Mokshith Venkata Shiva Bhyri, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University of Law, Hyderabad.
"There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.' Further, 'The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. - Mahatma Gandhi.
“In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is, in fact, the very purpose of its existence.” - Jamshedji Tata.
ABSTRACT:
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become the new norm for multiple business purposes- ranging from determining individual investment choices at a micro level to ranking corporations and determining indices at the macro level. Traditionally, companies were assessed solely based on financial parameters, broadly including net profits, revenue, sales growth, etc. This has gradually broadened to market share and other financial ratios like Return on Investment (ROI), ratios like debt to equity, etc. The advent of increased concerns on societal issues of increased poverty, unemployment, and lack of health care and education to the underprivileged has raised concerns over the multi-million earning corporations to give back to society through CSR initiatives. This field has further expanded due to the advent of environmental concerns about Global Warming and Climate Change and the increased concerns on corporations to account for the negative externalities caused by environmental pollution —paving the way for CSR as a broader subject, which grew in a step-by-step process. Over time, its significance has steadily been "normalised" to bypass CSR spending by using various loopholes in the legal framework, thereby using the same expenditure for the firm's benefit, making the very purpose of CSR meaningless. This paper discusses the growth of CSR in India and how the loopholes in the laws have led to corporations' bypassing funds.
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