The changing landscape of CSR in India
The law has resulted in the emergence of a new breed of leaders who are going beyond what was till now the ‘cheque-book charity concept’ in companies
Companies that traditionally undertook CSR will only need to streamline the spends they made
It’s been a little over a year since the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) law came into effect on April 1, 2014. Within such a short period, the entire landscape of CSR in India has taken a radical flight. Companies eligible under section 135 of the Companies Act 2013 have embraced the law and initiated a number of CSR projects across the entire spectrum as defined within schedule VII of the Act.
Companies that traditionally undertook CSR anyway–with or without the law–needed to only streamline whatever spends they made. For these firms, the concern or need wasn’t so much about increasing spends multi-fold, but rather a chance to review and re-strategise what they had already been doing in order to fit into the requirements of the law. This retrofitting also included the setting up of a formal committee of a voluntary working group. For other companies, the need was to look at massively multiplying their CSR spend as compared to what they were spending previously. Such companies did two things:
a) Scaled up initiatives that they already had, replicating their solutions and benefits to a wider population
b) Chose to look at new areas and pilot some initiatives in the first year.
This process has led to the rise of a new breed of leaders in the corporate landscape who are learning more about corporate social responsibility as part of the CSR committee and adapting themselves to not just complying with the law but also going beyond their comfort zone to streamline and assess what was until recently a cheque-book charity concept in their companies. As we sat down with these leaders over the past year, to discuss their concerns and understand what aspects are driving their long term CSR vision as well as the trends they see will emerge more clearly in the next 2-3 year, here were a few findings:
There have been an increasing number of developments in the evolution of various aspects of the law–including accounting–which has seen the coming together of various different stakeholders trying to work together to make this law as effective and impactful as possible. In order to further showcase how the landscape has changed over the past one year and new ideas that CSR leaders are bringing to the table, we will sit down with ten inspiring leaders from across the country and bring their views and perceptions to you as part of our ‘CSR Leadership Series'. Once a month, we will present a new leader’s ideas and showcase their work as part of Company’s CSR for 2015-16.