Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable — to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a broad term used to describe a company's efforts to improve society in some way.

Through CSR programs, philanthropy, and volunteer efforts, companies can benefit society while boosting their own brands.

India is the first country in the world to make CSR mandatory, following an amendment to The Company Act, 2013, in April 2014. Companies can invest their profits in areas such as education, poverty, gender equality, environment causes, infrastructure development, health care, sustainable livelihood, social welfare, village development etc.

As per as Corporate Social Responsibility is concerned, the Companies Act, 2013 is a landmark legislation that made India the first country, in the world, to mandate and quantify CSR expenditure.

The details of on corporate social responsibility is mentioned in the Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 (given below). The Act came into force from April 1, 2014-Every company, private limited or public limited, which either has a net worth of Rs 500 crore or a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or net profit of Rs 5 crore, needs to spend at least 2% of its average net profit for the immediately preceding three financial years on Corporate social responsibility activities.

The CSR activities in India should not be undertaken in the normal course of business and must be with respect to any of the activities mentioned in Schedule VII of the act (mentioned below).

The companies are required to setup a CSR committee, which designs a CSR policy, which is approved by the board and encompasses the CSR activities, the companies are willing to undertake. The act also has penal provisions for corporations and individuals for failure to abide by the norms. The details of the same are highlighted in the act.

Section 135

1. Every company having net worth of rupees five hundred crore or more, or turnover of rupees one thousand crore or more or a net profit of rupees five crore or more during any financial year shall constitute a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board consisting of three or more directors, out of which at least one director shall be an independent director.
2. The Board’s report under sub-section (3) of section 134 shall disclose the composition of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.
3. The Corporate Social Responsibility Committee shall,—
   1. formulate and recommend to the Board, a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy which shall indicate the activities to be undertaken by the company as specified in Schedule VII;
   2. recommend the amount of expenditure to be incurred on the activities referred to in clause (a); and http://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/pdf/CompaniesAct2013
   3. monitor the Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) Policy of the company from time to time.
4. The Board of every company referred to in sub-section (1) shall,—
   1. after taking into account the recommendations made by the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, approve the Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) Policy for the company and disclose contents of such Policy in its report and also place it on the company’s website, if any, in such manner as may be prescribed; and
   2. ensure that the activities as are included in Corporate Social Responsibility Policy of the company are undertaken by the company.
5. The Board of every company referred to in sub-section (1), shall ensure that the company spends, in every financial year, at least two per cent. of the average net profits of the company made during the three immediately preceding financial years, in pursuance of its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy:

   Provided that the company shall give preference to the local area and areas around it where it operates, for spending the amount earmarked for CSR activities:

   Provided further that if the company fails to spend such amount, the Board shall, in its report made under clause (o) of sub-section (3) of section 134, specify the reasons for not spending the amount.

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Schedule VII

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (l) of section 467 of the Companies Act, 20l3 (18 of 2013), the Central Government hereby makes the following amendments to Schedule Vll of the said Act, namely :-

In Schedule VIl, for items (i) to (x) and the entries relating thereto, the following items and entries shall be substituted, namely:-
1. eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, promoting preventive health care and sanitation including contribution to the Swach Bharat Kosh set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of sanitation and making available safe drinking water;
2. promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly, and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects;
3. promoting gender equality, empowering women, setting up homes and hostels for women and orphans; setting up old age homes, day care centres and such other facilities for senior citizens and measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups;
4. ensuring environmental sustainability, ecological balance, protection of flora and fauna, animal welfare, agroforestry, conservation of natural resources and maintaining quality of soil, air and water including contribution to the Clean Ganga Fund set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of sanitation;http://www.mca.gov.in/SearchableActs/Section135
5. protection of national heritage, alt and culture including restoration of buildings and sites of historical importance and works of art; setting up public libraries; promotion and development of traditional arts and handicrafts;
6. measures for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents;
7. training to promote rural sports, nationally recognized sports, paralympic sports and Olympic sports;
8. contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central Government for socio-economic development and relief and welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women;
9. contributions or funds provided to technology incubators located within academic institutions which are approved by the Central Government;
10. rural development projects;
11. slum area development.

Links given below show recent regulations for non CSR implementation-

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/jail-term-for-csr-violation-makes-firms-anxious/articleshow/70506775.cms https://thewire.in/business/csr-non-compliance-companies-act https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/editorial/csr-at-gunpoint/article28712749.ece http://www.ecoti.in/1ojrgY http://www.fiinovation.co.in/corporate-social-responsibility/