UKIBC launches socio-economic impact campaign

THE UK India Business Council (UKIBC) has launched a campaign to highlight the importance of the socio-economic impact that the UK businesses make in India.

This campaign is being delivered in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and will map the activities of businesses and universities against the UN’s sustainable development goals.

Key findings and observations from the campaign will be compiled into a report to be released in late 2020 to coincide with the UN climate change summit in Glasgow.

The UNDP-UKIBC partnership will facilitate mapping of the UK businesses' socio-economic impact against the 17 sustainable development goals, which are aimed at eliminating poverty and ensuring prosperity, ranging from environmental sustainability to advancing education.

Richard Heald, Group Chief Executive, UKIBC, said: “The UK businesses and universities want to succeed in India, and their definition of success includes helping India achieve its socio-economic objectives. This is an exciting time to launch this campaign.

“Across the world, there is a growing acceptance of sustainable development as an over-arching policy goal, which has stimulated interest in assessing the impact of businesses.

“These issues are no longer just the government’s responsibility, or purely philanthropic efforts. So, any global business looking for an effective path for growth should bring social impact into the core of its strategy and operations…”.

Shoko Noda, UNDP Resident Representative in India, said: “Given its rising world power status and prominent role in the formulation of sustainable development goals (SDGs), India arguably has a special duty to bring these goals to fruition. It is encouraging that Prime Minister Modi has affirmed India’s strong commitment to the SDGs”.

“Shepherding the achievements of the SDGs is an enormous task that requires the involvement of every sector and each level of society. The experiences of many countries clearly illustrate India needs to build a socio-economic infrastructure to drive this inclusive growth.”