Corporate Social Responsibility: An Analytical Study of Global and Indian Perspectives and Practices

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an increasingly popular and contentious field of study since the 1970s, when it began to garner serious scholarly attention. A recent Google search for the term ‘corporate social responsibility’ yielded over twenty-one million hits, and a Westlaw search for the same term returns over two thousand articles. The study and practice of corporate social responsibility appear to be alive and well, as thousands of companies are vying to gain recognition by adopting the CSR label. Since 2000, over 5300 businesses and 130 countries have joined the United Nations’ (‘UN’) Global Compact, the largest extant international CSR initiative. The World Bank, OECD, and the International Labor Organization all run similar initiatives with thousands of members. Traditionally business has been viewed beyond morality and public policy. The policy that might be right stands as the base of all entities. It is all about managing share holder infect, reputation and investing in the co-competent resources.