Sustainability Reporting in India – A Study of Infosys Sustainability Reports

Sustainability reporting is becoming more prevalent, driven by a growing recognition that sustainability-related issues can materially affect a company’s performance. In India, with the Companies Act 2013 making CSR mandatory in specified areas, more and more companies are undertaking sustainability and CSR initiatives. However, accounting and reporting of these activities are still at a nascent stage, with nearly 40 companies disclosing their sustainability performance. One such Indian company to report on CSR operations is Infosys. Infosys Ltd has proved to be the first IT firm in the globe to publish a sustainability report under the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) G4 framework. This case study aims to explore the reporting methods followed by Infosys and to comprehend the effect it has on the synergy and development of the business. It studies the sustainability report of Infosys for 10 years and tries to understand the reporting policies and practices. Infosys has been one of the pioneers in sustainable development and reporting the same. Sustainability reports help not only to showcase the CSR activities but also serve as an effective medium for reaching nations sustainability goals.

A Postcolonial Dilemma Tale from the Harbour of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands

The port of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas has long been a vibrant centre for ship trafficking in the Caribbean, as it was during Danish colonial rule starting in 1672. In 1917, Denmark officially sold and left what became the US Virgin Islands. Not everybody left, though. The Danish-owned West Indian Company, which owned the majority of the St. Thomas port and its attendant facilities, stayed until 1993. At that point the harbour was sold to the Virgin Islanders, who for some time had complained about the fact that a Danish company still profited from the islands. The harbour of Charlotte Amalie, which is my central analytical unit here, thus provides a lens through which to approach Danish colonial imprints.The harbour is and has been characterised by activities of a temporary and opportunistic kind: industries blossom, people and crops from far away get uprooted and replanted in the Caribbean, businesses provide work for locals, goods are shipped out to be consumed in other places. The transitory nature of projects designed by people elsewhere, I argue, is part of what colonialism is. As I will show, the traces of such projects appear not only as particular ecologies but also as dilemmas to be grappled with long after the foreign decision-makers have left. My approach to colonial legacies on the Virgin Islands, then, mobilises the shifting flows of people, commodities, and interests shipped in and out of Charlotte Amalie to leave behind altered landscapes that are continuously debated.

Imperial Culture and Hunting in Colonial India

This chapter offers a brief account of the institution of the hunt, or shikar, and its significance as an allegory of rule in pre-colonial and colonial India, by illustrating the transition of hunting from the Mughals to the East Indian Company period. Further, this study moves away from the purely recreational focus on hunting, and places it within the world of everyday colonial administration and rule. It firmly establishes the link between shikar and governance, particularly how the British positioned and employed big-game hunting and conservation at various levels, and in different situations, aimed at the establishment and stabilization of colonial rule, and in ordering and redrawing Indian marginal territories. Another key aspect is how shikar served as an essential platform, where power and rule operated in a recreational situation. Here, the chapter illustrates the way the hunting field aided and enabled the British to formulate their political and imperial agendas in an expedient way. The sporting lives of the Company administrators like John Malcolm and James Outram are studied in detail to demonstrate the nature of high imperial decades and British military credence in the Indian hunting field.