9th International Conference on
Governance, Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship - A Business Case

Jointly Organized by
Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC)
&
Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability (ACCGS)

Hotel Taj Mahal, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai, India Thursday, November 20, 2008

Keynote Speaker : Mr. Ernst Ligteringen
Chief Executive, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Amsterdam, will be delivering the keynote address.
Keynote Speaker : Ms Nancy Zucker Boswell
Managing Director Transparency International - USA

Introduction : Companies who conduct their business in an ethical, transparent & socially responsible manner do better than their peers because they are rewarded by almost all stakeholders viz ;

Customers reward them with loyalty through repeated buying of their product & services.

They can raise capital at a lower cost.

Employees give their best productivity for such companies.

Investors are willing to pay premium for the companies which are governed with higher accountability & transparency.

Suppliers feel a sense of pride to be associated with such companies.

Banks & Financial Institutions are willing to offer Prime Lending rate to such companies.

Thus, it makes a strong business case for companies to become Good Corporate Citizen and ensure of it’s people in particular and Society at large. This is no longer philanthropy but a business imperative. Conducting the business in a manner that minimizes environmental footprints (degradation) and ensures long term sustainable development of communities & Society is finding prominent place amongst board discussions.

Today’s lobbyists, activist groups, shareholders, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders are too sophisticated to let businesses get away with deliberate lack of clarity around these key issues. The impact of the negative publicity that can arise when stories of wrong-doing hit the media, has prompted corporates to change their behavior.

Many companies have good initiatives that they do not communicate fully to the outside world. Companies must consider what is meant by corporate citizenship and seek to ensure that the widest possible audience gets to hear of their works.

It is important that companies appreciate that corporate citizenship is about more than a few ‘green’, sustainable initiatives ? external parties will likely want to scrutinize them over an ever growing range of issues.

Asian Centre believes that there is strong correlation between Corporate Governance & Public Governance. These are like two faces of the same coin and are so inextricably intertwined, that it is difficult to improve one without the other. Thus, Corporate Leaders, Political Leaders & Government Officers will discuss the Governance issues jointly.

World Bank - International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Global Corporate Governance Forum believe that Better Companies will lead to Better Societies. Sustainable cities is yet another concept gaining momentum because more than half of the world’s population is living in urban areas as per UN State of World Population 2007. Thus, cities have to play crucial role towards sustainable development of society. Other factors such as climate change, food and oil shortages and an economic-slump are proving to be a worrying combination of events affecting urban areas, hence GRI believes that cities are going to have to become increasingly innovative to deal with these problems.

All these concepts are converging internationally, towards long term ‘SUSTAINABILITY’ of humankind in a Green & Clean Environment through Good Governance. Multi lateral & Multi-stakeholder Institutions like Global Compact & GRI are promoting these concepts world wide. This is what ESG is all about.

Thus, in order to discuss and debate these issues with Indian, Asian and International perspectives, Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability (ACCGS) & Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC) are jointly organizing 9th International Conference on ‘Governance, Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship - A Business Case ’ The conference will focus on synthesizing Local, Regional & International best practices on ESG issues and come up with a declaration proposed to be called ‘Mumbai Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship Protocol’. ACCGS & IMC will closely work with Corporate Boards, State Government & Civil Society to encourage collaborative efforts towards co-creation of a common agenda and pursue this ‘Sustainability Protocol’ relentlessly.


   Other speakers :

Mr. M.N.Chaini
President, IMC 		Mr. M.K.Chouhan
Vice Chairman - Global Advisory Board, ACCGS		 Mr. Gul Kriplani
CEO, Pijikay Exports & Vice President, IMC		 Ms. Chanda Kochhar
Dy Managing Director, ICICI Bank

Mr. Nasser Munjee
Director, HDFC Limited		 Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti
Executive Chairman, BDO Haribhakti Consulting (P) Ltd 		Mr. Humayun Dhanrajgir
Member-Global Advisory Board, ACCGS		 Mr. Gaurav Mehndiratta
Partner KPMG, New Delhi

 
Mr.S.M. Trehan
Managing Director, Crompton Greaves Ltd.		 Mr. Sammy Medora
Chairman- Audit Committee Institute, KPMG Mumbai		 Mr. Piyush Goyal
Chairman, Flashnet Info Solutions		  


   Programme Schedule:

9.00 - 9.30 am Registration

  • Inaugural session (9.30 – 10.45 am)

    Mr. M.N.Chaini - President, Indian Merchants Chamber, Welcome speech
    Mr. M.K.Chouhan - Vice Chairman, Global Advisory Board, ACCGS, Conference Overview
    Mr. Ernst Ligteringen - Chief Executive, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Key note address
    Theme: Board leadership & Role in ESG Strategy
    Vote of thanks - Mr. Gul Kriplani, CEO, Pijikay Exports & Vice President, IMC


