Corporate social responsibility: A need for holistic approach by indian companies

Under the Indian Companies Act 2013, it is mandatory for certain class of companies to spend at least, 2 per cent of average annual net profit of three-years towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) activitiesto enrich quality of life of the poor and vulnerable section of the society. The Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013, lays down broad based CSR themes related to eradication of poverty, providing education and skill training, women empowerment, health and sanitation, environment, rural development, preservation of art and culture, rural sports, contribution to army welfare, technology incubators etc. The objective of this paper was to analyse the CSR activities of top 40 NSE listed Indian companies. The finding showed that majorities of large corporates are adopting a few established CSR themes. Other activities such as Protection of national heritage, art and culture, Providing benefit to armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents; Promoting rural sports, nationally recognized sports, Paralympics and Olympic Sports; providing funds to technology incubators have been sidelined by the corporates. There is an urgent need for the CSR committees to review, realign and diversify their CSR activities for holistic CSR compliance by the companies.