Reliance Industries' chairman Mukesh Ambani on Sunday asked Indian corporate houses to adopt a new business model which should be measured on "social returns together with financial returns", while imbibing the country's ethos and value systems.
"Businesses will not only have to act as the trustees of their shareholders or owners but will also have to care for the society by the virtue of of the license given to them by the society itself. The businesses should be measured on social returns together with financial returns," he said here.
Delivering a lecture on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, organised by an NGO -- Madhya Pradesh Foundation, Ambani said that it needs to be "an integral part of the DNA of a company, so much so that it has be to be an organic part of the business".
Advocating for an Indianised approach towards CSR initiatives, he further said that the business houses need to adopt an Indianised approach, incorporating Indian ethos and value systems.
"We will have to move from the model of CSR to a model of continuous social business through enterprise and entrepreneurship...where societal needs and gaps are seen as duties as opposed to just business opportunities," the RIL Chairman said.
{{/usCountry}}"We will have to move from the model of CSR to a model of continuous social business through enterprise and entrepreneurship...where societal needs and gaps are seen as duties as opposed to just business opportunities," the RIL Chairman said.
{{/usCountry}}He added that this kind of business model would integrate 400 million marginalised Indians into mainstream social and economic fabric in the coming decades.
Planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was also present, suggested a new model of CSR initiative for the corporate houses in which at least one year sabbatical is given to the young entrants, who are willing to work for a social cause or in an NGO.
"I think surprising number of them (young entrants) would take that option and I think that the corporates would find that bringing in the people with that background will be actually enormously useful in the longer run.
"So here is the suggestion for adopting a non-charity and different kind of CSR initiative, and I do hope that people will start experimenting in those directions in near future," Ahluwalia said.