CORPORATE SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY: RECENT
INITIATIVES
Dr. HARBLAS HEERA
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
S.C.D. GOVT. COLLEGE, LUDHIANA

DEEPAK KUMAR
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
G.T.B. NATIONAL COLLEGE, DAKHA
INTRODUCTION
Charles Handy wrote: “Companies that survive longest are the ones that work out
what they uniquely can give to the world — not just growth or money but their
excellence, their respect for others, or their ability to make people happy. Some call
those things a soul”.
 CSR is a company’s sense of responsibility towards the community and
environment in which it operates.

 Sometimes it is discussed that some companies just consider CSR as obligations

and just do it to meet the needs of compliance.

 Although the scope of CSR is very wide and it is growing rapidly.

 This paper is limited to discussion of specific issues related to CSR and will discuss
some current related issues.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 Secondary data have been used for the study.

 News papers’ articles, research papers have been

studied.

 Various Websites have been visited to find out relevant

data.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
 To discuss some new initiatives in the field of CSR.

 To
confer the status of different states regarding
CSR practices.

 To
talk over some challenges and suggestions to
make CSR more effective.
EDUCATION
 The hottest area for spending CSR funds is education.
 A report titled ‘Catalysing Change through CSR’ released at CSR Leadership
Conference cited that about half the companies (70) interviewed have spent
more than 70 per cent of their CSR in education and employable skills
initiatives.
 It has been observed normally Funds are often deployed in a one-off, short-
term and inputs-oriented manner, like the adoption of a few neighbourhood
schools.
 Wipro have been working with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments
for several years now, to improve educational standards in government
schools.
 With the help of Nasscom Foundation a lot of majority of information
technology (IT) and financial service sector companies in India are investing in
education and employable skills, when it comes to the mandatory spend on
corporate social responsibility (CSR).
TRANSPORT TIES
 New aspect in CSR initiative can be said as helping Government in the development
of the railways.

 The Railways faces a cash crunch. So big corporate groups can simply take over the
entire maintenance of trains, including change of toilet infrastructure, seats and fans
and air-conditioning equipment, at regular intervals.

 Raju Nageshkar, (senior vice-president of Thyssenkrupp) has emphasized that Pimpri

railway station will be upgraded to international standards as its washrooms will be
designed on the lines found at airport and maintenance and cleaniness work will be
carried out by the company. Nageshkar rationalized his company’s decision by
adding that most of the employees of company uses trains to Pimpri station, so that
they owed to this station.

 Companies can seek advertisement benefits from the project as well. Such as
Prestigious trains such as GT and Tamil Nadu expresses, are used for this purpose.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
 Union minister PP Chaudhary had asked over 11 lakh companies to contribute 7
per cent of their CSR funds to Swachh Bharat Mission and urged them to direct
their employees to undertake cleanliness drive. A corporate affairs ministry
official said 7 per cent of CSR spending annually will translate into around Rs
1,000 crore.

 The government has already set up the Swachh Bharat Kosh to attract CSR funds
from the corporate sector and contributions from individuals and philanthropists.

 TCS has initiated adult literacy programmes, forged university alliances and has
created web health centres (Med Mantra). TCS has ensured that the
communities engaged in their CSR programmes are empowered. They are
working towards achieving zero waste to landfill, carbon neutrality, positive water
balance, reduction in specific energy consumption and increase in utilisation of
renewable energy sources.
STATES’ POSITION
 PUNJAB AND CHANDIGARH : Companies in Chandigarh and Punjab, are a little bit hesitant, as
the companies give flimsy excuses for not meeting their legally mandated obligations. The
reasons included lesser funds for the adoption of CSR projects. Out of the total 115 companies
identified, only 30 of them have sent compliance report to the authority.

 ODISHA’S INITIATIVE: The Odisha government recently constituted a CSR Council headed by
the Chief Secretary with an aim to institutionalise CSR, reduce disparity in spending State
government has launched the ‘GO CARE’ (Government of Odisha CSR Administration and
Responsive Engagement) portal for uniform spending of funds. The CSR Council recommended
more than 800 projects provided by the districts and welfare departments for the corporates to
consider undertaking as part of their CSR activities.

 HARYANA: This was stated during a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister
Manohar Lal Khattar to coordinate and liaise with various stakeholders for maximum
mobilisation of CSR funds for the benefit of the general public. The money could be utilised to
fund various state government-run skill development programmes, Kanya Kosh Fund, Sweh
Prerit Adarsh Gram Yojana, development of villages and other activities.
STATES’ POSITION
 GOA: Goa Institute of Management (GIM) gives a different perspective to the CSR issue
by helping farmers through CSR even before actual business contributions. The GIM
students try to impart their subject knowledge to help farmers in cost cutting, cost
management and marketing their products effectively, thus going beyond merely
improving their productivity as the project of CSR course (Kamat P. 2013).

 TAMIL NADU: Leveraging the 2 per cent corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending
target, the government roped in companies to fund clean the silt from 43000 tanks &
Ponds. The silt excavated in the process was given away gratis to local farmers. All they
had to do was to transport the silt at their own cost. The cost of cultivation dropped by
nearly a third and the yield was better due to the high nutrition in the silt. The next target
is to clean 23000 tanks.

 KARNATAKA: Setting a model for saving the farmer, the Tumakuru district administration
has worked out an action plan combining funds from government, corporate social
responsibility (CSR) and NGOs in a desperate effort to stop farmer suicide.
CURRENT CHALLENGES
 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said CSR spending by large corporates could go up to
Rs. 14,000 crore, supporting significantly the government’s social sector initiatives. A
number of publicized and pilot social schemes of the Government have fallen way
short of targets. Instances have been reported of pressure from political quarters on
larger companies to apply their CSR funding in specific social projects where
government projects fall short.

 There is not enough capacity or capability in the existing NGOs to meet this
incremental demand from companies. Which sometimes doesn’t fulfil the purpose of
CSR activities.

 Increasing environmental demands are making pressure on the companies to

inculcate environmental issues in their CSR policy.

 Water begins to take Central Stage in global. Thus companies are expected to add
water preservation initiative as well in their CSR initiative.
CONCLUSION
 There are new aspects of education as well, on which companies specifically can focus. Which can be
improving the spoken and written skills, in English, of thousands of graduates. This will help close the
employability gap.
 it has been observed that the attributes of teaching need to be updated all the time with the fast changing
environment. In this direction corporate organisations should go in for massive “Training the Trainer”
programmes for teachers in public and private sector schools.
 A new concept which is evolving is the Public Private Partnership in the field of education, which can reverse
the outflow and prompting the return of students back to these government schools.
 The companies from different states are putting a foot forward to held society in various manners through
CSR funds with consultation of government.
 Government seeks help of the companies in the projects where the targets of the Administration proving
insufficient.This is not a desirable trend and the CSR law should be followed by those in governance as well
as the applicable companies, Companies should have a free hand as the law intends, in selecting the
socially projects within Schedule VII and implementing it as it deems fit in accordance with its Board
approved policy and within the framework of the statute.
 Other challenges like environmental and water emergency a corporation is expected to face and the
argue against that companies may not have expertise needed for ecological and water preservation. So
companies need to find a way to make it as an opportunity by drafting business strategies focused on these
aspects.
REFERENCES
THANK YOU