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CSR Report Card: Where Companies Stand
It's about time corporate India learnt to handle its social responsibilities
What can’t be measured, can’t be improved. That was the spirit behind our effort to gather data on how much listed firms are spending on CSR currently. It turned out to be one of the most difficult exercises we have undertaken. Despite reaching out to them individually, we realised that there are many, even among the top 100 firms by revenue, who don’t report their CSR spends or even declare the social causes they support. That’s because they aren’t required to do so by law. But all that will change when the new Companies Bill (which has already been passed by the Lok Sabha) becomes a law, possibly by the end of the year.
“India’s top companies are ranked 1-100 based on Net Sales for the Financial Year 2012”
NOTABLE WORK BY SOME COMPANIES
Ashok Leyland
Operates a FunBus in Chennai and New Delhi. This bus, equipped with a hydraulic lift, takes differently abled children and those from orphanages and corporation primary schools on a day’s picnic. The company also runs AIDS awareness and prevention programmes in its Hosur factories for about 3.5 lakh drivers.
Axis Bank
The Axis Bank Foundation runs Balwadis which are learning places for children living in large urban slum clusters. It also conducts skill development programmes (PREMA and Yuva Parivartan) in motor driving, welding, mobile repairing, tailoring etc, for the youth in backward districts.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Its rain water harvesting project Boond, in association with the Oil Industries Development Board, selects draught-stricken villages to turn them from ‘water-scarce to water-positive’. Some of BPCL’s other social programmes include adoption of villages, prevention and care for HIV/AIDS and rural health care.
Hindalco Industries
Its CSR activities are concentrated in 692 villages and 12 urban slums, where it reaches out to about 26 lakh people. It has constructed check dams, ponds and bore wells to provide safe drinking water. In education, it awards scholarships to students from the rural schools it support. Its other interests include women’s empowerment and health care, in which it treats patients in hospitals, runs medical camps and operates rural mobile medical van services.
Indian Oil Corporation
It runs the Indian Oil Foundation (IOF), a non-profit trust, which works for the preservation and promotion of the country’s heritage. IOCL also offers 150 sports scholarships every year to promising youngsters. Some of its other initiatives lie in the domains of clean drinking water, education, hospitals and health care.
Infosys
The Infosys Science Foundation, set up in 2009, gives away the annual Infosys Prize to honour outstanding achievements in the fields of science and engineering. The company supports causes in health care, culture and rural development. In an interesting initiative undertaken by it, 100 school teachers in Karnataka, who were suffering from arthritis, underwent free surgery as a part of a week-long programme.
Mahindra & Mahindra
Nanhi Kali, a programme run by the KC Mahindra Education Trust, supports education of over 75,000 underprivileged girls. The trust has awarded grants and scholarships to 83,245 students so far. In vocational training, the Mahindra Pride School provides livelihood training to youth from socially and economically disadvantaged communities. M&M also works for causes related to environment, health care, sports and culture.
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation
It offers community-based health care services in rural areas through 30 Mobile Medicare Units (MMUs). The ONGC-Eastern Swamp Deer Conservation Project works to protect the rare species of Easter Swamp Deer at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. ONGC also supports education and women empowerment.
Tata Consultancy Services
Its Computer Based Functional Literacy (CBFL) initiative for providing adult literacy has already benefitted 1.2 lakh people. The programme is available in nine Indian languages. Besides adult education, TCS also works in the areas of skill development, health care and agriculture.
Tata Steel
It comes out with the Human Development Index (HDI), a composite index of health, education and income levels, to assess the impact of its work in rural areas. Health care is one of its main concerns. The Tata Steel Rural Development Society aims to improve agricultural productivity and raise farmers’ standard of living.
According to the Companies Bill, the following activities can be included in CSR: Eradication of hunger and poverty, promotion of education and gender equality, empowerment of women, reduction in child mortality and improvement in maternal health, combat of HIV and other diseases, environmental sustainability, vocational training, contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central or state governments, welfare of SC/STs and OBCs. The list is likely to grow as the exact provisions of the Bill are still being debated.
- All figures are in Rs Crore and have been rounded off to the nearest decimal point
- Avg PAT refers to the average of profit after tax recorded by a company in the last three financial years (FY10, FY11 and FY12)
- NA stands for data ‘not available’ for companies which do not disclose their CSR spends in their annual reports
- Revenue figures are indicative of the company’s financial performance in financial year 2011-12 (FY12) only
- 2% of PAT refers to the amount that a company needs to spend in CSR activities as per the government mandate
- N/A implies not applicable; according to government policy, loss-making firms don’t need to invest in CSR
- Data Sources Ace Equity; CSRidentity.com; company annual reports; company responses via email
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(This story appears in the 22 March, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Comments 17
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R V MalsheI am associated with an Organisation named \" Vidyadan Sahayak Mandal \" Thane, Maharashtra. We help children from Economically Backward Class. We have a CONCEPT viz : Palak-Karyakarta. Palak Karyakarta is assigned one or two students and he looks after them as far as his/her educational needs. Financial aid is provided by VSM. We shall appreciate if we get an opportunity to present ourselves to different corp orates in person , I am sure they will definitely appreciate our work and will be happy to join us. R V Malshe 9324805356/9619613117.
