Policy on Corporate Social Responsibility

Transcription

1 Plicy n Crprate Scial Respnsibility Versin 1.0 Apprved by the Bard: June 2015 Table f Cntents A. Wipr s charter n Crprate Scial Respnsibility (CSR) B. Wipr s CSR Plicy B.1. Fundatinal Principles B.2.Strategic apprach B.3. Gvernance and Management B.4. Implementatin apprach C. Annexure cntaining details abut the dmains f ur engagement Bard CSR Charter and Plicy 1

2 A. Wipr s Charter n Crprate Scial Respnsibility At Wipr, we think that it is critical t engage with the scial and eclgical challenges that face humanity. It is ur cnvictin that the engagement with scial issues must be deep, meaningful and frmed n the bedrck f lng term cmmitment; fr that is the nly way by which real change can happen n the grund. This is als reflective f the fact that such an apprach serves bth, enlightened business interest and scial gd. We run ur scial prgrams n a strng fundatin f ethical principles, gd gvernance and sund management. This includes, amng ther things, hlding urselves up t public scrutiny thrugh a framewrk f transparent, rigrus reprting. B. Wipr s CSR Plicy Wipr s engagement with scial and eclgical issues ges back a lng time. The central tenets f ur apprach have been the emphasis n strng, meaningful wrk n systemic scial issues. Our CSR plicy articulated belw therefre reflects these principles and strategies that have infrmed ur lng histry f crprate citizenship and scial respnsibility ver the years. (The Annexure t this plicy prvides mre details n ur CSR initiatives) 1. At Wipr, we think that the first and fremst respnsibility f an rganizatin is t run its business ethically and in cmpliance with the law in letter and spirit. Our framewrk f ethical business starts with a set f fundatinal values as embdied in Spirit f Wipr and cmprises, at the least, the fllwing three principles a. Unyielding integrity in every aspect f business b. Treating peple everywhere fairly and with respect at the wrkplace as well as in cmmunities utside and c. Demnstrating eclgical sensitivity in thught and actin. 2. Our apprach t scial respnsibility and sustainability rests n three imprtant pillars a. The Strategic: We chse dmains and issues t engage with that are frce multipliers fr scial change and sustainable develpment. Scial respnsibility is as much abut being a sustainable rganizatin as it is abut external initiatives. Therefre, sme f ur areas f engagement lie at the cnvergence f business gals and scial purpse. b. The Systemic: Within the chsen dmains, we chse t engage n systemic issues that require deep, meaningful and challenging wrk. Given the nature f scial change, this implies cmmitment ver the lng term, typically fr several decades because real, genuine change des that lng t happen c. The Deliberative: Our emphasis n depth and n lng term cmmitment implies a deliberative apprach that precludes spreading urselves thin r engaging in cheque bk philanthrpy. By implicatin, this als means that we are wary f expanding and grwing ur scial prgrams as ends in themselves. We will cntinue t adhere t this apprach ging frward Bard CSR Charter and Plicy 2

3 3. Gvernance and Management: The Bard Gvernance, Nminatin and Cmpensatin Cmmittee will be the apex bdy that will versee ur CSR plicy and prgrams. The cmmittee cmprises f fllwing independent directrs: a. Dr. Ashk S Ganguly Chairman b. Mr. N Vaghul Member c. Mr. William Arthur Owens Member An fficer f the cmpany at the senir mst level will reprt t the Bard CSR cmmittee. The gals and bjectives alng with the budgets f the CSR grup will be discussed and signed ff at the beginning f every year with the bard CSR cmmittee and the Chairman. This will happen as part f the annual strategic and perating plan prcesses f the rganizatin. The CSR leadership team will allcate the budgets in line with the defined pririties and gals. It will fllw a system f quarterly reprting t the Chairman and the bard CSR cmmittee. Cmprehensive, transparent reprting n sustainability and CSR is a crnerstne f gd gvernance. Wipr has had a strng track recrd n this cunt with ur annual sustainability reprt based n the glbal GRI framewrk having been rated A+ cntinuusly. We will cntinue t publish ur disclsures n the GRI framewrk as it is a widely accepted internatinal standard. In additin, we will reprt n ur CSR prgrams t the Ministry f Crprate Affairs as required under Sectin 135 f the Cmpanies Act Our disclsures as well as ther details f ur CSR prgrams are available in the websites and 4. Implementatin: The implementatin f the CSR prgrams will happen thrugh multiple channels a separate trust (e.g. Wipr Cares) r directly thrugh functins and grups within the cmpany that have been set up fr this purpse. Decisins in this regard will be based n what is mst apprpriate and will be taken by the CSR leadership f the cmpany. Our implementatin apprach is t primarily wrk thrugh partners with established track recrds in the respective dmains. A small team f dedicated sustainability and CSR staff versee and mnitr the executin f the prjects. The majrity f ur prjects are lng-term multi-year prgrams. (An annexure t the CSR plicy prvides ther salient details f ur CSR prgram) Bard CSR Charter and Plicy 3

