Impact of Development Projects on Triple Bottom Line: A Study from the Perspective of Project Affected People of Kalinganagar Industrial Area, Odisha, India

Abstract: This paper assesses the impact of development projects like steel manufacturing companies on the project affected people (PAP) of Kalinganagar Industrial Project in the state of Odisha, India. The respondents surveyed and interviewed are the people who lost their land and sources of livelihood for the companies operating in this area. As per rehabilitation and resettlement (RR) policy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy, these companies have worked in several community engagement activities. The triple bottom line (TBL) variables – social bottom line (people), ecological bottom line (planet) and economic bottom line (profit) -used in this study are adopted from Vivero (2014). The study organizes household survey and focuses group discussion (FGDs) to collect data. The statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, paired-sample t test are used to assess whether significant changes have taken place on their lives post displacement due to development projects. Data captured through FGDs are processed through sentiment analysis.The study finds that companies have been performing well at the economic bottom line; however, they need to work a lot to improve their performance on the social and ecological bottom lines. The study recommends that the companies should involve community in the entire process- from TBL project formulation to impact assessment, and from need assessment to impact assessment.

Keywords: Project Affected People, Development Projects, Triple Bottom Line, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability