/ Tembre training, medical camp, fertilizers,

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Provided 8 living rooms with amenities and facilities of toilets and bathrooms, dining room, kitchen etc. Also provided lockers, fans and electrical fixtures for providing conducive atmosphere for Pinapaka Pradesh studies. Andhra Construction of the school building, Provided desk / benches sets - 30 Electrical wiring, fans / lights provided

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Case Study on BPCLs village adoption at Karjat Arming Them Towards Self Sufficiency
The rationale behind selecting Karjat for community development initiatives was that the company wanted to work for vulnerable groups.. The Karjat endeavour began with construction of a community hall, which was like a meeting place for villagers and way of reaching out to village women. Later many programs like medical assistance, grain bank, marketing artifacts, conducting certified vocational training courses, etc were carried out. From last 10 years farmers in 21 villages of karjat are helped through our interventions. There are eight villages, which are covered through BPCLs projects in and around Washala. Washala is situated in Shahpur taluka in Thane district. It is made up of tribal population. The various on-going activities are:

Farm facts:
For agricultural upliftment, we arrange training through Pune Agricultural University, distribute seeds and fertilizers every year. There are lectures arranged on technical guidance, use of less water for farming, teaching newer methods of agriculture, etc. They also educate the farmers about fish farming and provide them all necessary information. Guidance is also given as regards buying of seeds. The methods of multiple cropping are taught. Every year farmers are given free fertilizers. Bamboo cultivation is also promoted. 5000 Bamboo saplings are planted every year, by giving it to villagers who will take care of it. Along with it, even mango, chikku and guava saplings are provided.

Cattle care:
At Karjat, conduct exhibitions of cattle of various breeds, training sessions are arranged for improving the health of available cattle, there is vaccine program conducted on regular basis for all pet animals. Competitions are also held among

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cattle and prizes are given to the best cattle. Once a year there is a camp organized in which doctors from veterinary inspect all the cattle.

Education:
For motivating intelligent students coaching is provided to students. Balwadis is available for small children as pre-school intervention.. Tree plantation programs are held at Adivasi ashram schools.

Health:
A dispensary with a doctor is available and regular health camps are conducted. General health camps are organized twice a year. To cater to the needs of all villagers, may it be men, women, senior citizens, children and so on. To ensure proper eyesight, eye camps are conducted periodically. their sight back through this endeavor. There are camps held for pregnant women regarding guidance in pregnancy, stress on nutrition, etc.

Grain Bank:
In the villages of Karjat, Institute Of Rural Farmers were dependent on moneylenders for money as well as seeds and grains and thus in turn fell in the debt trap. The moneylenders would harass them and exploit them. For e.g. for every one quintal of grain borrowed, the farmer would have to return it three quintals. To avoid such exploitation, IRCED came out with the grain bank scheme. The concept of grain bank was to make grains easily accessible to the farmers and to keep them away from the clutches of the moneylenders. Grains are made available to the farmers without any advance and they also do not have to return anything extra than what they had taken. Through BPCL, there is also a small room allocated for the purpose of maintaining the grain bank in every village so that the grains do not get spoilt.

Community centre:
BPCL have provided a multipurpose Samaj Mandir at Pinglas Karjat for the Villagers to have a meeting point. There is a community centre which encompasses classes for villagers on tailoring, mehendi, beautician course, bamboo article making, multi-skill

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training, etc. Cane Weaving and Bamboo making classes are conducted regularly. Tailoring is helping the girls in income generation. Later there is also an exhibition held in Mumbai for sale of the bamboo articles made in these villages.

Rain water harvesting:

To make available water in case of scarcity, there was a need felt to start a project on rain water harvesting. The work has just begun. As this is a hilly area the problem of ground water and land water still remains. For provision of water, tube wells and small dams are made for the villagers.

Infrastructure development:
BPCL have constructed shed for schools. For e.g. repairing the fans, replacing broken furniture, etc jetty for fishermen so that they can rest in the night when they are not fishing. We have also constructed a public toilet. We are vigilant in keeping the surroundings clean. Timely garbage disposal is also taken care of. Tree plantation programs are carried out on a regular basis. .

