An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility under the Companies Act

The concept of CSR has been prevalent in India even before the implementation of CSR policy in the Companies act 2013. The name in itself might be considered new but the idea could be traced back to as old as the history of the Mauryas wherein, great philosopher Kautilya pronounced the importance of implementing ethical practices and various principles in the working of a business. The term CSR in general was not being used but the concept of the same has been made use of since then or even before that. India has experienced and gone through a transformation of economic liberalization in the past few decades and is still one of the fastest developing countries. Meanwhile, the private and public industrial sectors have been successful in creating a good amount of wealth, even then there still exists a wide population of the country that is unknown to receiving and making use of basic amenities as the growth has not occurred proportionately. CSR i.e, corporate social responsibility, could be understood as the responsibility that the company bestows upon itself in order to help in the upliftment and betterment of society and the environment. These responsibilities are limited to the society but also extends to the betterment and well being of the employees. In this particular paper, the author shall lay down the various nuances seen in the existence of corporate social responsibility in India. The meaning of CSR, the major provisions that deal with the same, the activities which could be undertaken through means of CSR, the whole evolution of CSR in India and lastly a set of recommendations that might help in more effective CSR implementation has been written down. further, for a better understanding, the present scenarios of Reliance Industries in respect of CSR has been discussed.