Title of the project:

“CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: AN ANALYSIS

OF TOP PERFORMERS IN INDIA”

Submitted by:

Name of the Candidate: Khushi Sinha

College Name: St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata

Department Name: B.M.S.

Registration No: A01-2112-2054-17

Roll No: 37

Supervised by:

Name of the Supervisor: Dibyendu Sen

Month and year of submission: May, 2019

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I Khushi Sinha would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to various people who
have shared their valuable time and made it possible to complete this project, through their
direct and indirect co-operation.

Firstly, I express my sincere thanks to my project guide, Prof. Dibyendu Sen for helping
me throughout the preparation of the project. Starting from selection of topic till the
preparation of the final project he has been a source of constant motivation and inspiration.
He showed the path and directed me to lend my full focus and dedication towards the
project. This has made the project preparation a learning experience for me.

I would also like to thank Rev. Dr. Dominic Savio, S.J. (Honourable Principal), Rev. Peter
Arockiam, S.J. (Vice Principal of B.M.S. (H) Department) for their assistance which has
immensely helped me to produce my scholastic work. I would also like to thank all my
friends who helped me to complete this project.

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 CONTENTS

SL. NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION 4-7

4-5
 Concept of Study
5
 Objectives of the study
5-6
 Literature Review
7
 Research Methodology
2. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 8-17

 Case Studies 8-13

 CSR Expenditure of top companies 14-16

 Trend of Expenditure 17
3. CONCLUSION 18

18
 Conclusion of the study
18
 Limitations of the study
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY 19

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate sustainability,

conscience, corporate citizenship, corporate conscience or corporate capitalism). Corporate
social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model.
CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors
and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and
international norms. In some models, a firm's implementation of Corporate social
responsibility goes beyond compliance and engages in "actions that appear to further some
social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law." Corporate
social responsibility is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company's
actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment,
consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public
sphere who may also be considered as stakeholders.

The term "corporate social responsibility" came into common use in the late 1960s and
early 1970s after many multinational corporations formed the term stakeholder, meaning
those on whom an organization's activities have an impact. It was used to describe
corporate owners beyond shareholders as a result of an influential book by R. Edward
Freeman. Proponents argue that corporations make more long term profits by operating
with a perspective, while critics argue that CSR distracts from the economic role of
businesses.

India is the first country in the world to make corporate social responsibility (CSR)
mandatory, following an amendment to The Company Act, 2013 in April 2014. Businesses
can invest their profits in areas such as education, poverty, gender equality, and hunger.

The amendment notified in the Schedule VII of the Companies Act advocates that those
companies with a net worth of US$73 million (Rs 4.96 billion) or more, or an annual
turnover of US$146 million (Rs 9.92 billion) or more, or a net profit of US$732,654 (Rs 50

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 million) or more during a financial year, shall earmark 2 percent of average net profits of
three years towards CSR.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To present case studies of CSR initiatives in India.

2. To analyse the extent of CSR practices followed by top Indian companies and find the top
performers.
3. To analyse the trend of CSR contributions of the top performers over five financial years.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Davis & Kieth (1960) concluded CSR as, “Execution of the businesses policies shall not
be restricted to the firm's corporate interests only rather it should also cater for the socio-
legal aspects as well”.

Davis (1973) concluded corporate social responsibility is the firm's response to, issues
beyond the narrow economic, Technical, and legal requirements of the firm.

Archie Carroll (1979) defined the social responsibility is set of economic, legal,
ethical and discretionary expectations of society towards the business organizations
operating within its premises. By seeing the history & past trend of CSR, Caroll’s
model analysis in global context, indicate the three emerging alternatives of
corporate social responsibility: conception of responsibility, global corporate
citizenship, stakeholder management practices.

Kilcullen & Kolstra (1999) has told corporate social responsibility indicates degree of
moral obligation that may be ascribed to corporations beyond simple obedience to the laws
of the state.

Hick (2000) conceptualizes, corporate social responsibility revolves around the

relationship between the business and the society it indicates the responsibilities and
determines the business behavior towards its stakeholders.

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Kok et al (2001) has told the business is ethically and morally obliged to benefit its
society. To achieve this, the business besides capitalizing on its economic goals, it shall
commit its resources for the well being of the society and its people.

