Becoming a better company: Microsoft helps NGOs in India
This example of corporate citizenship is striking, and brought me to tears. Microsoft helps NGOs in India, a fascinating country with a fast-growing economy, but unfortunately with strong social inequalities and poverty. I find it deeply moving, and socially responsible that such a large and wealthy corporation has found the resources to help those who are not being helped and the ones in dire need of food, money, and education. Of course, there has to be some trade-offs, because there should never be free lunch, even for the ones who starve: Microsoft, according to this article, has conditioned its help to Indian NGOs to their support of OOXML. What the NGOs had to do was to send letters of support on OOXML to the federal government of India. I think it’s a small trade-off to have when you can get resources to help the poor. When a company like Microsoft is helping you out, the least you can do is to join its worldwide lobbying campaign to help maintain its monopoly, can’t you? Now sing it aloud:
”We are the World,
We are the children… “
There is no doubt that India is a diverse country with rich cultural heritage yet there are a varied number of social evils and social discrimination as well. It is really heartening to know that Microsoft is coming forward to help the NGOs that are working genuinely towards eradicating the social evils…