Centralisation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as proposed by Subir Gokarn in his column, "Leveraging the CSR mandate" (November 16), defeats the very purpose of integrating corporations with the social environment surrounding them and in a small way, correcting the imbalances in the local environment. Manufacturing and service corporations, wherever located, may come forward and help create social infrastructure such as public toilets, parks, libraries, health initiatives etc and also bring in quality processes in education and sports.
Society recognises the hand that comes forward to help it. The above-mentioned initiatives will create goodwill for corporations, which may come handy when a unit gets negative publicity due to unforeseen circumstances. Involving local corporate branch staff in CSR activities is necessary as they are the face of a corporation among communities. The concept of a 'certificate' reminds me of utilisation certificates collected by governments as proof of funds utilised. These could be made available blank. If the Swachh Bharat certificates were brought in today, there would soon be trading in such certificates.
Also, it is probably better to operate CSR activities at a local level, keeping these away from low-credibility government programmes.
Y P Issar Karnal
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