ST.

XAVIER’S COLLEGE (Autonomous)

PALAYAMKOTTAI - 627002
P.G DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK

SECOND CONTINUOUS INTERNAL ASSESSMENT TEST II CIA

2019 - 2020
SEMESTER - IV

PAPER: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES (18psw43)

NAME : S. MURUGAN@KARTHICK
REGISTER NUMBER : 18PSW20

                                                         
                                                           
 PART 1
1. What is the meaning of social responsibility?

 Social responsibility is an ethical framework and suggests that an individual, has an

obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every
individual has to perform to maintain a balance between the economy and the
ecosystems.
 Working for the community, such as volunteering, giving blood donations, and working
at a food bank or animal shelter. Supporting issues that affect society, such as advocating
political or social issues that can help others—for example, advocating for child labor
laws, purchasing fair trade products, recycling. 
2. Mention the advantages of partnership?
 two heads (or more) are better than one
 business is easy to establish and start-up costs are low
 more capital is available for the business
 greater borrowing capacity
 high-caliber employees can be made partners
 there is opportunity for income splitting, an advantage of particular importance due to
resultant tax savings
 partners’ business affairs are private
 there is limited external regulation
 it’s easy to change legal structure later if circumstances change. 

3. WHAT YOU MEAN BY CSO?

 CSO-Corporate social responsibility      
  A civil society organization (CSO) is a group of people which operates in the
community, in a way that is distinct from both government and business. 
 Non-State, not-for-profit, voluntary entities formed by people in the social sphere that are
separate from the State and the market. CSOs represent a wide range of interests and ties.
They can include community-based organizations as well as non-governmental
organizations (NGOs).

4.EXPAND: TVS, MRF, NTPL, CTS.

 TVS - Thirukkurungudi Vengaram Sundram.

 MRF - Madras Rubber Factory
 NTPL -Thermal Power Station 
 CTS- Cognizant- Technology Solutions

5. WHICH COUNTRY MADE CSR AS MANDATORY FOR CORPORATE

COMPANIES?

              On April 1, 2014, India became the first country to legally mandate corporate social
responsibility. The new rules in Section 135 of India's Companies Act make it mandatory for
companies of a certain turnover and profitability to spend two percent of their average net profit
for the past three years on CSR.
PART-B

7. ENLIGHTEN THE IMPORTANT SKILLS REQUIRED FOR PROFESSIONAL

SOCIAL WORKERS.
Introduction:

Social work requires a diverse and demanding range of professional, emotional, and cognitive
skills. While many people who become social workers have a natural aptitude for these skills, it
is essential to hone them throughout one’s career. In fact, becoming a life-long learner is an
ethical requirement of professional social workers.     

Active Listening:
 Much of a social worker’s role is to listen effectively. This means reflecting back what
clients say and being engaged in every conversation so that they know you understand
them. Most importantly, active listening not only builds a therapeutic alliance, but clients
also feel seen and understood by you. Feeling visible and affirmed is a core component
of any therapeutic alliance in any practice setting.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

 Many people who decide to be social workers already have a high EQ, or emotional
intelligence. This includes high levels of self-awareness, empathy, and sensitivity to
others. Social work will often require balancing what you know (e.g., symptoms of a
certain mental illness) and what you intuit (i.e., reading between the lines of what is
said).

Critical Thinking:
 Part of what makes social work so challenging—and rewarding—is the fact that each
individual or group is dealing with a unique set of circumstances and requires a unique
solution. That’s why critical thinking skills are very important in social work. After
identifying the nature of the problems experienced by their clients, social workers use
critical and creative thinking to develop practical solutions. Social workers use logic,
analysis, and creativity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
and find a solution for each case.
Organization:

 In addition to helping clients, social workers provide case management services, such as
billing, maintaining collateral relationships, making phone calls, and networking with
other service providers. Providing clinical case management and psychosocial support
requires a great deal of organization and the ability to prioritize according to the urgency
of a client’s needs.
Tolerance

 Social workers work with diverse clients. Being culturally responsive and approaching
clients who are from different racial, socio-economic, and ethnic communities with
respect and openness is a core component of social work practice.

