Socially Responsible Governance

In view of what is happening in the business world, The Financial Chronicle has reprinted our PM's ten point Social Charter in today's issue. He had read it out at CII's annual meeting on  May 24, 2007.

It makes entertaining reading.

Here are the highlights, but the full text is available here at this PIB release

• First, have a healthy respect for your workers and invest in their welfare. In their health and their children’s education, give them pension and provident fund benefits, and so on. 
• Two, corporate social responsibility must not be defined by tax planning strategies alone. Rather, it should be defined within the framework of a corporate philosophy which factors the needs of the community and the regions in which a corporate entity functions
• Three, industry must be pro-active in offering employment to the less privileged, at all levels of the job ladder. The representation companies give to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, other Backward Classes, Minorities and Women, in their workforce and staff must increase. 
• Four, resist excessive remuneration to promoters and senior executives and discourage conspicuous consumption. In a country with extreme poverty, industry needs to be moderate in the emoluments levels it adopts. Rising income and wealth inequalities, if not matched by a corresponding rise of incomes across the nation, can lead to social unrest. The electronic media carries the lifestyles of the rich and famous into every village and every slum. 
• Five, invest in people and in their skills. Offer scholarships to promising young people. Fill young people with hope in their future. High rates of growth mean nothing for those who are unable to find employment. We must invest in skill-building and education to make our youth employable
• Six, desist from non-competitive behaviour. The operation of cartels by groups of companies to keep prices high must end.  It is unacceptable to obstruct the forces of competition from having freer play. It is even more distressing in a country where the poor are severely affected by rising commodity prices.
• Seven, invest in environment-friendly technologies. India's growth must be enhanced and, yet, our environment and ecology must be protected and safeguarded for our future generations.
• Eight, promote enterprise and innovation, within your firms and outside. If our industry has to make the leap to the next stage of development, it must be far more innovative and enterprising. The success story of the last two decades has been the emergence of a large number of first generation enterprise.
• Nine, fight corruption at all levels. The cancer of corruption is eating into the vitals of our body politic. For every recipient of a bribe there is a benefactor and beneficiary. Corruption need not be the grease that oils the wheels of progress
• Ten, promote socially responsible media and finance socially responsible advertising. 
  

Wonder what stops the Government from practicing what it preaches?