City institutes join hands for sustainable development

With the aim to promote sustainability in education, a number of institutions in the country and Bengaluru have partnered with the Global Compact Network India, the Indian arm of the United Nations Global Compact, a global platform for promoting sustainable development.

As part of their truck with the organisation, institutes such as CMR University, HRBR Layout and L N Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Hosur Road, have included a topics such as sustainability and ethics into their curriculum.

Dr Anand Joshi, Vice-Chancellor, CMR University, said that a number topics had been included on a credit-based system. Measures such as research by faculty on ethics, partnerships with Rotary International, have been undertaken at Welingkar Institute, according to its Dean, Dr Anil Rao Paila.

A total of 31 institutions in the country have partnered with the Global Compact Network so far and these include the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Allahabad University, Lucknow University, Goa Institute of Management to name a few. “All over the world, as many as 600 academic institutions like Harvard and Stanford University are also part of the initiative,” said Pooran C Pandey, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network, India. 

The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for aligning the workings of the private sector with the ten principles of the compact that cover areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Along with academic institutions, the other stakeholders include NGOs, governments and businesses.