The report on Corporate Involvement in Social Development in India (June 1997), which was prepared by the Social and Rural Research Institute of the Indian Market Research Bureau for Partners in Change, states that of 647 companies surveyed, only 35 per cent have a policy on supporting development or social causes. Out of these companies, 8 per cent have a written policy, 11 per cent have a stated policy, and 16 per cent haven't stated their policy.

Having a policy is no guarantee that the corporate will follow it up in practice, though. Only 66 per cent of those who have a policy, do so. In contrast, only 35 per cent of the companies that don't have a policyindulge in community work.

But companies that have written policies are more likely to support development activities as compared to companies with unwritten policies. 86 per cent of the companies that have written policies do so as compared to 54 per cent of the companies with stated but unwritten policies, and 68 per cent of the companies with unstated but implicit policies.

From the other observations in the survey, it can be inferred that many companies realise that they have a social responsibility to discharge, but they link it to their size and ability. Surprisingly, some companies even believe that conducting business honestly without resorting to illegal or wrongful means of commerce also constitutes fulfilling their social obligations.

In any case, most CEOs feel that their social responsibilities are primarily to their employees followed by their families and finally communities around their places of work. Interestingly, 18 per cent companies adopt policies because of the owner's ownreasons, 13 per cent for building up the image of the company, 8 per cent to satisfy government regulations, and 5 per cent because of tax benefits. But whatever the target group and the reasons, most companies execute social development projects themselves because of lack of confidence in the reliability and efficacy of NGOs.

Of course, the survey raises more important questions in a milieu where businesses aren't asking why they should be socially responsible, but how they can meet social obligations effectively. These relate to whether a flat percentage of pre-tax profits should be earmarked for undertaking community work or whether a company's responsibility should be fixed depending upon how polluting its manufacturing process is.

Should discharging the responsibility be legally binding or voluntary? What about polluting industries that are running at a loss? How can corporates be prompted to partner NGOs for a more professional execution of projects? How do NGOs themselves become credible andtransparent? Should they replicate the sponsoring corporate's management system and methodology? But then these may be the sample questions for another dedicated survey.