Chennai

At a press conference held to launch a new beverage brand, this reporter had a first-hand experience of why scribes are a cynical species.  The event in question involved an audio-visual presentation where the company heads waxed eloquent about the USPs of their offering, why it would disrupt the market and so on. 

Towards the end of the Power Point show, the gentleman at the helm happened to nonchalantly say, “This is a school we have adopted in this village. It’s part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), whatever.”  I mulled his statement over in my head. 

Since the time I know, CSR has been the subject of numerous debates, that encounter the same set of doubts – is CSR just an eyewash, or a tax write-off alternative for corporates with big bucks? Or do they genuinely find themselves accountable and responsible for the environment in which they prosper? It was disheartening to hear this well-to-do businessman dismiss CSR as a ‘whatever’ slide in his scheme of things, and that too in a forum populated by the media. 

I also realised how ‘whatever’ seemed to be the modern-day equivalent of indifference, which I think goes hand in hand with cynicism. And the world could surely do with a lot lesser of that. 

Bijoy Bharathan, Chennai

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