SVKM’s NMIMS
NMIMS Global Access – School for Continuing Education
Course : Corporate Social Responsibility
SEM - I
Programme
DBM / PGDBM /DHRM / PGDHRM / DMM / PGDMM / DFM / PGDFM / DBFM / PGDBFM / DSCM / PGDSCM / DITM / PGDITM
Assignment Marks : 30
Instructions:
• All Questions carry equal marks.
• All answers to be explained in not more than 1000 words. Use examples as far as possible.
• All answers to be written individually. Discussion and group work is not advisable.
• Copying from websites or e-books will carry negative marks.
CSR Case Study: Citi India
Realizing Sustainable Growth
CSR initiatives of Citi India
The Corporate Citizenship function is the umbrella entity for all Corporate Social Responsibility activities undertaken by Citi India. Our philosophy of Social Responsibility is based on the key pillars of – Grants made by Citi Foundation; Employee Engagement with Communities; and Local Charitable Contributions and Sponsorships.
CSR INITIATIVES OF CITI INDIA BANK
Citi is committed to promoting inclusive growth through economic empowerment and through Citi Foundation, the global philanthropic arm of Citigroup, we support programs that enable the poor to access the formal financial sector, improve production skills, establish sustainable enterprises and manage their finances better. In 2012 Citi India partnered with 11 NGOs and committed grants totaling more than INR 98 million towards Financial Capability and Asset Building, Youth Education and Livelihoods, Enterprise Development and Microfinance. Since 1999, such Citi Foundation grants have catalyzed opportunities for approximately 1.65 million people across the country through innovative projects with over 24 NGOs.
Complementing this grant program are the employees of Citi, who are active advocates of the ‘more than philanthropy approach’ and several of them engage and volunteer with our NGO partners as Business Champions and Board members, providing key inputs on strategy, operations and management. In 2012, over 5,500 employees in India, along with their friends and families, participated in the Citi Global Community Day We partnered with Concern India Foundation and over 50 NGOs across Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, to host large Community Carnival Fundraiser events. To encourage employee engagement, Citi also extends sabbatical support to two employees each year, who are selected for the Teach For India fellowship program. The year 2012 saw 135 employees register for the fellowship. Our Payroll Giving Program enables employees across the country to make regular donations to their ‘cause’ of choice. In 2012, an average of 350 employees contributed about INR 2.8 million to six NGOs each month.
As part of its local engagement with communities, Citi India also supports an array of cultural causes. We have co-created the Citi-NCPA Aadi Anant Festival of Indian Music, instituted a program to award scholarships to deserving musicians and are the chief patrons of the Symphony Orchestra of India.
In October 2011, we set up the Citi India Diversity Council, to recognize, value and affirm the importance of diversity within our workforce. The Citi Woman Leader Award instituted in 2010 is the first and the only program of its kind that recognizes the leadership potential of young female talent on premier Business School campuses.
Employability Education for India's Youth Program
The underprivileged, rural and semi-urban youth face a whole set of different challenges when seeking employment. With access to fewer resources than their urban counterparts, these young men and women rely significantly on their colleges and universities to equip them for a job.
In 2011, Citi Foundation was one of the first to provide a grant to Medha - an organization that supports existing college and high school students with employability training, leadership development, and career services. Medha's vision is to improve the employment outcomes for over one million students a year, across India. The grant aims to accelerate its ‘Employability Education for India's Youth’ program. The goal of the pilot program in 2011 was to train over 300 students in the age group of 18-25 from two to three colleges in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and leverage the knowledge IP created during this process for subsequent students.
Sustainable Livelihoods for Rural Producers Program
The grandeur of the mighty Himalayas is enticing but for those living in the remote hill villages of Uttarakhand, earning a living is very challenging since agriculture is labor intensive and offers meager returns. As male members of the family migrate to cities to supplement the family income, it is the rural women who form the backbone of the mountain economy. Women are therefore increasingly seeking alternate income generating options that are not labor intensive and generate higher returns.
To enhance the economic development of this terrain, Citi has joined hands with Appropriate Technology India (AT India), a non-governmental organization that works with mountain communities in Uttarakhand, offering them innovative alternatives to subsistence agriculture. The focus is on sericulture, cultivation of certified organic spices, beekeeping and honey production. Each of these activities has been selected keeping in mind the existing skills of the community and their balance with the critical mountain ecosystem.
This Citi funded program supports the livelihood of rural producers, mostly women. It empowers women entrepreneurs engaged in the production of silk, honey and organic spices by providing intensive capacity building, microfinance and market linkages. This program augments their household income and investment capacity to make their micro enterprises sustainable.
