Prof. N.B.Dey delivers 6th Prof G.D.Roy memorial lecture at EIILM, Kolkata

Guwahati 17: The prestigious 6th Prof. G.D.Roy memorial lecture, 2019 was delivered by Prof. Nikhil Bhusan Dey, former Professor Emeritus, Department of Commerce, Assam University, Silchar. The lecture was organised by Indian Accounting Association Research Foundation, Kolkata in collaboration with Eastern Institute of Integrated Learning and Management (EIILM) in Kolkata.

Prof. Nikhil Bhusan Dey delivered the lecture on the topic: “Social Responsibility Reporting -Indian Perspective”. The lecture session was presided over by Prof. Bhabotosh Banerjee, President of Indian Accounting Association Research Foundation, Kolkata and was well attended by teachers from different universities and colleges as well as by research scholars of different universities in commerce and management areas.

Also present on the occasion were Prof. R.P. Banerjee, Director EIILM, Prof. Dhruba Ranjan Dhandapat, Dean of Commerce, Calcutta University, Prof. Asis Sana, Head, Department of Commerce Calcutta University, Prof. Debasis Sur, Head Department of Commerce, Burdwan University, Prof Amalendu Bhunia of Kalyani University, Prof K.C. Paul of Vidyasagar University, Dr. Tapas Saha, Director IMS Business School among others.

Prof. Nikhil Bhusan Dey based his arguments on the proposition that business and society are mutually dependent as the society creates business and the business caters to the needs of the society. As a part of the society, it is the responsibility of the business to satisfy the various requirements of the society in aggregate. Prof. Dey drew heavily from the ancient Indian wisdom of the seers. It was then that he asserted boldly that, “Yesterday, shareholders came first and today, customers come first.”

He then highlighted certain lacunae within the periphery of the existing business literature and said, “Despite close bonding of business with society, social objectives of business organisations are not appropriately highlighted in our academic literature so far. In a lucid manner Prof. Dey brought forth a germane discourse wherein he lamented that importance is heaped on profit objective thereby completely disregarding social objective. This he said, “has nurtured a mindset of conflicts on the issue of social objective and profit objective.”

Prof. Nikhil Bhusan Dey highlighted the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India. He assertively said that in India, CSR is not a new concept but rather dates back to 5000 years or even more than that. Interestingly, Prof. Dey attempted to trace the origin of the CSR in Indian context to the Vedic literature, Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Kautilya’s Arthasastra. However, he was quick to travel back to the present day scenario wherein he said that the CSR activities in modern India has traveled a lot from charity to compulsion.

Finally, Prof. Dey expressed the view that in recent years business ethics and CSR is being practised by the companies in the context of National Voluntary Guidelines.and other measures adopted by SEBI and Government of India. Though he acknowledged that companies will take a long time to participate for the social cause, but at the same time Prof. Dey also made an optimistic assertion, wherein he stated, “It is expected that CSR spending will positively influence in solving social problems which will ultimately address the Triple Bottom Line issues.It will also help in sustainable development of business.”