Setting Boundaries

 Social workers often feel that their work is never truly complete, and many take the
emotional stress of their work home with them (intentionally or not). Setting boundaries
between yourself and your clients, protecting time for self-care, and seeking support
through one’s family, friends, and a broader professional community will help you create
a healthier work-life balance. Leaving work at the office and enjoying personal time will
make you a more effective professional and a happier individual.

Communication:

 Social workers must communicate in many different ways and with many different
people. It is important to be clear and transparent about the scope of services that you can
provide as their social worker. This means saying what is within the realm of possibility
and what is not. These can be hard conversations to have, especially when you want to do
all you can to help your client. But, as you will learn in time, we have our limits. Be sure
to incorporate this discussion as you are building a relationship during contracting and
goal setting. Thus, this process is both written and verbally explored. Additional
communication occurs between care providers, and you will be required to document
what you do with your clients and to provide written reports for third party payers, your
supervisor or agency administration, and co-workers.

Information Gathering:
 Clients are not always forthcoming with their personal history, current circumstances, or
many of the details social workers need to make informed decisions. Being able to
effectively gather and interpret social, personal, environmental, and health information is
an important part of social work. That’s why the best social workers are the ones who
know how to find and identify essential information.

Time Management:

 Related to organizational skills, social workers must also have strong time-management
practices. Because social workers juggle multiple cases and administrative
responsibilities at once, they must effectively manage their time to ensure all clients
 receive the care, attention, and service they need. Time management also plays a role in
preventing “burnout” from being overworked.

Persuasion:
 Social workers must establish achievable treatment goals with their clients, but getting
them to take action can be another challenge altogether. The ability to inspire,
invite/encourage, or even excite others to act is invaluable to any social worker since it
can mean the difference between a positive outcome and inaction/stagnation/delay. Social
workers must learn different methods of motivation so they can affect clients with
different personalities, experiences, and objections.

Cooperation:
Leadership and sustainability development on CSR for team
 Social workers are often part of a much larger team of service providers. For example,
medical social workers are part of a team comprised of care providers and administrators
attached to a specific client. For this reason, the ability to work with others is essential.
Social workers must be able to negotiate, compromise, and coordinate with others to
ensure that a client’s needs are addressed.
Advocacy
 As the voice of their clients, social workers routinely advocate on behalf of the
individuals, groups, and families they serve. Advocacy involves speaking out and acting
in the best interest of others. Social workers may advocate to create new programs, revise
outdated policies, or expand existing programs to ensure that their clients obtain the
treatment and services they need. Advocacy is a powerful means of bringing about
positive change and empowering people to take agency in their lives.
 Which CSR skills will your team need? To foster inclusivity and enhance a culture of
community and shared values, it is central that a CSR team be comprised of a diverse
group of individuals. The team could consist of employees with comprehensive and
relevant sets of skills, experience, and knowledge as follows:
Employment relations:
 A specific set of skills and knowledge is required in the spheres of employment relations
and job promotion. By understanding the challenges faced by businesses and their needs
in terms of skills, these employees would be able to identify practical solutions for
promoting employment through the development of partnerships with corporations.
 Having a solid knowledge of the challenges involved in the promotion of employment,
these employees would be able to identify NGOs and/or foundations whose initiatives
would have the greatest potential for success.
National and International labour legislation:
 Employees with expertise in this area will ensure that the organization responds to
feedback from national and international institutions and adapts accordingly. The
presence of experts in the field of labour legislation will be a valuable asset to the
organization, as they would provide relevant information on practical measures and
initiatives that have already been undertaken by the organization in collaboration with
 global enterprises and civil society. All of this can then be effectively communicated to
international stakeholders, thereby demonstrating the organization’s positive
achievements. (This position/ these skills could also be sourced in-house).
 

