NTT

NTT supports affordable access to digital technologies through discounted prices for vulnerable groups. The company is also helping to reduce the digital gender divide in India through its initiative providing female students with enhanced learning opportunities using digital technologies. NTT leads in its commitment to accessibility with numerous products and services incorporating accessibility features. The company also discloses the number of people with disabilities it employs and, in fact, has a subsidiary established specifically for working with people with disabilities.  

The company has a programme that provides free smartphone and mobile safety classes for students, parents, teachers and the elderly. Launched in 2004, this programme has benefitted over 14 million participants to date. NTT also has programmes to increase school connectivity.  

NTT demonstrates leading practice in its senior-level responsibility for cybersecurity as well as in how it monitors, responds to and reports on security incidents. The company also has several initiatives to promote child online safety. 

NTT displays strong support for open source initiatives and standards through participation in international standards organisations, sharing source code and collaborating with universities. The company supports the tech innovation ecosystem through a venture capital fund and other support for start-ups. It also demonstrates support for sustainable innovation by using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a reporting framework and collaborating on joint sustainability research. Additionally, the company reports the ethical guidelines it uses in its AI research. 

NTT can report how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders, as well as the income taxes it pays and employment in its main markets of operation. 

NTT can establish programmes for advancing intermediate and technical skills. The company can also disclose its financial and in-kind contributions for its existing programmes and promoting third–party impact assessments.  

NTT can consider implementing a group privacy policy and should produce a transparency report detailing the government requests it receives for user information. The company should also make a high-level commitment to child online safety. 

The company can strengthen its support for the tech innovation ecosystem through initiatives for non-profit start-ups and start-ups founded by people from underrepresented backgrounds. The company can also report the number of its women employees engaged in tech roles, a metric it has disclosed in the past. 

NTT commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It also has a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. The company identifies, assesses and takes action to address the salient human rights issues in its own operations. However, it could describe a process to identify human rights risks in its business relationships. NTT does have a grievance mechanism for all stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints, but it is unclear if complainants have the option to remain anonymous. 

NTT publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety, and it places health and safety expectations on its business relationships and monitors their performance. However, the company lacks disclosure on living wages and working hours. Additionally, the company can update its figures in relation to the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. In relation to workforce diversity, NTT provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender and discloses that at least 30% of its board members are women. The company also publicly commits to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. 

NTT has a global tax strategy, but it does not disclose if an executive or board-level individual or group oversees this strategy. Furthermore, the company does not disclose its income tax payments for all its individual tax jurisdictions. In relation to responsible lobbying and political engagement, the company states in its sustainability report that it does not make political contributions. However, it does not make this same statement in a formal, publicly available policy document. NTT does, however, have a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption. It also takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption and has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints on the topic.