Desert Pastorale Program
India has a rich heritage and an elaborate tapestry of traditional handicrafts, but unfortunately artisans and craftsmen remain undervalued and continue to teether on the brink of collapse living a life of destitution and indignity.
With an aim to resurrect these heritage skills, Citi Foundation supported ‘Desert Pastorale’, an enterprise development program to empower the artisans of West Rajasthan's desert region. Implemented by ACCESS Development Services, an organization that offers specialized technical support in microfinance and livelihoods A STITCH IN TIME Desert Pastorale Program ACCESS Development Services so that I can spin even more silk yarn. I am happy now and want AT India to give me more cocoons Narmada Devi Spinner, Mansoona Village, Ukhimath, Rudraprayag 16 promotion, this program focuses on empowering rural artisans to develop their products, streamline their production processes and establish sustainable market linkages.
The program works with artisans in Appliqué and Khadi (hand spun and hand woven fabric) clusters. The Foundation's grant will be used to train artisans, help them improve their skills and provide design support to orient their products for high-value markets. The program aims at breaking new ground for these traditional products through a series of well strung interventions that will focus on the producers, the processes and the products and build their ability to better understand and negotiate with markets. The end objective of the program is to help the artisans increase their earnings by 50%.
Green for the Green - Investor Forum 2011
The Citi Foundation has always encouraged those who encourage sustainable growth. With an aim to empower environmental entrepreneurs in emerging markets to develop market-based solutions that protect the earth's environment and its capacity to provide for current and future generations, the Citi Foundation has extended support to the World Resources Institute (WRI) for their New Ventures India program, a business accelerator that provides management training, business advisory services, professional mentoring and access to capital and markets to small environmentally-friendly businesses.
Their focus areas include
• Renewable Energy
• Organic Agriculture / Horticulture
• Energy Efficiency
• Green Building Materials
• Advanced Technologies for Water Management
• Rapidly Renewable Materials
• Other Clean Technologies
• Waste Management, Recycle and Reuse
• Ecotourism
In 2011, New Ventures India conducted a series of mentoring workshops for multiple stakeholders such as environmental enterprises, large corporations, financial institutions and policymakers. The workshops focused on environmental enterprise like cleantech ventures and scaling up access for clean energy.
Citi was also the leading supporter of the ‘New Venture Investor Forum’ a flagship event and a platform where 10 top enterprises are showcased annually to industry experts and leaders. The themes this year were ‘Clean Energy and Water for All’ and ‘South-South Co-operation for partnership’. The South-South Co-operation was the first of its kind, encouraging promising environmental enterprises from other emerging countries to be present at the forum.
Crafting an equitable future
In 2011, we supported Sarba Shanti Ayog (SSA), a Kolkata-based organization that creates prosperity by empowering and providing livelihood opportunities for craft groups and marginalized communities residing in India and promotes fair trade as a way of life.
SSA works with nearly 100 groups of disadvantaged women, marginalized producers and artisans from rural and semi-urban pockets of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and North-East, facilitating sustained economic activities in handicrafts, textiles, jute, leather, natural fibers, metal, food products and herbal formulations. About 70% of the producers that SSA works with are women.
The 2011, Citi Foundation grant to SSA was utilized to scale-up its program ‘Ruro Agro Services Association’ (RASA). RASA promotes livelihoods amongst distressed & marginalized women and men. The RASA unit, set up in the early 90s, manufactures gourmet spices, mixed tea & herbal body care products. The Citi supported program aims to scale up these activities to provide income generation to more women and men producers in West Bengal. The grant supports new packaging, promotional collateral & events, pilot production, infrastructure & skill upgradation, involving experts & consultants, sourcing, strengthening sales, identifying distribution channels and thereby resulting in increased product visibility, increased business volumes and more employment for additional producers.
In October 2011, RASA launched its new and revamped range. Noted celebrities inaugurated the products at a grand launch event in the presence of patrons and media. The RASA product range is promoted through trade channels, exhibitions, fairs and demonstrations at special venues.
These initiatives are a part of the national marketing plan for both RASA and SSA. On the anvil are plans to target fashion & beauty magazines, and social networking sites to spread the word.
E-nabling Micro Savings
Cashpor Micro Credit is a poverty-focused, not-for-profit company that provides microfinance exclusively to women who live below the poverty line in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. During its association with these women, Cashpor realized that to accelerate financial inclusion of the poor it was necessary to offer micro savings along with micro credit. It also attempted to use mobile phone enabled technology to overcome the obstacles in providing safe savings facilities to women in the villages.
