1. Analyze the CSR strategy adopted by Coca-Cola India.
This case is about Coca-Cola’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in India. It details the activities taken up by Coca-Cola India’s management and employees to contribute to the society and community in which the company operates. Coca-Cola India being one of the largest beverage companies in India, realised that CSR had to be an integral part of its corporate agenda. According to the company, it was aware of the environmental, social, and economic impact caused by a business of its scale and therefore it had decided to implement a wide range of initiatives to improve the quality of life of its customers, the workforce, and society at large.
However, the company came in for severe criticism from activists and environmental experts who charged it with depleting groundwater resources in its Kaladera plant area thereby affecting the livelihood of poor farmers.
The village of Kaladera (where the Coca-Cola plant is located), in the Jaipur district of Rajasthan, sits atop groundwater aquifers, which support many neighboring towns and villages. The Kaladera watershed, comprising an area of 309 square kilometers, was officially designated as "overexploited" – that is, the withdrawal rate exceeds the natural recharge rate.
The farmers said their livelihood had been affected due to increased cost of irrigation: they had to dig deeper wells and purchase more powerful pumps. More land was left fallow because of inadequate water supply for irrigation. They felt that the crop yield levels had been reduced, although there was no hard empirical evidence. The women emphasized that the water crisis had reduced their availability of water for drinking and domestic purposes, and they had to spend more time and effort fetching water. The yield of milk had gone down because they could not provide enough water to their cattle.
The Coca-Cola plant has four bore wells that are 100 meters deep, but...