Nutshell on companies bill (Amendments) 2012 with special reference to corporate social responsibility

The Companies Act, 1956 is in force for about 45 years and was amended for more than 24 times. On 18^th December 2012 Lok Sabha approved the Companies Bill with the aim to protect interest of employees and small investors while encouraging firms to undertake social welfare voluntarily instead of imposing that through ‘quot;inspector raj’. India will be become the first country to mandate corporate social responsibility (CSR) through a statutory provision. The Bill, aimed at improving corporate governance, also contains provisions to strengthen regulations for corporate as well as auditing firms. In this article the author discussed about the Corporate Social Responsibility and the related provisions.