Expert View

July 8, 2005
Bharti promotes education access, women leaders and talented young people

NEW DELHI -- After Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presented the Bharti Foundation CII awards at the annual gathering of CII, Convergence*Plus met with Anil Nayar, president, Bharti Foundation, to find out about Bharti's corporate social commitment. Excerpts from the interview:

Convergence Plus: Congratulations to the Bharti Foundation for recognising the silent work of women leaders at the grass roots level. What made you pick up this specific theme?

Anil Nayar: The Bharti Foundation was established in 2000 with the vision to help underprivileged children and young people in our country realise their potential. The Bharti Foundation has set itself the goal to improve the accessibility and quality of elementary education for disadvantaged children, and ensure education and training opportunities for the youth to help them achieve their potential. For the youth, among its many other programs, it has institutionalised awards to recognise talent and motivate young people, especially young women, aim higher. The CII-Bharti Women Exemplar award is one such initiative. The objective of this award is to acknowledge and honor women who have broken new ground in different spheres. We believe that this award will motivate other young women to achieve their full potential by believing in them.

CP: We hear a lot about corporate social responsibility these days. Is your group doing anything in this area?

AN: Corporate social responsibility is embedded in, and built upon, the stated values of Bharti the institution. These values guide all our activities, and Bharti proactively looks after the needs and interests of all its stakeholders, this includes the underprivileged and the communities in which it operates.

At Bharti, CSR is a way of life. Each department and employee strives to be sensitive to the stakeholders and environment within their work context. Bharti encourages employees to take decisions and design business-linked processes that are sensitive to the communities and environment. Bharti has institutionalised a special vehicle, Bharti Foundation, which leads social outreach programs with an emphasis in the area of education. Furthermore, all companies of the Bharti group undertake special programs for various stakeholders. Given below are brief details on some CSR initiatives undertaken by Bharti:

(i) Bharti School at IIT Delhi: Bharti and IIT Delhi, one of India's premier technology institutes, joined hands to set up Bharti School of Telecommunications Technology and Management. The Bharti School's goal is to be a center of excellence for telecom technology. Four batches of students have already passed out of this school.

(ii) Bharti computer centers: Bharti Foundation, in partnership with Pratham, has set up nine Bharti Computer Centers at schools in Delhi, Mumbai and Allahabad. These centers are reaching out to approximately 4,000 disadvantaged children and 250 youth. For disadvantaged children, the main goal is to improve learning levels and bring out-of-school children into the education system. For the youth, the centers intend to help bridge the digital divide and improve their job potential by providing job-related computer training programs.

(iii) Technological innovations for customer convenience: To facilitate customers' convenience and benefit the environment, Airtel developed the concept of E-bills, which enable customers to receive bills over the Internet instead of receiving them on paper. Other such initiatives are Smart Bills, where instead of using many pages, a summary of the bill is provided on just one page and Electronic Recharging, which enables customers to recharge their pre-paid cards over the telephone itself without having to purchase a recharge coupon each time. These, in addition to other initiatives, have added to saving large amounts of paper.

(iv) Confidence plan: Realising that mobile phones and SMS could bring a special group of people who are hearing impaired into the world of telecom, Airtel launched an innovative initiative called Confidence Plan. This plan provides a subsidised SMS-based service to the hearing-impaired community. The service is backed by an SMS-based customer service unit.

(v) Setting up a network in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands: In response to last year's Tsunami disaster and with an aim to facilitate an early rehabilitation of the area, Airtel built a mobile network in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

CP: Does corporate social responsibility detract from the pursuit of the bottom-line that shareholders expect of you?

AN: Since CSR is part of our DNA, we do not believe that it detracts from the pursuit of business goals. Bharti encourages its employees to take decisions and create processes that are sensitive to its stakeholders. A good example of this would be the launch of E-bills, which not only provide convenience to the customer, but also reduced paper consumption and will save hundreds of trees in the coming years.

CSR initiatives and business goals are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Many CSR initiatives benefiting a stakeholder would ultimately benefit the company as well. Such symbiosis of initiatives and business practices is necessary for sustainable business. Many recent studies and practices confirm that critical stakeholders, including customers, employees and investors, prefer to do business with socially responsible companies.

CP: The mobile phone network could also be a means of spreading public awareness on many socio-economic issues. Is there a possibility of your sending awareness messages on your network once in a while?

AN: Airtel is committed to socio-economic causes as long as it does not violate any regulatory or legal requirements and is in the larger public interest. We launched special initiatives such as the Confidence Plan that uses our SMS facility to empower hearing-impaired people. We also used an SMS-based campaign to facilitate relief for Tsunami victims. Similarly, Airtel in Delhi maintains a bank of blood donors who are informed via SMS when a specific blood type is needed.

CP: What percentage of your profits would be set apart for such public interest investments?

AN: Bharti does not link its CSR initiatives to any budgets or to any one department. Since CSR is a way of life at Bharti, each employee attempts to go beyond normal procedures to show sensitivity to the stakeholders. Whether it's the setting up of a network in the Andaman and Nicobar islands or launching a special scheme -- none of these initiatives are driven by budget considerations.

The Bharti Foundation has a specified budget for creating and supporting programs that are in-line with our vision and which bring about sustainable development through education programs. The annual budget is dependent on the program plan for the year.

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Bharti Foundation, set up by the Bharti group, a leading private telecom operator in the country, along with CII are honouring 'Women Exemplars' who have made an impact on society.