Corporate social responsibilities are the social obligation for an organization to cater. It simply states that if an organization is fulfilling its commercial value with the help of resources provided by the society. Then, it is the faithful responsibility of that organization to provide something in return to society. Self-regulating services of charitable nature fostering to cater societal goals is the foremost focus of corporate social responsibilities.
Uday Kotak, the founder of Kotak Mahindra bank believes that “For a company, Society is not just another stakeholder but is the utmost purpose for existence”. CSR activities are very important from the perspective of the banking sector to maintain an integral constituent of trust and culture. The corporate governance substructure of Kotak Mahindra Bank instructs the efforts of the organization responsibly and transparently. Fostering CSR activities helps in managing risks, increasing value and reputation for a company, and proves to be beneficial in the long run. Following the principle of “leadership with value”, Uday Kotak believes that CSR is a part of the DNA of every organization.
CSR activities – Kotak Mahindra bank to
The bank has taken many exceptional initiatives to embark the societal value. These initiatives include the Kotak education foundation, green initiative, financial inclusion, livelihood programs, running various social causes, and encouraging and funding employees to volunteer for the social causes of the community. These initiatives have contributed to the environmental and societal well-being on a major scale. The amount spent on the CSR agenda by Kotak Mahindra Bank is shown an increasing trend over the past four years and has increased by approximately 22% in almost a decade. Every year around 2-3% of profits are devoted to various social welfare agendas. The CSR expenditure for the previous financial year (2019-20) amounted to Rs. 5972 lakhs out of Rs.4813 crores profit of Kotak Mahindra Bank. The prescribed CSR expenditure and the actual expenditure by Kotak Mahindra Bank has a lot of unfavorable difference. But the Bank is showing an increasing trend in CSR expenditure every year.
There is a lot of school being the programs under the initiative Kotak education fund. Like Spoken English program, Health and Nutrition Programme (refraining from bad health be a reason for dropping out of school through vision check-up camps and Kishori Sehat Abhiyan), Scholarship and Mentoring Program, and Parent Intervention program (spreading awareness about the importance of education in the weaker sections of society).
These initiatives provide the right guidance and emotional and financial support to underprivileged students.
Other initiatives like Kotak Udaan (providing medical and financial aid to the students facing severe hardships in life) and Kotak “In search for Excellence” (providing financial support to bright young people for higher studies) are empowering the underprivileged students with the necessary skills so that they can live their life with respect. Also, the Kotak Unnati program aims at providing employable skills to young people aged between 18-25 from below poverty line families in Mumbai. Kotak Mahindra Bank has also initiated community engagement activities by developing the infrastructure of many primary schools in many villages near Nashik, Maharashtra, where the majority of the population of the village belongs to the weaker section of society. In addition, the bank provides school kits to around 450 students including stationery and books every year in these villages.
Owing to Kotak Mahindra Bank’s collaborative approach toward corporate social responsibility, employees are encouraged and funded to run for any social cause. There are initiatives taken by employees of Kotak Mahindra Bank such as Blood donation camps being organized every year in association with red cross society on group day on taking November 21. In addition, NGO exhibitions takes place during festivals like Diwali, where NGOsinstitutions are welcomed to raise funds by selling goods made by needy and underprivileged people.
Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of the prime financial institution in India. So, it has a vital role to play towards environmentala sustainability. Being a bank, it has very limited environmental impact onhaveKotak materials. Green initiatives like optimizing energy through implementing green infrastructural buildings having day-light sensors and lighting solutions. In addition, the bank has also collaborated with growtress.com. Other initiatives like financial inclusion, help kotak Mahindra Bank to reach out to environmental sections of weaker, rural, and disadvantaged sections of society and equip them with a basic saving account, direct benefit transfers (DBT), and electronic-based transfers (EBT). Also, Kotak Samridhi Program is launched at a major scale as a milk-producing rural platform empowering and benefitting milk producing farmers. Kotak Mahindra Bank as seen in the past few years is mainly increasing its rural presence to reach out to more people and improve its agricultural portfolio by benefitting farmers. According to Uday Kotak, “Growth beyond numbers is the Growth that lasts longer”.
To be most recent about Corporate social responsibility activities, Kotak Mahindra Bank has care donated Rs. 50 crores towards PM cares fund to fight against the ongoing global pandemic Novel Coronavirus (COVID 19). Also, Kotak Mahindra Bank has the initiatives recently launched Kotak Life healthcare program. This is one of the biggest initiative taken by the Kotak bank, under which free medicines and vision checkups are provided in the slum areas of Mumbai. Through all these initiatives, Kotak Mahindra Bank has always followed the right path, benefitting all the stakeholders.
Conclusion
To recapitulate, Corporate social responsibility agendas are an integral part of an organization without which, it cannot survive in the long run. Kotak Mahindra Bank is readily participating in these social obligations and working at large for societal welfare. The bank works at the sole aim of creating a multi-dimensional social impact, which would perhaps benefit society as well as the organization by creating commercial value. And for a bank specifically, CSR practices are very important to gain trust and good reputational image in the minds of the people.
Kotak Mahindra Bank has many empowerment schemes to enrich underprivileged people with employable skills, so that they can live their lives with respect and dignity. These schemes are helping below poverty line (BPL) families to sustain themselves completely. Now, Kotak Mahindra Bank should broaden its perspective by not only focusing on Maharashtra but the entire country in terms of corporate social responsibility. As the main vision of the bank is to uplift environmental and social well-being of society in general.
“Success is not worthy if it does not address the interest of the country and its people”
– Uday Kotak
