Ladies and gentlemen, with this may I please now invite Dr Garan Dangel, Vice Chairman, SKOCH Group, to kindly address the gathering. Ladies and gentlemen, with over 25 years of working in the field of public policy, Dr Dangel is a doctorate in political science from the University of Delhi. He is a prolific writer, has written numerous columns in national dailies like Times of India, Hindustan Times, Financial Express, etc., and authored a number of widely acclaimed books and papers. Some of them are even cataloged in the Library of Congress. May I please now request Dr Gish Andel, Vice Chairman, SKOCH, to kindly be on the stage. Thank you, sir.

Artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence, human interaction, artificial intelligence, example-based learning, artificial intelligence—example ESG or SDG, health SDG or ESG included, ESG included or SDG included, quality of life, human dignity. So it brought dignity to the woman of the house, the lady of the house.

Option: global indices or performance, which is what—harmonizing CDR, which is Corporate Digital Responsibility, SDGs, ESG, CSR, human rights, and AI.

CSR mandated, Hindustan. ESG BRSR reporting mandated for top thousand corporates by market cap listed on the market exchanges of the country. CSR goals in one form or another map very well on ESG. Top 10 corporates—Walmart, Apple, so on and so forth.

ESG reporting—SDG. Why are we lagging far behind as a country? Sustainable Development Goals, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Social and Governance, human rights, artificial intelligence—this is a long list.

Definition: how do we define Corporate Digital Responsibility? Focus areas are data protection, transparency, responsible AI, digital literacy, and ensuring equitable access to digital resources.

In all these areas, if you ask this question to yourself—are we lagging behind? The answer is no. We have made a huge amount of progress amongst all these areas, yet there is nothing that exists elsewhere in the world. So the opportunity lies with us as a nation to create an index which is to be followed by the rest of the world.

SDGs talk about no poverty, zero hunger, good health, well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water, sanitation, affordable clean energy, and so on and so forth. In ESG, we talk about environmental protection, social impact, governance structures including transparency, ethical practices, and compliance. There’s no question mark on this.

CSR involves companies taking responsibility for their impact on society and their environment beyond their financial and operational obligations—philanthropy, ethical labor practices, volunteerism, environmental sustainability, and community development.

Tell me, out of these focus areas, have we as corporates, as a nation, not been involved in these practices, in following these practices since time immemorial? Philanthropy has been a part of our culture. Tatas have been there, all the large corporates have been there forever. You know, hospitals used to be made by wealthy people to provide health care to those who could not afford it. Wasn’t that philanthropy?

So this has been ingrained into the Indian culture. They are only telling us now that this is Corporate Social Responsibility, while they don’t do it and we are mandated.

Equality, non-discrimination, freedom of expression, right to education, right to privacy, and fair working conditions is about human rights, which is freedom that every person is entitled to, such as the right to life, liberty, equality, and security. It provides dignity.

AI terms—machine learning, data analytics, modeling, LLMs—these have already become an integral part of life. All Apple phone users use Siri day in and day out, command.

So we say there is a need to look at these in an integrated manner. Our study suggests that when we implement ethical and transparent digital practices, these map very well over CDR, ESG, and CSR. When we talk of sustainability in operations, SDG, ESG, and CSR come into the picture. Inclusive environment, respect to human rights is part of human rights, CSR, ESG, and SDGs. Promoting well-being both digitally and physically is about digital wellness.

Digital wellness has become very important today in the digital world because we are bombarded by digital technologies which take away our good sleep even during the night. SDGs and CSR being part of that, and ensuring robust data protection and security measures, which is again Corporate Digital Responsibility, human rights, and SDG.

So while these are different areas, and if you do not look at them in an integrated manner—which is what has been the practice so far, that these have been looked at in silos—and it’s been widely believed that they don’t overlap with each other, they don’t talk to each other, while the reality is that when you look at the metrics then you say that, oh, this CDR really applies in human rights. But how come? Let’s see how that happens.

So we have mapped the common areas across all these areas. Talking about security—we have mapped 12 different indicators of Corporate Digital Responsibility. Security being one: SDG 16 applies on that, which is peace, justice, and strong institutions. CSR—disaster management and relief. Environmental—which is about compliance. Data privacy and security. Governance, which includes risks. And human rights—rights of victims, human rights in social media, and the trustworthiness which comes from AI become part of security.

That means the first principle which is what we are propagating—security under CDR—all of them mapped pretty well.

Grievance redressal—SDG 16, CSR again, environmental, social, governance, human rights, and AI, which is transparency, become part of that.

