Infosys and Corporate Social Responsibility in India Essays

Infosys and Corporate Social Responsibility in India Essays Infosys and Corporate Social Responsibility in India Essay Infosys and Corporate Social Responsibility in India Essay Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined as a businesss policy to encourage positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities and all other member of the public who may be considered its stakeholders. [8] Analysis The Infosys Foundation The Infosys Foundation was established in the year 1996 with the goal of serving the under-privileged sections of the society The focus areas of the foundation are: Learning and education in 2007, the foundation embarked on the Library for Every Rural School program to get people to donate books in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Kerala. It has since set up 35,000 school libraries, the largest rural education program in India. Healthcare Since its inception in 1996, the foundation has constructed hospital wards, donated medicines and advanced medical equipment to hospitals, and organized health camps in remote areas, all in order to get the under-privileged access to modern medical practices. Arts Culture The Infosys Foundation sustains and preserves several art forms that are unique to our country and form a part of our heritage. Over the years it has sponsored art and music shows by rural artists, sponsored documentaries on Indian culture and published books that delineate the roots of art in Karnataka. Social Rehabilitation and Rural Uplift The foundation works for the welfare of destitute women and children and also helps towards developing rural India by providing education and vocational skills. It has built orphanages where education is prioritized and organized training centres for destitute women in and around Karnataka. Assessment There are a number of observations to be made from the above. Firstly, Infosys is seen to be engaged in various, unconnected welfare activities. Though laudable, this may not be the best policy to adopt towards CSR because many of these have little or no relevance to its core business ability. Thus, there is a chance that it may drop them in the future if aspects of the activities start to clash with their normal business working. This will damage the entire premise of sustainability that the company promotes about its CSR. The extremely local nature of these activities (most are based in and around Karnataka) show that Infosys is perhaps trying to build a good relationship at home where it wants to address as many problems as possible. However, scaling up of these activities will be the real test of its CSR practices because being a global company it cannot afford to limit its welfare activities to only one region. This may raise questions about their sincerity as their efforts may be construed as simply trying to appease the authorities at home and maybe get benefits over its competition. In the next section we will see that in matters in which it has expertise, Infosys has already expanded its activities to the global level. Sustainable Social Change Infosys makes the proud claim of influencing sustainable social change through its varied development initiatives. [1] The following are some of these initiatives: Education and Intellectual Capability It is no secret that India is engineering-mad with Indian Engineering Institutions churning out over 500,000 science and engineering graduates every year. However, even as rival IT companies and a host of other recruiters vie with Infosys over the recruitment of the fresh, inexpensive engineering talent, there is little that these corporates have done to aid in the recognition and reward of top Indian research. This is a matter of pressing concern because not only does this hamper the intellectual capital of our country in relation to competition from overseas (Even China has more PhDs per capita than India) but it promotes a lack of systematic learning that ultimately results in making a lot of these graduates unfit for immediate industrial employment. It is here that Infosys has once again differentiated itself from the competition by undertaking ventures that promote science and engineering education as more than simply a means of landing a job. The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) was set up with the goal of achieving the above. It was set up by some of the companys founder members in February 2009 with the aim to elevate the prestige of scientific research in India and inspire young Indians to choose a vocation in scientific research. The ISF honours outstanding contributions and achievements by Indians in various streams of science with the Infosys Prize in five categories: mathematical sciences, physical sciences, engineering and computer sciences, life sciences and social sciences. The award is given to Indian scientists below the age of 50. The Foundation is funded by an amount of Rs. 215,000,000 contributed by the members of the Infosys Board and an annual grant from Infosys Tech. Ltd. The annual award in each category amounts to Rs. 5,000,000. The importance of this award is highlighted by the names of its past winners and their achievements, for e.g. last year the award for Life Sciences went to Dr. Chetan Chitnis for having discovered the first viable malaria vaccine and the award for Engineering Sciences went to Prof. Ashutosh Sharma for his applications in energy storage. Along similar