Business Makers

Environmental pollution poses a serious threat to human health and quality of life. Pollution makes air harmful to breathe, water unsafe to drink and land unfit taj live on. Control over environmental pollution is necessary due to the following reasons:

• To Reduce Health Hazards: Environmental pollution is a major cause of cancer, lung and heat diseases. These diseases have become leading cause of death in modern society. Most of the health problems which women and infants face arise from the environment in which they work and live.

• To Reduce Safety hazards: Air pollution caused by oil refineries sand other industries leads to poor visibility. As a result automobiles on highways and aircrafts trying to land or take off from airports face hazards. Poor visibility has were the cause of serious accidents.

• To Reduce Economic Loss: Pollution spoils clothes, vegetation, livestock, and buildings. Pollution control is necessary to reduce the damage. It will reduce washing expenses and cost of repair maintenance of buildings.

• To Reduce Inconvenience: Pollution of rivers and lakes makes them unfit for swimming and fishing. Air pollution causes eye irritation and respiratory problems. Air pollutions obstruct normal conversation. Control over pollution can avoid such nuisance or discomfort.

• To Improve Quality of Life: Pollution control helps to improve the quality of air. It prevents blackening of buildings by pollution. For example, environmental experts have stressed the need to protect Taj Mahal from the pollution caused by Matura refinery Pollution control will also reduce foul odours.

The causes of various types of pollution are given below:

• Air Pollution: Smoke and other chemicals from industries and carbon monoxide form vehicles cause pollution of air. Emission of smoke, gases, fumes, dust and ash leads to or pollution. These harmful substances reduce the quality of air.
• Water Pollution: Business firms and people dump industrial effluents, waste and chemicals into jives, streams and lakes. As a result water gees polluted.
• Land Pollution: Dumping of toxic waste and garage gausses pollution of land. Excessive use of fertilizers, chemicals and pesticide also pollutes the soil. As a result land becomes infertile and no grass or plants can grow. It is necessary to restore the quality of land that has already been damaged. It is also essential to prevent future pollution of land by adopting new methods of disposal of solid waste.
• Noise Pollution: Traffic and industries create noise in cities.

• Pollution means the injection of harmful substance into the environment. Since independence, growing population and rapid growth of industries in India have crated serious environmental problems. For example, Delhi alone has more than 12.355 industries. The smoke and smell emanating from these industries are polluted their. Such pollution affects the health of people. It has been estimated that more than 5000 people die every year in India due to air pollution. Most of the industries dump their liquid waste into rivers, canals and underground water which leads to pollution of drinking water. Industries also cause noise pollution.

• The amount of environmental pollution depends upon the type of pollutant; the amount of pollutant disposed of into the environment and the distance of a place form the sources of pollution.

Business interacts with several interest groups of society. These interest groups are s follows:

INTEREST GROUPS

Owners and Employees Consumers Supplies Government Community
Investors and general
Public

The responsibilities of business towards these interest groups are summarized below:

• Responsibilities Towards Owners and Investors: (a) To provide a fair return on their investment (b)To furnish regular, accurate and complete information abut the working of the company (c) To maximize the shareholders’ wealth by means of increase in the value of shares (d) To allow the shareholders representation and participation in the management of business.

• Responsibilities Towards Employees: (a) To pay fair wages for the contribution of employees (b) To provide security of job and promotion opportunities (c) To offer welfare facilities like safe working conditions, housing, medical and leave, retirement benefits etc. (d) To treat employees as partners in the management and progress of business (e) To evocate work according to their knowledge an aptitude is as to ensure job satisfaction.

• Responsibilities towards Consumers: (a) To provide goods and services of the right quality and at reasonable prices(b) To avoid unfdair trade practices such as adulteration. Black-marketing, misleading advertising, etc. (c) To handle consumer grievance quickly and courteously. (d) to provide effective and prompt after sale service.

• Responsibilities towards Suppliers: Every business firm should develop and maintain healthy relations with suppliers and competitors. It must pay the right price and make regular payments to its suppliers. In regular dealings with competitors, a business enterprise must not adopt unfair trade practices such as price cutting to gain unfair advantage.

• Responsibilities towards the Government: (a) To comply with the laws passed by the government (b) To pay all taxes honesty and in time (c) To assist the government in the formulation and implementation of proper business policies (d) To support the government efforts in improving the quality of life of people.

• Responsibilities Towards the community and General Public: (a) To reduce pollution (b) To take adequate safety measures against production of hazardous or unsafe products (c) To contribute to social welfare by helping educational institutions, hospitals, weaker sections of society, etc. (d) To provide relief in times of natural calamities such as drought, flood, earthquake, etc. (e) To promote sports, art and culture (vi) To prevent discrimination on the basis of sex, caste, race, religion, etc. in providing employment.