Every village: Sakhi Shejarni

A group of women came together in Karjat who felt the need of being together and saving some amount of money. They started meeting regularly and since then they collect savings and deposit in the bank This is a scheme whereby every village will have one woman leader. This leader is trained in such a way that she is able to manage the whole group of other women, take training sessions for them, conducts awareness programs and also provides counseling help. Such women leaders are termed as SAKHI, which means a friend in Marathi. Thus the groups serve a double purpose, that of starting a small-scale business and that of learning through various sessions. These meetings help them to improve their quality of life.

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Counselling
Initially counseling began in BPCL to overcome the different problems of employees at work. But now, the company have come closer to their lives. Thus now counseling does not only aim at solving disputes at work but involves a whole gamut of issues ranging from employees overall development to the development of their families. Thus there is a shift from what used to exist earlier as our orientation is towards prevention. Over the time, recoveries and success stories started flowing in resulting in values of counseling being upheld as an important contribution for employees well being. Thus at the refinery counseling is seen as a mission which aims at making people live lives fruitfully. The help received through counseling is what is valued by most of our employees. As a continuation to individual help, We feel proud to say that we are one of very few companies who regularly visit employees at their plant. This helps us to understand employees better and plan intervention. Accordingly. Plant talks have made a positive effect in the minds of the employees as they get an idea that the company is really interested in their issues

Addiction-The Slow Poison

Alcohol and drug use is extremely common in todays world. In spite of the awareness of the ill effects of these substances, people continue to get addicted to it. The abuse and addictions result in malfunctioning of an individual in major spheres of life. Addictions lead to poor work performances, disrupted relationships and adjustment problems. The rising awareness about employee welfare and raising the quality of work, various companies today make efforts to reduce addictions. BPCL have been one of the first companies to engage in continuous endeavours to help our addicted employees to overcome their problems. We have successfully partnered with Kripa Foundations De-addiction Center for sustainable efforts in this direction. Kripa foundation is one of the largest Non- Governmental organization in India helping people suffering from Chemical Dependency and HIV Infection. Kripa offers a non-discriminating, supportive community living, helping people to introspect and bring about change in lifestyle.

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Success- Strength Of Sobriety

Although difficult to believe, the success ratio is 60% at the refinery level, whereas the addiction improvement rate worldwide is 45.50%. Through counseling employees who recovered from alcohol addiction and the other personal problems became our biggest strength for extending our chain of human help. These peer educators are very efficient at work and they they aid our CSR activity by being of help to the other addict employees and the community too.

The Pune Centre

A de-addiction center has been set up at Pune for both men and women addicts for all over Maharashtra. The Kripa Foundation runs it. We are supporting them and helping them in their efforts.

Family Wellbeing
Through all the Employee assistance programs, prominence is given to family as a system. It is a known fact that family is one of the most closely knit system which needs to be enriched to cope with the stresses and strain of life. Thus when an employee comes with a problem, joint counseling sessions are also conducted including his family members to ensure resolving of problems amicably.

Grooming Children As Caretakers Of Next Generation

Children are tomorrows future, and when it comes to our own employees children, We ensure their development through various activities like Career guidance, aptitude tests, etc

Parenting
During training or workshops, one of the main topics covered is parenting. This is important because in todays competitive world it is very difficult to manage both work and house Thus to ensure care of children, parenting sessions are conducted about emotional problems and problems encountered by children at different stages, puberty issues, etc.

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Women Empowerment
In women lie natures best qualities of motherhood, compassion, humanity and love. Because they have been blessed with the capacity for giving and nurturing life, women also have the capacity for a deep commitment for preserving and nourishing not only their own offspring, but of the entire planet as well. BPCL is also blessed with efficient women staff who are enthusiastic and who come forward to help others. Women power in the true sense is seen when women meet regularly and discuss on varied issues and the stands they take. LIKE WOMAN IS WOMANS BEST FRIEND. It is normally said that a woman is a womans worst enemy. But at the refinery, the bond within the women is exceptionally charged with making a difference to their personal as well as work life.