(c) Safeguarding well-being
 (including health, safety, and the environment): Safeguarding the quality of life and the
environment is essential to human development. Our economy is based on resources from
the environment, and our health and well-being (and hence our productivity) are
inextricably linked to its quality. The team will, therefore, require individuals with an
understanding of the environment, climate change, human health and well-being, and
environmental engineering. This expertise will be important in order to further promote
the practice of “sustainable governance” as emulated by other public and/or private
organizations in the country and region.
 
(d) Business:
 The advice and contribution of experienced professionals from the world of business play
an important role in reaching out to companies. These employees, because of their
experience, understand the needs and challenges of businesses and, therefore, are able to
bring on board employers’ perspectives and practices. Their experience places them in
the best position to communicate with corporations and businesses in general.
 
(e) Social studies/ Gender balance:
 Further integration of women into the workforce will require these employees to have a
profound understanding of gender dynamics and an in-depth knowledge of successful
practices and theories in regard to women’s engagement, together with an ability as to
how to address gender matters within the cultural context.
 
(f) Mediation skills:
 This is a crucial skill needed for handling enquiries from organizations that do not yet
fully see the added value of CSR. Mediation skills will encourage dialogue among the
different parties to take place and will close the gap between parties holding differing,
and sometimes conflicting, positions.
 
(g) Monitoring and evaluation skills:
 It is recommended that a reliable reporting system be set to facilitate the assessment of
the efficacy of CSR mechanisms and of the partnerships and collaboration with
corporations and NGOs/foundations that are being developed—all of which will facilitate
the honing, if required, of areas of focus.
 An experienced professional in program management with strong monitoring and
evaluation skills would work towards guaranteeing the quality of outcomes, establishing
transparency for the CSR strategies, and analysing the programs and activities deployed
by organization. Moreover, should the organization decide to run social audits of their
suppliers, monitoring and evaluation skills would be invaluable in providing a
standardized social auditing system to measure the impact of the strategies.
  It is also recommended to measure and report on the progress made in each of these
categories of responsibilities by means of the use of unique CSR monitoring tools and
key performance indicators (KPIs). The Department should use KPIs as the basis for
analyzing and tracking performance and for assessing the efficacy of key strategic
decisions regarding staffing and resources, as well as for making recommendations to
improve future departmental performance.
 Furthermore, when the findings and recommendations of CSR reports will be in the
process of implementation, auditing and reporting mechanisms should indicate the use of
recognized standards, and should reflect the strategies and programs that form the core of
the organizational activities.
 For optimal performance and to ensure long-term success, it is vital that an initial phase
of team building be organized with to promote a climate of trust and collaboration, thus
enhancing synergy (where separate elements work together and cooperate as a totality).
This will foster critical cohesion and a sense of unity—qualities which are conducive to
achieving common goals.
 Team-building exercises can be a powerful way of creating strong teams, where people
feel part of something larger and where they work cohesively to achieve the objectives of
the organization for the greater good.
1. Understand the variety:

 CSR is an umbrella term that many companies use to describe a variety of activities. To
some businesses, CSR can refer to their sustainability efforts (minimizing their
environmental footprint), their investment in community initiatives, their employee
volunteerism, or the management of their corporate foundations. You could also be
consulting or advising corporations on their CSR efforts.
Focus on skill set:
Companies want to know what you can do for them, and how your unique skill set will be
beneficial for the company. In CSR it’s about knowing how to communicate well and turn
insights and research into compelling cases in presentations, writings and conversations. There
always needs to be a business case for why things should be done, with small CSR budgets, it is
important that you can be resourceful and connect the dots.

