CSR in the time of coronavirus

PM-CARES offers a handy panacea for CEOs' CSR headaches

Corporate India may be wallowing in forced inactivity but its publicity machinery remains as active as the Covid-19 virus. The provocation for this PR pandemic is the government’s decision to allow Covid-19-related expenditure within permitted corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity under the terms of the six-year-old mandate. 

The March 23 announcement included donations to the prime minister’s national relief fund (PMNRF) within allowable CSR spending. Five days later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered companies an even better option in the clumsily labelled Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations, which conveniently translates to PM-CARES. As atonement for serious lapses