Safety Ambassdors
This is a new activity being started at the refinery. Some of women employees are made safety ambassadors to ensure safety in the plant. These women would coordinate with the safety observers at the plant level and ensure that their co-employees take adequate safety measures. It is process to help the employees help themselves for their own safety and that of the others

HIV/ AIDS Care And Prevention

AIDS is a major concern worldwide. It is forth killer of human beings. It has spread far and wide across nations, caste, creed, sea and racial boundaries. The UN AIDS estimates 5.3 million sero positive people housed in India alone in 2004. The growing number of sero positive people in the productive age group affects the economy in the long run.. BPCL too encountered presence of sero positive employees. However the comprehensive health policy of the company protects the employees and their family. Considering the significance of interventions in this area, the Social Welfare dept. initiated plant talks on Family Life Education and Health and Well being. Various awareness programs were conducted in the refinery on HIV/AIDS. Avert Society, a triplicate body of USAID, NACO and Government of Maharashtra, noticed the efforts of BPCL. The Avert Society invited BPCL for long-term

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partnership for an AIDS Intervention Project in the refinery, and the adjacent community. The project identifies three major areas of intervention, viz. workplace intervention (including around 30000 workers), Mahul and 25 villages from Karjat. The activities under this project include one to one intervention at village level, counseling at workplace, behaviour change communication, street plays and folk media to spread awareness about the same.

'Generation Next'
BPCL is passionate about the Generation Next, and thus also supports various education initiatives at all levels. This involves granting aid to schools, acknowledging and rewarding meritorious students and an initiative called BPCL scholars. BPCL scholars are a group of approximately 100 Indian students, who yearly, seek full study-assistance from BPCL in doing their post graduation, both in India and abroad. We support these students, the future of tomorrow, the fuel of tomorrows growth, with all humility and passion.

Our Success Mantra- What Is It That Actually Worked? Bringing people together for a common cause:
We were able to bring people together for a common cause, the cause being wellbeing of all. We were blessed with committed staff who also took the initiative to work for their own good. Employees also sustained their enthusiasm and motivation throughout which added to our strength.

Non-biased attitude:
May it be a worker or an engineer or a driver or any administration staff, we give equal treatment to all. Never do employees feel that some are favoured and others are not.

Trust:
Employees do have the trust in whatever the department does. The department has helped them help themselves in such a way that it has left a long lasting effect on their

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minds. This trust made it obvious for them to keep participating actively in all the activities.

Transparency:
The department has been totally transparent regarding all its activities. Employees were made equal partners in conducting any activity. Because of this there was no point where employees felt left out.

Need based activities:

We at BPCL have never arranged activities for the sake of doing it. We have conducted activities as and when people demanded, may it be our own employees or people from the communities. Thus we have indirectly given onus to the people to decide when, why and which activity they need.

Involvement of all:
We have been successful in involving people of all cadres at the refinery level, right from the managers to the workers, and from the various departments to the different unions. This helped us to get the opinions and contributions of all. At the community level, all the people are involved right from the planning level. People take decisions along with us.

Human stories of revival helped:

We had many success stories of our employees which constantly motivated us to work consistently. The recovered addicts are our strength. They help us to help the others who are in similar problem. The hands of social welfare have touched the lives of many, including the beneficiaries, the employees, families of employees, the management, families of management staff, etc. due to this strength of people, it gave rise to a snowball effect, year after year the department started doing better than early and even today its work has been recognized and appreciated. Leveraging Indias title for the second largest oil

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major, we are making every effort spent in social commitment count for that much more BPCL believes in sustainable efforts and not sporadic attempts at community development. It goes beyond charity to capacity building. This is reflected from the change in the lives of people whom we have touched through our various programs and activities. Corporate commitment is the beacon that guides our community development activities. Through various interventions in community development, we strive towards reinforcing the brand image of Energizing lives.

