Industry at farmers' cost opposed

The Statesman, January 5

KOLKATA, Jan. 5: It is a fallacy to go for rampant industrialisation at the cost of farmlands, according to Mr Madhav Mehra, president, World Council for Corporate Governance. He feels that money from the debt-equity markets, which is transforming business, should be infused in the farm sector for mechanisation of farming.

“It is time corporations thought of making the farmer a stakeholder in the businesses run on the land purchased from the farmer and thus solve the controversy of SEZs. “Otherwise why should a farmer be left with the choices of either starving or selling off his land?” he quipped.

In the modern corporate world where cut throat competition and maximizing profit defines business, he has an alternative path which he believes can help a business house to have an edge over others.

Speaking to The Statesman, Mr Mehra said that the only way by which business houses can prosper in the 21st century is enhancing their brand through corporate social responsibility (CSR). “It is now common knowledge that the market valuation of business is determined not so much by quarterly profits but by public perception of the good that it does to the community in which it operates,” he said.

“CSR gives the companies the opportunity to enhance the brand factor which in the long run would imply an inclusive growth,” he remarked.

“The business houses tend to address the welfare of their shareholders as their cardinal duty, but to me it is the stakeholders who should be of greatest importance,” he said. Mr Mehra said that the time has come for the business houses to strive for bridging the gap between the haves and have nots, a gap which is becoming increasingly hard to bridge.