Ethical practices across select sectors in India: a comparative assessment
Student name: Ms Deepti Mahajan
Guide: Dr Sapna Narula
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI)
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Annapurna Vancheswaran
Abstract: The study, Ethical practices across select sectors in India: a comparative
assessment, evaluates five economic sectors, automobile, finance, oil & gas,
pharmaceutical and textile, vis-Ã -vis internationally recognized ethical standards.
This study seeks to explore pattern of divergence or convergence of corporate ethical
practices in India vis-Ã -vis notable international best practices.
Through the literature survey on ethical business practices various parameters of
ethics in businesses were identified. Four most prominent ones, corporate
governance, code of conduct, CSR practices, and instances of mismanagement were
selected for this study. These parameters were evaluated across sectors using globally
standardized measurable factors. Factors were identified for each of the four
parameters and ranked for five sectors.
It is observed that ethical practices amongst five sectors are distinct and vary. An
overall convergence of behavior of companies in India is seen with international
business ethics practices. The study findings show that oil & gas sector meets the
voluntary and mandatory requirements alike, while pharma sector shows low
commitment to voluntary requirements. Textile sector scores lowest, which is a
concern as it is labor-intensive. In the automobile sector, Indian MNCs show higher
commitment of incorporating standardized ethical practices while information for
international MNCs on business ethics practices in India is not readily available.