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CHAPTER -SIX

CSR & FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

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Corporate Social Responsibility Communications and Value Creation Overview

In todays business environment, organizations that sustain are those which manage their key relationships well and focus on their reputations (Brnn and Vrioni, 2001). There is a general consensus that reporting on environmental, social and ethical responsibility directly affects corporate image/reputation, financial performance and subsequently shareholders value. As early as the 1960s, advocates of corporate social responsibility (CSR) pragmatically argue that pursuing such a route would limit regulation, as well as improving reputation and employee retention (Davis, 1960; Whetten et al., 2002; Wren, 1979). It can be understood that the practice of CSRC/R, if adopted and communicated properly, will bring value to the organization. Thus, the trend towards espousing CSRC/R and related business actions has come about through what organizations have achieved in terms of value creation as regards to the reputation and financial performance improvement. There are many instrumental studies conducted in this regard; however they may, as all qualitative and quantitative studies, possess some biases and weaknesses as to the reliability and robustness of the findings. Although it did empirically prove, in many studies, to be a positive link to the hypothesized causal link between corporate sustainability communications /social and environmental performance and financial performance, there is still some uncertainty and incomprehensiveness surrounding these studies in this commonly judged complex area.

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CSRC and Financial Performance (FP)

It was mentioned in the previous section that there is a link of reputation to CSRC. This link extends to encompass financial performance that usually results from customer loyalty and relationship and employee motivation and productivity as well as other stakeholders' relationship such as investors and shareholders. Social causes, if integrated in corporate communications, can be a dramatic way to build a good band as it directly enhances financial performance (Mullen, 1997). So it appears that CSRC is a value creation and increasing strategy for business. Obviously, a variety of research studies have been conducted in this area and most of them have shown the positive relationship between CRSC and environmental and social performance. Next we shed light on some of these studies as well as their biases as to the credibility and reliability to the related findings.

Empirical Evidence of the positive Link of CSRC of FP

So far in this chapter, the focus on the value creation of CSRC in corporate and marketing communication activities has been on the reputation and related advantages. However, there are other advantages and benefits that the organization can gain from CSRC practice which is another obvious link to corporate performance; it is financial results improvement. This is usually determined by how favorable and positive the reputation of the organization held by stakeholders is. CSRC practice provides an economic value that should not be overlooked should companies decide to adopt and support sustainable practices. Form the literature reviewed, such practice might attract key stakeholders and investors, improve customer loyalty and leverage corporate intellectual asset through recruiting and preserving talents employees. A positive relation was found between a company's value creation and corporate sustainability; and in this study the sustainable premium is statistically significant (Lo and Sheu, 2007). Probably the most significant study in this area has been carried out by Lo and Sheu, (2007) wh empirically analyzed and proved the positive relationship between corporate sustainability and company's value increasing - financial performance. They have found that sustainable companies are rewarded with high valuations in the market place for large publicly-traded US companies. In this study, the researchers tested the main hypothesis by suing, among other variables,

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sustainable dummy designed to test hypotheses (sustainable dummy equals 1 if a firm is sustainable and 0 otherwise) and multivariate setting by controlling company size, access to financial market, leverage, ROA, sales growth, investment growth, industrial diversification, credit quality and industrial effects as well as the possibility whether corporate sustainability interests with other control variables on the company value. Doing business with organizations known with pro-social and proenvironmental positioning seems to be a thrust for a number of stakeholders. This adds direct value to corporate brand/offerings. For example, surveys conducted on consumer stakeholder have shown that most consumers, if price and quality are equal, are more likely to switch to companies/brands that communicate their corporate support to social causes in their marketing activities (RSW, 1993, 1996). In line with that, a survey has revealed that most consumers favor socially responsible companies and product (Duncan and Moriarty 1997; O'Sullivan 1997; RSW, 1996). Many empirical studies have uncovered the positive relationship between corporate social responsibility and its financial value, primarily on a firm's environmental performance (Konar and Choen, 1997, 2001; Khanna and Damon, 1999; Blank and Carty, 2005). It is apparent that consumers are increasingly becoming aware of sustainability issues as they started acting upon the knowledge they have regarding social and environmental performance records of companies. It is therefore to be noted that this practice (CSRC) must be taken into account when developing and formulating corporate marketing communications. As it was pointed out earlier, many stakeholders are driving companies to adopt sustainable business practices (i.e. CSRC). Sustainability issues are becoming of serious concern for all stakeholders, so changing favorably their attitudes, perceptions and behaviors towards the organization require a new set of developed actions from organizations in order to achiever the ultimate corporate goals. However, changing attitudes of consumers have driven organizations to forge and find new ways to make marketing activities relevant to society, dialogue-seeking, responsive and involving (Ptacek and Salazar, 1997). Further to this point and at a general level, corporate sustainability has a positive impact on shareholder value as demonstrated by indices such as sensex & nifty documented that the stock market performance of its companies increased by 164.46% while organizations of the

