Impact of CSR Fund Management on Social Development Initiatives: A Study of Select Indian Corporates

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been integrated in India as a statutory requirement of a company that is in a position to comply with this requirement following the implementation of Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013. This has been boosted by the need to set aside a specific percentage of the net profits to the CSR activities in order to increase the level and scope of corporate participation in social development programs. The effectiveness of the CSR is however largely pre-determined by the effectiveness of the management distribution, monitoring and evaluation of such funds. It is against this backdrop that the present research paper titled Impact of CSR Fund Management on Social Development Initiatives: A Study of Select Indian Corporates is likely to look at the CSR fund management practices and calculate its measurable success in contributing to the social development deliverable.The experiment is in an analytical and empirical research design, which relies on secondary data, which are collected as annual reports, CSR disclosures, sustainability reports, and official company messaging of the sample of Indian corporations in key areas. The paper measures the trend in the allocation of the CSR funds, sector allocation, form of governance, transparency and suitability in responding to national development priorities (such as education, health, rural development, and environmental sustainability), and skills development. The correlation between the efficiency of CSR funds management and the efficiency of the implemented social initiatives are studied with the help of statistic tools.