Citi Foundation has supported Cashpor to scale up this Mobile-Phone Enabled Microfinance Project to make savings available to more than 400,000 women via Grant support 2011: 200 branches in 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Aflatoun
Aflatoun considers teachers as the true change agents; hence, before teaching the students, the teachers are taught. Dedicated workshops are conducted by experienced trainers wherein the teachers are introduced to progressive teaching methodologies which help children connect with the program and participate actively.
The Aflatoun curriculum encourages ‘learning by doing’. Over and above structured lessons, it engages students through joyful activities like story-telling, song and dance, games, savings clubs, as well as financial and community improvement enterprises. Equal importance is given towards creating a cohesive and friendly environment where the children can learn while having fun.
The focus of the curriculum is on
• Importance of saving
• Entrepreneurial skills
• Planning and budgeting
• Basic rights and responsibilities
• Bank transactions through mock bank activities
• Commitment towards community and environment
The Aflatoun Effect
A recent internal evaluation showed that 80% of the children who underwent this program have become regular savers and 71% of them are determined to complete their college education with the help of their savings. Around 95,000 children and youth have ingrained in themselves the principles of budgeting, planning and banking transactions, being aware of their importance in their lives.
Micro Finance
For many households the usage of high-quality, low-cost financial services can be a critical first step towards achieving financial stability and building long-term financial assets. Consumers need safe and reliable ways to engage in the local economy and conduct basic financial transactions. Further, research has shown that households with access to fairly priced and appropriate financial products are more likely to save on a regular basis and use credit products to accelerate the asset building process. Accordingly, the Citi supports Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and other non-profit organizations who seek to increase the supply of asset building financial products and services. Furthermore, we seek to identify innovative efforts that enhance an institution's ability to achieve scale and financial sustainability, and support the availability of products that allow consumers to achieve asset building goals while also increasing environmental sustainability.
Q1) If you would be the CEO of Citi India, which other CSR activities you would have undertaken that would have aligned well with the current CSR activities? (10 Marks)
Q2) The Companies doing CSR should focus on one CSR activity so that the company can replicate the same success at various other places. It helps the society to trust the company and company too gets the specialized in serving the people. What according to you the Citi India should have done ie concentrated on one CSR activity or Multiple CSR Activities? Explain with proper reason. (10 Marks)
Q3) It is governments job to do CSR activities and corporate should focus their attention on Profit – Explain your view point on the statement. (10 Marks)
***************
NMIMS Global Access – School for Continuing Education
Course : Corporate Social Responsibility
SEM - I
Programme
DBM / PGDBM /DHRM / PGDHRM / DMM / PGDMM / DFM / PGDFM / DBFM / PGDBFM / DSCM / PGDSCM / DITM / PGDITM
Assignment Marks : 30
Instructions:
• All Questions carry equal marks.
• All answers to be explained in not more than 1000 words. Use examples as far as possible.
• All answers to be written individually. Discussion and group work is not advisable.
• Copying from websites or e-books will carry negative marks.
CSR Case Study: Citi India
Realizing Sustainable Growth
CSR initiatives of Citi India
The Corporate Citizenship function is the umbrella entity for all Corporate Social Responsibility activities undertaken by Citi India. Our philosophy of Social Responsibility is based on the key pillars of – Grants made by Citi Foundation; Employee Engagement with Communities; and Local Charitable Contributions and Sponsorships.
CSR INITIATIVES OF CITI INDIA BANK
Citi is committed to promoting inclusive growth through economic empowerment and through Citi Foundation, the global philanthropic arm of Citigroup, we support programs that enable the poor to access the formal financial sector, improve production skills, establish sustainable enterprises and manage their finances better. In 2012 Citi India partnered with 11 NGOs and committed grants totaling more than INR 98 million towards Financial Capability and Asset Building, Youth Education and Livelihoods, Enterprise Development and Microfinance. Since 1999, such Citi Foundation grants have catalyzed opportunities for approximately 1.65 million people across the country through innovative projects with over 24 NGOs.
Complementing this grant program are the employees of Citi, who are active advocates of the ‘more than philanthropy approach’ and several of them engage and volunteer with our NGO partners as Business Champions and Board members, providing key inputs on strategy, operations and management. In 2012, over 5,500 employees in India, along with their friends and families, participated in the Citi Global Community Day We partnered with Concern India Foundation and over 50 NGOs across Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, to host large Community Carnival Fundraiser events. To encourage employee engagement, Citi also extends sabbatical support to two employees each year, who are selected for the Teach For India fellowship program. The year 2012 saw 135 employees register for the fellowship. Our Payroll Giving Program enables employees across the country to make regular donations to their ‘cause’ of choice. In 2012, an average of 350 employees contributed about INR 2.8 million to six NGOs each month.
