CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: AN ANALYSIS OF HOW THINGS HAVE TRANSPIRED ACROSS YEARS OF MANDATORY CSR

Abstract

While there is no universally accepted definition of Corporate Social Responsibility, it can be described as the contribution of the corporate houses towards the society in order to compensate for the impacts they have and profits they reap from the society. CSR is a holistic approach, integrated with core business strategy for addressing social and environmental impacts of the business. With the implementation of the Companies Act, 2013, India became the first country to make CSR mandatory. The implementation of the Act is done with the intent to achieve basic ideals on which the concept of CSR is based and to create an environment in which every corporate house adheres to the expectations which are made of them by the society. Before the implementation of the act, the companies were contributing significantly to the economic development of the nation but their contribution to the society remained within philanthropic limits. The act made it compulsorily for the companies to participate in overall development of the Nation. There exists a vast undiscovered niche for the development of society to be done by the means of CSR activities. There is a need to regulate these activities properly so as to widen the scope of guidelines laid by the Indian Companies Act, 2013. It is very necessary that the companies not falling in the category of the ones required to discharge Corporate Social Responsibility compulsorily, be made to participate in the social development of the country. The study determines various short comings of the act and ways to overcome them in order to derive suggestions which have the potential to increase the efficiency of the act and also make companies to take the CSR activities not as a mere compulsion but on a voluntary basis.