Sustainable development index for India

BT announced that the launch of its “Sustainable Development Index – an assessment of business performance in India”. The SD index has been developed in partnership with GlobeScan, an independent public opinion and stakeholder research company. Through a survey of senior opinion leaders across India the index is a means to measure the performance of business in India in the progression towards sustainable development over time.

The initiative was officially launched by Dr. R. K. Pachauri, Director General, TERI and Allen Ma, President, BT Asia Pacific at a news conference in New Delhi, India.

The SD index report reveals that although Indian companies are taking positive steps towards sustainable development, the overall performance of the corporate sector is disappointing. 46 per cent of India's opinion leaders surveyed blame a lack of awareness around sustainable development issues as the main cause of inaction. Some 40 per cent of opinion leaders also cited a lack of political will as a major obstacle to making significant progress in this area.

According to the report, this lack of action means India lags behind China, Japan and the European Union when it comes to addressing key issues, such as tackling climate change, corporate governance practices and water resource management.

Interestingly, the country's largest cities were seen as making the strongest moves to improve sustainable development practices. Whilst there are negative views around India's progress, a majority of opinion leaders (57 per cent) feel that companies in India are now more active with regard to sustainable development compared to one year ago.

In fact, the corporate sector is considered to have made significantly stronger progress than either government or the general public. Allen Ma, President, BT Asia Pacific said: “At BT, we absolutely view sustainability as an international issue and businesses cannot succeed in societies that fail. India is rapidly becoming a global centre for information and communications technology development, and boasts a high economic growth rate. It is vital that this commercial success is matched by a commitment to, and leadership in, corporate responsibility. We are constantly looking at the impact of our core business activities across the spectrum of social, environmental and economic issues. Through the launch of the BT Sustainable Development Index we hope that other organisations in India will do the same.”

The most frequently mentioned corporate leaders in sustainable development in India are: TATA Group (named by 31 per cent of respondents), Reliance (13 per cent) and Infosys (10 per cent).

Nitin Desai, Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Advisor to BT’s SD Index, said: “There are significant social, environmental and economic challenges facing the world’s second most populous country and India’s transition to sustainable development is in the world’s interest. Given the importance of the issues at stake, there is a clear need for initiatives such as BT’s to help channel corporate sustainability efforts to where they can have the most beneficial impact. We need to be able to carefully monitor where corporate successes are occurring and to learn from them. We also need to reliably know which aspects of sustainable development most urgently require corporate action"

'Implement the right technology'

With so many new technologies available in the market, which is the right technology for your own optimization is going to be a major challenge

Each day new technology floods the market. So which is the right technology for your own optimization and what is the right time to invest is going to the major challenges ahead, says N. Kailsanathan, Vice-President & CIO of Titan Group. In an interview with Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau, spoke on some of his major accomplishments as a CIO to what he would like to hear from the vendors in the coming fiscal.

CIOL: There has been a lot of noise on IT spending and breakthrough implementations? How much of this mere tom-tomming and how much of this makes an impact on the ground?
KN: I would not like to term it as breakthrough. IT has improved the processes and simplified them to make things more robust and reliable. Innovations happen the way IT is managed.

CIOL: A lot of organizations link IT budget with the company's growth? What do you have to say about it?KN: Can you say that by investing in an ERP your turnover will grow? But what will happen is your ability to analyze the data will become much better. Certain areas like supply chain, we also have to link directly with the alignment in the field.

CIOL: What are some of the challenges faced by you as a CIO?
KN: Getting more and more money out of the system by investing in IT is a major challenge. Once you have set up the base like ERP, Planning, Networking in order, getting funds to upgrade the system is another challenge. Management asks why do you need to upgrade when things are running smoothly?
Security is another big thing that needs constant upgradation but getting funds again and again is not easy.

CIOL: Does your enterprise consider spending money on the latest IT implementation as a burden or do they feel it is an investment and mandatory for any organization?
KN: Long term investment can create a problem but now every one looks at investment with quick returns.

CIOL: Can you site any specific area where IT has come as an accomplishment in your stint as a CIO?
KN: We have done some advanced planning and optimization of a software, that has really helped the business. It was optimization of not only the products but also the deliveries.

CIOL: What would you like to hear from the vendors during the next fiscal?
KN: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is going forward will play a major role in the way you integrate the system. A lot of integration is through home grown applications they will come under a standard platform of SOA.
Since a lot is happening on the retailing front, a lot of technologies will come into the market like RFID. Besides CRM is another major area to identify the customers' needs.

CIOL: What has your organization doing on the IT green front?
KN: Our organization is not a major consumer of power but what every one is talking about today is how to save on electricity. Green technology is a very big subject from green buildings to green computers and a lot of works needs to be done.

CIOL: What are the challenges you foresee during the coming years?
KN: More challenges are about running the business than IT. When things begin to work well, getting funds for improving/enhancing is a major challenge. Security is another challenge since it is a perennial problem.
Implementing new technologies at the right time is another challenge. But since all technologies don't work and you have to be very careful about the products that are flooding the market.