As part of its local engagement with communities, Citi India also supports an array of cultural causes. We have co-created the Citi-NCPA Aadi Anant Festival of Indian Music, instituted a program to award scholarships to deserving musicians and are the chief patrons of the Symphony Orchestra of India.
In October 2011, we set up the Citi India Diversity Council, to recognize, value and affirm the importance of diversity within our workforce. The Citi Woman Leader Award instituted in 2010 is the first and the only program of its kind that recognizes the leadership potential of young female talent on premier Business School campuses.
Employability Education for India's Youth Program
The underprivileged, rural and semi-urban youth face a whole set of different challenges when seeking employment. With access to fewer resources than their urban counterparts, these young men and women rely significantly on their colleges and universities to equip them for a job.
In 2011, Citi Foundation was one of the first to provide a grant to Medha - an organization that supports existing college and high school students with employability training, leadership development, and career services. Medha's vision is to improve the employment outcomes for over one million students a year, across India. The grant aims to accelerate its ‘Employability Education for India's Youth’ program. The goal of the pilot program in 2011 was to train over 300 students in the age group of 18-25 from two to three colleges in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and leverage the knowledge IP created during this process for subsequent students.
Sustainable Livelihoods for Rural Producers Program
The grandeur of the mighty Himalayas is enticing but for those living in the remote hill villages of Uttarakhand, earning a living is very challenging since agriculture is labor intensive and offers meager returns. As male members of the family migrate to cities to supplement the family income, it is the rural women who form the backbone of the mountain economy. Women are therefore increasingly seeking alternate income generating options that are not labor intensive and generate higher returns.
To enhance the economic development of this terrain, Citi has joined hands with Appropriate Technology India (AT India), a non-governmental organization that works with mountain communities in Uttarakhand, offering them innovative alternatives to subsistence agriculture. The focus is on sericulture, cultivation of certified organic spices, beekeeping and honey production. Each of these activities has been selected keeping in mind the existing skills of the community and their balance with the critical mountain ecosystem.
This Citi funded program supports the livelihood of rural producers, mostly women. It empowers women entrepreneurs engaged in the production of silk, honey and organic spices by providing intensive capacity building, microfinance and market linkages. This program augments their household income and investment capacity to make their micro enterprises sustainable.
Desert Pastorale Program
India has a rich heritage and an elaborate tapestry of traditional handicrafts, but unfortunately artisans and craftsmen remain undervalued and continue to teether on the brink of collapse living a life of destitution and indignity.
With an aim to resurrect these heritage skills, Citi Foundation supported ‘Desert Pastorale’, an enterprise development program to empower the artisans of West Rajasthan's desert region. Implemented by ACCESS Development Services, an organization that offers specialized technical support in microfinance and livelihoods A STITCH IN TIME Desert Pastorale Program ACCESS Development Services so that I can spin even more silk yarn. I am happy now and want AT India to give me more cocoons Narmada Devi Spinner, Mansoona Village, Ukhimath, Rudraprayag 16 promotion, this program focuses on empowering rural artisans to develop their products, streamline their production processes and establish sustainable market linkages.
The program works with artisans in Appliqué and Khadi (hand spun and hand woven fabric) clusters. The Foundation's grant will be used to train artisans, help them improve their skills and provide design support to orient their products for high-value markets. The program aims at breaking new ground for these traditional products through a series of well strung interventions that will focus on the producers, the processes and the products and build their ability to better understand and negotiate with markets. The end objective of the program is to help the artisans increase their earnings by 50%.
Green for the Green - Investor Forum 2011
The Citi Foundation has always encouraged those who encourage sustainable growth. With an aim to empower environmental entrepreneurs in emerging markets to develop market-based solutions that protect the earth's environment and its capacity to provide for current and future generations, the Citi Foundation has extended support to the World Resources Institute (WRI) for their New Ventures India program, a business accelerator that provides management training, business advisory services, professional mentoring and access to capital and markets to small environmentally-friendly businesses.
Their focus areas include
• Renewable Energy
• Organic Agriculture / Horticulture
• Energy Efficiency
• Green Building Materials
• Advanced Technologies for Water Management
• Rapidly Renewable Materials
• Other Clean Technologies
• Waste Management, Recycle and Reuse
• Ecotourism
In 2011, New Ventures India conducted a series of mentoring workshops for multiple stakeholders such as environmental enterprises, large corporations, financial institutions and policymakers. The workshops focused on environmental enterprise like cleantech ventures and scaling up access for clean energy.