Mr. Fredrick Ma (2004), secretary of financial services, in his speech he explored the
concept of CSR on the basis of survey of 1500 business leader attending the World
Economic Forum in Davos. In which 5% leaders said that CSR is important for the
success of business, while 24% said CSR is not important but the shareholder’s
interest is most important for the businesses, but for him, CSR and corporate
governance are complementary to each other.

Vaaland, Heide (2008), paper based on a case study is the best example to handle the
CSR critical incidents and utilize its experience in enforcing the CSR policies. The
study concluded that CSR should be managed by handling unexpected incidents, by
reducing the gap between stakeholders and their expectations and company performance
and finally maintaining relationship with society through interplay between actor,
resources and activities.

Shah, Bhaskar (2010), in his case study of public sector undertaking, Bharat Petroleum
Corporation Ltd. has discussed that there is a broad relationship between the
organization and society. Organization has its existence only with the society.
Organization used the resources of the society. In reverse, the organization provides
services to the society. This case study of BPCL, has explored that the company has taken
a lot of initiatives in order to serve the society.

Bibhu Parshed (2012), article presented that CSR is the face of industry face of doing
trade. Bibhu said that today, corporate houses took CSR as a medium for fulfillment
of profit greed, further the article explored that today companies are investing in different
areas like child labor, ground water, food, education, employment etc. but nobody is
aware about the essential need of world’s poor. The article suggested that profit earning is
a natural fact of companies but CSR is beyond the natural and statutory obligation of the
companies.

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The process used to collect information and data for the purpose of making business
decisions is called research methodology. The research methodology used in this project is
stated below:

 TYPES OF DATA:
This project is based on secondary data obtained from mentioned sources (in the following
point). The data so obtained has been edited and transformed into required information on
the basis of the requirements.

 SOURCE OF DATA:
The study is based on data obtained from various sources like chapters of books, journals,
web pages contents included in different websites. The main data for analysis of the subject
is obtained from the Annual Reports and websites of the companies researched about.

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 CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

CASE STUDIES:

1. Ambuja Cements Ltd.:

 Environmental activities: ACF (Ambuja Cement Foundation- the CSR arm of Ambuja
Cements Ltd.) has been working on promoting clean and renewable energy sources
through its initiatives in Rabriyawas and Chirawa. Farmers are encouraged to adopt solar
energy for irrigation pumping. Biogas plants have been constructed at Chirawa, Bathinda
and Nalagarh as an alternative energy source. Solar power street lights are promoted in
villages based on community needs. Energy efficient chullhas (stoves) have been promoted
in households in Rajasthan and Gujarat helping reduce fuel consumption, and improve
rural kitchens by reducing smoke. The community continues to use these chullhas for their
household use. In the Gir forest (adjoining Ambuja's plant in Kodinar), ACF has
constructed parapet walls around the wells. This prevent wild animals especially the
endangered Asiatic lions from falling into open wells. This is a crucial step towards
wildlife protection in the region.

 Gender Equality and Women Empowerment: ACF supported women's self-help groups
serve as platforms for women to launch themselves as entrepreneurs. These groups have
supported vegetable and fish farmers transform their work into profitable livelihood
options. ACF supports over 870 self-help groups across locations, with cumulative corpus
of over Rs.3.9 crores. Today, these groups have gone beyond their simple monthly savings,
and built linkages with banks providing technical support to start their own
entrepreneurship leading to sustainable livelihoods. These enterprises include dairy
development, nurseries, mushroom cultivation, handicrafts, tailoring and food processing.
Women have also enrolled themselves in various skill based training programmes like
nursing aides, computer hardware and software, and beautician courses offered through
various ACF run Skill and Entrepreneurship Development Institutes (SEDIs).

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 Promoting Education: ACF works with around 390 education centres across states
enhancing the quality of education through interventions like furnishing and
functionalising libraries; establishing reading clubs; equipping schools with hands-on math
kits; and starting math laboratories. A large number of students supported by ACF have
access to computers, playgrounds, clean washroom facilities, and trained education
providers to cater to their learning needs. Company's work in the field is carried forward by
balmitras, their trained village based group who work closely with parents, schools and
children on various aspects of education.
 Promoting Healthcare and Sanitation: ACF implements a holistic and programmatic
intervention at 11 locations around the country, addressing general and special health needs
of communities. Five more locations currently provide clinical services as part of our
intervention strategy. These services are provided on location through cadre of 283 trained
health workers, known as sakhis. These village-based women health workers provide basic
counselling and guidance, refer for specialized medical intervention (if needed), and serve
as the backbone of the program. Company also explained the importance of safe drinking
water, villages were encouraged to install RO plants at community level and keep major
water-borne diseases at bay.

