Events

Sat, 18th October, 2014 @ Bengaluru

Global Compact Network India (GCNI), the Indian arm of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) successfully held its ‘Cross-Over Series’, an ideational platform to bridge the gap between policy thinking and its making, in cities of Bengaluru, New Delhi and Mumbai bringing key stakeholders and think tanks around corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues with interest groups for its mainstreaming and business actions toward its fruition, consistent with new CSR policy frameworks.

The inaugural ‘Cross-Over Series’ was held in Bengaluru on 16th September 2014 in collaboration with Prin. L.N.Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research on the theme ‘How can CSR transform lives? Insights and Practices from India Inc’. It focused on innovative ways in which key stakeholders can provide momentum for effective implementation of the new CSR policies. Role of academic institutions, in particular, was discussed that can act as a bulwark in providing curriculum support and sensitization of its faculty on corporate citizenship issues. Some of the experts participating in the panel included Mr. P. S .Narayan of Wipro Ltd, Mr. Babu Rangaswamy of Hewlett Packard, Dr. Anil Subba Rao Paila of Welingkar, Mr. Manoj Chakravarti of IIM Bangalore, Ms. Lopamudra Bhattacharya of Deutsche Bank India and Mr. Pooran Chandra Pandey of GCNI. The meeting was attended by 140 participants.

The second edition was held on 18th September 2014 in collaboration with Aide et Action International in New Delhi, where the panel included Ms. Ruchira Gujral of UNICEF India Country Office; Mr. Kumar Anurag Pratap of Capgemini India and Mr. Umi Daniel of Aide et Action International, Mr. Amitabh Behar of NFI moderated the panel discussion. The discussions were centered on the theme of ‘How can CSR transform the world? Invest to Educate the Excluded: Insights and Practices from India’, which highlighted the need to mainstream the excluded and marginalized communities by addressing the gaps and challenges in the education sector. The meeting also saw special address by Ms. Gunilla Bjorner and Mr. Ravi Pratap Singh of Aide et Action International and Mr. Pooran Chandra Pandey, GCNI. It was attended by 100 participants.

The third ‘Cross-Over’ was recently concluded in Mumbai on 26th September 2014 in collaboration with Essar Foundation on the theme ‘Paradigm Shift in Corporate Social Responsibility: India – EU Experiences and Learning’. The panel discussed on issues of how can CSR help companies effectively serve the society and what are the good practices across India and European Union that can effectively be learned and leveraged by each other. Moderating the discussion, Mr. Lalit Kumar Gupta, Managing Director & CEO, Essar Oil Limited emphasized on the need of individual and company level efforts to make CSR more wide spread and inclusive and included senior experts such as Ms. Marina Stefanova of Global Compact Network Bulgaria, Dr. Yogendra Saxena of The Tata Power Company Limited, Ms. Rufina Fernandes of GTL Limited, Mr. Kumar Anurag Pratap of Capgemini India, Mr. Srinath Komarina of YES Bank and Ms. Chitra Pandit of The Akanksha Foundation. Mr. Pooran Chandra Pandey of GCNI introduced the theme and set the agenda for the meeting. 75 participants from various stakeholder groups attended the meeting.
‘Cross Over Series’, a nationwide advocacy effort of the GCN to promote the debate around UNGC Principles, will soon be hosted in cities of Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.
CSR Times is the exclusive magazine partner for the ‘Cross-Over Series’.