Tea Break (10.45 – 11.15 am)

  • Business Session – 1 (11.15 – 12.15 pm)

    Topic: Sustainability a common agenda for Companies & Cities
    Speaker: Mr. Nasser Munjee – Director, HDFC Limited
    Topic: Tackling Global warming – opportunity for Indian Companies for a Sustainable future
    Speaker: Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti – Executive Chairman, BDO Haribhakti Consulting (P) Ltd
    Session Chair: Mr. Humayun Dhanrajgir – Former Vice Chairman & MD, Glaxo & Member, Global Advisory Board, ACCGS

  • Business Session – 2 (12.15 – 1.15 pm)

    Topic: Carbon Credits – Concept and International practice
    Speaker: Mr. Gaurav Mehndiratta – Partner KPMG, New Delhi
    Topic: G-3 Framework by GRI for reporting Sustainability
    Speaker: Mr. M.K.Chouhan - Vice Chairman, Global Advisory Board, ACCGS
    Session Chair: Mr.S.M. Trehan - Managing Director, Crompton Greaves Ltd.


Lunch Break (1.15 – 2.15 pm)

  • Business Session – 3 (2.15 – 3.15 pm)

    Topic : Auditing - How to use both social and environmental audits to achieving positive long term Sustainability of a company.
    Speaker: Mr. Sammy Medora - Chairman, Audit Committee Institute, KPMG Mumbai
    Session Chair: Mr. Piyush Goyal – Chairman, Flashnet Info Solutions


Tea Break (3.15 – 3.30 pm)

  • Business Session – 4 (3.30 – 4.30 pm)

    Topic: Corporate Citizenship – A Business Case
    Speaker: Ms. Chanda Kochhar – Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank

  • Corporate Governance & Sustainability Award Function & Valedictory session (4.30 – 5.30 pm)

    Chief Guest: Mr. Ernst Ligteringen - Chief Executive, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Amsterdam

    Ms. Chanda Kochhar, Chairperson Awards Committee & Deputy MD, ICICI Bank
    Mr. M.N.Chaini - President, Indian Merchants Chamber
    Mr. M.K.Chouhan - Vice Chairman, Global Advisory Board, ACCGS
    Mr. Sammy Medora - Chairman, Audit Committee Institute, KPMG Mumbai,

    Valedictory speech Topic : Corruption is cancer, ways of containing it.
    Speaker : Ms. Nancy Boswell – Managing Director, Transparency International, USA



Corporate Governance & Sustainability Awards-2008 : This year the Awards will be given on 20th Nov. at the 9th International Conference at Hotel Taj Mahal, Mumbai. Awards committee for 2008 is being is chaired by Ms Chanda Kochhar – Joint MD, ICICI Bank, other jury members comprise of several eminent people from Indian corporate world. The Global Advisory Board of Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability instituted Corporate Governance & Sustainability Awards in 2006.

In 2007, Mr. O P Bhatt, Chairman, State Bank of India received Transformational Leader Award 2007 at the hands of Mr. Andre Baladi.

Mr Niraj Bajaj (Far left) President IMC and Mr M.K.Chouhan (Far right) Chairman - Mahendra & Young Knowledge Foundation, are also seen in the picture.

   The awards will be given for the following categories :

  • Best Governed Company

  • Best Audit Committee

  • Best Non Executive Director

  • Best Woman Director

  • Transformational Leader Award

  • The Company with Best CSR & Sustainability

Who should attend :
The conference will be focused for senior & top management as well as board members. Directors, CEOs, CFOs and CXOs, in addition the professionals involved in managing Governance and Sustainabiltiy within the company will find the conference extremely useful.

Registration fee :
Rs 2250/- for IMC members and members of supporting Institutions.
Rs 1250/- for Academicians (Fulltime Professors of B-Schools).
Rs 2500/- for non members.

About the Organizers :
Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC) is a premier Chamber of Trade Commerce & Industry in India. Established on September 7, 1907, IMC has completed its Centenary last year and has the rare distinction of being the only chamber having Mahatma Gandhi as its Honorary Member.

Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability (ACCGS) is a not for profit institution set up in 2001 with a mission to improve Corporate Governance practices & processes of Asian companies for managing interests of Shareholders and Stakeholders in a balanced manner.

For More details log on to www.imcnet.org | www.asiancentre.org Please contact Mrs.Kiran Nanda/Mr.Varun Miglani, Tel No. 2204 6633 Extn. 142/151. Email : kironnanda@gmail.com/varun@imcnet.org

P. N. Mogre
Secretary-General, IMC

Since this conference will be a Green Conference on "Governance, Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship", we are not printing brochures. Please consider this HTML version as the hard copy.