CSR spend to rise; greater sensitisation needed: Smile Foundation

Says there is a need for greater sensitisation for the companies to give back to the society

Corporates can allocate Rs 20,000 -25,000 crore for their social responsibility initiatives, but there is a need for greater sensitisation for the companies to give back to the society, says non-profit organisation Smile Foundation.

"As the CSR spending is still not completely mandatory for the corporate yet, we expect a surge in the coming years when companies start witnessing the changes that start taking place at the grassroot levels," Smile Foundation Co-Founder Santanu Mishra said.

On the number of corporates who have mandated Smile Foundation for their CSR activities this year, Mishra said "... In total, be it a big or small support, around 100 corporates supported us last year alone, including Ericsson India, Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance and Indigo."

Mishra believes it makes business and economic sense for the organisations to form partnership and achieve the joint agenda of social development in an area of their choice.

"Such partnerships can play a complementary and supplementary role with the government mission of contributing towards social development in a much bigger way. In coming years, this trend is only going to grow stronger owing to a variety of reasons," he added.

He noted that "there is also a need for greater sensitisation for the companies to give back to the society and building positive and sustainable social changes that can also have business dividends."

Under the new companies law, certain class of profitable entities are required to shell out at least 2 per cent of their three-year annual average net profit towards the CSR activities. The first year of implementation was financial year (April 2014-March 2015) and compliance reports would be available by the end of this year.