 Interpersonal: CSR leads are required to work across departments and are responsible
for communicating and collaborating with others. CSR is not always in an established
department, so you need to rely on your relationships to get things done. You have to be a
visible leader and able to rally the troops.
 Communication: Knowing how to communicate well, both verbally and written is a
critical must-have skill for a career in corporate social responsibility. You are responsible
for communicating everything from the business case to your impact and need to be able
to tailor the message to different audiences and stakeholders.
 Systems thinking and connecting the dots: CSR is a cross sectoral and often requires
partnerships with other organizations. Being able to see the big picture and explain how
your organization fits into the greater cause will be important.
  Business Acumen: Strategic thinking, sustainability, research, analytics, and marketing
are some of the most common skill-sets looked for in a CSR role (dependant on the
company).
 Interpersonal: CSR leads are required to work across departments and are responsible
for communicating and collaborating with others. CSR is not always in an established
department, so you need to rely on your relationships to get things done. You have to be a
visible leader and able to rally the troops.
 Communication: Knowing how to communicate well, both verbally and written is a
critical must-have skill for a career in corporate social responsibility. You are responsible
for communicating everything from the business case to your impact and need to be able
to tailor the message to different audiences and stakeholders.
 Systems thinking and connecting the dots: CSR is a cross sectoral and often requires
partnerships with other organizations. Being able to see the big picture and explain how
your organization fits into the greater cause will be important.
 Business Acumen: Strategic thinking, sustainability, research, analytics, and marketing
are some of the most common skill-sets looked for in a CSR role (dependant on the
company).

Familiarise yourself with the language of CSR:

 If you’re looking to get a job in CSR it’s important you’re able to speak the language of
sustainability. If you want to walk the walk, you need to talk the talk. As CSR can be a
cross-sectoral field, it will become increasingly important to understand the terminology
of business, non-profit, and public policy. Here’s our beginner’s guide to CSR language.
Build your personal brand:
 Let your online presence speak louder than the words on your resumé by showing, not
just telling future employers what you’re expertise is in. Ensure your LinkedIn profile is
up to date, and share your thoughts and knowledge. A well-crafted online presence can
go a long way to differentiating you from your competition. Who knows—your future
boss could be your latest Twitter follower or blog reader.
Take advantage of networking events
 Don’t spend all your time perfecting your resumé and responding to job ads. Attend
conferences and events to build your network and expand your connections in the sector.
A large number of jobs are filled through connections and referrals, as people like to hire
people they already know or have heard of.
Talk to people:
 Talking to people who have the type of job you want or who are working for
organizations you are interested in is one of the best ways to learn more about potential
job opportunities. Before you start leveraging your network (or your contacts’ network)
to set up informational interviews, take the time to ask yourself what you want. If you
start meeting with people before you are ready, you risk making a poor first impression.
Embrace twitter:
 Never has access to top industry experts been so available as many CSR leaders have
twitter accounts. Follow these key hashtags: CSR, susty ESG, SRI, CSR chat (a twitter
chat about CSR), sustainability
Be resourceful:
  Go beyond to learn about the industry you are interested in. Investigate the company you
are targeting, uncover details and work hard to set yourself apart. Demonstrate that you
took the time to get to know the topic you are heading into.
Get intrapraneutrial:
 Not everyone can find their CSR job right away, but there’s ways to make any job more
meaningful. Bring forward your favourite cause/charity, spearhead a volunteer program, 
help plan a sustainability program for your company or get your company B corp
certified.
 
Read more:
Stay up to date with the latest issues and trends with these resources:

 Corporate Knights
 Stanford Social Innovation Review 
 CSR wire
 Triple Pundit
 3bl 
 Aspen Institute 
 Net Impact 
 Boston College Centre for Corporate Citizenship 

Conclusion:
Social workers should be known about the particular issues with deep learning many when at the
time of working areas and then our working to change to the sustainable development for people
well-being in the society. So as a social worker must to be develop the interpersonal skills which
working corporate and within the groups.
8. EXPLICATE THE NEED FOR PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP?
Introduction:

