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India CSR Companies Act Archives - GMJ Associates

30 Jul

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Update on India’s mandated CSR for Large Companies

30th July 2015 | By |

csr in indiaI’ve previously written about my interest in the development of India’s legal requirement that larger companies spend 2% of pretax profits on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. I came across this article which raises a number of problems in relation to this attempt to “mandate virtuous behavior by businesses”.

The writer points to the lack of penalties for non-compliance. Penalties can be enforced on companies only for failing to report on spending rather than on not spending the required amount. It could however be argued that in the interests of pragmatism it is far easier to track companies who fail to report and that those who do actually spend the required amount are likely to want to shout about it. However with news reports in India suggesting that as many as two-thirds of companies have failed to meet their obligations it does not appear that penalties for failing to report are being enforced. Read More

08 Jun

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India and legally mandated CSR

8th June 2015 | By |

India's Legally mandated CSRFor years CSR researchers and commentators have debated whether it is practical or even desirable to impose CSR requirements on business. So I was interested in the first major implementation of this in India which legally mandated CSR last year. The law applies to companies with net worth of 5 billion Rs. (approximately $80 million); turnover of 10 billion Rs. at least (approximately $160 million); or net profit that exceeds 50 million Rs. (approximately $830,000).

This article reviewing first 13 months of India CSR companies act provides an interesting review of progress so far and makes the point that the change in the ruling party after last year’s election slowed things down as many believed that legislation would be delayed or softened to be more ‘business-friendly’. Read More