Designing Globalisation: Strengthening Social Standards/CSR in India

Research Question:
Since 1991 India has been extremely successful in achieving a yearly growth rate of four to eight percent as part of its reform policies in the market economy. Since then India sees itself as heading towards a “social market economy with a human face”. Strengthening the social standards/CSR is a main strategy instrument in order to continue with this successful concept. At the same time, it provides a possibility to contribute to reducing poverty and staying competitive on the international markets. These activities can be counteractive by trying to introduce environmental and social standards i.e. trade barriers without using tariffs. On the other hand, it can cause a world-wide race “to the bottom” by preventing to achieve these standards. Setting this objective the country working group complies with the general focus of Indo-German development cooperation in perusing globalisation.
The country working group focuses on identifying the potential of expanding activities and measures introducing and implementing social standards /CSR.
Based on the survey conducted on implementing social standards/CSR (especially main work norms) in India, the working group findings should help maintain the status quo and improve the possibilities for relevant actors, i.e. public actors, companies from India, business associations, foreign investors (FDI), including suppliers as well as NGOs. In this context, the effects of different instruments are evaluated, such as the support of social standards/CSR, global compact, the OECD guidelines for multinational companies as well as the code of conduct for trade agreements of the Foreign Trade Association of the German Retail Trade/Außenhandelsvereinigung des Deutschen Einzelhandels e.V. (AVE).

Research recommendations based on this study are formulated for the players involved and for German development cooperation.

Miscellaneous:
The present project was carried out by a research team of the German Development Institute (DIE) within the framework of the DIE’s 2005/2006 postgraduate training course.

Relevant publications:
Chahoud, Tatjana (2006): Shaping Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India: does the global compact matter?, Externe Publikationen