4 Annexure t the CSR plicy Dmains f engagement: Wipr s scial and sustainability initiatives center n Educatin, Eclgy, and Cmmunity Care. The driving principles f these prgrams are summarized belw Educatin: Engaging in deep and meaningful systemic wrk in the area f schl and cllege educatin Cmmunity Eclgy and Health Care: Engaging with the cmmunity n issues f Health Care, Eclgy and Educatin fr the underprivileged Business Sustainability: Reducing and minimizing the envirnmental ftprint f ur peratins and enhancing the bidiversity qutient f ur facilities Diversity: Encuraging and enhancing diversity at the wrkplace and utside n gender, natinality and persns with disability Over the years, these prgrams have evlved in scale, scpe and maturity as captured in the highlights belw Our wrk in educatin is driven by the belief that educatin is a key enabler f scial change and a better sciety. We believe in a scial visin f demcracy where each citizen is nt nly capable in an individual sense but als sees the ethic f equity, the essentiality f diversity, the eths f justice, and is thus driven by scial sensitivity. Schl Educatin in India: We wrk n systemic issues in schl educatin in India thrugh a netwrk f partner rganizatins. Over the past 14 years, we have assciated with 60 rganizatins at different levels and have wrked clsely with 35 rganizatins wrking in imprvement f schl educatin. This has been thrugh rganizatin-level and prject-level supprt fr 67 prjects till nw. These rganizatins have in turn cntributed t systemic imprvements at multiple levels including state and central gvernment level educatinal refrms in additin t reaching ut directly t schls and teachers. Educatin fr children with disability: There has been inadequate fcus n educatin fr children with disability, especially thse frm disadvantaged backgrunds, started in 2014, we will expand and strengthen ur fcus in this space. Sustainability Educatin: Started in 2011, ur prgram earthian brings tgether tw f ur key cncerns: schl educatin and sustainability. This is natinal level prgram thrugh which we have reached ut t mre than 3000 schls, 3500 educatrs and students since inceptin. Schl Educatin utside f India: Cntribute t imprve Science and Math educatin in schls primarily serving disadvantaged cmmunities in US cities. The prgram is currently active in Chicag, in New Jersey, New Yrk and in Bstn Engineering Educatin: Develping wrkplace relevant engineering and technlgy skills that is als up-t-date and relevant is critical fr a cuntry like India where the IT Services industry cntributes t nearly 8% f the GDP. Our effrts in this directin g back several years and address tw imprtant dimensins : (a) Bard CSR Charter and Plicy 4