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"normal" Index have risen by only 138.76 during that period (Cerin & Dobers, 2001). This proves the evidence that corporate sustainability is both a social and financial capital increasing strategy for companies. Moreover, involvement in non-profit initiatives can generate positive media coverage, build a reputation of compassion and caring for a company, enhance its integrity; consumers' preferences; improve employees' motivation and productivity (Duncan and Moriarty, 1997). Employees are obviously linked to financial performance when considering CSRC practice. Corp0orate sustainability practice may induce and encourage them to participate and get involved in corporate sustainable actions. This could be of great benefit and help as it will facilitate and enable the organization to embrace the change relating to sustainability orientation. Internal communication of sustainability may become a catalyst for environmental learning and change processes within the company and, as a consequence, a catalyst for innovation and competitive advantage (Signitzer and Prexl, 2008). Additionally, employees play a major role in communication with external stakeholders; hence, CSRC planning should include them as an important drive for bringing about transformational change. Fill, (1999, p. 560) contends that "most programs requiring change should attempt to adapt employees perceptions first and then their attitudes a behaviors." From a different angle, growing companies are perceived as more pro-social compared to other, as they can offer employees more opportunities for advancement (Fombrun, 1998). However, many rating attempts have been undertaken to evaluate organization's motives and tendency to grow in conducting business operations from CSR perspective. These attempts have showed that these organizations recognize the significance of their financial health (Brnn and Vrioni, 2001). Stanwick and Stanwick (1998) provide empirical evidence to support the view that profitability of a company allows and supports managers to implement activities and programs that increase the level of CSR practice. This means that a corporation's level of social responsibility is somehow influenced by its financial performance. Therefore, some companies are not as bette positioned as others to invest heavily in CSRC to embark upon such path.

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Theoretical and Empirical Studies on the Link of ESP to FP

In this section, we aim to present and discuss instrumental studies aiming to prove a causal link between corporate social environmental performance on one hand, and financial performance on the other hand. It is to be remembered that corporate communication is one of the established concepts under the umbrella concept of corporate sustainability. It is through corporate communications that all corporate strategies and practices relating to sustainability can be communicated and disclosed to a wide variety of stakeholders. However, it is not intended here to comprehensively present the existing empirical research studies, but to shed light on the main ones related to the topic of the thesis. It is important to note that they are theoretical studies that are based on frameworks aiming to elucidate the nature of the relationship between financial performances (FP) and environmental and social performance (ESP) (Salzmann et al., 2005). Most of these theoretical frameworks refer to the relationship between social and financial performance as they are based on the concept of corporate social responsibility (Carroll, 1999) and corporate social performance (Wood, 1991). Theoretical frameworks that have been developed are valid for both dimensions of corporate social and environmental performance, although environmental issues are different from social ones (Salzmann et al., 2005). These frameworks differ in terms of the causal link and the direction of the relationship (positive, neutral and negative links) as illustrate in). However, the different frameworks are described in Following this line of thought, these empirical studies are aimed to empirically test the relationship hypothesized in the theoretical studies. These empirical studies, according to Salzmann et al. (2005), follow two broad streams of methodology: qualitative case studies (i.e. stories about successful pollution prevention, projects and cost savings in mature, commodity and extremely price-sensitive sectors such as chemicals; issues such as risk avoidance and corporate sustainability as a part of business excellence), and quantitative analyses (i.e., portfolio analyses comparing the performance o constructed model portfolios with a benchmark Index; event studies assessing the impact of good or bad environmental or social incidents on companies' share prices; multivariate analyses examining associations between different measures of FP and ESP. Lankoski, (2000) a prolific author in corporate sustainability, conducted

