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management of Arvind Mills believes that
the Corporate sector, in its own
enlightened self interest, must make a
contribution in ameliorating the grinding
poverty in urban India and the resulting
poor quality of life. In Ahmedabad where
Arvind's headquarter is located, Arvind's
investments by December 1998, would be
approximately fifteen billion rupees
(about three hundred and ninety-five
million US dollars). Arvind has acquired
the size for becoming a global company.
Such a company's management, it is
needless to stress, must attract the most
talented people in the world to work with
the company. To do so, the "quality
of life" in Ahmedabad, the company's
headquarters, must be of international
standards. Clearly, this would not be
possible when 40% of the city's
population resides in "slums."
Obviously, Arvind alone cannot solve the
gigantic problems of the city slums.
However, we argued that Arvind must play
a leadership role in resolving this
societal problem. To translate this
belief into practice, the company
registered SHARDA Trust. Enlightened
self interest is not the only force
driving the company towards helping the
poor. The societal values are also an
important driving force on Arvind's
concern for improving the quality of life
of urban poor. Long ago the famous Indian
poet Bhavabhuti observed "wealth is
desired only for the help it affords in
the discharge of social, economic
religious duties and obligations."
Nearer our own times, Sri Ramkrishna,
spiritual leader of India, offers a
similar percept. He said "in every
living there exists the divine, service
of the living is therefore, is worship of
the divine." We can trace back the
genesis of bringing SHARDA into existence
to a conversation between late Mr
Kasturbhai Lalbhai, the founder of the
Lalbhai Group, and his cousin Chinubhai
Manibhai. A few years before his death
Kasturbhai called Chinubhai Manibhai and
asked: "When you go out, don't
people pay their respects? Don't they
call you affectionately Sheth? Don't they
offer you hospitality when you happen to
visit them?" A flabbergasted
Chinubhai, without any clue to the
purpose behind these questions, answered
that they did. "What have you
done" shot back the older man,
"what have you done to repay their
debt?" Arvind's attempts to resolve
major societal problems epitomize
Arvind's way of repaying its debts to the
society.
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