{"id":31902,"date":"2024-11-08T17:28:55","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T11:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=31902"},"modified":"2024-11-08T17:28:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T11:58:57","slug":"csr-contributions-to-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/08-11-2024\/csr-contributions-to-agriculture","title":{"rendered":"CSR Contributions to Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS 3\/Economy, Agriculture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>According to the <strong>National <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-08-2022\/corporate-social-responsibility-csr\"><strong>Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)<\/strong><\/a><strong> Portal<\/strong>, from 2014 to 2023, \u20b91.84 lakh crore of CSR funds were disbursed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It involves companies taking responsibility for their impact on environmental and social well-being, working to improve society and reduce negative impacts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>India&#8217;s CSR Mandate<\/strong>: India became the first country to legally mandate <strong>Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) <\/strong>under Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It requires companies to undertake social welfare projects.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It aims to advance sustainable development goals and foster public-private partnerships to drive India&#8217;s transformation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Thrust Areas for CSR Initiatives<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Education<\/strong>: Investments in schools, scholarships, educational resources, and infrastructure improvements, especially in underserved communities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Health<\/strong>: Improving healthcare access through hospital construction, mobile clinics, and telemedicine for underserved areas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Employment<\/strong>: Creating job opportunities, skill training, and inclusive hiring to support marginalized groups.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Skill Development<\/strong>: Programs for technical and vocational training, apprenticeships, and certifications.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sports<\/strong>: Supporting sports events, building facilities, and promoting participation among youth and marginalized groups.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Livelihood<\/strong>: Enhancing livelihoods with support for income-generating activities, microfinance, and sustainable practices.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Environmental Sustainability<\/strong>: Reducing ecological impact through conservation, eco-friendly practices, and resource management.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Need in Agriculture sector<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Agriculture employs nearly 47% of India&#8217;s workforce and contributes 16.73% to GDP.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>However, challenges include natural resource degradation, stagnant farmer incomes, and climate threats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>CSR Contributions to Agriculture<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Many companies are focusing CSR efforts on climate action and sustainability in agriculture.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An outlook report showed that 23% of surveyed companies prioritize \u201cenvironment and sustainability\u201d for CSR.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>CSR funds support agriculture through projects like grain banks, farmer schools, livelihood projects, water conservation, and energy-efficient irrigation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Main Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There is no precise way to track CSR funds specifically targeted at agriculture due to a lack of categorization in reporting mechanisms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Agricultural sustainability-related CSR activities can fall under 11 sectors listed in Schedule VII of the Companies Act. These categories are broad, making it hard to track agriculture-specific CSR spending.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Future Recommendations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Developing a sector-specific CSR reporting framework would help address agricultural sustainability needs effectively and support India\u2019s sustainable growth and just transition goals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00a0To ensure effective funding and impact, agriculture should be specified as a distinct sector in CSR reporting.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00a0This would enhance targeting, transparency, and assessment of CSR contributions to agriculture.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: TH<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the National Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Portal, from 2014 to 2023, \u20b91.84 lakh crore of CSR funds were disbursed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31903,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31902\/revisions\/31903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}