Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs looks to build CSR capabilities

Will tie-up with IIMs for research activities

The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) established by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is ramping up its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) capabilities by laying emphasis on research and development in this segment. IICA, under its National Foundation for CSR (NFCSR), will also introduce a programme in CSR shortly.

IICA has been set up for capacity building and training in various subjects and matters relevant to corporate regulation and governance such as corporate and competition law, accounting and auditing issues, corporate governance, business sustainability through environmental sensitivity and social responsibility among others.

The Institute has been designed with an eye on the future to provide a platform for dialogue, interaction and partnership between governments, corporate, investors, civil society, professionals, academicians and other stake holders

Nikhil Pant, Chief Programme Executive, National Foundation for CSR (NFCSR), Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), Ministry of Corporate Affairs said that IICA is rolling out a 9-months IICA CERTIFICATE programme in CSR.

Pant informed that there are 15 educational institutions that will partner them for this programme to begin with, slated to start in June 2014. The class will begin with a batch of 200 individuals, of which 100 will be CSR professionals sponsored by corporates. There would be an entrance examination for the programme for the non-sponsored candidates. This programme will be called the IICA Certificate Programme (ICP) in CSR.

Apart form this, IICA is also looking into bridging sectoral gap in society and measuring catalytic impact of CSR done by corporates. Pant said that business schools like Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta can assist IICA in building up case studies in CSR. IICA is looking to have joint Management Development Programmes (MDPs) with IIMs for joint certifications.

In the area of CSR, the IICA has the National Foundation of CSR which has four verticals,  including NGO Hub, Data Vertical, Learning & Development and Collaborative Projects.

The NGO Hub will begin the process of due diligence to em-panel NGOs. The hub would attempt to empanel about 1,00,000 non-governmental organisations in the next few years. However, Pant said that companies would be advised to do their as well on the NGOs and its activities prior to supporting them.

The data portal will contain information on the CSR policies of companies and their yearly reports of the activities conducted under CSR. This will also look into the actual impact and outcomes of the project. Going forward, Pant said that analytics may be used to measure the impact of CSR projects by companies.

The Learning and Development vertical will look into training and consulting activities. Pant said, "We will also look at providing consulting services to companies at a nominal cost, so that we as an organisation are self-sufficient too." The vertical of Collaborative Projects will look at multiple collaborative projects with different institutions.

IICA already has Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) in place with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, ISB Hyderabad, TERI, YES Bank, NLSU Bangalore, IIFT Delhi, and other institutes/organisations of national repute, and CSR research would be a key part of these MoU.

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