Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a business philosophy that dictates that companies around the globe should deviate from the narrow path of chasing only financial gains and wealth buildup and embark on a journey of sustainable development.
It includes community welfare, ethical corporate conduct, climate action, defending the socio-economic rights of marginalised sections of society, among other aspects.

CSR in India

India harbours one of the earliest and richest traditions of CSR in the world in the form of philanthropy.
We can find Chanakya, also called Kautilya, the cardinal force behind Mauryan Imperialism, commenting and emphasising on the importance of observing ethical practices and principles while conducting commercial activities.
Our scriptures have also repeatedly echoed the importance of sharing business earnings with the deprived segments of the society.
In modern India, CSR was attributed with a whole new dimension with the “Trusteeship Theory” of Mahatma Gandhi, which considered the businessmen of India as trustees of trusts that looked after public welfare.

Legal Provisions

India is the first country in the world to make CSR mandatory, following an amendment to The Company Act, 2013 in 2014.
Any company that has a net worth of at least Rs 500 crore, a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or a net profit of Rs 5 crore is obliged to spend 2% of its average profits over the last three years on CSR.
Businesses can invest their profits in areas such as education, poverty, gender equality, and hunger as part of their CSR compliance, as regulated by the law.

According to the new rules, non-compliance to the CSR rules and obligations will no longer be treated as a criminal offence. These will now be treated as civil wrongs.
A company may engage International Organisations for designing, monitoring and evaluation of the CSR projects and for capacity building of their own personnel for CSR.
Any surplus income being generated through a company’s CSR activities can not form part of the company’s profit. The surplus shall be reinvested into the same project or shall be transferred to the Unspent CSR Account.
Any CSR expenditure that exceeds the required amount can be carried forward to the next three years.

Why in News?

IndianOil, an Indian government corporation, has committed to support the National TB elimination Program (NTEP) in India by providing an enabling environment through integrated and prioritised intervention with City Coordination Committees, District Health Societies, Technical support groups, etc., under its Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

Tuberculosis (TB) in India

TB continues to be one of India’s severest health challenges. India has a large number of ‘missing’ cases every year that are not detected or reported.
In 2018, the Government of India started a holistic initiative to End TB in India by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of 2030.
The government provisions a good amount of budget annually for the TB programme. However, considering its enormity, the efforts of the Government need to be supplemented by augmenting the existing resources, service delivery mechanism and infrastructure for identification of numerous missing TB patients every year.

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