 Public-private partnerships involve collaboration between a government agency and a

private-sector company that can be used to finance, build, and operate projects, such
as public transportation networks, parks, and convention centers. 
 The use of public-private partnerships to design, build and deliver infrastructure
worldwide has grown significantly in the past decade. Yet the availability of reliable
information to help governments and advisors design and deliver projects well has
lagged behind. The PPP Knowledge Lab brings together the most relevant and
authoritative resources on public-private partnerships in one location to empower
governments and their advisors to design and deliver best-in-class infrastructure
projects.
 Launched in 2015 by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Inter-American Development Bank
(IADB), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the World Bank Group, with the
support from PPIAF, the PPP Knowledge Lab serves the needs of governments and
 practitioners alike, filling the gap in reliable, trustworthy knowledge about public-
private partnerships.
 A PPP Project means a project based on a contract or concession agreement, between
a Government or statutory entity on the one side and a private sector company on the
other side, for delivering a service on payment of user charges. The rights and
obligations of all stakeholders including the government, users and the concessionaire
flow primarily out of the respective PPP contracts.
 Unlike private projects where prices are generally determined competitively and
Government resources are not involved, PPP projects typically involve transfer of
public assets, delegation of governmental authority for recovery of user charges,
private control of monopolistic services and sharing of risks and contingent liabilities
by the Government.
 The justification for promoting PPP lies in its potential to improve the quality of
service at lower costs, besides attracting private capital to fund public projects. For
creating a transparent, fair and competitive environment, the Government of India has
been relying increasingly on standardising the documents and processes for award
and implementation of PPP projects.
 A poorly structured PPP contract can easily compromise user interests by recovery of
higher charges and provision of low quality services. It can also compromise the
public exchequer in the form of costlier or uncompetitive bids as well as subsequent
claims for additional payments or compensation.
 The process of structuring PPPs is complex and it is, therefore, necessary to rely on
experienced consultants for procuring financial, legal and technical advice in
formulating project proposals and bid documents for award and implementation of
PPP projects in an efficient, transparent and fair manner.
Model Concession Agreement (MCA) 

 MCA forms the core of public private partnership (PPP) projects in India. The MCA
spells out the policy and regulatory framework for implementation of a PPP project. It
addresses a gamut of critical issues pertaining to a PPP framework like mitigation and
unbundling of risks; allocation of risks and returns; symmetry of obligations between the
principal parties; precision and predictability of costs & obligations; reduction of
transaction costs and termination. The MCA allocates risk to parties best suited to
manage them.
 Planning Commission developed the first version of the Model Concession Agreement
(MCA). This was done considering the need to standardize documents and processes for
the PPP framework in the country for ensuring uniformity, transparency and quality in
development of large-scale infrastructure projects.
 Subsequently, the Planning Commission had developed various other versions of the
MCA considering the different PPP modes like Built Operate Transfer (BOT) (Toll),
BOT (Annuity), Design, Build, Operate and Transfer (DBOT) and Operate Maintain and
Transfer (OMT) addressing to a significant extent, the changing needs of the sector.