2. ITC:

 ‘WOW – Well-Being Out of Waste’ Programme: Company’s waste recycling

programme enables the creation of a clean and green environment and promotes
sustainable livelihoods for waste collectors. The programme was first executed in
Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Muzaffarpur and major districts of
Andhra Pradesh. It has covered 77 lakh citizens, 33 lakh school children and 2000
corporates since its inception. It creates sustainable livelihoods for 14,500 waste collectors
by facilitating an effective collection system in collaboration with municipal corporations.
Besides, the intervention has also created over 80 social entrepreneurs who are involved in
maximising value capture from dry waste collected.

 Afforestation Initiative: Company’s pioneering afforestation initiative through the

Social Forestry programme is currently spread across 17 districts in six States covering

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 2.95 lakh acres in 4,900 villages, impacting over 1,09,000 poor households. Together with
Company’s Farm Forestry programme, this initiative has greened over 6.83 lakh acres till
date, and generated about 124 million person days of employment for rural households,
including poor tribal and marginal farmers. Besides enhancing farm level employment,
generating incomes and increasing green cover, this large scale initiative is also
contributing meaningfully towards the nation’s endeavour in creating additional carbon
sinks for tackling climate change.

 Integrated Watershed Development Programme: The coverage of Company’s

Soil and Moisture Conservation programme, designed to assist farmers in identified
moisture-stressed areas increased by an additional 51,397 hectares taking the total area
covered under the watershed programme to 200,186 hectares. 1,490 water-bodies were
built during the year, taking the total number of water harvesting structures to 6,464.

 E-Choupal: ITC Ltd. has provided computers and Internet access in rural areas across
several agricultural regions of the country, where the farmers can directly negotiate the sale
of their produce with ITC Limited. Online access enables farmers to obtain information on
mandi prices, and good farming practices, and to place orders for agricultural inputs like
seeds and fertilizers. This helps farmers improve the quality of their products, and helps in
obtaining a better price. Since the introduction of e-Choupal services, farmers have seen a
rise in their income levels because of a rise in yields, improvement in quality of output, and
a fall in transaction costs. Even small farmers have gained from the initiative. Farmers can
get real-time information despite their physical distance from the mandis. The system saves
procurement costs for ITC Limited. The farmers do not pay for the information and
knowledge they get from e-Choupals; the principle is to inform, empower and compete e-
market place for spot transactions and support services to futures exchange. There are
6,100 e-Choupals in operation in 35,000 villages in 10 states (Madhya Pradesh, Haryana,
Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu), affecting around 4 million farmers.

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 3. Wipro Ltd.:

 Biodiversity Park: Wipro's first flagship project in biodiversity was the unique Butterfly
Park and wetland biodiversity zone that uses recycled water at the Electronic City campus
in Bengaluru. Wipro second project in Pune focused on trebling the number of native
species and includes five thematic gardens – aesthetic and palm garden, spring garden,
Ficus garden, spice and fruit garden. This is a unique project in a corporate campus.

 Community Development CSR programme: During 2014, company initiated two

disaster rehabilitation projects in Uttarakhand and Odisha in response to the floods and
cyclone events in 2013. In line with company’s approach, both these projects focus on long
term rehabilitation and strengthening of the affected communities. In Uttarakhand, in
collaboration with very credible local partners with a long track record, multiple activities
on strengthening local livelihoods were initiated. 20 village level farmer’s group have been
formed with the objective of training them on alternate methods of farming. Company’s
work in Odisha touched the lives of 250 farmers and their families who were provided
fishing nets and awareness training around them, Village level Disaster Committees were
set up in 15 villages.

 Education and Skill Development: Program of higher education in engineering and

technology linked to skills development for the IT industry in Bangaluru (Karnataka).

4. Tata Group:

By Tata Consultancy Services:

 BPS Employability Programme: This programme provides 80-100 hrs of powerful

interactive content for development of communication skills, corporate etiquette, interview
skills, resume building and basic computer knowledge. TCS has provided Sponsorship for
education of 40 children from socially and economically disadvantaged communities, and
has also setup library at Bahujan Hitay Hostel for Girls & Boys Computer Operator Cum
Programming Assistant (COPA) Industrial Training Institutes –To enhance the capability
of the faculty in ITIs.

