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In February 2015, the School of International Relations of the Kyrgyz National University (KNU) launched the 2^nd Nonprofit Management (NPM) Course titled “Nonprofit Organizations in the Contemporary World” for the 4^th year University students at KNU.

 

On February 20, KNU Professor Baktygul Ismailova invited Dr. Enakshi Sengupta and Dr. Vijay Kapur, Assistant Professors at the Business Administration Program of the American University of Central Asia to her NPM course “Nonprofit Organizations in the Contemporary World” to give a talk on “Corporate Social Responsibility” with a focus on the interaction between government, civil society and business. 25 students attended the lecture.

Building on their graduate studies and research on CSR in the MBA program of the University of Nottingham (UK), Enakshi and Vijay provided a broad overview of the foundational concepts of CSR, which is a recent and less-practiced phenomenon in Central Asia. They shared their knowledge of the current developments in the field of CSR by using interesting case studies from the Indian context. During the lecture students learned about CSR and its role as a platform where interests of the government, business and civil society converge and lead to cooperation that often results in the development and implementation of mutually beneficial socio-economic projects. The students learned that the Indian government mandated CSR by adopting a CSR Law, which requires businesses to spend 2% of their net profit on social development; that CSR activities in India can cover measures to eradicate hunger, promote girl education, environmental sustainability, protection of national heritage and rural sports, etc.; and that businesses can implement such CSR activities on their own or delegate them to experienced non-profit organizations.

The slide-show presentation smoothly turned into a questions and answers session followed by discussions. Enakshi and Vijay responded to students’ questions on issues that ranged from legal aspects of CSR, NGO activities, charity projects and women’s involvement in NGOs to environmental issues in India.