Analytical Study of Corporate Social Responsibility : Indian Context

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility has drew attention in recent years and there has been much academic interest and talks about the social role of companies , its obligations to the society from where its deriving profit ,ethical and moral aspects of business. Corporate social responsibility as a topic of discussion has been developed over years and many academic works have been done to shape the meaning as it has today. Traditionally, many approaches were proposed for the responsibility like Corporate Social Responsibility, The triple Bottom Line, Stakeholder theory etc. Many definitions of corporate social responsibility has emerged and almost all of them refers to the ethical principle that an organization should be responsible for how its behavior might affect society and the environment, adherence to rules and regulations, morally doing things right even if doing otherwise does not violate the rule. In India corporate social responsibility was more or less viewed as social work or philanthropic work and not included as such in the day to day activity. However, Government of India, under companies’ act 2013, introduced the Corporate social responsibility under sectionp 135 and notified Schedule VII, list of activities that can be taken under CSR. After this we have seen good response from corporates towards CSR spend. As per the data of ministry of corporate affairs, the CSR Spend in India is largely skewed, if we see sector wise and state wise spend and many companies have not even reported the spent citing different reasons. As of now there is no penalty for non- adherence to CSR spend, more or less it seems the spend by most of the companies has been forced just because of CSR rules, and very few have spent above the limit prescribed under CSR rules. In India CSR is still at nascent stage and evolving day by day, and a concerted effort from all stakeholders, awareness, proper policy response from government and realization of fact that if all stakeholders do something for the society then it would be beneficial for everyone in long run, even for the companies as they also form part of ecosystem. There are many issues with CSR in India ,as it is evident from last three year facts since CSR notification. Lack of proper reporting by firms, citing vague reason for non-adherence and taking up of projects without proper planning are some of the many problems. CSR is fundamentally an inspirational exercise, and it is very difficult to legislate aspirations. This paper delves into the evolution of corporate social responsibility in Indian context and brief history of CSR in India and brings forth the CSR development and success so far.