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probably the most significant study in this area, and empirically analyzed the influence of industries, plants and time on environmental profit (Ibid). Overall, many instrumental studies have shown that there is a positive link between social and environmental performance (ESP) and financial performance (FP), but the results vary and depend on different parameters and factors, such as company size, sector, and industry effect, etc. Through, not all studies support this view as the results are largely inconclusive as pointed out, in particular by (Cochran and Wood, 1984; Frooman, 1997; Griffin and Mahon, 1997, cited by Salzmann.

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CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSSION

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Conclusions & Key Findings Conclusions

In this study, we have theoretically and empirically reviewed and scrutinized the subject of corporate sustainability/CSR communications and how this practice merges with marketing communications activities to create and increase corporate value. To find out about the current practices in corporate sustainability/CSR communications, we used different methods and processes to collect the relevant data aiming to unravel the confusion surrounding this research area on one hand and to draw a more consistent picture of the current situation as to corporate sustainability/CSR communications practice on the other hand. In an effort to foster understanding and show how corporate sustainability/CSR communications contributes to corporate value creation, we examined and investigated different theoretical and empirical studies that have been carried out by different researchers. In addition to this, we have attempted to elaborate on some biases associated with these studies, aiming to elucidate the subtleties underpinning this area in general. Different constructs, concepts, relationships, causal links, implications and synergies were identified, which broadens the current study and highlights the richness pertaining to this research area. The emerging synergy between corporate sustainability/CSR communications and marketing studies might consolidate corporate sustainability communications in relation to marketing into a flourishing area of study in management and corporate strategy. Corporate communications is strongly linked to marketing communications in that both activities seek the same objectives, which is to strengthen corporate image and enhance financial performance. This states under oath that the distinction between them cannot be, nor is it intended to be, a clear-cut one. Thus, corporate sustainability/CSR communications can be approached from both communications perspectives: corporate and marketing, although the scope is yet unclear, particularly when it comes to defining and setting a strategy when sustainability is not the focus in the course of action being planned to accomplish corporate goals. The findings from literature review suggest that more theoretical and empirical studies are essential to

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advancing corporate sustainability/CSR communications whose progress in turn is critical to the field of corporate marketing communications designed to reach all stakeholders (profile strategy). Although this study has shown that many companies integrate corporate sustainability/CSR communications into marketing communications activities, the degree to which they attempt to do so and the concrete motives other than achieving corporate marketing goals, were not investigated. It is also not clear from the research that the scope of corporate and marketing communications is clear cut and precisely discerned, not to mention integrating sustainability dimension into these two synergic corporate fields and activities. Based on the empirical literature review, although qualitative and quantitative methodologies have improved significantly over the last two decades, there is still unclear research approaches used in the area of corporate sustainability/CSR communications and related corporate value creation strategy. Devising sound approaches is an ongoing process and such multi-dimension-based areas need more accurate and holistic measurement in order to increase internal validity of statistical analyses and bring more reliability and robustness to findings. Overall, this research area and related topics are inherently complex, which may make it difficult to achieve more conclusive and scientifically scrutinized results in the future.

Key Findings
In answering the research questions and based on the literature review and empirical study, we have come up with a number of findings regarding the current practices in corporate sustainability/CSR communications and related corporate value creation. However, we present the key ones according to their importance. The following are the key finding framed

Current Practices in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Sustainability is a part of corporate culture and strategy development for a number oforganizations that have been pursuing the sustainability path for decades.

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The practice of corporate social responsibility communications occurs through CSR reporting, stakeholder dialogue on sustainability issues, Triple Bottom Line (PPP) or corporate sustainability reporting and social and environmental communication programs.

