This slide explains some of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities practices by the food companies operating in India.

1. Corporate Social Responsibility
practices in Indian food industry:
A Critical analysis
By:
Sharad Agarwal
IIM Ranchi
sharad2021@gmail.com

2. Introduction
• India is the second most populous country in the
world and is expected to become home for largest
number of people on earth by 2025.
• Food processing sector contributes about 12.7 %
of the country's GDP and provides nearly 60 % of
all job opportunities by directly employing around
1.6 million workers.
• The worth of the Indian processed foods industry
was USD 91 billion in 2010 and it is growing at the
rate of 13%per annum.
• By 2016, it is expected to touch USD 175.2 billion
(GyanResearh, 2012).

3. Introduction (Continued)
• Food processing companies invested over US$2bn in
Indian operations between April and October 2013
(Whitefield, 2014).
• During the year 2013, Hindustan Unilever, PepsiCo,
Cadbury and Nestlé have all announced substantial
investments in the country
• These companies majorly serve the ‘elite’ section of
the society.
• Do they have responsibility towards other stakeholders
such as those living below daily average earning of USD
1.25 or the ‘Bottom of Pyramid’ (BoP)? If Yes, then how
do they perform it?

4. Soft Drinks create health concerns
• Carbonated soft drinks and other beverages make
up an increasing percentage of energy intake
leading to weight gain, obesity, and other
cardiometabolic problems. (Kleiman,et.al.,2012),
• Ismail et.al. (1997) talks of concern due to the
rise in the consumption of sugar-containing
carbonated beverages in a number of developing
societies: China, India, Vietnam, Thailand, and
other Southeast Asian countries, which are
currently major growth markets for the
soft drink industry

5. Processed food harmful for health
• Fruit Juices are also culprits !
• A study published in the journal Nutrition (Walker
et.al. 2014) shows that on average, fruit juice has
a fructose concentration of about 45.5 grams per
litre, only a bit less than the average of 50 grams
per litre for sodas
• Manufacturer hence add so called “flavor packs”
to the juice, to bring back the flavour that was
lost during processing (Gunnars,2014)
• Fast food, Snacks and Beverages are all harmful
for consumption.

6. Other Social Concerns
• The soft drinks and water bottling companies in India
have also been accused of depleting the ground water
in the areas where their bottling plants are located.
• Domino’s Pizza is continuously condemned for risking
the life of its drivers and other pedestrians on the
roads as they strive to meet 30 min. delivery promise.
• According to a doctor at AIIMS, New Delhi India "On
weekends, on an average two or three delivery boys
(not necessarily from pizza outlets) land up in the
hospital. Most of them have suffered trivial to serious
trauma," (quoted in Rediff, 2012).

7. CSR aims to increase Sales
• Dorfman et. al. (2012), in their study on the CSR
campaigns of Soda and tobacco industry, found that as
sugary beverages are implicated in the global obesity
crisis, major soda manufacturers have recently
employed elaborate, expensive, multinational
corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns.
• They argued that soda company CSR campaigns
explicitly aim to increase sales, including among young
people.

8. CSR
• According to World Business Council for Sustainable
Development, 2001, CSR is ‘‘the commitment of business to
contribute to sustainable economic development, working with
employees, their families, and the local communities’’
• Frankental (2001) mentions that "CSR is a vague and intangible
term which can mean anything to any body, and therefore is
effectively without meaning”.
• We argue that CSR attains its meanings from the underlying
social and economic conditions of the society in which the
company operates as these conditions are highly unique for
each society and hence determines the responsibility of the
corporations.

9. Methodology
• Content analysis was used to generate the underlying
data for our research. It has been widely used in
corporate social and environmental responsibility
research (e.g. Singh & Agarwal, 2014; Singh & Agarwal,
2013; Nieminen & Niskanen, 2001; Maignan & Ralston,
2002; Castaldo et al., 2010;Muthuri and Gilbert, 2011).
• It is a ‘‘technique for making inferences by objectively
and systematically identifying specified characteristics
of messages”
• We analyzed the websites, annual reports and
sustainability reports of the companies, taken in our
sample

10. List of companies analysed in this study
S.
No. Fast Food
9 CavinKare
1 café coffee day 10 Haldiam Snacks (pvt.) Ltd
2
Jubilant Food works
(Dominos, Dunkins donuts)
11
Haldiram's Food
International Limited
3
Mc. Donalds
(North & East)
Beverages & Fruit Juices
4
Mc. Donalds
(South & West)
12 Coca Cola India Ltd.
5 Monginis 13 Mother Dairy (Safal Juice)
6
Subway Systems India Pvt
Ltd
14 Pepsi Co India
7
Yum Food
(KFC, PIZZA HUT)
15 Surya Foods (Priyagold)
Snacks 16 Rasna international pvt. Ltd
8
Bikanewala foods (pvt)
Ltd

11. Methodology (Continued)
We coded the individual CSR into following 8
broad areas :
• Health
• Education
• Community Welfare
• Entrepreneurship Development
• Environment
• Work Place
• Market Place
• Rural Development

12. Data Coding Scheme
Activities Explanation
Education
The food companies working in the area of promoting education. For e.g. establishing
engineering colleges, schools, etc.
Health
The food companies working in the area of health care for the needy and deprived. For
e.g., distributing medicines, etc.
Community Welfare
The food companies working for the welfare of various sections of the society For e.g.
Philanthropic donations during floods etc.
Entrepreneurship
Development
The food companies working towards promotion of entrepreneurial activities For e.g.
proving free solar coolers to the entrepreneurs for selling company’s products
Environment
The food company states a policy of minimizing negative environmental impact For
e.g. reducing water consumption in their manufacturing processes.
Market Place
The food companies working in issues related to its core marekt. For e.g. meeting
international standards for food production.
Rural Development
The food companies carrying out activities for the development of rural areas/tracts. For
e.g. educating farmers for best practices.

