Industry must help community or else could face backlash: Tata

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, who has been honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by prestigious Rockefeller Foundation, wants industrial houses to help the community in their areas. Or else, there could be "backlash".

Speaking on the occasion here yesterday, Tata, 74, said businesses should be making a difference in places where they operate and helping the community prosper. "This is all the more evident in the developing world where disparities are so huge. If the industry is not sensitive to it, they would encourage a backlash to take place and many companies that go overseas are getting to understand the need to do this and those that do not are really hurting the reputation of other industries," he said.

Tata, who has been honoured by the Rockefeller Foundation, for innovation in philanthropy, said, "When you see in places like Africa and parts of Asia abject poverty, hungry children and malnutrition around you, and you look at yourself as being people who have well being and comforts, I think it takes a very insensitive, tough person not to feel they need to do something".

The involvement, he said, has to be not just by providing material support but also by playing a role in prosperity to the community in which they belong, he said. Tata, who heads the USD 100 billion conglomerate with operations in 100 countries, said employees in his organisation have gained a certain spirit of being part of a community in which they operate.

"It has become the DNA of the organisation to play a role in the community," Tata, who will be retiring as Chairman of group in December, said.