Activities under CSR

Companies need to form a CSR committee, formulate a CSR policy, and

implement projects in alignment with Schedule VII of the act, Which
lists out the eligible activities, Suggesting that community development
has to be the focal point. The companies may implement these activities
on their own, or through non profit foundations, or by way of
collaborating their resources with other companies after seeking board
approval. Only CSR activities undertaken in India are taken into
consideration.
 Category break-up
• The companies contributed INR8550 crore towards CSR activities, with the
education sector consistently receiving maximum contribution over last three
years. Companies demonstrated somewhat equal enthusiasm towards
eliminating core problems like hunger and poverty, which received the second
highest funding. Companies have also substantially increased their contribution
to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
The big five
• Two government owned entities, Indian oil and ONGC and three private
companies, Reliance, HDFC and TCS, contribute a total of INR2810 crore for
different social development projects and made it to the list of top five CSR
contributors in 2019. However, the spending pattern was not found to be uniform
among the companies.
CSR in previous years
• Over a five year period, the CSR spends rose by 12.8% while net profits went up only by 5.2%. In
the last financial year, CSR contribution saw a 15% increase. Four loss making companies spent
INR 74.73 crore in total. Although the number of companies that underspent reduced by 5%
in2019, the unspent amount increased to INR700 crore from INR 490 crore in 2018. As a
companies are required to disclose the reason behind not spending in tune with the prescribed
CSR budget, a few companies attributed this to implementation issues.