A business owes the following responsibilities to the government:

To comply voluntarily with the laws passed by the government.
To pay taxes and duties honestly and in time.
To make constructive suggestions regarding formulation of policies which have a bearing on business?
To cooperate with the executive organs of the government regarding proper implementation of laws and policies.
To cooperate with the executive organs of the government regarding proper implementation of laws and policies.
To support the efforts of the government for improving the quality of life of people and in solving the pressing national problems in the country.
To plan and establish new endures joint rural and backward areas in the interest of balanced regional development of the country.
To continue towards rescue and relief work in times of national calamity or disaster such s droughts, floods, earthquake, etc.

Some people criticize the concept of social responsibility. They put forward the following arguments to oppose the assumption of social responsibilities by businessmen.

Dilution of Business Goals: If a business firm involves it in social activities, its economic goals might get diluted. Its positing in the market place might be weakened. As a result it may accomplish poorly in both its economic social goals. Society will lose when productivity of business declines. The economic role of business in society would also become confused.

Lack of Social Skill: Generally businessmen lack the perception a skill required for effective handling of social problems. Their outlook is primarily economic and they do not feel comfortable with social mattes. Their mental make up is suited for handling business matters only.

Rise in Prices: Social involvement of business requires financial expenditure. Unless the government or social institution bear the costs, business is likely to pass his cost on to consumers by increasing the prices of goods and services.

Lack of Accountability: A business enterprise is responsible mainly to its owners. Involvement of business in social matters will give businessmen more owners. As public has little control over them it swills be difficult to check miscue of this power. If different sections of society are represented in the management of business to ensure accountability, decision-making process would become political and freedom of enterprise would be undermined.

Reeducation in Competitiveness: If business firms are asked to spend considerable money on social activities, their competitive position in international markets may go down.

Lack of Measurement: There are no clear-cut criteria to judge the social performance of a business enterprise. Economic values are the only precise criteria to measure the performance of business. Moreover, business corporations are not more agents.
The arguments given above suffer from tow limitations. First, they require business firms to ignore social demands on them. Business enterprises cannot afford to do so. Business concerns are no longer mere economic institutions. They are also social institutions. Businessmen are trustees of various social groups. Secondly, these arguments overstress the power and influence, which businesses may exercise by assuming social responsibilities.

Business risk refers to the uncertainty of profit or even the possibility f loss due stop unexpected events in future. There is a chance of loss form the day goods are produced in anticipation of demand until they are sold and the payment is received. Risk is inseparable form business and cannot be eliminated. But risks can be reduced and the loss arising form risk can be spread.

The main characteristics of business risks are as under: (i) Uncertainty about the future course of events (ii) Risk is inherent in the nature of business enterprise (iii) Profit is the reward for bearing risk (iv) The degree of risk varies form business to business.

Business risks arise due to the following cause: (i) Natural causes like flood, famine, earthquake, etc. (ii) Economic causes like change market conditions (iii) Human causes such as strikes, lockout, accidents, and others (iv) Political causes such as civil war, fall of Government, and others (v) Physical causes such as mechanical defects.

Auxiliaries to business mean subsidiary activities, which assist business. Transportation, warehousing, packaging, banking, insurance and advertising are examples of auxiliaries to business. These activities help in removing various hindrances, which arise in connection with the production and distribution of goods. Transport facilitates movement of goods from one place to another. Warehousing provides storage facility for safe custody of goods for use in future. Insurance and packaging help to minimize various kinds of business risks. Banking provides finance and transfers money from one place to another. Advertising provides information and creates demand. These activities assist not only trade but also industry. Therefore, these are called auxiliaries to business.

Transportation mends carrying goods and people from one place to another. It facilitates assembling and distribution of goods.It overcomes the obstacle of distance by moving goods from the place of productions places of demand. It also carries raw materials to places of production. It provides wheels to business. Alonwwisth transport. Communication facilities like post and telegraph, telephones, etc. enable businessmen to exchange information with one another.

Warehousing removes the difficulty of time by preserving goods until they are sold. They help in equal distribution of supplies over different time period sand thereby stabilize prices. Warehouses make goods available whenever needed.

several types of risks are involved in the production and sale of goods. Insurance makes provision against risks. It provides an opportunity to businessmen to develop a sense of security and freedom from anxiety. It helps to increase the scale of business activity. Packaging means use of proper packages for safety of goods in transit and storage.

Businessmen require financial assistance and credit facility for production and distribution of goods. Banks provide loans and credit facility. They also help in transfer of money in the course of industry and trade.

In advertising, oral, straiten and visual messages are addressed to people for the purpose of informing them about the availability of goods and services and persuading them to buy the same. Advertising facilitates industry and trade by creaming and maintaining demand. Producers and traders cannot contact each and every consumer. Advertising provides information about available goods and induces consumers to buy the goods. It makes mass consumption possible.