Aligning the CSR mandate

Corporations are careful to synchronise their social programmes with signals from the Union government

You could almost sense the dismay in C-suites across India following the news that the Union government was shelving its big-bang Gandhi Jayanti announcement of a blanket ban on six items that contain single use plastics (SUP). Judging from the hectic email traffic from corporate communications professionals and PR executives, it was clear that the impending SUP ban was about to become a major cause celebre in corporate India’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. 

There’s one thing to be said for Indian corporations. They may be short of innovation, strategic ideas or even governance standards, but on CSR they have