A tremendous social responsibility comes with being a successful public performer.-A. Bartlett Giamatti.

  “It is not good enough to do what the law says. We need to be in the forefront of these [social responsibility] issues.” - Anders Dahlvig, CEO of IKEA,

     Without a sense of caring there  can be no sense of community

BFSI Vision along with APAS presents the "Corporate Social Responsibility" Awards 2014, this December.

CSR Awards

CSR is an idea whereby companies integrate economic, social and environmental concerns in their business operations.

Petrol Pricing Enigma

Petrol price hikes are a mystery. The consuming public is told that prices need to go up either because the USD has appreciated or Rupee has depreciated or international crude prices have gone up. On the face of it this is a very likely explanation. The only problem is that the data does not support it. I did a back of the envelope calculation, using data from the internet. I looked at the data from 1^st August 2013 to 1^st July 2014. The window was chosen to illustrate the problem.  I choose Brent Crude – the Indian crude basket is priced lower than Brent. Take a look:

Date	Petrol In Mumbai	USD/INR	Brent Crude in USD
1/8/2013	78.61	60.75	109.94
1/9/2013	81.57	65.71	115.49
14/09/2013	83.62	63.29	113.31
4/1/2014	81.31	62.18	106.71
1/3/2014	82.07	61.83	111.26
16/04/2014	80	60.25	109.71
1/7/2014	81.75	60.06	111.03

Get the picture? Take a point to point comparison. On 1^st August 2013, USD was at 60.75 and crude at USD 109.94. Petrol in Mumbai was available at INR 78.61. On 1^st July 2014, USD was at 60.06 and Brent Crude at 111.03. Petrol price in Mumbai is at INR 81.75. What is the reason for this hike?

Between, 1^st September 2013 and 14^th September 2013, USD went down from 65.71 to 63.29, and the Brent crude from USD 115.49 to USD 113.31. But petrol prices went up from INR 81.57 to INR 83.62!

Is this a rip off? Are we being exploited by the oil ministry on behalf of the oil marketers? While nothing has changed in the international markets, the prices in India keep moving up. As consumers we need to know how these prices are calculated.

If the government is conscious of the poor it needs to do one small gesture – fix the consolidated levies and duties from sale of fuel. As it is nearly 47% of the price of petrol at the pump is tax. Every time either the USD or oil price goes up, so does the tax. Fix the tax at a moderate level. Imagine paying 47% tax!

Or better still abolish fuel subsidy and these obnoxious taxes at one stroke. Why levy a tax and then provide a subsidy. Let the fuel price move in step with international rates. This will help our economy grow and for the government, taxes too will grow!

 Girish V S

Managing Editor

To Feed a Hungry Mouth

In the run up to the BFSI Vision CSR Awards 2014, I pause to think of one of the core areas of CSR – poverty eradication. One question that haunts me is – can the BFSI sector do something about a sustainable poverty eradication campaign? Can we from the sector lead the way in this cause? To an extent, there is continuity in our theme – last week we spoke about women empowerment. This week it is poverty eradication. If we achieve the former, the latter is bound to happen.

We are so caught up in the dreams of a better tomorrow, that we forget the millions of our country men go to sleep hungry. We are a nation of paradoxes. We buy a huge amount of grain from the farmers and then promptly let it rot. At a conservative estimate, nearly 40 percent of our food crops are wasted for want of better supply chains. How different are we from the avowed capitalists who do not baulk at destroying food because it will reduce prices.

I recall the top three issues listed in the top ten priorities for poverty eradication by the UN. According to the UN, “eradication of poverty cannot be brought about by charity, but needs first and foremost empowering the poor, focusing on women, and tapping their tremendous potential.” The next on the list is “Women fall into poverty more easily and more frequently than men. They constitute majority of the people living in poverty. Ending discrimination against women and girls and promoting gender equality were critical for poverty eradication.” And the third “Productive employment, including self-employment, played a central role in poverty eradication. Access of the poor to land, capital and other productive resources must be improved.”

For me the agenda is clear. These three points are what we call “Financial Inclusion” – aimed at providing women across the country with the means to start small income generation schemes. But we seem to forget that the income generation schemes under the financial inclusion program are limited in their scope – they are limited to the village ecosystem. The poor connectivity between Indian villages traps them in islands of human habitation, limiting the market size. Whatever is produced has to be consumed within the village. The villager is not able to transport her produce to larger markets, and if she attempts to do so, nearly half the produce is wasted.

For the villages to reap the benefits of the financial inclusion program, they need to be connected to the towns and cities. Their produce should be able to reach the consumption centres without nearly half of it being wasted.

Hopefully, the new government will make linking of villages a priority – else, the silent poor majority in Bharat will continue to envy the urban India progress.