5 Skills develpment fr students that is based n a cmprehensive framewrk f pstgraduate level educatin (WASE/WISTA) and (b) Capacity building amng the faculty f engineering clleges (Missin10X) The Wipr Academy f Sftware Excellence (WASE) prgram that helps Science graduates t study fr a Master s degree in Sftware Engineering (M.Tech). Run in partnership with the Birla Institute f Technlgy & Science (BITS), Pilani, India, this unique prgram blends rigrus academic expsure with practical prfessinal learning at the wrkplace, we run a similar prgram called WISTA in cllabratin with Vellre Institute f Technlgy (VIT) fr science graduates withut a mathematics backgrund. Missin10X, ur cuntrywide prgram seeks t imprve engineering educatin in India thrugh faculty capacity develpment and curricular imprvement. Since 2007, this prgram, called Missin10X, has reached ut t nearly faculty acrss clleges in 27 states Primary Health Care: Our wrk in primary health care tuches the lives f peple in 45 village cmmunities in the areas f Waluj, Amalner, Mysre, Tumkur and Hindupur in India. Apart frm this, we have engaged in a number f significant pst-disaster rehabilitatin prjects, mst ntable f which have been the Gujarat earthquake, the Tamil Nadu tsunami and the Karnataka flds. Business Sustainability: Our wrk n Wipr s business sustainability, based n the Triple Bttmline framewrk, fcuses n a range f eclgical and wrkplace initiatives, the principal nes f which center arund Energy and Carbn, Water, Waste, Bidiversity, Prduct Stewardship, Supply Chain Respnsibility, Peple Diversity n the aspects f Gender, Disability and Natinality, Emplyee health, wellness and safety, Emplyee empwerment thrugh cntinuus learning and advcacy frums and a framewrk f cmprehensive public reprting Our CSR charter ging frward will be t further strengthen the dmains that we are already engaged as enumerated abve. We may als chse t add t and mdify ur dmains f engagement in future as apprpriate. Our netwrk f partners has been instrumental in the effectiveness f ur prgrams and we will cntinue t leverage and develp the partnership mdel t the extent that is required. Wrking with cmmunities everywhere: Wipr has a presence in mre than 57 cuntries arund the wrld; f ur wrkfrce f mre than 145,000 emplyees, 11% cmprise natinalities ther than Indian. We think that it is crucial t engage with prximate cmmunities wherever we have significant presence. In line with this, we will cntinue t expand and strengthen ur cmmunity prgrams in all the gegraphies where we have significant presence. This is a reaffirmatin f ur belief that at its cre, CSR and sustainability must transcend bundaries whether rganizatinal r natinal. It is imprtant t pint ut here, especially in the cntext f rural cmmunities, that seeing the larger integrated picture is imprtant when executing prgrams in individual dmains. Issues f healthcare, educatin, access t energy, water and sanitatin and livelihds are ften clsely inter-linked. If executed well, the utcmes in individual dmains can impact the larger canvas f cmmunity develpment. Fr example, the wrk that we d fr lng Bard CSR Charter and Plicy 5

6 term rehabilitatin after natural disasters helps strengthen the resilience f the affected cmmunities in different ways e.g. interventin in livelihds, access t educatin In cnclusin: Over the past several years, we have established a strng fundatinal framewrk fr scial and envirnmental initiatives bth, within the rganizatin as well as utside. Our endeavr will be t cntinuusly and dynamically build n this and steer it in the right directins. The cming tgether f business, gvernment and civil sciety t address sciety s biggest challenges hlds great prmise it is an idea whse time has cme. T this, we will bring ur distinctive visin, cmmitment and energy t the fullest Nte: In the next page, we prvide a visual summary f ur dmains f engagement while the table maps ur dmains f engagement with the areas specified in Schedule VII t Sectin 135 f the Cmpanies Act 2013 Bard CSR Charter and Plicy 6

7 Figure 1: Visual schematic f ur current dmains f engagement Educatin Schl Educatin Cllege Educatin - Systemic Refrms ( WATIS) - Science and Math teaching in U.S. ( Wipr SEF) - Schls fr underprivileged ( Wipr Cares) - Sustainability Educatin (earthian) - Educatin fr Children with Disability - Imprving Engineering Educatin (Missin10X) - Sustainability Educatin (earthian) - Higher educatin in Engineering fr IT skills building Eclgical Sustainability Energy & Climate Change Water Slid Waste Bidiversity Cmmunity Care Rural Healthcare Disaster Rehabilitatin Table: Mapping Wipr s dmains f engagement with Schedule VII Wipr s dmains f engagement Schl Educatin (WATIS, Wipr Cares) Engineering Educatin (Missin10X) Sustainability Educatin (earthian) Higher Educatin in Engineering fr IT skills building (WASE, WISTA) Educatin fr children with disability Eclgical sustainability : Energy, Water, Waste, Bidiversity Cmmunity health care Lng term rehabilitatin after natural disasters Schedule VII listed dmain Item (ii) : Prmting Educatin including special educatin and emplyment enhancing vcatin skills, especially amng children, wmen, elderly and the differently abled and livelihd enhancement prjects Item (ii) : -d- Item (ii) : -d- Item (ii) : -d- Item (ii) : -d- Ensuring envirnmental sustainability, eclgical balance, prtectin f flra and fauna, animal welfare, agrfrestry, cnservatin f natural resurces and maintaining quality f sil, air and water Item (x) : Rural develpment prjects Item (x) : Rural develpment prjects Bard CSR Charter and Plicy 7