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FOREWARD
It is a real pleasure for me to write the Foreword for this compact and powerful book on how Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) dramatically turned things around since it gained distribution rights for parts of Delhi starting in 2002. Taking over a territory with Aggregated Technical and Commercial (ATC) losses running at 68% and Billing Efficiency at 47% and transforming it to losses at less than 8% and improving bill collections to 90% is a Herculean achievement, but when one considers that of the 743,000 customers nearly 200,000 were low income wage earners living in slums, the achievement is close to a miracle.
Much of this transformation was achieved through the twin engines of a superb business model combined with an outstanding social responsibility model. Even as the two were conceived and run in harmony to reinforce each other, never was there a moment when the social responsibility model was not a sincere attempt to lift the lives of the poor people living in very poor conditions.
The unique CSR law in India explicitly requires companies to contribute to social and developmental goals without directly linking the activities to a company’s business. Such a requirement has, at times, confused companies in India, who have often spent their CSR energies in areas where they have little expertise. What TPDDL has done shows how powerful the impact can be for business and society when a company carefully thinks about uplifting the general living standards of the community it serves.
Developing and executing such model is not easy, there are plenty of challenges along the way. It requires technical expertise and a sensitivity to the needs of the client population. It leads to the construction of a community led business model. It results in the creation of innovative social agents like the “Abha” network. It is hard work but when done well, the rewards are a win for the community, and for the business as well. There are so many lessons to be learned from the work of TPDDL in Winning the Heart to Improve the Life of Socially Deprived.
Winning the Hearts
- Writer Name: Sudarshan Kumar Saini, Ravindra Joshi, Dr. Carlos Rufin