lines is the ACM Infosys Foundation Award in Computer Sciences, established in August 2007 and carrying a cash award of USD 150,000 provided by the Infosys Foundation Endowment. It aims to reward educators and researchers whose work in software systems foster innovations that address existing challenges in the domain. Assessment Unlike a number of Indian companies whose education related welfare activities focus primarily on issues of primary/basic education, Infosys initiatives are unique in that they are associated exclusively with the domain of higher technical education, a segment in which it is arguably the most respected company in the country. This allows it to create perfect synergy between its everyday business activities and its investments in the above initiatives because unlike a lot of other companies who get into CSR without doing their homework and as a result get accused of doing it for ulterior motives, Infosys engagement with the field of technical education is a natural extension of its business practices. Its approach in this direction must also be lauded. While Narayana Murty has been accused in the past of favouring foreign universities when it came to giving grants, his decision of having Infosys establish the above awards is a godsend for the research establishment in India because though grants may be siphoned off by agencies without the threat of accountability, awarding individuals for their excellence is more effective as it provides a greater encouragement for others to follow in their shoes. But Infosys has not completely ignored the primary and secondary education sectors either. It has just approached it in a different way and yet received accolades all the same. A case in point is the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which was founded in 2000 and has three senior Infosys members apart from numerous Infosys volunteers who work towards providing free midday meals to schoolchildren. The foundations functions in partnership with state and central governments and currently serves over 1.3 million students in 7699 schools across India. Its impact is easy to assess from third party recognitions: it was awarded an International Fellowship by the US Congressional Hunger Centre, it received the 2008 CNBC India Business Leader of the Year Award and it even made it to the MBA curriculum as a case study at the Harvard School of Business in 2007. Similarly, Infosys BPOs work on Project Genesis, under which it works to improve the written and spoken communication capabilities in addition to the analytical skills of students in Tier 2 and 3 towns of the country so that they become employable, was awarded as the best CSR initiative at the 8th National Outsourcing Association (NOA) Awards 2011, in London. It was especially lauded for making sure that no expense was incurred by the participating academicians in the program. Community Development Unlike the education schemes already mentioned, community development initiatives do not at first seem the best fit with the companys existing activities. However, Infosys has done its share of work in this domain too and while most of it has been in the vicinity of its offices, there are projects like the Flood Relief Project for the victims of northern Karnataka in which the company has participated quite actively. Only last year the first phase of their initiative to construct 2250 houses across 18 villages was completed and subsequently these houses were handed over to the villagers. Assessment This aspect of Infosys CSR efforts can also be criticized for not matching with the core business abilities of the organization. The question to be asked is whether Infosys could have done a better job as simply a service consultant (a domain in which it already has expertise) to a third-party organization and have the latter handle the actual on-ground developmental work. Also, nearly all of Infosys developmental work has come in the neighbourhood of Karnataka. The scalability of this work can be called into question much like in the case of the Infosys Foundation. Regionalized developmental work can always raise questions about its sincerity, i.e. whether they are simply means to appease the local public/authorities. Infosys Eco Group Plans and Implementation Infosys has been considering the worsening impact of businesses on the environment for several years and has understood the importance of a clean environment and energy efficient solutions. It has hence committed itself to come up with innovations which positively impact the environment and can lead to large energy savings. Many of these have been implemented at Infosys itself. Under this initiative of Green Innovation, Infosys has not only come with a number of ideas but has also implemented some of them in tangible forms: iSustain: Carbon energy and resource management tool that helps the user to generate and monitor the use of various resources such as energy and water etc. being used, take majors to allot them efficiently and also monitor the carbon footprint. InGreen Energy Management: A tool used by Infosys to monitor the energy consumption at micro level and to take majors to cut on unnecessary usage. Using this, Infosys has been successfully reducing its carbon emission at a rate of more than 5% per annum. InGreen Personal Carbon Calculator: A tool that helps the user organizations to assess their impact on ecological systems in terms of carbon emission. Smart Integrator for Smart Grid: