Does Corporate Social Responsibility rest on a mistake? Is it just an eyewash?

Examine the role of PSUs in Orissa (NALCO, NTPC and SAIL)

AIM Examine whether Corporate Social Responsibility mistakenly attributes moral values to the organisations and whether companies take up CSR to cover up for the mistakes that they might have committed while moving ruthlessly towards their goals and objectives. We will try to find whether CSR as a concept has really been understood and put in to practice by mid level and lower level employees of PSUs or is it just a buzz word in the corporate boardrooms. As a part of this project and to achieve our aim we would try to work on the following lines. We would be distinguishing Corporate Social Responsibility from Business Ethics. Business Ethics addresses moral values in relation to individual people correctly. Corporate Social Responsibility only gains plausibility when the organisation is seen in metaphorical and not in literal terms. Business Ethics has its origins in behavioural and philosophical studies and is more individually focused whereas CSR has its origins in strategic management theory and is more firm-wide focused. But both fields require an understanding and acceptance of social/moral values and applying these to business situations. We would be further discussing activities taken up by PSUs in Orissa in this area to check whether Corporate Social Responsibility can be treated independently of Business Ethics. We will try to find out the basic understanding in a PSU as to why they are undertaking CSR activities. Is it as a measure to make up for past mistakes committed by flouting environmental and social laws, or is it a genuine effort. We will also look into the claims made by PSUs about the CSR measures undertaken. We would try to find out whether the announcements made are just on paper i.e. an eye wash or has the company really done something of worth. We would try to make a list of CSR activities being pursued by the PSUs, their magnitude, cost implications, social and environmental benefits, visible tradeoffs, long term benefits for the PSU. Group 10 U111063 Abhishek Singh U111064 Aditya Khare U111065 Agneya Kumar Nayak U111066-Amrit Kumar U111109-Shreyas Pati

We would try to make a list of CSR activities being pursued by the PSUs, their magnitude, cost implications, social and environmental benefits, visible tradeoffs, long term benefits for the PSU. We would be further discussing activities taken up by PSUs in Orissa in this area to check whether Corporate Social Responsibility can be treated independently of Business Ethics.