Christabelle Noronha

Quietly but surely, several companies in the Tata Group are making a mark in improving the well-being of the communities they are connected to

Deploying people and resources to help improve the communities in which they operate has been a long-running theme with Tata companies. Size does not come into this equation. Whether big or small, every enterprise in the Group is involved, in some measure, in what can broadly be termed as social development causes.

R. Gopalakrishnan, a member of the Tata Group Corporate Centre, thinks the ubiquity of community work as a function in Tata companies comes from a core set of values passed down through the generations. He says: "Whenever I go to a unit, a factory or a sales office, managers make their usual presentations about how well they have done this or that, the difficulties they have had in selling cars, chemicals, software, whatever; but before it all ends there will, almost inevitably, be a section on community initiatives. Even in the smallest places, there is something happening in community development, like, for instance, a few people getting together with their wives and teaching local women how to read. It really is unusual."

The following is a representative scattering of such community development initiatives in some of the smaller Tata companies

Tata BP Solar
At Ladakh, an infrastructure-starved region in the heart of the mighty Himalayas, Tata BP Solar has installed 8,700 home lighting systems and 6,000 lanterns. To create employment and provide livelihoods to the local people, the company has encouraged and trained technicians from the area to service and maintain its products. Tata BP Solar also provides financial support to the Friends of Children Trust, an organisation that supports street children, and other charitable organisations.

Tata Coffee
The company's Coorg Foundation was incorporated in August 1994 with the key objective of helping in the development and welfare of the people of Kodagu, a rural village in Coorg in southern India. The Foundation has been concentrating its efforts in the fields of education, health and cultural activities. Ten villages were selected after an initial survey which showed that there wasn't a single hospital to cater to their needs. A mobile clinic took care of the medical requirements of people in these villages. The company also gave scholarships to students from middle- and poor-income families to pursue careers in the field of medicine, dentistry and engineering. Tata Coffee also focuses on the preservation of the environment. The greening of the barren hills near Talacauvery in southern India, known as the Tapovana Project, is an ongoing initiative.

Tata International
The company has been concentrating its efforts in improving the eco-system to help protect the natural habitat of the flora and fauna around its factory in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. It does this through the planned development of mini forests, rose gardens, water bodies and green belts. Tata International also uses renewable energy from non-conventional source such as leather wastes at its factory. This patented process has been implemented in association with the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Resources. The company was recognised by the Ministry of Environment and Forest with the national award for prevention of pollution, and the Rajiv Gandhi Environment Award for clean technology. Tata International has also been actively encouraging voluntary participation among its employees in a host of community welfare initiatives in the fields of education, healthcare and vocational training. In 2003-04 more than 50 per cent of its employees did some amount of voluntary social development work.

Tata Ryerson
Tata Ryerson has a full-fledged community and social welfare department whose thrust areas are community health and hygiene, basic education and schooling, and providing vocational training classes for women. These are concentrated around its production complex in Bara near Jamshedpur. Other livelihood related projects undertaken by the company include watershed development, setting up lift-irrigation facilities for farmers and organising entrepreneurship development programmes.

Tata Sponge Iron
In recognition of its efforts in environmental management and sustainable initiatives, Tata Sponge Iron was recently honoured by The Environmental Research Institute, New Delhi. It also received recognition from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India for good corporate governance. The company's community development efforts include health and hygiene programmes for villagers in the Keonjhar district of Orissa, making clean water available to them through the renovation of ponds and installation of tube wells, supporting schools in the area, and providing assistance to improve the agricultural output of local farmers.

TCE Consulting Engineers
In its quest to be a socially responsible company, TCE decided to use its in-house expertise and skills in the area of project management for the development and welfare of people in need. The company successfully completed a project management initiative at the Jawaharlal Balbhavan in Bangalore and is currently designing and furnishing structural details for a canteen building at an orphanage run by the Bharatiya Gramina Mahila Sangha at Vibhutipur in Bangalore.

Telco Construction Company (Telcon)
Telcon encourages employees volunteering for community development work in a big way. The company serves the community through the social application of its construction equipment. Some of these applications include beautification of areas in and around Jamshedpur, creating irrigation and percolation tanks in villages near Jamshedpur, Dharwad and Pune and, in association with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), providing support for water-harvesting programmes.

Tinplate Company of India (TCIL)
TCIL has a large number of employee volunteers involved in a variety of community initiatives. The company organises health camps and provides support to 11 schools in and around its manufacturing base at Jamshedpur. The company has adopted the HUDU village on the outskirts of Jamshedpur where it is also developing a model village. Its community welfare efforts include domestic management programmes for wives of employees; child-immunisation and Aids-awareness programmes; self-employment projects; literacy classes; and tree-plantation and blood-donation camps. The Tinplate Hospital in Jamshedpur offers medical aid to some 3,000 non-employees, in addition to its own employees, every year. The Tinplate township, spread across 400 acres of land, has 1,800 residential houses and plots occupied by employees and ex-employees.

TRF
TRF extends organisational and financial support to various charitable and philanthropic organisations working in and around Jamshedpur and Kolkata. Its 100 registered volunteers are involved in activities such as blood-donation camps, pulse-polio programmes, health camps, vocational training and literacy classes for underprivileged children. The TRF ladies' association, an organisation managed by the wives of employees, has organised, in association with a local NGO, an eye camp where 80 cataract operations were performed.

VSNL
The company has around 60 registered volunteers. Some of its community-welfare activities are: providing financial aid to street children for computer education, maintaining public places such as parks and traffic islands, and providing financial assistance to NGOs working in leprosy education, rehabilitation and treatment. VSNL also helps the Cancer Patients Aid Association and the All India Association for the Blind, and it has assisted the national cause by restoring telecommunication links through its Inmarsat services during natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods.


Uploaded in March 2005