A device that continuously monitors the power usage of various devices in the range using a sensor and controls them accordingly. Infosys also plans to become carbon neutral and shift to entirely renewable energy by 2017. The steps taken for the same seem to be promising which include building of renewable energy power generation plants (recently they have built a solar energy plant at Jaipur Campus) and aiming for a platinum rating, the highest rating given by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for environment friendly architecture. In January 2012, the third building at the Mysore Campus achieved this rating. Besides these, Infosys has been taking small but effective measures to reduce its own energy consumption, such as building designs with maximum exposure to natural light, design of windows which could lead to reduction in room temperature thus saving on air conditioning consumption of energy, increasing use of green power and use of recycled water. (Refer Exhibit 1) Assessment In year 2011, Infosys has saved more than 4 lakh units of conventional energy units through the use of the renewable energy sources. Not only has this helped in energy conservation but it has also resulted in savings of Rs. 20 Crore for the organization. In a similar way, innovative ideas such as smart integrator, rooms having maximum exposure to day light, optimum room temperature maintenance measures and use of LED and CFL tubes in place of conventional ones saved more than 7 lakh units of electricity, accounting for monetary benefit of Rs. 35 lakhs. In addition to these, Infosys is working closely with the Karnataka Government and Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) for implementation of renewable energy power plants. It has been successful in convincing KERC to remove the cross-subsidy on renewable energy thus reducing its cost. Moreover as a result of these efforts, KERC has made it compulsory for the power utilities in Karnataka to buy at least 0.25% of total energy in form of solar energy, which will cost the end users only 4 paise more than regular rate per unit. Though listed under the CSR activities and initiated as Green Innovations, the activities mentioned above are not only intended to improve the environmental conditions as a social need but are also aimed at a reduction in Infosys energy consumption thereby giving it a competitive advantage as it can sell these innovative solutions to its clients as well. It is these latter observations that have been points of concern for critics who blame Infosys of hyping its energy savings and accuse it of Greenwashing. [18] Employee-Driven CSR Employees at Infosys are given ample opportunities to contribute to the society. This way of engaging employees to have hands on experience on CSR can also help the society, which needs responsible citizens to contribute man hours. The policy also helps these employees to attain their personal aspirations of serving the society. This sabbatical policy was initiated in the year 2008, where all the employees are encouraged to work through Infosys Foundation to support the needs of the society. The company as an entity is greatly supportive of its employees in executing the initiatives. The employees are made to pledge that they will make a difference to the society on a consistent basis. For effective execution, the company has individual divisions which run independent of each other under major themes like Health, Art, Education, Rural welfare and Rehabilitation and Targeted inclusive growth. A governance framework has also been put in place to streamline and implement the employee driven CSR initiatives in order to provide operational efficiencies and financial transparency.

Journal e Week 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Journal e Week 2 - Assignment Example The ultimate goal of health care should be equalizing everyones chances in getting medical attention. In advanced nursing practice justice and beneficence is when a nurse delays to attend to a patient because at that time the nurse is attending to a very ill child who requires instant medical attention. There are scenarios where nurses encounter legal and ethical dilemmas. However, the nurse must be ready to make the correct decision regardless of how unpopular they are. The moral dilemmas can be solved through education. There are ethical laws that regulate the ethics in nursing, for instance the Nurse Practice Act. A nurse can serve a jail term if found guilty for violating the standards of the nursing profession (Guido, 1996). In teaching nursing students about the ethical and legal issues in nursing case studies are very important and effective. Nevertheless, each case that a nurse will encounter in her career will be unique just as the patients but the principles behind the legal issues remain the same. In this manner, the nurse will be able to apply the ethical and legal aspects of nursing in her career (Fry, Veatch & Taylor,

