After receiving over 300 nominations, the panel of judges comprising Kiran Karnik, Dr Mohini Giri, Dr M B Athreya and Dr Abid Hussein has zeroed in on five companies--Larsen & Toubro, Forbes Marshall, the Tata Iron and Steel Company, the Shriram group and the Pune-based Bajaj Auto--as the contenders for the award, to be presented in the Capital next month.

Nominations were initially screened by Price Waterhouse Associates India, auditors and consultants to the project, who have prior experience in conducting similar social audits.

``Intent and implementation'' were the two yardsticks used to measure the effectiveness and worth of social development activities undertaken by the various companies, according to an advertorial in the magazine.

This was preceded by a series of advertisements showcasing a sustained effort towards being aresponsible business outfit, which underlined the belief that ``business must have a conscience of its own''.

But what does social responsibility mean to a leading business magazine?``All philanthropy has its base in business fundamentals. It is my personal belief that you can't have a stable business till you have a strong society. Every business should give back something to the community from which they make their living. And here I must clarify that I am not propagating a socialist line of thinking. Today, you need not forego business interests to be charitable. The industrialised nations, so-called purveyors of laissez faire, also have the biggest safety nets for their citizens and a firm belief in encouraging scholarship and social responsibility. The Kellogs Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie-Mellon scholarships, all display that capitalism does have a synergy with humanitarianism,'' says Gautam Sengupta, general manager for English magazines with Ananda Bazaar Patrika, theCalcutta-based publication group that publishes Business World.Which are the other social activities in which Business World has taken a lead?

``Besides the award, we have been involved in humane gestures on a smaller scale. Things like donating 30 per cent of the subscription amount to Child Relief and You (CRY) and UNICEF, in two separate campaigns; donating free ad space to eye banks; encouraging AIDS awareness by providing free ad pages to relief agencies; and donating Rs 5 lakh to St Stephen's College for computerisation in the college, among others. Also, in an arrangement with the International Management Institute, we have created a corpus of Rs 50,000 for one student each year who wants to pursue management studies, but is financially constrained. We have also urged the institute to give due weightage to the economic backwardness factor while admitting such candidates,'' replies Sengupta.

How was the idea of an award for corporate social responsibility mooted?``The Business World-Compaq SocialResponsiveness Award has its roots in a supplement on social responsibility that we brought out last year. The supplement, which revealed a lesser known face of the corporates, invited them to write about their social activities that were not related to their businesses. Companies like Indal, the Manipal Heart Foundation, Britannia Industries and Tisco were among those who responded positively. Encouraged by the response, I discussed the possibilities of an award for corporate India with former Compaq India CEO Abhishek Mukherjee, who is also an old friend. An exercise of this nature required the objectivity of an independent auditing body. That is where Price Waterhouse came in. FICCI was instrumental in the industry-wide coordination,'' elaborates Sengupta.Intent and implementation being the two yardsticks to measure the effectiveness of philanthropic efforts, Business World itself lags behind in the latter. Asked whether the magazine was monitoring the utilisation of its donations, Sengupta replies in thenegative. ``We don't have the infrastructure to do that,'' he concedes. CRY, one of the beneficiaries, also affirmed that the role of the magazine was not one of a partner, but a sponsor. ``They bought 10,000 cards from us for a subscription scheme,'' said Praveen Sharma, who handles media relations at the NGO.

Now that the award has been instituted and a series of charity efforts have been set in motion, will Business World be able to sustain the campaign, especially when the print medium is passing through a trough?``Everything depends on the amount of conviction one has. No project will get completed if you don't have a strong belief in what you are doing, even if that means swimming against the tide,'' avers Sengupta. Brave words indeed, in these times of cost-cutting and downsizing.