CSR In India- The Numbers Do Add Up

"Collaboration is the key to address the development challenges"  - Bhomik Shah

As we enter the second quarter of the 5th fi­nancial year since the applicability of mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) provisions, we see an array of business to government (B2G) and government to business (G2B) collaborations taking shape in the areas of education, healthcare, rural development and road safety awareness. This is just the beginning of collaborations for impacts in India.

The real intent behind bringing in CSR regulations in India and getting businesses involved in solving development challenges is to leverage the corporate innovations and management skills. As coined in one of the Committees’ report (constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, GoI) “CSR should not be interpreted as a source for ­financing the resources gaps in government schemes. Use of corporate innovations and management skills in the delivery of ‘public goods’ is at the core of CSR implementation by companies”.

With INR 11000-14000 Cr. annual in‑flow of fund for development interventions through CSR, India has defi­nitely taken a lead in pushing the idea of corporate philanthropy in the board-rooms and engaging the top-management of companies in ‘dialogue for development’. The fi­rst two years of regulations were dif­ficult for companies with large CSR budget, as they were required to set up internal processes and identify the right model and partners for implementation. As expected, many companies had bitter experiences of going wrong in the choice of programs and partners, and thereafter, the follow-up phase of course-correction has also ended with two more years of CSR compliance ending in March 2018.

Whether mandatory CSR has delivered as per the intent of the provisions or not is a point to be discussed and debated, but as a CSR practitioner and enabler in the CSR ecosystem we can vouch for the fact that it has changed the way businesses used to look at the social sector and humanitarian issues. It has furthered the idea of ‘community-engagement’ to the next level and has created an enabling environment for ‘collaborations for greater good’.

It will take time to add up the numbers and map the impacts created through all the CSR fund in the country, but it’s time to shoulder more responsibility in alignment with the spirit of the Act and co-create the projects and programs that go beyond the ‘boundaries’. Yes, the boundaries of a brand, a company and a group. We saw ‘re-inventing of wheels’ in India’s development ecosystem for decades and the initial years of CSR compliance are not much better than those. Shared vision and mission, shared objectives and co-created programmes by companies, not for pro­fits and government agencies, are the future of corporate social responsibility and sooner we adopt that, the better our programs and greater our impacts will be.

With the beginning of 5th year of CSR compliance, we see a new level of discussions among businesses, government agencies, NGO leaders and impact investors. The whole notion of CSR as ‘easy-money’ is fading away and the sense of accountability for each rupee going towards development is gaining the roots.

With the prescribed CSR spend of companies, that have to comply with the CSR rules, totalling over INR 50,000 Cr. for the fi­rst fi­ve years of the compliance, the future of corporate philanthropy in India is going to be defi­ned by how good we have used the fund in past four years and how we plan to use it in future for solving the challenges that our present and future generations are going to face.

This will also be a test of board-room decision-makers for setting up priorities by juxtaposing immediate gains of sheer philanthropy and long-term bene­fits of sustainability-oriented projects. Irrespective of what one prioritizes, we all have to agree that the CSR regulation is not just about the numbers but about the choices that we make to transform each number into a story of good.

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