Begin your Annotated Bibliography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Begin your Annotated Bibliography - Essay Example The article also claimed that it has been observed that people in love have a high level of the stress hormone cortisol and lower levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. This study reported that romance elicits a whole gamut of emotions with varying intensities. An individual in love would experience elation when the romance is at its peak and devastation when the romance ends. The lover also perceives himself differently at different times during the romantic episode. Initially, a person may feel insecure when pursuing the object of his affection, being unsure of how the other feels about him. When he successfully gains the affection of his romantic partner, confidence level is restored or even increased. Furthermore, Slater clarified that love stimulates the production of dopamine. This dopamine is responsible for creating an intense energy, exhilaration, focused attention and motivation to win rewards. Slater explained that dopamine enables the individual to be energetic enough to stay up all night, be bold, bright and risky. He then described that as the relationship between lovers becomes more serious, the hormone oxytocin is released. This hor mone promotes a feeling of connection and bonding. It is mostly associated with feelings of intimacy usually felt when one embraces a long-term spouse. This hormone is also released when a mother nurses her infant. This article assessed that the increased level of self-esteem is a direct benefit of romantic relationships. The article cited the benefits of close relationships. Close relationships encourage the self as it helps one handle the challenges in life such as dealing with failure and setbacks. More importantly, keeping close relationships helps lessen the impact of dreadful life experiences. Close relationships lead to romantic relationships. This article provides the cross-cultural evidence which proves that men tend to place more

Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Questions - Assignment Example Some of the differences between mitosis include but not limited to, mitotic cells divide once whereas meiotic cells divide twice. Mitosis results in cell replication as for meiosis, genetic recombination and production of reproductive cells being the sole aim. Mitosis doesn’t yield exact copies whereas meiosis does. Mitosis also gives rise to diploid cells while meiosis gives haploid cells. DNA crossover occurs only in meiosis (Armstrong, 2007). As for similarities, duplication of an organism’s genome takes place only once preceding any other duplication in both processes. There is the existence of metaphase plates, centrioles in both (Armstrong, 2007). Basic steps of division are the same for both. Mitosis and meiosis occurs both in eukaryotic cells. Finally, both represent reproduction processes. A wild population contains tall and short plants. In one cross, two parental tall plants yield all tall progeny. In another experiment, two short plants are crossed and all progeny are short (cross 2). In the third experiment (cross number 3), two different short plants from cross 2 are crossed and 23 tall progeny and 77 short progeny are observed. The F1 generation came about through selfing of F1 plants. While maintaining Mendel’s first law, law of segregation, where the gamete is formed when each member of the allelic get disjointed from their other member. Confirmation of accuracy of his law through selfing of F2 plants yielded all tall and short plants respectively (Tornqvist, 2006). This can be depicted using a Punnet square as depicted on the next

Employment in America Essay Example for Free

Employment in America Essay The United States is amongst the global states which are embracing low rates of unemployment. Except for the Latin America which is fiercely allied to high informal employment the rest of the American continent is having a low unemployment rate which goes as low as 3% compared to 55-60% for most Asian and African countries. Broadly, the effects of law rate of unemployment in the US can be allied to the interaction phenomena in both the macroeconomic and microeconomic structures which have acted to influence the broad array of the economic growth. The state of the economy is stable with few challenges into the inhibitors of poor states of economy. Over decade of years, US have enjoyed the superiority context into a stable state of the economy with elsewhere high purchasing power of the American dollar. Across the global imagery, it has enjoyed various economic benefits and economic integrations of its stable state of economy and strong purchasing power of its currency. High state of economic activity have been the launching pad and the benchmark into high capital inflows from other states through foreign investment in America and the economies allied to favorable balance of payments enjoyed by the America. From the favorability in the economic structures, America has continued to embrace the economic structures of a macroeconomic capacity which provide instruments for high rates of employment. For states within the Latin American region, the high rate of informal employment is much functional and beneficiary with even better wages than most formal employments in the developing countries. Broadly, the high rate of employment/low rate of unemployment in American can summarily be explained by the operation interlinkage between various macroeconomic and microeconomic structures. However, the great deal behind this situation can be credited to the macroeconomic variables which are captured in the broad economic equation. Elsewhere, the fiscal and monitory variables in the functional outlay of the American system provides an adequate pursuit for moral sense of high rates of employment. (Riggs, 2004) At one level, microeconomic variables lobby in to define the factors at an individual level which