The Tata Steel example is not an anomaly for a Tata company. If there is one attribute common to every Tata enterprise, it has to be the time, effort and resources each of them devotes to the wide spectrum of initiatives that come under the canopy of community development. The money numbers are staggering: by a rough estimate, the Tata group as a whole, through its trusts and its companies, spent about 3 per cent of of its net profits on development-related programmes, in 2011.

A matter of principle
The Tata culture in this critical segment of the overall corporate sustainability matrix — inclusive of working for the benefit of the communities in which they operate, of building India’s capabilities in science and technology, of supporting art and sport — springs from an ingrained sense of giving back to society. "This is a matter of principle for us, it is in our bloodstream," says Mr Irani, "and it isn't something we like to shout about. Some people consider social responsibility as an additional cost; we don't. We see it as part of an essential cost of business, as much as land, power, raw materials and employees."

The Tata tradition in community development has, since the earliest days of the group's history, been defined by its core values. It never was charity for its own sake or, as group Founder Jamsetji Tata put it, "patchwork philanthropy". Sustainability, says Kishor Chaukar, a member of the Tata Group Corporate Centre, is of fundamental importance. "I don't believe charity makes a substantial impact on society," he explains. "All you are doing, then, is satisfying the mendicant mentality. The real contribution comes when communities are enabled in a manner that has a sustained developmental impact. That way you empower people, educate them, and give them instruments of income, a feeling of self-respect and dignity, a reason to live."

Reinforcing the implicit beliefs the group brings to its mission of sustainable development is an explicit set of structures, embodied most notably by the Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI). The Council has, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (India), crafted the Tata Index for Sustainable Human Development, which measures and improves the community work that Tata enterprises undertake.

In India and abroad
No matter how elaborate, systems and processes cannot really capture the magnitude and dispersion of all that the Tatas do in the field of community development. From health and education to livelihoods and women-children welfare, from tribal hamlets in Jharkhand and the rural outback of Gujarat to the high ranges of Kerala and disadvantaged villages in Andhra Pradesh — the community work being undertaken by Tata companies touches a multitude of Indians across the land. Beyond purely social work, this support extends to individuals and institutions pursuing artistic, sporting and academic excellence. And now, as Tata enterprises spread their wings to reach global locations, the social uplift efforts of the group are reaching communities in different parts of the world.

The big boys in the group, the likes of Tata Steel, Tata Tea and Tata Chemicals, have in-house organisations dedicated to the community development task, but that does not mean smaller companies lag behind. "Each Tata company has its own priorities in social development," says Mr Chaukar. "They take up whatever is relevant to the communities and constituencies in which they function. Somebody is working in water management, somebody is in education, someone is in Aids containment, someone in income generation; the range is huge. You have to take on board different desires, anxieties, and requirements."

Arts and sports
A different dimension of this social development doctrine shines through in the Tata support and backing that enriches the country's cultural and sporting spheres. In the field of art, this support has played a critical part in preserving and promoting every component of India's cultural heritage. The Tata backing for sports — in the form of academies for a variety of sporting disciplines, sponsorship of talented individuals, and organisations such as the Tata Sports Club — has helped numerous sportspeople realise their potential.

The panoply of the Tata engagement in community development encompasses much more than can be encapsulated in a few pages. As management guru Peter Drucker says: "A healthy society requires three vital sectors: a public sector of effective governments; a private sector of effective businesses; and a social sector of effective community organisations." While there's not much it can do about the first sector, the Tata group is contributing all it can to the other two.