India
and Corporate Social Responsibility:
2018 Perspective
India
made the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provision mandatory
through its Companies Act, 2013 and the CSR (Policy) Rules (the Act)
from 1 April 2014. This has led to several businesses stepping forward,
formulating their CSR policies and spending for social and environmental
initiatives. Now in 2018, when we look back at the time since this
landmark policy change was made, there is a strong belief amongst
several types of stakeholders that there has been steady progress made.
In this edition, we have compiled an interesting mix of articles,
policies and cases which will look at this journey from different
lenses.
When I look back at the time when the CSR
provision was made effective in 2014, the feeling of uncertainty is
still fresh in my mind. Just to understand and interpret the policy was
a challenge then for all stakeholders including the donors as well as
the implementing agencies. However, all this has improved significantly
and effective progress has been made year on year.
The findings of several CSR reports that
studied 2017 spends are very encouraging. General insights suggest that
by the end of 2017, compliance to the regulatory aspects of the CSR
provision had greatly improved. Overall CSR spends had seen steady
improvements compared to the previous years and sectors of education and
health had secured maximum funding. Many companies had even surpassed
the 2 per cent spend mandate. Significantly large and innovative
projects with strategic vision and intent had been designed. Even the
spread and reach of CSR funds disbursement had been much more uniform.
These are all indeed good signs and very much welcome.
Out of the several positive observations,
there are two that really stand out in this regard. Firstly, the
alignment of the CSR policy and its prescribed activities with several
other ongoing initiatives of progress such as the Skill India Mission,
Digital India Mission etc. In this too, the mapping and growing
realisation of the overlaps as well as synergies between the prescribed
activities and Sustainable Development Goals is remarkable. When we at
the Development Alternatives (DA) Group design any CSR programme, we
find it extremely useful and more sustainable if such alignments and
mapping between the CSR policy and the other development related
missions, schemes, goals etc. are done well in advance.
The second interesting observation is the
concept of pooling funds by donors for a particular region or a cause to
create large impact outcomes. In this, some of the large partnerships
have been forged not just amongst donors and companies, but also in many
cases with government bodies and NGOs. Such a practice is much needed in
India where scale and continuous momentum is required to create impact
and development for a majority of our rural districts.
While progress has been steadily happening
with the CSR policy now entering into a stable state, expectations
continue to increase every quarter. Several companies can now easily aid
and enable India’s achievement of its specific SDG targets by ensuring
that their CSR mandates are synced to these. As per a leading CSR study
report, currently only five SDGs have received 50+ percent of the
traction amongst the CSR themes. We at the Development Alternatives
Group are now working on making sure these and many such expectations
are mapped so that potential for further continuous development could be
unleashed. To do so, we look forward to like-minded companies,
professionals and institutions to connect with us and further propel the
development and growth agenda in India through the right use of CSR
funds.
■
Manisha Mishra
mmishra@devalt.org
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