While Indian businesses are shopping abroad for expansion, mergers and acquisitions, the UN Global Compact believes they could strike better deals by being on the right side of sustainability and corporate citizenship.

The Global Compact is a voluntary initiative to engage business leaders on sustainability and corporate citizenship issues in pursuit of their enlightened self interest. The Global Compact is taking steps in this direction by strengthening its presence and working in India. Says Global Compact?s executive director Georg Kell, ?We enable corporates to make sustainability integral to their strategy and operations.? It can be helpful in becoming more competitive globally, he adds.

Though the Global Compact was launched in India in December 2000 in the presence of leading Indian industry leaders and the Global Compact Society of India was formed in 2003, its work has been low profile. It?s expected to pick up now. RS Sharma, chairman and managing director of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, is the society president and Uddesh Kohli, chairman of the Construction Industry Development Council, is the focal point.

Late last year, the Global Compact signed MoUs with Indian business chambers to streamline its working in the country and it intends to follow it up actively this year and engage more members. Joining the Global Compact means bringing changes in business operations and strategies to align them with the Global Compact?s mandate and reporting communication of progress on a regular basis, says Kell.

The Global Compact enables businesses to do so by providing them a platform and opportunities to interact, engage, partner and share knowledge and good practices on development issues with the civil society, governments and UN agencies. The networking is expected to lead businesses to align their thinking and operations with the Global Compact principles on human rights, labour, anti-corruption and the environment (see accompanying box) in their enlightened self-interest, elaborates Kell.

Pursuing a multi-pronged approach, the Global Compact is also lobbying for creating enabling environment for responsible businesses. Its principles for responsible investment (PRI), which urge large institutional investors to make environmental, social and governance issues integral to investment decision making process, have got favourable response. ?We have more than 200 institutions representing approximately $11 trillion in assets committing to PRI,? says Kell. He adds, ?At the same time it would help to incentivise responsible businesses.?

Today, the Global Compact is a network of more than 3,300 companies and other stakeholders belonging to over 60 chapters from more than 100 countries. The Global Compact board members include eminent leaders like Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman, Foundation for the Global Compact; Georg Kell; Mary Robinson, chair, Realizing Rights?The Ethical Globalization Initiative, and B Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel.

Universal Principles

The Global Compact?s ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption enjoy universal consensus and are derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment, and anti-corruption.

Human rights

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights

Principle 2: Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses

Labour standards

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining

Principle 4: The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour Principle 5: The effective abolition of child labour Principle 6: The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation

Environment

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges

Principle 8: Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility

Principle 9: Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies

Anti-corruption

Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery

?Source: UN Global Compact