Citi was also the leading supporter of the ‘New Venture Investor Forum’ a flagship event and a platform where 10 top enterprises are showcased annually to industry experts and leaders. The themes this year were ‘Clean Energy and Water for All’ and ‘South-South Co-operation for partnership’. The South-South Co-operation was the first of its kind, encouraging promising environmental enterprises from other emerging countries to be present at the forum.
Crafting an equitable future
In 2011, we supported Sarba Shanti Ayog (SSA), a Kolkata-based organization that creates prosperity by empowering and providing livelihood opportunities for craft groups and marginalized communities residing in India and promotes fair trade as a way of life.
SSA works with nearly 100 groups of disadvantaged women, marginalized producers and artisans from rural and semi-urban pockets of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and North-East, facilitating sustained economic activities in handicrafts, textiles, jute, leather, natural fibers, metal, food products and herbal formulations. About 70% of the producers that SSA works with are women.
The 2011, Citi Foundation grant to SSA was utilized to scale-up its program ‘Ruro Agro Services Association’ (RASA). RASA promotes livelihoods amongst distressed & marginalized women and men. The RASA unit, set up in the early 90s, manufactures gourmet spices, mixed tea & herbal body care products. The Citi supported program aims to scale up these activities to provide income generation to more women and men producers in West Bengal. The grant supports new packaging, promotional collateral & events, pilot production, infrastructure & skill upgradation, involving experts & consultants, sourcing, strengthening sales, identifying distribution channels and thereby resulting in increased product visibility, increased business volumes and more employment for additional producers.
In October 2011, RASA launched its new and revamped range. Noted celebrities inaugurated the products at a grand launch event in the presence of patrons and media. The RASA product range is promoted through trade channels, exhibitions, fairs and demonstrations at special venues.
These initiatives are a part of the national marketing plan for both RASA and SSA. On the anvil are plans to target fashion & beauty magazines, and social networking sites to spread the word.
E-nabling Micro Savings
Cashpor Micro Credit is a poverty-focused, not-for-profit company that provides microfinance exclusively to women who live below the poverty line in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. During its association with these women, Cashpor realized that to accelerate financial inclusion of the poor it was necessary to offer micro savings along with micro credit. It also attempted to use mobile phone enabled technology to overcome the obstacles in providing safe savings facilities to women in the villages.
Citi Foundation has supported Cashpor to scale up this Mobile-Phone Enabled Microfinance Project to make savings available to more than 400,000 women via Grant support 2011: 200 branches in 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Aflatoun
Aflatoun considers teachers as the true change agents; hence, before teaching the students, the teachers are taught. Dedicated workshops are conducted by experienced trainers wherein the teachers are introduced to progressive teaching methodologies which help children connect with the program and participate actively.
The Aflatoun curriculum encourages ‘learning by doing’. Over and above structured lessons, it engages students through joyful activities like story-telling, song and dance, games, savings clubs, as well as financial and community improvement enterprises. Equal importance is given towards creating a cohesive and friendly environment where the children can learn while having fun.
The focus of the curriculum is on
• Importance of saving
• Entrepreneurial skills
• Planning and budgeting
• Basic rights and responsibilities
• Bank transactions through mock bank activities
• Commitment towards community and environment
The Aflatoun Effect
A recent internal evaluation showed that 80% of the children who underwent this program have become regular savers and 71% of them are determined to complete their college education with the help of their savings. Around 95,000 children and youth have ingrained in themselves the principles of budgeting, planning and banking transactions, being aware of their importance in their lives.
Micro Finance
For many households the usage of high-quality, low-cost financial services can be a critical first step towards achieving financial stability and building long-term financial assets. Consumers need safe and reliable ways to engage in the local economy and conduct basic financial transactions. Further, research has shown that households with access to fairly priced and appropriate financial products are more likely to save on a regular basis and use credit products to accelerate the asset building process. Accordingly, the Citi supports Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and other non-profit organizations who seek to increase the supply of asset building financial products and services. Furthermore, we seek to identify innovative efforts that enhance an institution's ability to achieve scale and financial sustainability, and support the availability of products that allow consumers to achieve asset building goals while also increasing environmental sustainability.
Q1) If you would be the CEO of Citi India, which other CSR activities you would have undertaken that would have aligned well with the current CSR activities? (10 Marks)
Q2) The Companies doing CSR should focus on one CSR activity so that the company can replicate the same success at various other places. It helps the society to trust the company and company too gets the specialized in serving the people. What according to you the Citi India should have done ie concentrated on one CSR activity or Multiple CSR Activities? Explain with proper reason. (10 Marks)
Q3) It is governments job to do CSR activities and corporate should focus their attention on Profit – Explain your view point on the statement. (10 Marks)
***************
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