CSR Spending

Most of the CSR fund, which should ideally be spent for the benefit of the society, remains unutilised and is redirected to other government funds, Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra here said. According to Malhotra, who is also the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, the government mandates companies to spend 2 per cent of their annual profit on social causes and welfare. He made the remarks addressing the Healthcare CSR ChangeMakers Summit and Awards 2024, organised by HEAL Foundation. "Most CSR funds remain unutilised and are redirected to other government funds. CSR funds are allocated across 12 categories including education, health and Art and Literature. Proper utilisation of CSR funds could significantly benefit the society," the minister said, according to a statement by the NGO. He also praised HEAL Foundation's CSR initiatives in health and its support to marginalised athletes who won medals at international level. He highlighted

This data covers all companies listed on the NSE and those exclusively listed on BSE with a market capitalisation exceeding Rs 1,000 crore

In its ESG report 2023-24, ICICI Bank says it has allocated Rs 5.19 billion for corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in financial year 2024, up from Rs 4.63 billion the previous year

Reliance topped social spending from FY19 to FY22

At 'Budget with BS: The Fine Print,' Finance Secretary TV Somanathan said companies costs for interns will be funded through their CSR budgets

Tax authorities had earlier argued that since CSR expenditures were mandated by law, they were not voluntary and therefore, did not qualify as donations for tax deductions

India is yet to have a domestic carbon/green credit marketplace with the regulations for it under consideration. There are however independent agencies running such platforms

Commending the socially conscious people, especially the corporates, for their contributions, he termed it as a responsibility of the country to recognise these individuals

Stating that environmental causes accounted for less than a tenth of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding between 2015 and 2021, the International Climate Collaborative (ICC) on Thursday launched a dedicated platform to help funnel more resources for such purposes. The 'Earth Exponential' platform, which is backed by JSW Foundation, will bring together funders and non-profits and showcase credible, high-impact and India-led climate solutions, as per an official statement. The statement said in the seven years to 2021, environment-related causes got Rs 6,183 crore of the overall funding of Rs 67,193 crore in CSR. The platform will be curating, evaluating and displaying home-grown climate projects, and enabling them to scale by matching them to funders, it said. It aims to reduce entry barriers for funders through simplified solution discovery and knowledge building, the statement said. "India's home-grown climate solutions offer immense potential to address climate change

The second of a three-part series on corporate social responsibility (CSR) looks at whether companies are meeting spending expectations

CSR activities were not treated as a business expenditure

HCL Foundation, a CSR arm of HCL Technologies Ltd, on Thursday said it spent Rs 216 crore during the 2021-22 fiscal on several initiatives across urban and rural development besides environmental action, up by 10.76 per cent from over the year. About Rs 195 crore was the CSR investment made during the 2020-21 financial year. "HCL Foundation and its partners worked tirelessly with communities to multiply our programme reach by over 12 times since 2016. Our projects are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals... We remain committed to the long road ahead," said HCL Technologies CEO and Managing Director C Vijayakumar. Since 2016, the Foundation has spent Rs 900 crore on CSR programmes that span healthcare, sanitation, poverty eradication, education, skilling and livelihoods, environment and disaster risk reduction, the Foundation said in a statement. Speaking to PTI, HCL Foundation Vice President and Director Nidhi Pundhir said CSR programmes were implemented during the ...

New rules let companies omit details like title, location, and duration of the business's CSR project, budget allotted for it, the amount spent on it during the current fiscal year among others

CSR rules are applicable to companies with a net profit of over Rs 5 crore or networth of over Rs 500 crore or turnover of Rs 1,000 crore

Around 60 per cent of the total CSR funds spent by companies in the last seven financial years were in the areas of education, healthcare and rural development-related activities, according to the government. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, the corporate affairs ministry also informed that during the given period, around 33 per cent of the total CSR amount spent by companies were in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Under the Companies Act, 2013, a certain class of profitable companies are required to shell out at least two per cent of their three-year annual average net profit towards CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities in a particular fiscal. CSR is a board-driven process and the board of a company is empowered to plan, decide, execute and monitor CSR activities of the company based on the recommendation of its CSR Committee. Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh said in the written reply that the government doe

The CSR initiatives were spearheaded by Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries, led by Founder and Chairperson of the foundation Nita M. Ambani

Singh said it is a broad-based activity that the Board undertakes and we give general guidelines and the Board implements it

Overall CSR allocations appear to have taken a hit during the pandemic even as they became skewed towards certain sectors

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance expressed concerns over the monitoring mechanism in ensuring compliance with the provisions of CSR

Engineering conglomerate Larsen and Toubro (L&T) spent Rs 150 crore in FY'21 on corporate social responsibility activities, impacting 1.21 million beneficiaries. The beginning of the current year was noteworthy for L&T's efforts in corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the company's CSR team handed over two Integrated Community Development Projects (ICDPs) to the Tamil Nadu government's agriculture department at Kalangal village in Sulur block, an area that till recently was one of the most water-scarce places in the state. "With a CSR spend of Rs 1.5 billion in FY'21, 108 partners and several thousand suppliers and contractors, L&T's social initiatives have touched 1.21 million beneficiaries," the company said. The company said in building India's social infrastructure, the aim is to improve the quality of life, mitigate social inequalities, build self-sufficiency and help individuals achieve their true potential. The CSR team's various interventions in water and ...