Bhubaneswar : Grasim Industries Limited (Staple Fibre Division- Nagda), and UltraTech’s Birla White, from the Aditya Birla Group, the$ 44.3 billion global Corporation, have been named winners of the prestigious Golden Peacock Award for CSRin the Textile / Apparel sector and the Cement Sector for the year 2019.Golden Peacock Awards, instituted by the Institute of Directors (IOD), India in 1991, are now regarded as a benchmark of Corporate Excellence worldwide.
Grasim Industries Ltd, SFD, Nagda, bagged the 14th Golden Peacock Awards 2019 for CSR in the Textile & Apparel sector, for the “Integrated Rural Development Project”, which highlighted the work done in Watershed management, Animal Husbandry, Agriculture & Horticulture, Community health, Infrastructure development and addressing social issues. UltraTech’s Birla White won the coveted Award for its pioneering “Project Utkarsh” in education. Through “Project Utkarsh”, it leverages ICT infrastructure set up by the Government. Birla White helped make a phenomenal change in the learning methodology through technology and quiz based learning. The entire syllabus of Rajasthan Board grade IX and X was recast and formatted in a quiz form and uploaded on a website. The email id of each student has been created and they can login in to quiz academy. They respond to end number of questions on all subjects within the syllabus. Project Utkarsh is implemented in 309 Government schools of Jodhpur district, covering 25,000 students.
Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, in her address stressed, the criticality of integrating the CSR vision into the business vision. In her words, “at the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam, my son and Group Chairman, has mandated compassionate capitalism. He says, Leadership, in every sphere, has to be about compassion. Even in business, we cannot adopt, a system of unbridled capitalism. We have to work, towards a system, of compassionate capitalism, which implies, managing organisations, in a manner, that they work for everyone – employees, shareholders, the community, and the ecosystem. Growth for growth’s sake can never be an end itself”.
Added Mrs. Birla,“When we pursue this path, there is increased employee commitment, and customer loyalty, where there is even the willingness, to shell out more bucks. Customer value, is an important link, that can in turn, impact financial performance. And of course, the reputational lever, that such a philosophy, provides is beyond compare. In the recent past, there has been a tectonic shift, in the mindsets of business houses, and in the very concept of business.Businesses, have increasingly realised that, they have to earn the respect, and the goodwill, of the society, in which it operates.There is mindfulness, among corporates, on the inequities in society. There is an accent, on a shared vision of development. Businesses have to earn, the license to operate, and this they can do, only by having a purpose, that resonates well with all of its stakeholders”.
Hon’ble Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah, Chairman, Institute of Directors and former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India was the Chairman of the Golden Peacock Awards Jury and Justice (Dr.) Arijit Pasayat, former Judge, Supreme Court of India the Co-Chairman of the Golden Peacock Awards. The Award applications are assessed at three levels by Independent Assessors and finally by a Grand Jury.
At a grand ceremony in Mumbai on the 4th of March 2020, Mrs Rajashree Birla and Hon’ble Mr Justice Cyriac Joseph, Lok Ayukta, Kerala, presented the awardto all the winning companies.
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