Corporate Do-Gooders
Doing Good - and Well - in India
Like you, I am skeptical of many claims by multinational companies that they do wonderful things for poor people or the planet. So much of what I see in the media, particularly image ads on television, is so clearly self-serving that I discount it immediately. But we should give credit where it is due. And it is due in numerous cases.
The U.S. India Business Council published a booklet last fall, which I just got around to reading, about development programs instituted by American companies in rural India. The report, Unlocking India’s Rural Sector, is striking, both for the progress made by these companies and because this is in the country that has never forgiven Union Carbide for the Bhopal disaster. Case studies are presented showing the business and development activities of companies such as Coca Cola, Walmart, Cargill, John Deere, Mars, Monsanto and Pepsi – many of these firms we like to complain about. Read about Walmart’s training center for farmers and entrepreneurs that prepares them to supply Walmart and other retailers in India with high quality produce. Cargill has come up with specially fortified brands of edible oils that deliver vitamins to more than 25 million people through the company’s “Nourishing India” program.
Coca Cola and PepsiCo both depend on good supplies of clean water for their business, and the are applying their water resource knowledge to help solve drinking water problems in rural villages. Mars is working with Pepsi to help women’s groups in Tamil Nadu get into the business of harvesting seaweeds for industrial use. Monsanto is running a childcare program that has reduced child labor in cotton seed production fields from 20% to less than 1%. Paramount Farms has introduced their California pistachios to Indian farmers together with an innovative food safety and health program. These just scratch the surface. These U.S. companies and others are helping bring prosperity to India’s farmers. The report hasn’t received wide distribution, so I don’t think this is just more industrial propaganda. They are doing well by doing good.