Knowledge Base to Support PPP Projects in the Time of COVID-19

  At the start of 2020, COVID-19 spread across the world at an unyielding pace. What
began as global jitters has evolved into unprecedented disturbances in the
economy, health systems and daily life. In Asia and the Pacific,
 the impacts of the pandemic have reverberated among its population of more than 4
billion and in its network of vital supply chains. In the face of such challenges, the region
must respond quickly and collectively to save lives and build resilience against future
pandemics.
 This policy note summarizes the key impacts of COVID-19 in the Asia-Pacific region
and suggests short- and medium-term recommendations for consideration by member
States to shape responses for a sustainable future.
Responding to COVID-19: The need for PPP, low-cost R&D and production
 The current coronavirus pandemic has once again brought to the fore the fundamental
question of how markets solve for what some are calling a ‘Black Swan’ event. Market
signals are unable to capture the catastrophic risk of such rare and unpredictable
happenings. When such events do occur, as they would, given enough time, the result is
massive destruction, both social and economic. 
 While there is some controversy around whether the current crisis is really a black swan
event, with experts pointing to frequent similar coronavirus outbreaks over the last few
decades, in any case, it would seem that markets have failed to provide a solution, unable
to marshal the needed resources.
 On a closer look, it seems such events have other important characteristics, somewhat
uncorrelated to the black swan aspect, which make them unlikely candidates for a market
solution anyway.
 One of these is that while such events are devastating, they do not create a sustained
long-term demand for a solution, since they usually run their course in a matter of weeks
or months.
 Then, there is the problem of the kind of investments needed to develop solutions, either
preventive or curative, which entail massive research and development (R&D) costs to be
sunk for many long years, usually spanning decades, with a high risk of failure. All these
characteristics add up quickly to make such problems an extremely poor business case for
private investments;essentially, creating a sort of market failure.
 They are not even good candidates insurance, since the risks are systemic and mostly
result in loss of lives, leaving assets unharmed. 
 Irrespective, most people would today agree that a sustainable strategy needs to be
devised to prevent and mitigate such epidemics, especially now that the catastrophic costs
are a lived experience for about half the world’s population currently in lockdown of
some sort or the other. One tried and tested option is for the public sector to step in and
collaborate with the private sector to provide the needed funding and support.
 Such an approach would involve public-private partnerships (PPP) to provide long-term
funding for researchers and the scale of production needed to tackle such pandemics.
Given the systemic risk of such epidemics in our highly interconnected world, as is being
witnessed in the current crisis, this would have to be achieved through international
pooling of resources. 
 Once a robust mechanism for such funding has been put in place, it is of utmost
importance to ensure that research projects are able to derive maximum mileage from
 these funds. This is where a low-cost, high-skill research destination like India takes
center stage. India is rapidly emerging as the R&D hub of the world. The great Stanley
Plotkin, who had developed the rubella vaccine in 1964, recently remarked in an
interview about the impressive advent of Indian vaccine companies.
Example:  
 For example, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, has collaborated with leading US
companies to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. In a recent interview, its CEO Adar
Poonawalla claimed to have made surprisingly good progress and expected entering
animal studies by the end of April and go to human trials by the end of the year, with a
possible launch by early 2021, if everything goes well. 
 Once a vaccine has been discovered, approved and licensed, the next challenge is of
manufacturing at scale with low costs. Here again, India has a substantial cost and
resource advantage. As of 2017, India manufactured more than 60% of the world’s
vaccines. The Serum Institute of India is currently the world’s largest vaccine
manufacturer. As per the institute, vaccines manufactured by Indian companies are
usually sold for half the price or even less compared with the vaccines produced by
manufacturers from overseas and imported into India. 
 While public-private partnership is an important lever, the partnership should not end
with the development and production of a successful vaccine. It would be important to
ensure affordability for mass immunization. Given the ethical considerations and the
public investments and support involved, private corporations should minimize the profit
imperative and instead aim for eradication and treatments for such diseases. 
Conclusion:

 The public private partnership is a government and business traders involving area. It is a
good though sometimes failure. It is neither good or bad although the project can be a
success of a failure. The term PPP describe a contract between public and private entities.
The public entity lends money and support to the partnership because it plans to receive
some public use out of the project. For example, roads, sewers, parking and public
transit.This time it is useful for covid 19 related environmental development work.
10. EXPLAIN THE COMPANIES ACT (CLAUSE 135) AND SCHEDULE VII ?
Corporate Social Responsibility: 
Every company having net worth of rupees five hundred crore or more, or turnover of rupees one
thousand crore or more or a net profit of rupees five crore or more during any financial year shall
constitute a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board consisting of three or more
directors, out of which at least one director shall be anindependent director.
The Board's report under sub-section (3) of section 134 shall disclose the composition of the
Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.
The Corporate Social Responsibility Committee shall, 