Public relations activity is ranked as the most effective in communicating sustainability at corporate level and has the potential to reach a wide spectrum of audiences.

Many companies are recognizing the potential competitive advantages of publicly disclosing their goals related to nonfinancial measures and reporting on how well they achieve them.

Knowing how stakeholders perceive companies and what they expect in return for their support is fundamental in designing effective corporate and marketing communications nstrategies and achieving corporate objectives.

Poor internal or external communications can be an obstacle for some organizations to influence behavioral and attitudinal change of stakeholders towards their offerings/brands.

There is a level of skepticism among stakeholders towards companies claiming support of environmental and social sustainability in their corporate and marketing communications.

Stakeholders relations management is the bottom line for success and sustainability of the business. Management of stakeholder relationships lies at the core of CSR practice.

The growth of corporate social responsibility communication/reporting has reflected the keen interest from all stakeholders.

The auditing and assurance of CSR reporting is carried out through different procedures and measures including internal (i.e. human resources management, CSR department, public relations) and external (i.e. business partner, consulting or risk management firm).

Companies are rewarded in the market and increase value for considering environmental and social dimensions in their corporate communications

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strategy development.

CSRC practice can help the organization to strengthen image, improve reputation and then directly enhances financial performance. There was a positive correlation between findings from the literature review and those of the empirical study.

Corporate sustainability/CSR communications is a key factor that corporate and marketing experts and planners should capitalize on and watch in competitive marketplaces.

Having a pro-social and environmental agenda means having a sound corporate and marketing communications strategies that can build a companys reputational standing and create sustainable competitive advantage

Conducting studies to prove or disprove hypothesized causal link between CSU/ESP and PF is usually determined by what type of control variables and moderating factors (i.e. size,n risk, time effect) are taken into account and how univariate and multivariate tests are applied.

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Suggestions for Further Research

Although other researchers have acknowledged the importance of embedding sustainability into corporate culture, it can be of undeniable value that specific knowledge about the topic of corporate sustainability/CSR communications and related corporate value creation can contribute further to the empirical and theoretical development in this area. This research can make a positive contribution to providing a theoretical underpinning to corporate sustainability communications in relation to marketing. Our understanding is that this study can contribute as a significant point for the departure of further development with regard to creating a new concept entailing corporate sustainability communications in relation to marketing communications in order to ease the language for managers to define precisely what stakeholders expect from them and effectively respond to their concerns, demands and priorities at the core of corporate marketing communications. This can be a potential topic for future investigation. It is acknowledged that the study presented in this thesis is preliminary. There is still a considerable amount of work to be done as the topic is sweeping, complex and quite dialectical in some of its aspects. Therefore, further research in related areas could be valuable and praiseworthy for multidisciplinary oriented research studies. Based on prior discussion and conclusions, we suggest that future specific research should investigate:

Gauging

and

weighing

the

role

of

corporate

sustainability/CSR

communications in motivating stakeholders from cultures perspective towards sustainable practices. Corporate sustainability/CSR communications from a cultural and

technological perspective.

Integrating stakeholders and reputation management, public relations and corporate sustainability communications as a business framework.

Looking at patterns of perception from different stakeholders as to sustainability messages communicated at corporate level and the correlation of this information with behavioraln patterns of how stakeholders move to greener practices (i.e. consumers lifestyles).

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Future research could strive to build further linkages and logical sequences between corporate sustainability/CSR communications and other conceptual models and theoretical approaches to corporate strategies such as marketing, human resources management, and financial management, etc.

Initiating an area in management that looks exclusively at the strategizing process of corporate sustainability communications and secure this field of action at management level.

Exploring corporate marketing communications and interaction dynamics between corporate-level constructs (i.e. identity, image, branding, personality, and culture) in relation to corporate sustainability communications to create new interfaces for further journeying.

