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BASF India’s countdown to a Million Minds continues |
01/04 |
Transparency International, a non-governmental organization in Berlin, publishes the Corruption Perception Index of countries annually. In the year 2001, India was ranked at 72 out of 91 countries, listed in the order from the least corrupt to the most corrupt. In 2003, Transparency International has ranked India at the 83rd position on the global corruption index out of 133 countries.
BASF in India has identified "Fighting Corruption in Public Life" as one of the three Corporate Social Responsibility projects. The starting point of this project weaves its way into the BASF Value system addressing Integrity.
BASF has undertaken a special project called "the Million Minds" project, through which BASF aims to spread the message of fighting corruption to one million citizens of India.
In February 2002, as a first step, BASF invited the then Chief Vigilance Commissioner of the Government of India, Mr. N. Vittal to launch the Fighting Corruption project. In support of the efforts of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to fight corruption, BASF published the extracts of the "Citizen’s Guide to Fighting Corruption", a CVC publication, which was also released by Mr. Vittal on the day of the launch.
BASF published the extracts as a short and concise publication to reach a wider audience. This booklet contains the distilled essence of the strategies evolved so far to fight corruption and the principles that can be adopted. The Citizen’s guide is disseminated to the target group of the Million Minds project, who are mainly present and potential stakeholders of BASF. The booklet is furthermore distributed at every event sponsored by BASF in India and it is also a part of the standard information package.
After the release of the booklet, BASF India conducted a survey amongst their employees, inviting them to join the initiative People Against Corruption (PAC). BASF PAC was then established in July 2002 and is comprised of BASF employees who have volunteered to take an active part in achieving this objective. The PAC initiative includes activities such as awareness drives at educational institutes, partnerships with like-minded agencies, surveys and talks.
In a joint effort by BASF and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the company sponsored a billboard during the Vigilance week for the duration of a month in order to awaken public opinion. The caption read: "Corruption is cancer - Let us fight it together" and was displayed at strategic locations all over the city of Mumbai.
The BASF PAC activities are ongoing with plans to conduct a survey and a paper-writing competition in the near future at Chennai, South India. The countdown to reach the one-millionth citizen in India with the message of fighting corruption continues.
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