Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee
Former Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Government of India
Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee is widely acclaimed as the Father of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India. He was instrumental in framing and issuing the CSR guidelines for Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in April, 2010. Thereafter, he played a major role in the inclusion of Section 135 in the Companies Act of 2013 and in the framing of the rules thereafter.
As the Director General & CEO of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), he spearheaded the National Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility (NFCSR).
He is responsible for creating Schedule VII under Section 135, wherein a specific provision has been made for the welfare of the armed forces. He regularly takes sessions at the IICA for the program with the Directorate General Resettlement (DGR) on Independent Directors’ Certification. The program is attended by senior defence officers who are enthusiastic to learn the basics of corporate and board governance as well as CSR and Sustainability for upskilling themselves to be ready for serving on corporate boards.
Dr. Chatterjee has spoken and lectured on the subject of CSR and Sustainability at a very large number of National and International forums over the last decade.
Dr. Chatterjee is closely associated with the Sustainable Development Goals and the entire national effort for carrying forward the implementation process. He coordinates closely with the United Nations Global Compact and the Niti Aayog.
Dr. Chatterjee is a highly respected management practitioner, theorist and teacher. He has written and lectured over many years on issues of social and sustainable development, corporate responsibility and human resources.
As member of the United Nations Global Compact Governing Council, he has been associated with all the major national and international initiatives on sustainability, SDGs and ESG.
As CEO of the Anil Agarwal Foundation of the Vedanta Group, he was associated with the Company’s initiatives for reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050, environmental stewardship, introducing innovations for evolving greener business models and taking steps to achieving net water positivity by 2030.
In this role, he was also coordinating and overseeing the entire gamut of CSR activities carried out by the Vedanta Group across 16 Business Units. He supervised the four National Priority Programs in the sectors of education and nutrition for women and children, rural health, animal welfare and women’s empowerment.
A former civil servant, he served for forty one years in the government. He held many distinguished positions in the State and Central Governments.
He currently, Chairs the National Committee for Formulating the Indian National Standards for ESG. This Committee has been set up by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Govt. of India.