on Apr 27, 2016 -
Indraneel Karmakar
Its a good research done by the team. I would like to add an appeal i.e. \'All corporates should put their CSR contact in their website\' Thanks
on Dec 26, 2015 -
Kush
Good article on what is needed \'by law\'. I write this in 2015 when Companies Act has been passed. I was doing research on this and I want to do everything I can to request the community/CSR mgmt to not just \'follow the law\'. A well aligned, defined CSR program is needed by society and the organization. 2% of PAT is a lot of money but please spend sometime in aligning your CSR program with the work your company does. That will maximize the benefit. My thoughts are given in this article - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/csr-reporting-era-companies-act-2013-kush-kapur (LinkedIn/Pulse). Let me know of your thoughts at kapur_kush@outlook.com
on Aug 3, 2015 -
Brijendra Singh
There are no sufficient amount and no proper way implement by company . It is so important some surrounding area is fully covered by all development by company .
on Dec 24, 2014 -
Ms. Kanak K Pandey
2% Profit After Tax (PAT) is not sufficient amounts to fund under CSR because maximum companies have established their own trust or NGO through their relatives and it is not sure they are spending for development of marginalized or underprivileged community in India otherwise India must be build up slum free and every one enjoy with economically balanced life. 9818867796
on Sep 1, 2014 -
Soubhagini Mohanty
Those company not willing to take CSR, they are depriving natural resources, human resources. SEBI should take initiative that certain percentage are given by the co. profit for CSR
on Jun 19, 2014 -
Deepanjan Biswas
The rule of the nature says, you can\'t grow and become strong until you allow others also to grow and become strong. For example- in agriculture you would find that the plants which grow faster would be most affected with pest
on May 8, 2014 -
P.k. Patnaik
CSR responsibilty is just not spending 2% PAT. It must spell strategy of the company and utilisation of its fund towards the social causes it supports. In a way it should reflect what the company stand for in the social platform and its CSR spendings is directly or remotely aligned for sustainability of its business as well. These will make the program cohesive and truly reflect value in the long run. PK Patnaik President (09810088404) Community Infrastructure Development Alternatives (CIDAL), Not for Profit- for Community. ()
on Dec 26, 2013 -
Ujjwal Kumar Mallik
2% of net profit is very meagre, our country has given much, may deserve to get more the bus. tycoons; by sacrificing thy will show theirs love to theirs motherland.
on Aug 28, 2013 -
Kamalnath Shenoy
CSR Report Card: Where Companies Stand is a good compilation. Although, all other figures are clear, there is no clarity on - what period \"Actual spend\" refers to.
on Jun 6, 2013 -
Khurram Naayaab
Dear Team, This is a good research; but please note that as per the New Companies Bill companies are not mandated to spend 2% of PAT rather they have to report on how much they have spend on CSR. This data they need to put in the public domain. We all get confused that companies are mandated to spend 2% of PAT. Open for any further discussions on this. Warm regards Khurram 8800892410 ____________________________________________________ Khurram Naayaab | Manager – CSR and Social Compliance | Cairn India Limited | 2nd Floor, Vipul Plaza , Sun City, Sector - 54, Gurgaon - 122002 | Haryana | India | T 91 8800892410 | 91 124 4593018 Ext.: 3018 | Blackberry PIN 29924CA1| E khurram.naayaab@cairnindia.com | www.cairnindia.com |
on May 4, 2013 -
Forbes Reader
Interesting study. It is sad to see that none of the companies are spending more than 2% of PAT in CSR. I always thought that Infosys foundation ( and not Infosys science foundation) that does the CSR, on behalf of Infosys. Any idea about Indian Railways ( the largest single corporation in india) ? How much do they spend on CSR ?
on Mar 26, 2013 -
Pradeep Kumar Jain
Surprisingly, i could not find any mention about the Water. I understand more than 60% of Indian population do not have access to the safe drinking water.
on Mar 25, 2013 -
Sanchi Arora
Hi Greetings! I wanted to know the source of the data in the \'Actual Spend\' column. I want to use this data for a research project. Kindly revert back at the earliest! Thanks a ton.
on Mar 21, 2013-
Cuckoo
Dear Sanchi, The actual spend data is sourced from mainly from the company annual reports wherever available and from emails to the management.
on Mar 28, 2013
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Gitima
This article has published only the rankings. There is no mention of the parameters on which these companies have been evaluated or the methodology adopted to arrive on these rankings.
on Mar 18, 2013-
Shravan Bhat
Hi Gitima, We thought the best way to approach the issue of CSR spends was to look at India\'s 100 biggest companies. The 100 we have listed here are the largest by \'Net Sales in 2012\'. We felt that since Profit After Tax and therefore the CSR spend itself would be derived from this, it\'s a good parameter to rank companies by. We have not evaluated the nature of CSR programs; we have chosen to give readers a sense of how much companies would be spending, if the 2% rule was followed. We are working on making this clearer to readers - thanks for bringing up the point.
on Mar 18, 2013
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