As a Group, we are committed to undertake social and community based initiatives in the vicinity of our operations, to contribute to the socio economic well being and empowerment of communities.
The basic organizational tenets which drive this philosophy are creating value through inclusive growth and crafting win-win solutions.
We play a role in the community that has many dimensions. With a presence that includes extensive thermal power facilities, aluminum, zinc and copper smelting operations, the Group plays a significant development role in terms of employment, local skill development, purchase of local goods and services, taxes and royalty paid. The company also contributes in other ways such as local infrastructure development, maintenance of roads and medical facility. In most of the communities, the Group supports this perseveres with a strong fervor of Corporate Social Responsibility. Regardless of where the Group Company operates the goal is to be an integrated community partner.
Our approach towards community development initiatives are
- Individual-centric
- Group centric
- People/ community centric
- Demonstrative/replicable/scalable prospects
- Application of a benchmark approach
The communities around the plants and operations are key stakeholders and constitute an integral element in the process of socio economic development. Our work with the communities is defined through a framework and is customized based on the nature of the business cycle. Our partnership with the communities starts from the Rehabilitation and Resettlement stage wherever applicable in greenfield projects to begin with to a more encompassing approach, in brown field projects. Our approach is both intensive and extensive depending on whether the village falls in the core or in the buffer zone. While working with diverse stakeholders, the CSR teams identify the needs of the community, prioritise them and prepare various models to address the issues. Prior to the roll out of programs, extensive brainstorming is done at unit level and built in mid course corrections are undertaken wherever necessary in the execution stage. Partnerships are key drivers in our work with communities. Most of the projects have collaboration with elected bodies, government, NGO’s and the communities.
We work with our communities through a 3 tier approaches – Local, Regional and State level to maximize our social commitments through a wider reach.
Public-private-people-partnership (4P) model helps us impart a greater degree of sustainability to the program. Networking and forging alliances impart innovation and helps in speedy program implementation.
Our approach to community development is holistic, long term, integrated and sustainable. Our stakeholder engagement process along with base line study and need assessment helps us in our perspective planning for 3 to 5 years in selected villages. The whole progress culminates in integrating the various projects in a phased manner aligned to the integrated village development program.
Monitoring and evaluation tools are integral part of project designs. These are reviewed at unit and at Group level by senior management teams. Periodic internal and external assessment is a key element of our learning and forward looking process. Audits also help us understand the impact and outcome of our initiatives on the lives of the people we work with.