B20 Summit: Uday Kotak urges companies to earmark 0.2% of profits to meet social development goals

Veteran banker Uday Kotak has called for companies across the globe to contribute 0.2 per cent of their annual profits to meet social development goals into a Global Acceleration Fund. The funds are required by countries over the next seven to 10 years to finance their development goals.

This is a key recommendation of the B20 India Task Force on Financing for Global Economic Recovery that Kotak chairs. The recommendations of the B20 taskforces would be submitted to the G20.

Addressing the B20 Summit India 2023 on Friday, Kotak outlined that about $4.5 trillion is required for this objective and said that this can come from the private sector. Noting that companies in India already contribute 2 per cent of their annual profits to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, he said that this can be emulated on a global scale as well.

For Indian companies, he recommended that 0.2 per cent of the 2 per cent which they contribute to CSR can be diverted for fulfilling this agenda.

“This could be a game changer. I would recommend G20 nations to find out ways by which businesses can contribute, voluntarily or through regulation, 0.2 per cent of profit to these important transformation goals,” he said. 

Kotak said the taskforce has also narrowed down priorities on which these funds can be spent. These include climate change, energy, biodiversity and ocean pollution.  

The B20 is the official G20 dialogue forum with global business community, and brings together business leaders and organisations from G20 countries to deliberate on issues pertaining to global economic growth and development.

Addressing the conference earlier, N Chandrasekaran, Chair, B20 India and Tata Sons Chair said that the B20 has come up with 54 recommendations across its various themes, which comprise of a total of 172 policy actions.

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