GS Paper 4
Syllabus: Corporate Ethics
Source: Live Mint
Context: Our software employers have always been more gender inclusive than the rest of Corporate India, but market challenges this year have made their recruitment more inclusive & forced a bold re-imagination of their people supply chains in five ways.
- Mahatma Gandhi often talked about Antyodaya (the rise of the last person in the line) and Sarvodaya (the rise of all).
‘It is wrong to think that business is incompatible with ethics. I know that it is perfectly possible to carry on one’s business profitably, and yet honestly and truthfully.’ – Mahatma Gandhi
About Corporate Governance:
- Corporate governance is a set of accepted principles by the management of the inalienable rights of the shareholders as the actual owner of the corporation and of their own role as trustees on behalf of the shareholders.
- Gandhian economics stands for a commitment to values, ethical leadership conduct, and transparency and makes a distinction between personal and corporate funds in the management of a company.
The primary case for people’s supply chain diversity is always economic and social justice.
Five areas of diversity:
Geographic diversity:
- The map of our engineering education capacity reveals three concentric circles of 28 cities (3,500 engineering colleges with 33% of capacity), 500 cities (with 2,334 such colleges with 35% of capacity), and the rest spread across India.
- Less than 20% of incremental annual hires in India’s digital industry work in the place where they lived their lives.
- Software employment is expanding beyond its current eight cities to 20 new places.
Gender diversity:
- The Indian software industry is better than others at employing women, who make up 34% of its employees and 25% of its managers.
- Women are now about 50% of software entry-level recruitment. Given that women are clearly not 50% of engineering students, this flow difference indicates that the flexibility, safety, and work environment of the country’s software industry is a winning combination.
Cognitive diversity:
- Only 5% of the Indian software industry is staffed with non-engineers, but our research suggests that 15% of incremental hires are non-engineering graduates.
- The industry is now hiring to acquire skills in management, design, languages, sociology, anthropology, psychology, etc.
- This has been heralded by factors like the advent of ‘low-code/no-code’ platforms.
In the Imitation Game (a 2014 film), Alan Turing’s character says, “Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.”
Workplace diversity:
- Pre-covid, only 5% of software employees did not do their daily work from a company office or client site.
- However, research suggests the rise of remote working means this will rise to 20% in the next decade.
Contract diversity:
- Software employers are moving to multiple concentric circles of employment contracts: full-time, permanent, part-time, consultant, gig, direct fixed term contract, third-party contract,
- Contract diversity varies between six software employers: global service companies, Indian service companies, global captives, domestic market unicorns, Indian software as service companies, and Indian non-tech companies.
- Contract diversity creates better matches between employers and potential employees, besides raising longevity, memory, and productivity.
Great books, like The TCS Story by S. Ramadorai, Maverick Effect by Harish Mehta and Engineered in India by B.V.R. Mohan Reddy highlight how supply chain innovations helped India’s software exports become five times higher than our textile exports.
Conclusion:
As India’s software industry prepares to hire more people in the next 10 years than in the last 50, it has begun an incredible journey of Antyodaya in self-interest that will make its competitive advantage even stronger.
Jana Sangh co-founder Deen Dayal Upadhyay suggested, “The measurement of economic plans and economic growth cannot happen with those who have risen above on the economic ladder but of those who are at the bottom.”
Insta Curious:
DEI Governance (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Governance): It refers to the practices and policies that companies put in place to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organization. It ensures that the company’s decision-making and operations are inclusive and reflect the diversity of the stakeholders. It also helps to ensure that all employees and stakeholders are treated fairly and with respect regardless of their background.
The goal of DEI governance is to create a culture where everyone feels valued and respected, where different perspectives and ideas are welcomed, and where all employees have an equal opportunity to succeed. This can include measures such as setting diversity targets for hiring and promotions and implementing anti-discrimination policies.
Insta Links:
ICICI Videocon fraud – An issue of Corporate Ethics
Mains Link:
Q. What are the diverse ethical challenges confronting corporates today? How focus on corporate ethics and corporate governance can help in addressing these challenges? Elucidate. (250 words)