influence and determine the state of employment. This is mostly credited to the reciprocating factors in the relationship between household income and the levels of consumption and savings. Generally, the economic model of personal income is described as a function of consumption and saving. The relative changes to one another gives the respective marginal propensities (to consume and save). The two are reciprocals of one another where a decrease in one will increase the other. However, within America, the individual population has high marginal propensity to save due to the high income obtained from the formal employment and informal cases. With high saving ratios, the population is able to finance investment cost for new investment structure. The general investment portfolio within the US is highly favorable and highly growing to shoulder in the relatively high employment requirements. High investment structures provide an adequate room with which the broader human population is able to be absorbed within the employment structures. (Riggs, 2004) Macroeconomic influences provide a great refuge for creating employment opportunities. Such macroeconomic tools can be defined in terms of the economic environment to yield adequate economic conditions for a high rate of employment. Generally, the fiscal economic variable does a lot to provide adequate environment for ensuring high state of economic activity. Generally, the federal government has done a lot about its spending to the public. High government spending has been a benchmark in the foundations of high states of economic activity which does not compromise high employment rates. Government spending has been of a diverse nature in which it has provided various insurance allowances to the unemployed above other social structures allied to the public population. Government spending has helped to increase the broad income supply within the public. High expenditure has been an instrument in to the provision of capital for investment by the people. Elsewhere, the federal government has been in the forefront in instituting various structures aimed at providing adequate environment in its investment in government investment. Fiscal policy has also been promoted by various adequate systems in its taxing structure. Consequently, the taxing system has provided a comprehensive package of desirable rate of taxes which are less prone driving out investors from the economy due to losses through government taxation. Through adequate levels of taxes which include tax exemption and rebates for various persons within the economy, the people and investment bodies have embraced the value consequence allied to such law rates of taxes. (Riggs, 2004) Within the America, the monitory policy does a lot in providing an adequate environment for high rates of employment and the reduction of various unemployment inequalities borne of the people. The strong sense of the monitory policy provides a structure with which capital inflow is available. Indeed, America is amongst the global states in which case capital inflow is subordinately of high scale and encompassing no monitory rigidities. Broadly, the American monitory policy can be described in terms of the state of money supply and the demand for American dollar. However, the two sides (both the demand and the supply conditions) show a concrete rigidity in their equilibrium level. The state of money supply is equal to the relative demand which helps to provide an attractive state of equilibrium. With equilibrium in the money market, the American dollar has embraced a high state of purchasing power. Economically, such high purchasing power has been the backbone of facilitating high capital inflows within the states. High purchasing power has provided economic advantage in the international symmetry of economic integrations. Through favorable conditions of economic integrations, America has embraced high capital inflows from its trading partners. (Riggs, 2004) Alternatively a positive challenge into the monitoring system has been a solid factor for the influence of a positive balance of payment. Economically, desirable conditions and states of the monetary marketing are discretionally importance factors in determining the state of employment. Every high employment is an in depended variable of the state of monitory policies. Conceptually, stable monetary economy defines the stability in the economic integration and the parameters of balance of payments. A stable economy is discretionary important for providing structures aimed at improving the state of employment. For every essence of capital inflow within America, this has been a foundation aimed at improving the export level and decreasing the state of foreign imports. Every aspect of high exports than imports helps to improve the state of employment. To America, the low rates of unemployment are counter factors determined by the existing state of high export than imports. Stability in the economic state and the purchasing power of the currency has helped to improve the state of capital inflow within America High capital investment from the foreign world which has helped to improve the existing state of employment states. Summarily, the low state of unemployment in America can be allied to the prevailing economic structures existing within the American economy. The same has favored the stable state of investment which has on the other hand helped to increase the rate of employment within the state.

