Jamshedpur will be one amongst the six cities chosen to participate in the UN Global Compact Cities Pilot Programme. The other five being Melbourne (Australia), Porto Alegre (Brazil), Tianjin (PRC), Nairobi (Kenya) and Sans Francisco (USA). Jamshedpur would represent South Asia. The reason behind Jamshedpur being nominated into this international pilot project is the exceptional record of Tata Steel in the field of community development and their close involvement in the development and providing services to the city.

For Tata Steel social responsibility is not only a commitment, but also one of its core business processes. As part of its corporate social responsibility Tata Steel has taken up proactive steps in AID / HIV prevention by spreading AIDS Awareness in the city and its peripheries. For its efforts in these areas, Tata Steel has already been conferred the prestigious Global Business Coalition Award (GBC) in 2003 for Business Excellence in the Community in 2003.

The Global Compact Cities Pilot Programme is an exciting methodology that has been developed by the Committee for Melbourne to address intractable social, economic and environmental issues in the urban context around the world. The objective of taking up this pilot project is to develop innovative solutions by working in partnership with government, business, academic organizations and Civil Societies.

To implement this project a “Committee for Jamshedpur” a local Secretariat will be formed at Jamshedpur. Mr. A N Singh, the Deputy Managing Director, Tata Steel would be the “Process owner” of this project and would facilitate the implementation of the programme at Jamshedpur, and Mr. Anant Nadkarni from Tata Council for Community Initiatives will be the “Anchor-Person” and coordinator of the programme. This committee will act as the main communication and coordination hub between government, business and civil society stakeholders. The project will run over a period of two years. Under this project a single intractable social, environmental or economic issues needs to be identified which impacts directly on business, government and civil society. This identified issue will be the “Project”, and will be addressed in accordance with the Melbourne Model methodology.
Through this effort Tata Steel will develop the best practical solutions to contemporary urban issues existing in the city of Jamshedpur and also share the city’s best practices and proven solutions with other cities in the world facing similar problems. While talking about the best practices of the city, it is fair enough to mention that the Town Division of the company which provides municipal and civic facilities has been certified ISO 14001 for Environment Management System – the first in the country. This pilot programme would also help in tackling issues involving multiple stakeholders and will seek to have human as well as tangible impacts.