ICICI Bank 2008 Annual Report Download - page 4

Message from the Chairman
The world around us continues to change rapidly. We are
seeing a new world order taking shape, with the locus of the
global economy shifting towards India and China. These two
nations are the key drivers of global growth. The recent turmoil
in western economies and the relative insulation of Asia has
heightened this trend. This is a time of opportunity, but also a
time to be conscious of risks as we cannot be wholly immune
to the negative consequences of global developments as well
as our many internal challenges. On balance, the outlook for
India continues to support the expectation of a long period of
sustained high growth.
In this context, Indian businesses must be conscious of their
role as participants in the transformation of India. With power
and wealth comes the responsibility to use them judiciously
in a way that has a positive impact on society and not just on
a narrow set of stakeholders. India continues to experience
internal issues that are perhaps even more challenging than
the potential external risks. These are the wide disparities
in education, access to basic services, income levels and
standards of living among our people; regional and urban-rural
asymmetries in development and economic growth; and the
resultant inability of significant portions of our population to
participate in our country’s extraordinary growth and wealth
creation. Indian business must take cognizance of these
issues, and apply its entrepreneurial capabilities, strengths
in innovation and financial capital to devise and implement
solutions that will accelerate resolution of these problems in a
sustainable manner. We must work towards ensuring that the
disadvantaged have equal opportunity to improve the quality
of their lives and are not left behind those with ready access
to the fruits of economic growth. It is heartening to note that
many Indian corporations are indeed thinking along these lines
and taking measures in this direction. What is essential now
is industry-wide collaboration and scaling up of these efforts
to ensure that our objectives are achieved in as accelerated a
time-frame as possible.
The second dimension of responsible corporate behaviour
is the maintenance of ethical standards in the functioning of
organisations. As businesses experience rapid growth with
increasing complexity and diversification, it is important to
build and sustain core values of upholding law and regulation
and being fair in dealings with all stakeholders. This is an
ongoing and evolving process and no organisation can claim
perfection on these parameters. However, what they must
and can do is to ensure that the core values are clear and
the ground rules are laid down, and that the organisational
structure and governance process has mechanisms that
incentivise appropriateness in all actions of the organisation.
On this aspect as well, it is a matter of satisfaction to see the
evolution and maturity of the governance standards of Indian
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