32 Nifty companies spent less on CSR in 2015: Study

Six companies don't have a woman director, five of these are from public sector

Thirty-two of the Nifty 50 companies did not spend their prescribed amount for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in 2015, a survey on India's secretarial practices said on Wednesday. The top 50 companies, which include blue-chip stocks such as ACC, Adani, Bank of Baroda, and Infosys collectively spent Rs 3,989 crore on CSR, 79 per cent of the prescribed amount of Rs 5,046 crore.

Bengaluru-based CimplyFive Corporate Secretarial Services, which offers research and technology-based solutions for companies to comply with the Companies Act, surveyed the companies to look at compliance of secretarial practices for the first time in the country.

“The Companies Act, 2013 is a new legislation with unique concepts like secretarial audit and mandated CSR activities being introduced for the first time in any country across the world. This report compiles and compares various ways corporates have dealt with compliance with the Act in its first full year of promulgation,” said Suresh Senapaty, chairman, CimplyFive and former chief financial officer at Wipro.

Nine companies did not meet the requirement for the minimum number of independent directors, all belonging to the public sector. Six companies failed to have woman director on their boards; five are from the public sector, the study said. “The objective of this study is to gain insights to enhance professional excellence by analysing the practices of corporate leaders,” said Shankar Jaganathan, founder and CEO, CimplyFive.

A total of 157 unique rules, regulations, guidelines and standards were referred to in the secretarial audit reports of 47 Nifty companies. “Most organisations do not know how many laws or rules to comply with. Now, we have the universe of laws to start,” said Jaganathan in an interview. Forty-four per cent of the Nifty companies were audited by the top five company secretary firms; 52 per cent of Nifty companies by the top seven company secretary firms.

Average annual compensation for company secretaries is Rs 1.1 crore and the range of compensation varied from Rs 19 lakh to Rs 4.96 crore. Three out of 50 company secretaries of Nifty companies are women, the study noted.