Need for corporate social responsibility stressed

Damaging our natural resources would be detrimental to the efforts to sustain the growth we have achieved in the long term, said Y C Deveshwar, chairman, ITC Ltd and president of CII.

Talking about the 'Emerging Challenges in Sustaining Growth- Triple Bottom Line Perspective', at a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, in Chennai on Saturday, he stressed the need for attempts from the part of business enterprises to raise the quality of life in the country where 250 million people were still living in poverty.

Pointing out the need for creating corporate social responsibility, Deveshwar said that if society does not encourage a company which produces environment-friendly products, the company would be driven out of the market. Therefore a collective effort for sustainability is essential, he added.

Speaking on 'Attrition and Employee Cost increases- Where do we go from here?', Ashok Soota, chairman and managing, MindTree Consulting Pvt Ltd, said remunerations had steadily been increasing in the last few years. The huge salary packages offered by the information technology (IT) industry has led to a trend where engineers of any discipline now wanted to pursue a career in IT lured by better pay packages. This has also led to a high rate of attrition as employees kept on moving from one organisation to another in short time spans, he added.

Soota pointed out that the companies trying to recruit employees by offering better compensation would only increase the cost of the companies. He cited the example of General Motors, the world's largest car maker, which is now reeling under financial crunch due to huge amount of pension that it has to pay to its retired employees.

Talking about the 'no premium for you' consumer, R Seshasayee, managing director, Ashok Leyland and vice-president CII, said that it was remarkable to note companies taking constant efforts to improve efficiency.