When Smile Foundation was launched in 2002, corporate social responsibility wasn’t the big thing that it is now. The government didn’t demand it of companies. Managements and promoters saw giving as charity — voluntary and scattered — and rarely, if ever, was the social involvement of a company seen as a driver of the country’s development process.
The founders of Smile thought the equation could be different — more meaningful for society. They were young professionals in their thirties with management and accountancy degrees. A decade into economic reforms, they felt the corporate sector. . .