‘Moral side of new company law of 2013’ – ‘Corporate social responsibility mandate’

Businesses are becoming large and globalised, so also Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is gaining wider importance overtime, recognising this importance, Indian government has come out with a new law on CSR embedded in Company Law of 2013. It is perhaps for the first time in Indian corporate history that social responsibility has found space in law. Section 135 has been introduced in the Companies Act of 2013 to ensure that giant corporates spend every year an amount of 2% of their average net profit on meeting their responsibilities towards the society widely known as CSR. Instead of being viewed as isolated business units, companies should be is viewed as part of the whole environment surrounding it, it has much more to offer to the society as a whole e.g. quality products and services, customer satisfaction, timely payment of taxes to the government, give employees better work conditions, ensure a pollution free environment, do something for upliftment of backward sections of the society and so on. This is what today a responsible corporate is supposed to accomplish. The Companies Act of 2013 being a new law our research presents analytical review of the new provisions based on available literature. The present work seeks to analyse the new provisions in Indian context, impact of the new law on modern global corporate philosophy. It also aims at drawing attention of the government authorities towards practical difficulties in the implementation of the new provisions on CSR and the possible solutions to overcome these difficulties.