On governance practices again—SDG 16, CSR, environmental—all of these areas in small and different forms map very well. So that means to say that Corporate Digital Responsibility, which is what was talked about in the morning, becomes an overarching framework. It becomes a superset of all indicators under which lie everything.

Economic digital responsibility, which is SDG 8, CSR principles of eradicating hunger, poverty, malnutrition, contribution to incubators, R&D. Environmental—green energy, so on and so forth. Social—financial inclusion. Governance—financial or economic risk. Human rights—right to employment and skill development. AI—skilling for the AI age, economic growth.

I gave you one very small example of human resource—SDG principle 8, CSR principles of gender equality. Environmental—which is climate. Social—diversity, employee well-being. Governance—stakeholder engagement. Human rights—labor rights, rights to health and mental health. AI—principle and planet and mental health. So all become assimilated in human resource of CDR.

On social digital responsibility—SDG 1 and SDG 5, CSR promoting gender equality, slum development, rural development. Environmental conservation. Product services and impacts. Social inclusion, digital inclusion, poverty alleviation.

If you look at all these areas, it’ll be very difficult to find or very difficult to say that we have not been doing this ever since we got into our working life. We have always, in one way or another, either associated with that or have contributed to it.

Now sustainable digital responsibility—cities and communities, responsible consumption, production, and climate action. Three principles of SDG sit very well on that. CSR—environmental, green energy. Social—which is responsible supply chains. Governance—which is compliance, risk. Human rights—climate change and human rights, people and planet. Risk management, once again from AI.

So ethical digital practices—this enhances justice, institutional strength, and environmental governance, human rights, transparency, and trustworthy AI. You can see all these principles very well included in this.

Nothing can be done without having to talk about or bring in technology. So SDG 9 and SDG 17, CSR—environmental, social. So this drives innovation, infrastructure, propels global partnerships, spurs digital inclusion, enhances product responsibility, and ensures employment rights and AI-related skills.

So our conclusion on risk management is that this supports stronger institutions, resilient communities, environmental compliance, data security, refugee rights, and trustworthy AI.

Languages—most important. Now when we talk about the content that is available in India, it is not more than two or three languages—of course Hindi, English, and probably one regional language. But that again we need to widespread proliferate and take it to a larger audience because in case you have to provide protection to your culture, the language has to be protected and language has to be promoted. And this reduces inequalities and promotes quality education—both the principles under SDG.

CSR again says promoting education, slum development, rural development, environmental, social, and so forth. So this is all about inclusivity.

Government is already working on a project, Bhashini, which is going to be providing language solutions to all the government functioning vis-à-vis citizen services delivery.

Mental health—SDG 3 says good health and well-being, and SDG 8 says decent work and economic growth. So this contributes to overall health, well-being, productive work environments, climate resilience, and health rights and mental health. Of course there’s an element of AI included in this, but AI, as I said, is not to be allowed to regulate and run our lives. It is to be used to enhance our living and protecting our digital rights.

So what is the summary of our intersections? We say that when we talk about grievance redressal, security, and ethical practices, these align very well with SDG 16 along with CSR’s focus. Economic digital responsibility and human resource practices support SDG 8 and CSR’s goals in education, poverty eradication, and AI-related skills.

Social digital responsibility and multilingual initiatives intersect with SDGs 4, 5, and 10 and so on with the CSR goals. Sustainable digital responsibility overlaps with SDGs 11, 12, and 13 and emphasizes on environmental sustainability and responsible consumption along with climate change.

In technology and risk management, we can see very clearly that SDGs 9 and 17 are covered, and CSR’s contributions in R&D, universities, disaster relief, and so on and so forth. Mental health initiatives align very well with SDGs 3 and 8. It supports health, well-being, and productive work environments.

So our principles of Corporate Digital Responsibility—when we do a percentage overlap, which Mr Kocher also talked about in the morning—58% beginning with SDG, CSR, environmental, social and governance, and human rights sits very well. Artificial intelligence—33%.

So having gone through this, very little doubt left that in case we focus on the CDR indicators, which is Corporate Digital Responsibility, that cuts across all these areas. It improves performance across each and every index that we have.

Based on this, we have already released our India Involved Index, which measures commitment to developed India. It includes corporate excellence, environmental excellence, social excellence, governance excellence, and digital transformation. The report is on your table. It is the first output result of our analysis of Corporate Digital Responsibility as to how it cuts across all these areas and how it can improve the existing indices and helps India create those indices which can become the global benchmarks.

We have included now Corporate Digital Responsibility to it, so instead of around 300 indicators, now moving forward we are going to be having 500-plus indicators which are going to be measured accordingly.

This brings me to the end, and thank you very much for your patient hearing.

Participants at the Indices for Viksit Bharat