 Formulate and recommend to the Board, a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy which
shall indicate the activities to be undertaken by the company as specified in Schedule VII;
  recommend the amount of expenditure to be incurred on the activities referred to in
clause (a); and
 monitor the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy of the company from time to time.
 The Board of every company referred to in sub-section (1) shall
 formulate and recommend to the Board, a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy which
shall indicate the activities to be undertaken by the company as specified in Schedule
VII;after taking into account the recommendations made by the Corporate Social
Responsibility Committee, approve the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy for the
company and disclose contents of such Policy in its report and also place it on the
company's website, if any, in such manner as may be prescribed; and
 ensure that the activities as are included in Corporate Social Responsibility Policy of the
company are undertaken by the company.
The Board of every company referred to in sub-section (1), shall ensure that the company
spends, in every financial year, at least two per cent of the average net profits of the Company
made during the three immediately preceding financial years,in pursuance of its Corporate Social
Responsibility Policy:
 Provided that the company shall give preference to the local area and areas around it
where it operates, for spending the amount earmarked for Corporate Social Responsibility
activities:
 Provided further that if the company fails to spend such amount, the Board shall, in its
report made under clause (o) of sub-section (3) of section 134, specify the reasons for not
spending the amount.
Schedule VII:
The Policy recognizes that corporate social responsibility is not merely compliance; it is a
commitment to support initiatives that measurably improve the lives of underprivileged by one
or more of the following focus areas as notified under Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013
and Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules 2014:
1. Eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, promoting health care including
preventive health care and sanitation including contribution to the Swachh Bharat Kosh
set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of sanitation and making available
safe drinking water.
2. Promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation
skills especially among children, women, elderly and the differently abled and livelihood
enhancement projects.
3. Promoting gender equality, empowering women, setting up homes and hostels for
women and orphans; setting up old age homes, day care centres and such other facilities
for senior citizens and measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and
economically backward groups;
4. Ensuring environmental sustainability, ecological balance, protection of flora and
fauna, animal welfare, agroforestry, conservation of natural resources and maintaining
quality of soil, air and water including contribution to the Clean Ganga Fund set-up by
the Central Government for rejuvenation of river Ganga;
5. Protection of national heritage, art and culture including restoration of buildings and
sites of historical importance and works of art; setting up public libraries; promotion and
development of traditional arts and handicrafts;
 6. measures for the benefit of armed forces veteran, war widows and their dependents;
7. Training to promote rural sports nationally recognized sports and Olympic sports;
8. PM Relief fund: contribution to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund or any other
fund set up by the Central Government for socio-economic development and relief and
welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes,
minorities and women; and
9. contributions or funds provided to technology incubators located within academic
institutions which are approved by the Central Government;
10. Rural development projects.
11. Slum area development
Explanation. —For the purposes of this item, the term ‘slum area’ shall mean any area
declared as such by the Central Government or any State Government or any other
competent authority under any law for the time being in force.
a. In item (i), after words "and sanitation", the words "including contribution to the
Swach Bharat Kosh set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of
sanitation" shall be inserted;
b. In item (iv), after the words "and water "the words "including contribution to the
Clean Ganga Fund set-up by the Central Government for rejuvenation of river
Ganga" shall be inserted;
c. (Amendment Dated 30.05.2019) In exercise of the powers conferred by sub- section (1)
of section 467 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013), the Central Government hereby
makes the following further amendments to Schedule VII of the said act, namely :- In the
said Schedule VII, after item (xi) and the entries relating thereto, the following item and
entries shall be inserted, namely.
d. Disaster management, including relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities.
Amount spent in above activities are qualified as CSR activities the interpretation of Sch. VII is
broad and open and its scope is wide to help of Corporates.
Background:
 Per Section 135 of the Companies Act ("CSR provisions"), every company with net
worth of INR 500 crore, or turnover of INR 1000 crore or more or net profit of 5 crore or
more is mandated to spend 2% of average net profit of the preceding three (3) years on
corporate social responsibilities/CSR activities.
 Since the time CSR provisions were first introduced, the list of CSR activities
enumerated under Schedule VII of the Companies Act have been amended by the
government from time to time. Most of the items enumerated under Schedule VII since
its inception has been framed around activities pertaining to social welfare and charitable
activities with key focus on eradicating extreme hunger and poverty, promotion of
education, gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving
maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability and protection of national heritage
amongst others.
 For instance, the pre-amended item (ix) under Schedule VII of the Companies Act
pertained to contributions and funds that could be made to technology incubators located
within academic institutions.
Expansion of schedule VII 
  Vide the recent amendment, item (ix) of Schedule VII has been further expanded and
substituted with earlier entries as follows:
a. Incubators funded by the Central Government or State Government or any agency or
b. Public Sector Undertakings ("PSUs") of Central Government or State Government, and
c. Public funded universities such as Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), National
Laboratories and
d. Autonomous Bodies which have been established under the auspices of Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Department of Economic Research (DAE),
Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Department of Science and
Technology (DST), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
e. Further, the incubators, agencies, PSUs, universities and autonomous bodies should
primarily be engaged in conducting research in science, technology, engineering and
medicine aimed at promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Analysis:
 Since the commencement of the CSR provisions, India Inc. has cumulatively spent close
to 7B$ on legally mandated CSR activities under the provisions of the Companies Act.
The spending for listed companies on CSR accounted for 2/3 rd of the entire available CSR
pool while unlisted companies accounted for the remaining part.
 For instance, since the inception of CSR provisions, CSR expenditure by Bombay Stock
Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) listed companies have witnessed a
steady expenditure growth in percentage points. However, CSR expenditure were still
more directed towards charitable activities like education, health, vocational training with
few items under Schedule VII getting more precedence over others. While education and
vocational training have traditionally been more preferred, CSR expenditure towards
sanitation, yoga, disaster relief, sports and community development etc. have also seen a
steady rise.
 However, contributions or funds received by technology incubators under CSR
provisions has not received much traction. At closer look at India's budgetary norms
indicate that government's spending on R&D in terms of percentage of GDP has largely
been stagnant at 0.7%1 which pales in comparison to industrialized economies across the
globe.
 Private sector has traditionally lacked behind public sector in terms of investments or
support in R&D in India. However, there has been a growing concern that without private
sector's increased participation, R&D in the field of science and technology, medicine,
engineering might not entirely take-off.
 Vide the recent amendment, it can be seen that the focus of the government has shifted
from solely promoting welfare projects to research in technology, medicine and other
sectors. The recent initiative seems to also be aimed at increasing collaborative research
of private companies in conjunction with publicly funded institutions. Additionally, it
would "open up a substantial corpus of funds for state-sponsored incubators and start-ups
currently being mentored" by them in not only technological sector as contemplated by
the previous norms but also in a variety of sectors now 2.Increased funding in research is
expected to lead to technological advancement and propel the growth of start – up
ecosystem in India.
Conclusion:
 While a few companies have made contributions into government-affiliated technology
business incubation ("TBIs") centres as part of their CSR mandate in the past, time is
right to allow more public-private participation in R&D. And with the recent amendment,
the scope and potential impact of private participation in R&D using CSR funds certainly
looks encouraging.
 The amendment is a step in the right direction, and particularly in recognizing private
sector's role in spurring innovation in the field of science & technology and allied areas.
Increased private participation in R&D will certainly spur growth in the economy.
 It is quite obvious that the government is aiming to streamline the processes which
contribute to economic growth, and by allowing CSR contributions towards market-led
R&D, the government seems to acknowledge the endogenous growth theory which lays
emphasis on R&D and improvements in human capital accumulation as important
determinants in shaping up long-term economic growth.