{"id":86799,"date":"2026-10-14T18:21:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T12:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=86799"},"modified":"2026-10-14T18:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T12:52:06","slug":"india-corporate-social-responsibility-csr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-10-2026\/india-corporate-social-responsibility-csr","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recent reports indicate the annual <strong>Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spend of Rs 40,794 cr<\/strong> in 2024-25, contributed by <strong>29,500 companies supporting 72,000 projects.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi <\/strong>together received <strong>over Rs 20,000 crore.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>CSR refers to the obligation of companies to contribute to <strong>social and environmental development <\/strong>beyond profit-making.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Under <strong>Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013<\/strong>, companies crossing any one threshold (net worth Rs 500 crore, turnover Rs 1,000 crore or net profit Rs 5 crore) <strong>must spend 2% of average net profit on CSR.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Activities are <strong>listed in Schedule VII<\/strong>, covering education, health, hunger, rural development, environment and skill development.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India is among the few countries with a <strong>mandatory CSR spending requirement.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Supplementary development capital:<\/strong> CSR adds to public spending, especially in social sectors with limited fiscal space. It is a supplement, not a substitute.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Private sector as development partner:<\/strong> It links profit with purpose and strengthens a firm\u2019s social licence to operate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alignment with SDGs:<\/strong> Spending on health, education and livelihoods supports SDGs 3, 4 and 8.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Innovation:<\/strong> Thousands of projects allow local solutions to be tested, and successful ones can be scaled up by the government.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Collaborative potential:<\/strong> The law already permits pooling of funds and efforts, which can enable large, district-level transformation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Concerns<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Regional skew:<\/strong> Funds follow corporate location, not development need. Aspirational districts and the Northeast remain underfunded.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fragmentation: <\/strong>Small, isolated projects give useful outputs but rarely change systems. Ten firms spending Rs 10 crore each on unrelated work achieve less than one pooled Rs 100 crore intervention.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Input-based accountability: <\/strong>Outcome indicators are weak and non-standardised. Reporting captures how much was spent, not what changed.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Competence mismatch:<\/strong> Companies often fund areas unrelated to their strengths, wasting their knowledge and networks. A food or agri firm may add more value in farmer productivity than in a generic education project.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Compliance mindset:<\/strong> The 2% mandate can encourage box-ticking, where meeting the target matters more than results.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Outcome-based framework:<\/strong> For instance, instead of reporting 50 classrooms built, companies should report improvement in learning outcomes, with mandatory impact assessment for large projects.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pooled funding:<\/strong> Encourage consortiums around common themes and geographies, such as district transformation models.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Geographic rebalancing:<\/strong> Use incentives or a national CSR platform to direct funds to aspirational districts and the Northeast. This would reduce the concentration seen in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Core competency alignment:<\/strong> Companies should deploy knowledge, networks and managerial capability along with money.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Convergence with government:<\/strong> Align CSR with flagship missions and district plans to avoid duplication.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Strengthening the implementation ecosystem: <\/strong>Build NGO capacity in monitoring and evaluation, and ensure transparent public data on projects and outcomes so that learning can be shared across sectors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/civil-service-ethics-institutional-integrity-10917182\/?ref=infinite\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IE<br><br><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\n<strong> <\/p>\n<p>In Context<\/p>\n<p> <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\n<p>Recent reports indicate the annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spend of Rs 40,794 cr in 2024-25, contributed by 29,500 companies supporting 72,000 projects.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\n<strong> <\/p>\n<p>What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\n<p>CSR refers to the obligation of companies to contribute to social and environmental development beyond profit-making.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\n<p>Under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, companies crossing any one threshold (net worth Rs 500 crore, turnover Rs 1,000 crore or net profit Rs 5 crore) must spend 2% of average net profit on CSR.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-10-2026\/india-corporate-social-responsibility-csr\"   class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86799","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\/86799","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86801,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86799\/revisions\/86801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}