Advocating empirical and theoretical studies in corporate sustainability that considers cross-parameters (i.e. technology, regime and business environment dynamics, etc) approaches for discovering new patterns of how to promote sustainability in an effective and better way. Conclusively, the field of corporate sustainability and marketing

communications is deemed to be an exciting area for exploration and intellectual voyaging. Corporate sustainability (corporate communications, CSR, corporate citizenship, and Triple Bottom Line, etc) is growing tremendously as companies across the globe are increasingly embracing this strategic paradigm as to how they view and must play their roles to create value for shareholders, learn to think more long term, promote sustainable development in todays society and ultimately make the world a better place.

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REFERENCES
Askegaard, S & Christensen, LT 2001, Corporate Identity and corporate image revisited: a semiotic perspective, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 292. Aupperle, K, Carrol, AB & Hatfield, JD 1985,An empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 446-463. Balmer, JMT & Gray, ER 2000, Corporate identity and corporate communications: creating a competitive advantage, Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 256-262. Frooman, J 1997, Socially irresponsible and illegal behavior and shareholder wealth, Business andSociety, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 221- 249. Markwick, N & Fill, C 1997, Towards a framework for managing corporate identity, EuropeanJournal of Marketing, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 396-409. McLaren, D 2004, Global stakeholders: corporate accountability and investor engagement, Corporate Governance -An International Review, vol.12, pp. 191- 201. Pava, ML & Krausz, J 1996, The association between corporate social-responsibility and financial performance: the paradox of social cost, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 15, pp. 321-357. Weyer, MV 1996, Ideal world, Management Today, pp. 35-8. S.K. Bhatiya- Business Ethics and Managerial Values Soma Sharma- Business Ethics & Corporate Governance

www.karmayog.org www.sciencedirect.com www.tatasteel.com/corporatesustainability/civic_am.asp

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APENDIX A: Figure Evolution of Corporate Sustainability (Wilson, 2003)

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Appendix B: Table 4.1 DJSGI Corporate Sustainability Assessment Criteria (Lo and Sheu,2007

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Appendix C: The list of Control Variables-Adapted from Lo and Sheu, (2007)

Size: Most previous literature has found company size to be negatively related to company value (Mrck et al., 1988; McConnell and Servaes, 1990; Smith and Watts, 1992). In this study, logarithm of total assets was used as the proxy for the company size. Leverage: Much of the theoretical and empirical literature has shown that a companys capital structure has an impact on its value (Allayannis & Weston, 2001; Palia, 2001). To control the capital structure effect, debt to equity ratio was used by dividing total liabilities with total equity. Sales growth: This is generally found to be positively correlated with a firms value (Schmalensee, 1989; Hirsch, 1991). One-year sales change is used to measure a companys sales growth. Investment growth: Company value also depends on future investment opportunities (Myers, 1977; Smith & Watts, 1992). R&D expenditure is one of the variables that have also been used mostly as a proxy for investment opportunity (Mrck et al., 1988; McConnell & Servaes, 1990). Following Yermack (1996) & Servaes (1996), the ratio of capital expenditure to sales was used as proxy for investment growth. Industrial diversification: There is ambiguous evidence as to whether industrial diversification leads to higher company. While several studies in the theoretical literature suggest that industrial diversification increases value (Williamson, 1970; Lewellen, 1971), there is still substantial empirical evidence showing that industrial diversification is negatively related to company value (Lang and Stulz, 1994; Berger and Ofek, 1995; Servaes, 1996). Controlling the effect of industrial diversification, Allayannis and Weston (2001) was followed by using a dummy variable which equals one if the company operates in more than one segment. Credit quality: Credit quality, reflected in the credit rating of a companys debt, is likely to be associated with the companys value (Allayannis and Weston, 2001). Controlling credit quality was done by establishing a seven scaled variable to specify the general credit rating of the company: 7 for AAA companys, 6 for AA+ to AA, 5
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for A+ to A, 4 for BBB+ to BBB, 3 for BB+ to BB, 2 for B+ to B, 1 for CCC+ and below. Industry effect: Companies are classified by the ten economic sectors in DJSGI. To control for industry effects, economic sectors dummies: consumer non-cyclical, consumer cyclical, energy, healthcare, industries, information technology, materials, telecommunication and utilities were used excluding financials.

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