Abstract
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India has come a long way, from Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘trusteeship model’ of CSR to being mandated for certain companies through a statute in the Companies Act, 2013. However, this leap from voluntary to mandatory is witnessing a period of transition. This review outlines a brief history of CSR in India from the mid-1850s to 2016 and especially lays focus on the CSR mandate. Furthermore, this review introduces the readers to the structure of the book titled Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Cases and Developments after the Legal Mandate and provides a brief peek into its various chapters.
This book is a first of its kind that unveils to the world the implication, implementation and the way forward of the historical CSR mandate in India. Comprising of 13 well-thought-out chapters, the book is published by Springer International Publishing, Switzerland.
The first chapter authored by the editors provides a brief preview, ‘The Why, What and How of the CSR Mandate: The India Story’, which presents a brief background of the mandate in relation to the socio-economic realities of India as well as the historical evolution of CSR in India. In recent times (2013), India has come up with the Companies Act, 2013, replacing the previous 57-year-old Act of 1956. This new Act has a section dedicated to the CSR mandate for certain companies. This has created a storm in India’s socio-economic environment. But who formulated this mandate? What was the genesis of this mandate? How is this CSR model different from other CSR models? What are its unique/novel points? The questions are many.
The next chapter by Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee—also known as the father of CSR in India—for the first time in this book elucidates, through a step-by-step process, the genesis of Section 135 and Schedule VII under the Companies Act, 2013, in an interview to Nayan Mitra, one of the editors.
The chapter written by Meeta Sengupta seeks to recognize the need for CSR contribution to education in India, understand the history of education and philanthropy existing in India, the CSR spend on education, the impact of the CSR legislation on it and the three large trends that supported this transformation. Sengupta points out that although the CSR mandate has faced much debate among India Inc. as an extra tax on corporates, incurring additional administrative burden and a rather indirect way to direct corporate behaviour, there was little debate on the inclusion of education within the purview of the mandate as the gap between need and national spend in education (3.9% of India’s GDP).
CSR has emerged as a topic of concern in government, corporation and international business forums due to its multidimensional benefits. Today, as people are getting increasingly conscious about global warming and ethical business practices, it is expected from business organizations that they become concerned about their responsibilities for the people and the society as a whole. Hence, CSR has emerged as an inescapable priority in the corporate world in present times. In India, companies have also started to realize the immense importance of CSR as a vital part for attaining sustainability in a highly competitive business organization. This book highlights the present situation in India regarding the issues of CSR implementation, and also the challenges that companies are regularly facing while implementing CSR projects. It also discusses possible impacts of the recent CSR law in this country. It is argued in this book that despite impressive financial growth and enhanced privatization and liberalization initiatives, the corporate sector in India is still lagging behind in terms of CSR implementations, and companies have to move faster in this regard in order to ensure the continuing economic progress of the country.
Further, through another chapter on ‘CSR Implementation: How It Is Done in India’, Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee details how CSR is expected to be accomplished under the new mandate. Since, the two chapters use an interview technique of deliberation, the language and the logic flow is conversational and succulent to provide a touch-feel effect. As a matter of fact, to reinforce the academic and industry corroboration, this book has a rich anthology of case studies from some of the most eminent companies in India like Tata, ITC, Jindal Steel and Ernst & Young, authored by Sukanya Patwardhan, Dr Ashesh Ambasta, Brig. Rajiv Williams and Sridhar Iyer, respectively. Academic interceptions like Dr Sumona Ghosh’s empirical study on CSR reporting and the thought-provoking deliberations of Dr Ananda Das Gupta, Dr Asif Akhtar and Dr Ahmad Faraz Khan on the future of the mandate further enhances the rich content of the Book.
The views of Dr Vikrant Shirodkar of University of Sussex and Dr Rene Rueth of the Institute for Management Education and Culture, in two separate chapters, brings together the world view to this mandate. Overall, this book provides a holistic vision of the CSR environment in the early years of the CSR mandate, by documenting its past, present as well as its predicted future by some of the most illustrious CSR stakeholders—policymakers, academics and practitioners.
Research on the political connotations of CSR is gaining momentum. Political CSR includes social and philanthropic activities undertaken by firms that enable them to access political stakeholders while safeguarding their legitimacy and reputation at the same time. One such activity includes participation in the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which, since its inception in 2000, has provided an opportunity to organizations to voluntarily participate in addressing social challenges from a global multi-stakeholder perspective. However, governments in several emerging-market countries have been making CSR mandatory to address social and environmental issues at a local (or domestic) level.
Predominantly, CSR has been approached by organizations in two ways—acting as donors to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in social sector, and/or establishing and funding their own foundations/NGOs. Both of these approaches fall short in ensuring sustainability and social impact. This book presents a conceptual model of new found ways of CSR engagement for organizations. The model connects the phenomenon of CSR to a wider developmental agenda. This research explores links of CSR with sustainable development and social entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship. It further tries to expand the policy discourse on CSR by presenting some fresh propositions. The model shall contribute to the growing body of literature on CSR, especially in the developing world milieu. It uniquely contributes to the policy making discourse, thereby reducing the vagueness regarding CSR implementation, whether voluntary or mandatory (by law).
This book traces the political and bureaucratic influence on CSR in India since the 1990s to the reality of the CSR mandate outlined in the Companies Act, 2013, to beyond, where CSR is perceived to be integrated within the purview of ethical businesses of the future and through responsible business practices. In addition to insightfully documenting this journey, this book outlines three key perspectives, as brought about by the mandate that can be taken as the foundation of the future of CSR in India.
The passing of the CSR mandate in the Companies Act, 2013, has brought about a unique opportunity before organizations in India to innovate on models that can impact at scale, yet be frugal in terms of costs and bring about speed and rigour in implementation. Some of the opportunities include, but not limit to, enrolling children from financially deprived families in private schools by making use of the 25 per cent quota under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) Act, 2010; improving the learning levels in the government schools by making the government system the principal stakeholder in the intervention; or empowering women federations in rural India to make them self-sustaining. This book seeks to critically analyse and explain these unique opportunities for the Indian corporations through high impact, high return innovative models that can successfully unleash the true potential of India. These same models can be replicated in other sectors like health, nutrition and so on.