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 Bridge It: It is a unique project which demonstrates the use of IT as a key enabler in
school education, adult literacy and creation of entrepreneurs.

 Women of Waze: The women from a rural, agricultural area called Wazapur in Raigad
District, sixty kilometers away from the sprawling city of Mumbai in India, were
empowered to make them financially independent. It started with a group of women (with
their skills honed in embroidery, stitching and craftwork) creating handicraft products like
jute bags, who were supported greatly by Women’s India Trust.

 Mkrishi: The company has developed an agricultural analytics engine called agEYE™,
along with a web-based application that provides historic, current, and future data on crops.
The application offers crop health, soil moisture, weather forecast, disease severity
forecast, and disease identification at a village level to farmers and other stakeholders in
the agri value chain. s. In addition, there is also the mKRISHI® fisheries service, which
has a built-in advance warning and message alert service to help fishermen remain safe
during weather events.

 Childline software support to track missing children: TCS was approached by

Childline India Foundation (CIF) to assist them in articulation of a comprehensive Child
Tracking System (ChildNet) which would help them in doing retrospective analysis on
societal trends faced by children in distress. The system would also bring visibility and
accountability of the programme and their affiliation with their partners.

By Tata Motors Ltd.:

 Aarogya : Addressing child malnutrition; health awareness for females; preventive and
curative health services, drinking water projects.

 Amrutdhara: To address the issue of drinking water needs of disadvantaged

communities, TML has initiated Amrutdhara. The programme not only addresses the
concerns relating to safe drinking water, but also helps in improving health, fostering
gender equality and promoting social equality.

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 Kaushalya: TML has partnered with numerous skill development centres across India.
TML’s skill development programme, Kaushalya, seeks to empower unemployed youth by
providing vocational training in automotive and other industrial trades.

By Tata Chemicals Ltd.:

 Disaster Relief: TCL continues its support to any disaster, which hits our country. In
the year 2017-18 relief support was provided in flood affected areas of Gujarat.
 Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai: The Tata Institute of Social Sciences is a
pioneer in the field of social-work education in the Asia-Pacific region. It has made a
significant contribution in the area of social policy, planning, intervention strategies and
human resource development.

5. Mahindra & Mahindra:

 Nanhi Kali: Project Nanhi Kali sees educating girls and women as a way to positively
impact India in the long run. Students who are selected for Nanhi Kali receive both
financial and academic support. They attend special classes to learn math, science, and
language concepts. Nanhi Kali for the hidden costs of their education, including pencils,
notebooks, school bags, uniforms, clothes, and shoes. Funding is from individual and
corporate donors, who sponsor a particular child and receive regular updates on her
progress at school. Sponsors can also go to the online "Gift Store" to purchase particular
items for a student. The Mahindra Group sponsors the education of 22,000 girl children
through Project Nanhi Kali.

Third-party assessments show that Nanhi Kali has a significant impact on the girls' lives.
Over a one-year period, Nanhi Kali students' improvement in learning outcomes ranged
from 40 percent in tribal Chhattisgarh to 78 percent in Mumbai.

 Namaste: Mahindra Namaste is a professional skill training venture. Designed for the
youth of the country, the programme trains young men and women (18 to 26 years) in
specialised technical and professional skills.

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 CSR EXPENDITURE OF TOP 20 COMPANIES IN INDIA:

The following tables shows the details of CSR expenditure and Profit after Tax of the top Indian
companies:

(Rupees in Crores)

PROFIT AFTER
COMPANY TAX CSR EXPENDITURE
Tata Chemicals Ltd. 1766.96 17.47

Ambuja Cements 1487 53.46

Infosys 16155 312.60

Mahindra & Mahindra 4356.01 81.97

ITC Ltd. 11223.50 290.98

Tata Motors Ltd. 1266.19 21.44

Hindustan Zinc Ltd. 9276 92.18

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. 7919.34 166.02

Ultratech Cements Ltd. 2231 60.71

Indian Oil Corporation 21346 331.05

Wipro Ltd. 8003.10 186.6

HUL 5236.79 116.09

TCS 8212 400

Reliance Industries Ltd. 36075 771

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories 566.90 32.81

ACC Ltd. 1506.63 20.45

Larsen & Toubro 5387.30 100.92

NTPC Ltd. 10501.50 241.54

HDFC Bank 17487 374

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The following graph depicts the CSR expenditure of the top 20 companies as a percentage
of profit after tax for the financial year 2017-18:

