Bangalore: Tata Group firms invest over Rs 200 crore on community and social activities annually, Tata Industries Managing Director Kishor Chaukar said today (Oct 29, 2004).

Chaukar, Chairman of Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI), told reporters in Bangalore that Tata firms spent money on community and social activities across the country, which excluded the voluntary contribution by employees and the Tata trust.

He said the Tatas and the UNDP (UN Development Programme) in India have developed the Tata Index for Sustainable Human Development, an effort by the group to help enhance the human achievement in an initiative and be able to measure it in terms of a specific scale.

Chaukar said all major Tata companies are compliant to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a programme of the United Nations that requires corporates to report their social and environmental performance in addition to the financials.

"Most of the Tata companies would be part of the GRI initiative in the next three years," he said, adding, the programme that is voluntary would help the companies to use the Tata brand name based on meeting the set parameters.

He said about 10,400 employees have signed as volunteers across the group in human resource, business excellence and ethics, communications, operations, safety, environment and community development.