Individual Social Responsibility™(ISR™) is a term coined by Apeejay People and it describes the process by which we have extended the vision and mission of our Corporate Social Responsibility to all individuals in our workforce since 2007-08. In 2010, the ISR™ programme focused on building capacity in our own employees, helping them realise that indeed, each one of them could "be the change they wanted to see." The programme provided them with opportunities to extend themselves beyond their own personal goals, commitments and pressures and helped them align with the larger social realities that exist outside their individual spheres. We have witnessed many positive outcomes of the Individual Social Responsibility™ initiative. Many different employees, in many different ways, took Individual Social Responsibility™ to new levels and did us proud. To mention just a few examples.

Anindita Mukhopadhyay and Piyali Mallick used their technical programming skills to create on our Group IT platform, an online space for the South Asia Women´s Fund (SAWF) and helped this non-profit organisations´s fight for Women´s Rights in South Asia get better visibility.

Ankur Chaturvedi joined the Kolkata city team of Tata Tea's wonderful Jaago Re campaign, creating awareness amongst Kolkatans to register for their Voter IDs and exercise their franchise. Anirban Dutta helped the Cancer Foundation of India by creating all their program collaterals.

In Delhi, an employee helped in fundraising for CSA, an NGO working for the cause of adoption, while another one of his colleagues created a support group for funding the education of children of families struck by unforeseen tragedies. From new hires to senior management, all employees took to ISR™ in a big way and Renu Kakkar, won the Ribbon of Honour from the Janaagraha in Bangalore for assisting in their ´Citizenship Awareness Programme´. Those mentioned above, along with scores of others, from all across the divisions and cities, have volunteered their time and effort to bring about a change they would want to see. In particular, the concept of skills-based volunteering is our focus. The definition of skills encompasses all kinds of skills and not just high level professional skills, thus ensuring that the bulk of our employees can contribute. As we work harder every year to make the program more inclusive, it is the value to the community, the employees and the Group itself that is the most significant. To know more about this program please visit isr.apeejaygroup.com.