DR. REDDY'S LABORATORY 5.79%

TCS 4.87%

AMBUJA CEMENTS 3.60%

ULTRATECH CEMENTS 2.72%

ITC 2.60%

WIPRO 2.33%

NTPC 2.30%

HUL 2.22%

HDFC 2.14%

RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD. 2.13%

BHARAT PETROLEUM 2.09%

INFOSYS 1.94%

MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA 1.88%

LARSEN & TOUBRO LTD. 1.87%

TATA MOTORS 1.70%

INDIAN OIL 1.55%

ACC LTD. 1.36%

HINDUSTAN ZINC LTD. 0.99%

TATA CHEMICALS 0.99%

CSR EXPENDITURE

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As per Companies Act, 2013, companies are required to spend, in every financial year, at
least 2% of the average net profits of the company made during the 3 immediately
preceding financial years, in pursuance of its CSR Policy.

From the above list of top companies, fourteen companies spent more than the prescribed 2
% namely: Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Ambuja Cements, ITC Ltd., Ultratech Cement
Ltd., Wipro Ltd., NTPC Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd., HDFC Bank, Reliance
Industries Ltd., Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, ACC Ltd., Indian Oil Corporation
and Larsen & Toubro.

Other companies underperformed spending less than the prescribed 2%. For Tata Motors
Ltd., 2% criterion was not applicable because of the loss which the company incurred in
the previous years.

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 TREND OF CSR OF TOP PERFORMERS:

CSR TREND OF TOP CONTRIBUTORS

35.00%

30.00%

25.00%
CSR PERCENTAGE

20.00%

15.00%

10.00%

5.00%

0.00%
2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18
M&M 2.39% 2.99% 0.21% 2.11% 1.88%
RELIANCE 3.17% 3.23% 2.62% 2.25% 2.13%
HDFC BANK 1.16% 1.16% 1.62% 2.10% 2.14%
HUL 1.89% 1.91% 2.26% 2.31% 2.22%
NTPC 1.17% 1.99% 4.80% 2.96% 2.30%
WIPRO 0.22% 1.62% 1.97% 2.19% 2.33%
ITC 1.21% 2.33% 2.51% 2.71% 2.60%
AMBUJA CEMENTS 4.06% 5.07% 6.12% 4.70% 3.60%
TCS 0.48% 1.14% 1.21% 1.44% 4.87%
DR. REDDY'S LAB. 1.03% 1.74% 3.04% 3.08% 5.79%

INTEREPRETATION:

For Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and TCS, the CSR expenditure is seen to be increasing
gradually from the year 2013-14 with a sharp increase in the year 2017-18. Mahindra &
Mahindra has shown a drastic increase in the year 2016-17. Reliance Industries Ltd. has
been constantly decreasing (since 2015-16) its expenditure and so is the case with Ambuja
Cements Ltd. And all the other companies are showing somewhat same trend.

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 CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION

In India, till very recently, the focus was on charity, which is not really CSR. Sustainable
CSR programmes mean a cohesive mix of economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic
tenets. In today’s changed business scenario, there is an increased focus on giving back to
society and creating a model which works long term and is sustainable and it is imperative
that the best practices for inclusive growth are shared with the stakeholders. Getting
multinationals to comply with local laws is not an easy task. The Case Studies shown
above highlights the various fields wherein the business firms have made their
contributions to like: Education & Skill Development, Health care & Sanitation, Gender
Equality & Women Empowerment, Community Development, Child Support,
Environmental activities, Agricultural Support and Disaster Relief.

Consequently, business should embrace responsibility for the impact of its activities on the
environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of
the public sphere. CSR-focused business should proactively promote the public interest by
encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices
that harm the public, regardless of legality.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

1. Collection of secondary data, with limited access to public, was a tedious process.
2. Time constraint limited the wide coverage of the study.
3. The authenticity and accuracy of the secondary data extracted is not always ensured.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 CSR PROJECTS: https://csrbox.org/India-list-CSR-projects-India

 ANNUAL REPORTS of the companies mentioned in the study of the following years:
2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18.
 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (A LITERATURE REVIEW):
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319036439_Corporate_Social_Responsibility_A
_Literature_Review

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