Jigsaw Dinosaurs :: essays research papers

Jigsaw Dinosaurs Jigsaw Dinosaurs is a non-fiction book as well as a child’s toy under one hard cover. The non-fiction aspect of it offers some introductory detail on the physical appearance and social behavior of six different dinosaurs: Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops and Oviraptor. These are presented on each left-hand page along with information inserts about some of the smaller dinosaurs: Ornitholestes, Lesothosaurus, Compsognathus, Protoceratops, Velociraptors and Quetzalcoatlus. To complete the left-hand page is a 'stone-age' information rock sign, on each page, offering a little-known dinosaur fact under the title: Did you know? The toy aspect of it involves six different jigsaw puzzles elaborating on the main dinosaur being discussed on the left-hand page. The puzzles, illustrated by Anne Sharp, fully occupy each right page in the book. These puzzles make learning for the younger children easier, and more fun because of the clear simplicity of them. The last double page of the book is an illustrated time line following the common dinosaurs through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. This sums up the dinosaur period quite nicely. The illustrations are colored in highly appealing blue and green, red and yellow, purple and orange. The colors are moody, evoking the eeriness of the Mesozoic period. The illustrations fit the large text nicely so if this is being read aloud children will be able to follow lovely detail in the illustration, which will assist with gaining memory retention. Children will be able to track dinosaurs mentioned in text on one page, in illustrations on another: another fun game for dinosaur recognition. There is a nice sense of action about the illustrations, which is also reflected in the text. For example, the text asks: "Do you think the Struthiomimus will see the T Rex in time?" and Anne Sharp draws a distracted Struthiomimus and a T Rex ready to pounce. Very effectively. These could be used as hypothetical scenarios to encourage young kids to create their own imaginative plots to fit the illustration and the text question: Do you think... And what will happen next...? As there is no definitive ending supplied. So, this book offers some great catalysts for developing creative thinking in children. And even on re-reading, children could be encouraged to offer different responses, and even dramatize the very scenarios they create, further intensifying their pleasure in what they have read here. There are strong and weak points associated with having a book that is also a puzzle.

A Message from Disadvantaged Children of Friends for Street Children in Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam

A message from disadvantaged children of Friends For Street children in Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam Ladies and Gentlemen, Ho Chi Minh City is an economic city of Vietnam, with a population of more than 8 million. Attracted by the rapid economic expansion of Ho Chi Minh City, a large number of migrants from many parts of the country is coming. However, they mostly are poor in material, education, professional skills which leads to unstable jobs and low salaries. They live together with many other family’s members in a temporary houses or narrow rental rooms. They cannot earn enough for living.It becomes so difficult for these parents to manage school fee for their children; even they need financial help from their children. Many children of these families have to support financially by selling lottery tickets, newspapers, shoes polishing, or begging. Why we help disadvantaged children? The reality of early labors and dropping out of school of migrant children in Ho Chi Mi nh City is so common. Adding to these labor migrant children is poor children of Ho Chi Minh City who live in slums. They are also the target for child labors, illiterate and many social issues.Facing with the reality that many children cannot access school and their rights are neglected, Friends For Street Children Association was established in 1984, purposely to assist the disadvantaged children in their studies. The Association organizes seven Development Centers to serve about 1200 children studying from Kindergarten to Grade 5. What do children benefit from your help? With the help of donors, sponsors, individuals and groups, and organizations for disadvantaged children at cities of development countries like Vietnam, we can prevent and resolve little by little the basic issues such as: Preventing the dropping out of the school of children. – Reducing illiterate. – Resolving child labor. – Reducing child malnutrition. – Increasing child self-confide nt and self-esteem due to lacking social integrating environment. – Encouraging respect of child basic rights. – Providing a good environment for education in order to reduce social crime concerning children. Your support will help us to organize what activities? Your support will give children chances to access a good education. In FFSC system, we organize free education for children from 5 to 15 years old included Pre-school and Elementary School classes.This is a very important step to support all children to excel certain knowledge in order to integrate public schools. Without supporting, it will be impossible for poor and labor child to access further education. – At the center, we also organize language classes such as English, Japanese for children; – Vocational training courses such as sewing, embroidery for girls; – Building up child self-confident and social understanding through life skills and life values courses; – Improving chi ldren’s creativities through recreation programs according to age such as circle games, drawing; Improving their health through outdoor body exercises; – Healthcare, teeth care and providing milk; – Sponsorships for poor children who study at public schools to prevent dropping out due to financial reason; – Supporting children and families psychologically through home visits. What’s impact of our support for children? Our purpose focuses on and enhances well-being and a better future of disadvantaged children. – These disadvantaged children will have chance to access and integrate the public school and to develop their talents. Some girls who are trained can earn living in the future. – They are served better in nutrition and health. – They will gain a balance on psychology. – They have chances to have fun as any other children. – These poor children can proceed higher education in order to graduate from high scho ol and college. – They are provided necessary knowledge and skills to live healthily, happily and usefully in future society. Our dear guests, we would like to express our deepest gratitude for your kind presence here today. Thank you for your attentive listening.