13. Findings

14. Community Welfare
• Yum brands, which owns and operates Pizza hut,
KFC & Taco Bell brands in India has initiated the
concept of “Specially abled restaurant” which is
run and managed by specially abled employees.
• Yum! Restaurants India was awarded with the
prestigious National Award for the Empowerment
of Persons with Disabilities-2014 by the Ministry
of Social Justice and Empowerment, Department
of Disability Affairs, Government of India.

15. Environment
• Jubilant food works, franchisee of Dominos
Pizza brand in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka and Dunkin’ Donuts in India, runs an
initiative, “We Care”, a beach cleaning
initiative post Ganesh Immersion Ceremony
• Mother Dairy, promotes the Bulk Vended Milk,
better known as 'Token' milk. Mother Dairy
sells approximately 10.5 lakh litres of token
milk in Delhi alone and thus ensures more than
5 tonnes less consumption of plastic.

16. Education
• Café coffee day has set up the Shankarakudige
Veerappa Gangaiah Hegde Education Trust. The trust
setup in 2002 as a non-profit trust works with the
mission of “Education for All”. It runs two institutions,
Amber Valley Residential School and SVGH Vocational
Training College.
• CavinKare (manufactures of Maa Fruit Drinks and
Garden Namkeens) operates CK School of Practical
Knowledge and CK Engineering and College of
Technology

17. Marketplace
• Monginis take a moral responsibility of
upholding all the laws levied by the FDA.
• It believes in using the highest quality of raw
materials and ingredients in its manufactured
goods and takes pride in having implemented
the processes which ensure consistency and
ensure safety from hazardous mishaps

18. Rural Development
• e KOcool Solar Powered Cooler: Coca Cola India is distributing solar
powered refrigeration units (solar coolers) free of cost to women
retailers in rural areas that are plagued by no or intermittent power
supply.
• The solar coolers also have a provision for charging mobile phones
and solar lanterns. The solar lantern allows the owner to keep her
store open even after the sun sets. The mobile charging port helps
the women retailer stay connected for her business and personal
needs and provides an additional source of revenue in rural areas as
she charges the consumers for the charging service.

19. Health
• Mc. Donald (North & East), as part of their CSR, runs an
initiative, “I care for eye care”, where they support
Dr.Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital's endeavours to
eradicate preventable childhood blindness from India.
• They also talk of making the difference in the
communities where they operate and talk of their
sensitivity towards environment for being sustainable

20. Entrepreneurship Developement
• Coca Cola India runs “5by20 - Women
Economic Empowerment” initiative.

21. Critical Analysis
• Given the food companies’ expertise in food production and
marketing, would it be a good idea for them to undertake other
social causes?
• Domino’s Pizza restaurants across 170 Indian cities (as of October
30, 2014), as part of their CSR runs initiatives such as National Road
Safety Awareness Program and National Poster Competition on
Road Safety
• The company’s motivation for taking up the issue of road safety
seems to be coming from the negative publicity faced by the
business policies of its brands (Domino’s) such as “30 minutes
delivery”, which leads not only its employees (drivers) but also the
general public at road to greater risk of road accidents which could
be fatal

22. Coca Cola Solar coolers
• Coca Cola India claims to distribute solar powered
refrigeration unit (solar coolers) free of cost to women
retailers as a tool to empower them.
• The increased sales of company’s soft drinks should
lead to enhanced earnings and hence empower them
financially.
• This seems to be a sales strategy for the company to
penetrate into the Indian rural markets rather than an
effective plan for empowering the rural women folk.

23. Educating ‘elite’ as CSR
• Some companies reports to be adopting the cause of
education as part of their CSR practice.
• We do not see any links of their initiatives benefitting
the disadvantaged sections of the society.
• For example, Café coffee day reports to be operating
Amber Valley Residential School which seems to be
catering to the elite section of the society
• A school for the illiterate or poor section of the society
would have made few more poor students to be able
to read and write

24. Conclusion and Suggestion
• These CSR initiatives lead us to believe that the CSR activities of the
companies are motivated by their business needs rather than the
needs of the stakeholders for which they are actually targeted
• Since these companies have expertise in food management with
access to relevant resources, it is expected from them to effectively
address the issues of hunger and malnutrition.
• We therefore propose the idea of building a consortium of companies
of food sector in India to take issues of social relevance with sincere
and serious intent. Each company can through that consortium
contribute its own expertise through product, people or place as
required.

25. Thank you