attended by panel members, Justice SK Mohanty (Retd Judge, Orissa High Court) and Mrs Pheroza Godrej.

At the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) conference held at Amsterdam from October 4 to 6, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mr Achim Stein spoke straight from the heart. In a gripping speech he told the delegates, among them were the top business leaders of the world, “if you believe social responsibility is a western concept, I would like you to go to India and see the work that a hundred year old Company, Tata Steel, is doing.” For the Deputy Managing Director, Corporate Services, Mr A N Singh, who was present during the speech, that was clearly a defining moment in the history of this Company, which has always held social responsiveness as being integral to its organisational objectives.

In 1970, after years of engaging in social change voluntarily, without any formal declaration of intent, the Company amended its Articles of Association to incorporate this commitment. A decade later, after tremendous effort and striving to fulfill this objective, the Company sought to assess the impact of its activities on its stakeholders.

Much before the emergence of any global framework for reporting or voluntary disclosures on the efforts to address stakeholder concerns, in 1980 Tata Steel invited an independent panel, comprising eminent jurists and experts from the field, to subject it to a Social Audit. The first Social Audit was conducted in 1981. It covered the progress made by the Company over the period 1971 to 1981. Since then every ten years a Social Audit has been conducted by it.

The 3rd Social Audit Report covering the period 1991-2001 was released by Mr R S Pandey, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Government of India at a function

To bring in a flavour of changing perceptions vis-a-vis global business, the 3rd Social Audit Report panel sought to keep the report alive to sustainability parameters and, therefore, addressed Economic, Environment and Social Sustainability issues.

The strategy adopted by it was to present a comprehensive understanding of each of these parameters by uncovering the organisational perspective and stakeholder perspective. Objectivity and an understanding of the achievements and gaps were achieved by the Panel through its own evaluation of the Company’s performance, with international trends and benchmarks as their guide.

“The Company shall have among its objectives the promotion and growth of the national economy through increased productivity, effective utilisation of materials and manpower resources and continued application of modern scientific and managerial techniques in keeping with the national aspirations, and the Company shall be mindful of its social and moral responsibilities to the consumers, employees, shareholders, society and the local community.”

“To examine and report whether, and the extent to which, the Company has fulfilled the objectives contained in Clause 3A of its Articles of Association regarding its social and moral responsibilities to the consumers, employees, shareholders, society and the local community.”