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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

In the name of advancement

Aritra Bhattacharya
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Aritra Bhattacharya
Though the term 'corporate social responsibility' eludes a strict definition, with different organizations looking at it in different ways, common ground between them suggests that it is "the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development…while improving the quality of life of the local community and society at large."

-According to Lord Holme and Richard Watts of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development



When pests infest crops in the revered land of Rani Laxmibai, farmers canter to the community computer center in their village. The operator plays messiah; he goes to the fields, photographs the plants, uploads them on the internet, seeks advice from agricultural experts, and hands the solution back to the peeved peasants. All of this is powered by Microsoft. The company, under its Project Jyoti initiative, has provided the partner NGO-Development Alternatives in this case-with software and the grants for setting up the center.

Elsewhere in Hyderabad, employees at the company's India Development Center are upbeat about the upcoming Community Week. It's an opportunity to see immediate results; while the software they write takes months to mature, their efforts in teaching underprivileged kids how to use computers brings forth instantaneous and effusive smiles, and therein a sense of fulfillment on the employees' part.

Both are novel examples of a corporate body (in the first case), and its employees (in the second) fulfilling their responsibility towards the society. Except that despite being sheltered under the Microsoft umbrella, both operate blissfully oblivious of each other.

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