New Delhi, 18 August 2020: Tata Chemicals, a Tata Group company has spent 75 per cent more than the prescribed CSR budget for the year 2019-20. The prescribed CSR budget for the company in the year 2019-20 stood at Rs 21.39 crore. However, the company not only continued with its existing CSR projects but expanded more in few areas, leading to a total CSR spend of Rs 37.81 crore.
According to the company officials, towards the end of the financial year, the company took various initiatives towards financial, medical and community support in the fight against Covid-19. This included financial support towards the relief funds of state governments, providing sodium hydrochloride, hand sanitizers, medical infrastructure, supply of dry ration, driver kit, hygiene kit, distribution of masks, awareness drives etc. In addition to this, voluntary contributions by the company as well as its employees were also made to the Tata Community Initiatives Trust for contribution towards the said purpose."
The prescribed CSR budget for a company is calculated as 2 % of the average annual profit over the last three financial years. "Amount required to be spent by the Company during the year on CSR is Rs 21.39 crore whereas the Company has spent Rs 37.81 crore," the company reported.
However, the company’s total spending on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as percentage of profit after tax (%) was around 3.53% of the average profit after taxes in the previous three financial years. The average net profit of the Company for last three financial years stood at Rs 1,069.65 Crore.
In the year 2018-19 also the company had exceeded the target by around 30 % by spending a total of Rs 25.68 crore against a prescribed budget of Rs 19.86 Crore on its Corporate Social activities.
The Company implements its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects through the Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development (TCSRD) which the company set up in 1980 to protect and nurture rural populations.
"At Tata Chemicals, social development is an important goal. We touch the lives of millions globally and strive to be a neighbour of choice. We focus on sustainable community development to address the UN SDGs and development challenges through programmes that are replicable and scalable, while empowering communities," said Alka Talwar, Chief CSR and Sustainability Officer, Tata Chemical.
The Company has adopted a participatory approach in designing need-based CSR programmes which are implemented through Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development (‘TCSRD’), Okhai Centre for Empowerment, Uday Foundation and in partnership with various government and non-government institutions. The Company carried out its CSR activities in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, North Eastern states, etc.
The Tata Chemicals CSR Committee is headed by S. Padmanabhan.
Some of the key CSR initiatives taken by the company included COVID relief programmes, Livelihood training programmes and education related programmes.
CSR activities towards fighting Covid-19 pandemic
Towards supporting the local communities, the company manufactured and supplied more than1.17 million Litres of disinfectant to the Government of Gujarat and 600,000 litres to BMC, Mumbai alongside augmenting Mithapur Hospital by setting up temporary additional facilities. Further, Self Help Groups and artisans were engaged to produce over2 lakh masks in Mithapur and Cuddalore for distribution to police and local communities, providing livelihood to 275 women. The company also supported over 47,000 people from vulnerable communities across its plants with dry ration kits.
Livelihood support
Farm based livelihoods: In the year 2019-20, the company engaged with more than 9,800 farmers on capacity building, exposure visits, field demonstration and livestock management system training programmes. It also provided seeds and agri-equipment support for enhancing the productivity.
Non-farm-based livelihoods: The company ran skill development programmes in different locations to train unemployed youths and facilitate their employment or entrepreneurship development. Vocational skill training includes fashion technology, welder, fitter, domestic electrician, beauty and wellness. Also, the company set-up a technical skill training institute at Mithapur affiliated with NSDC which also supported Tata Strive Centre at Aligarh and the ITI at Dwarka.
With the objective of creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for rural women artisans, 2,366 artisans across India were benefited with a market linkage to40,000 online customers.
Environment Conservation
The company ran its biodiversity conservation programmes like recovery of coral reef, conservation of whale shark, mangrove plantation, rejuvenating indigenous flora and fauna and environmental education initiatives. It also participated in UN Convention on Migratory Species held in Gandhinagar. Under another initiative named Green Program, the company planted 1.03 lakh mangroves in Dwarka, Gujarat and Sundarbans, West Bengal. A dry waste processing plant was also installed at Mithapur, launched under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
Education
The company undertook need-based educational programmes on ensuring zero drop-out and improving educational quality in schools, starting from pre-primary, initiatives like eLibrary to Learning Enhancement Program, teacher training, scholarships, and child learning and improvement programs.
According to the company’s official report, its Learning & Migration Program is focused on strengthening the community school management system and improving the learning capabilities of students, benefited around 6,900 children.
