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- Coal companies carry out various programmes and activities through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds benefit the peripheral areas around coal mines.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
- The CSR concept in India is governed by Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, Schedule VII of the Act and Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014.
- The Companies Act encourages companies to spend 2% of their average net profit in the previous three years on CSR activities.
- It is a management concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with their stakeholders.
- Key CSR Areas:
- Environmental management,
- Eco-efficiency,
- Responsible sourcing,
- Stakeholder engagement,
- Labour standards and working conditions,
- Employee and community relations,
- Social equity,
- Gender balance,
- Human rights,
- Good governance, and
- Anti-corruption measures.
- Significance of CSR:
- Helps companies to achieve a balance of economic, environmental and social imperatives (“Triple-Bottom-Line-Approach”);
- Companies can make a valuable contribution to poverty reduction;
- Enhanced access to capital and markets, increased sales and profits;
- Directly enhances the reputation of a company and strengthens its brand image leading to enhanced customer loyalty.
Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR)
- Government has launched guidelines on Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR), on the lines of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
- The SSR guidelines seek to:
- Harness the latent potential of the scientific community on voluntary basis,
- Strengthening science and society linkages and
- Making the S & T ecosystem responsive to societal needs.
- The guidelines have provisions to give due weightage to individual SSR activities in performance evaluation of scientists / knowledge workers.
- The guidelines also include provision of incentivising individual and institutional SSR activities.
Source: PIB
